Marketing and tech terms, in plain English.

Showing two versions of a page, ad or email to different visitors at the same time and keeping the one that performs better - so changes are decided by results, not opinions.

A way of building software in short cycles, called sprints - usually one or two weeks - each ending with working features to review. You see progress early and can change direction as you learn.

A short written description of an image in the page code. Screen readers read it aloud, and search engines use it to understand what the image shows.

The clickable words in a link. Descriptive anchor text - "see our SEO services" rather than "click here" - helps both readers and search engines understand where the link goes.

A defined way for two pieces of software to talk to each other - how your website sends leads to your CRM, or how a payment form talks to the bank.

Deciding which marketing touchpoints get credit for a conversion - the first ad someone saw, the last email they clicked or a share of each along the way.

Links to your site from other websites. Search engines treat links from relevant, trusted sites as votes of confidence, so they're one of the strongest ranking signals.

The share of emails that could not be delivered. Hard bounces are permanent, like an address that doesn't exist; soft bounces are temporary, like a full inbox. A high rate hurts your sender reputation.

The choice between building custom software and paying for an off-the-shelf (SaaS) product. It comes down to cost over the years, how well the tool fits the way you work, and who owns it.

Using software to run repeatable work - approvals, onboarding, reports, reminders - with fewer manual steps, fewer errors and less waiting.

A short profile of a typical buyer - their role, goals, worries and how they make decisions - based on real customer conversations, so messaging speaks to actual people.

What it costs on average to win one new customer - total sales and marketing spend divided by customers won in the same period.

The main address of a page when the same content can be reached at several URLs. You declare it with a canonical tag, so search engines rank one version instead of splitting signals across duplicates.

A network of servers around the world that keeps copies of your site's files and serves each visitor from the nearest one - making pages load faster and handle traffic spikes.

Software for editing a website without writing code - WordPress, Webflow and Shopify are common examples. It lets your team update pages, posts and products themselves.

The share of visitors who take the action you want, such as sending an enquiry or buying. It is conversions divided by visitors - 30 enquiries from 1,000 visits is a 3% conversion rate.

Recording when a visitor completes a valuable action - an enquiry, a sign-up, a purchase - and which ad, page or campaign led there, so you know what is working.

Asking visitors' permission before using cookies that aren't essential to the site, such as analytics and advertising cookies. Laws in the EU, UK and elsewhere require it, and visitors must be able to say no.

Google's measures of how a page feels to use: how fast the main content appears (LCP), how quickly it responds to taps and clicks (INP) and how much the layout jumps (CLS).

What it costs to win one result you care about, such as a lead or a sale - total spend divided by conversions. It shows whether a campaign pays for itself better than CPC does.

What you pay on average for each click on an ad - total spend divided by clicks. It depends on how many advertisers compete for the same audience or keyword.

What you pay for 1,000 ad impressions - "mille" is Latin for thousand. Common for awareness campaigns, where the goal is to be seen rather than clicked.

Customer relationship management software - one place for every lead and customer, their conversations and where each deal stands, so follow-ups never slip.

The work of raising your conversion rate: finding where visitors drop off, then fixing it with clearer offers, faster pages, simpler forms and tested changes.

The button or link that asks a visitor to take the next step - "Book a call", "Get a quote", "Start free trial". Clear, specific CTAs are one of the simplest ways to lift conversions.

The share of people who click after seeing your ad, search result or email - clicks divided by impressions. 50 clicks from 1,000 impressions is a 5% CTR.

Software built specifically for your business, rather than bought off the shelf. It fits your exact workflows and you own it, but it costs more upfront and needs maintaining.

A group of developers, designers or marketers who work only on your projects, long term - an extension of your team rather than a one-off contractor.

DomainKeys Identified Mail - a digital signature added to every email you send, checked against a public key in your DNS. It proves a message really came from your domain and was not changed on the way.

A DNS record that tells inboxes what to do with email that fails SPF and DKIM - deliver it, send it to spam or reject it - and where to send reports about who's sending as your domain.

The internet's address book. Its records point your domain to your website and mail servers, and hold settings such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 - the law on how businesses handle personal data collected digitally in India. It is built on clear notice, consent and the right to access, correct and erase your data.

A series of emails sent automatically on a schedule or after an action - such as a welcome series after a sign-up - so every new lead gets the same timely follow-up.

