Marketing your firm or company online can be a daunting task, and any apprehension is only perpetuated by the influx of marketing acronyms and other jargon the online world produces. But have no fear, none of this is web rocket science and familiarizing yourself with just a few key terms can greatly broaden your understanding of this seemingly foreign world. Start with these basic concepts:
SERP: Search Engine Results Page
The compilation of websites that appear after you conduct an internet search. Basically when you Google, Yahoo, or Bing, what results show up and in what order. Appearing at the top of a SERP shows that your site’s SEO is effective for that particular search, and your page has gained online authority (the goal!).
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
This is the process of improving the ranking of a website on SERPs. Practices include cleaning up html language, getting credible sights to link to your page, and deleting any duplicate content from your site in order to not be penalized by Google and dropped in the SERPs. Hundreds of companies now exist to help businesses come up with a strategy, however SEO is an ever evolving process due to the finicky nature of search engine criteria.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management
A means of managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. There are many products on the market to help you organize, automate and synchronize your sales, marketing and customer service activities. Often CRMs promote quality and efficiency, decrease costs, and help to find and gain clients.
PPC: Pay Per Click
An internet advertising model designed to direct traffic to websites where advertisers pay the website owner every time their ad is clicked. PPC is a way to ensure businesses they are only paying for ads that are generating traffic.
B2B: Business to Business/B2C: Business to Consumer
B2B is the concept of selling from one business to another business. This is referred to as an alternative to B2C (business to consumer), which is the traditional idea of businesses selling to individual customers.
Lead Generation (Lead Gen)
The generation of consumer interest toward your product or service. This can be through paid (advertising) or non-paid (organic search engine results) sources.
Web 2.0
A concept that has had many meanings since it was coined in 1999, but simply stated, it is the “new age” of the World Wide Web. Today’s Web 2.0 is a more interactive, collaborative, and user-centered design. All websites should aspire to be compatible with Web 2.0 by incorporating opportunities for consumers to directly communicate with people on the business side. Read more details about the social concepts and importance of Web 2.0 in one of our previous articles.