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness - the qualities Google's guidelines ask its reviewers to look for in content. It isn't a single ranking factor, but it describes what Google tries to reward.

How reliably your emails reach the inbox rather than spam. It depends on SPF, DKIM and DMARC being set up, your sending reputation and whether people engage with what you send.

In GA4, the share of visits where someone stayed more than 10 seconds, viewed two or more pages or completed a key event. It replaced bounce rate as the main measure of whether visits are useful.

A short answer Google shows above the regular results, taken from one page. Clear, direct answers near the top of a page are the most likely to be picked.

Information you collect directly from your own customers and visitors - form fills, purchases, email sign-ups, site activity. As browsers limit third-party cookies, it is the most reliable data a business has.

Two ways to price a project. Fixed price sets the cost upfront for an agreed scope; time and materials bills for the hours actually worked. Fixed suits clear scopes, T&M suits work that will evolve.

Google's analytics platform. It records visits and events - page views, form submissions, purchases - so you can see where visitors come from and what they do.

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation - the law on how organizations collect and use personal data of people in the EU, wherever the organization is based. The UK has its own near-identical version.

Making your content easy for AI tools - ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews - to find, understand and cite. It builds on SEO with clear answers, structured data and a strong reputation.

Your free listing on Google Search and Maps, with your address, hours, photos and reviews. For local businesses it's often the first thing a customer sees.

A free tool for adding and managing tracking codes - GA4, ad pixels, conversion events - from one dashboard instead of editing the website each time.

A tag that tells search engines which language or country each version of a page is for, so a visitor in Germany sees the German page and one in the US sees the English one.

HTTP Strict Transport Security - a response header that tells browsers to always use https:// for your site, even when someone types http:// or follows an old link.

A description of the companies that get the most value from what you sell - industry, size, location, budget and the problem they have. It keeps marketing and sales aimed at the right accounts.

When a search engine stores a page so it can appear in results. A page that isn't indexed can't rank, however good it is.

The address the internet uses to send data back to a device or network - like a return address on a letter. Every website you visit sees it, and it reveals roughly where you are.

Finding the words and questions your customers actually type into search engines, how often they search them and how hard they are to rank for - so content targets real demand.

A page built for one goal - usually getting a visitor from an ad or email to sign up, enquire or buy - without the distractions of a full website.

Attracting people who might buy from you and getting their contact details - through search, ads, content and forms - so your team can follow up.

Something useful offered in exchange for contact details - a guide, checklist, template, audit or free tool - to start a relationship with a potential customer.

Staying in touch with leads who aren't ready to buy yet - with useful emails, content and follow-ups - so you are the obvious choice when they are.

Giving each lead points for who they are and what they do - job title, pages visited, emails opened - so sales focuses on the people most likely to buy.

A proposed standard: a plain-text file at the root of a website that summarizes what the site offers and links to its key pages, so AI assistants can understand it quickly.

Optimizing to appear when people nearby search for what you offer - "dentist near me" - through your Google Business Profile, reviews, local listings and location pages.

Longer, more specific searches - "CRM for small dental clinics" rather than "CRM". Each gets fewer searches, but they are easier to rank for and the people searching are closer to buying.

An ad audience built from people who resemble your existing customers or leads. Platforms like Meta and Google find them from a list you upload or a pixel on your site.

The total revenue you expect from a customer over the whole relationship. Comparing it with CAC shows how much you can afford to spend to win one.

Software that sends the right message at the right time without anyone doing it by hand - follow-up emails, lead scoring, reminders and nurture sequences.

The short summary shown under a page's title in search results. It doesn't affect rankings directly, but a clear one gets more people to click.

Meta's tracking code for Facebook and Instagram ads. It reports which visitors came from your ads and what they did, so campaigns can be measured and improved.

A lead who has shown enough interest - downloading a guide, visiting pricing, opening emails - to be worth more marketing attention, but isn't ready for a sales call yet.

The simplest version of a product that real users can use, built to test whether the idea works before investing in the full thing.

The DNS record that tells the internet which mail servers receive email for your domain. Without a working one, email sent to you bounces.

A contract in which one or both parties agree to keep shared information confidential. Agencies and contractors usually sign one before seeing your data, code or plans.

Tools that let you build apps, automations and websites with visual editors instead of programming - fast for simple needs, but they can become limiting or costly as needs grow.

An instruction, in a meta tag or HTTP header, telling search engines not to show a page in results. Useful for thank-you pages; harmful when left on pages you want found.

Developers, designers or marketers in another country who work as part of your team, usually to add skills or capacity at a lower cost than hiring locally.

Meta tags that control how a link looks when it is shared on LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Facebook and similar apps - the title, description and preview image.

Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results rather than ads. It keeps coming without paying per click, which makes it one of the most valuable channels to build.

Advertising where you pay each time someone clicks your ad, as on Google Ads or Meta. You choose who sees it and set a budget, so traffic starts the day the campaign does.

An instruction that sends visitors and search engines from an old URL to a new one. A 301 means the move is permanent, so the old page passes its ranking to the new one.

Building a website so its layout adapts to any screen - phone, tablet or desktop. With most visits on mobile, and Google indexing the mobile version first, it is essential.

An ongoing arrangement where you pay a fixed monthly fee for an agreed scope of work, instead of paying per project. It suits continuous work like marketing, SEO and support.

Showing ads to people who have already visited your site or engaged with you, to bring them back. It usually converts better than reaching people for the first time.

Revenue earned for every unit spent on ads - revenue divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4 means 4 back for every 1 spent, before other costs.

A text file at the root of your site that tells search engine crawlers which pages and folders they may visit. It controls crawling, not indexing.

Software you rent by subscription and use in the browser, such as a CRM or project tool, instead of buying, installing or building it yourself.

The stages a customer moves through, from first hearing about you to buying - typically awareness, interest, decision and action. Measuring each stage shows where people drop out.

Structured data, usually JSON-LD, that describes a page to search engines in a shared vocabulary - an article, a product, an FAQ, a business. It can earn rich results such as star ratings.

What someone actually wants when they search - to learn something, find a specific site, compare options or buy. Pages rank best when they match the intent behind the keyword, not just the words.

How trustworthy inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook consider your domain and sending servers. It is built from authentication, bounce and spam-complaint rates, and decides whether you land in the inbox or spam.

Search engine optimization - improving your site, content and reputation so it ranks higher in unpaid search results.

The page a search engine shows for a query - the ads, the regular results and extras such as maps, images and featured snippets.

Sending tracking events from your own server to tools like GA4 or Meta, instead of only from the visitor's browser. It is less affected by ad blockers and browser limits, and gives you more control over what is shared.

An XML file listing the pages you want search engines to find, with when each last changed. It helps new and updated pages get crawled sooner.

The part of a contract that sets measurable service standards - such as response times for support requests or uptime for a system - and what happens if they are missed.

Sender Policy Framework - a DNS record listing the servers allowed to send email for your domain. Inboxes check it to catch forged senders.

A lead the sales team has confirmed is a real buying opportunity - the right fit, a real need and a reason to act - and is ready for a sales conversation.

The certificate that lets browsers connect to your site over https:// and confirms the site is really yours. An expired or invalid one puts a full-page warning in front of every visitor.

Adding outside specialists to your team for as long as you need them. They work inside your processes and tools, while you avoid the cost and delay of permanent hiring.

Connecting separate tools - website, CRM, email, accounting - so data flows between them automatically instead of being copied by hand.

The future cost of shortcuts taken in software today. Like financial debt, a little can be worth it to move fast, but left unpaid it makes every later change slower and riskier.

The working hours an offshore team shares with yours. A few hours of overlap each day is usually enough for meetings and quick answers, while the rest of the day keeps work moving.

The page title shown as the clickable headline in search results and on browser tabs. Search engines show about the first 60 characters.

A DNS record that holds text - used to publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC policies and to prove you own a domain to services such as Google.

UI (user interface) design is how a product looks - layout, buttons, type and color. UX (user experience) design is how it works - whether people can find what they need and get things done easily.

The part of a web address that names one page - the how-to-write-meta-tags in /blog/how-to-write-meta-tags. A short, readable slug tells people and search engines what the page is about.

A line of text a browser sends with every request, naming the browser, its version and the operating system. Websites use it to serve pages that work on your device.

Tags added to the end of a link - utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign - so analytics can tell exactly which campaign, post or email sent each visitor.

A clear statement of what you offer, who it is for and why it is better than the alternatives. Visitors should be able to grasp it within seconds of landing on your site.