The digital marketing arena contains a vast array of new technologies and techniques, many of which are brand new to even veteran marketers of the traditional school of marketing. To compound the confusion, digital marketing is constantly evolving and redefining itself with an unending stream of new developments and tools.

This guide will help bring you up to speed with the basics of digital marketing strategy as it exists today, with a reminder that your ability to remain effective as a digital marketer depends on your commitment to continuing education and your capacity to absorb and adapt to new ideas.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Backlinks are links from an authority website to another website that is seeking to improve its ranking in the search engine results. Backlinks are most commonly placed within the text or author bio box of an article, or in the signature of a blog or forum comment.
• Keywords are the words typed into a search engine box by a user seeking information. Marketers target these commonly-used keywords so that their websites appear in the results whenever users are looking for relevant information about that industry or niche.
• Longtail Keywords are actually keyword phrases of more than one word. They are frequently easier to rank for than single-word keywords, and usually deliver lower-volume but more targeted website traffic.
• PageRank is an algorithm used by Google that measures the importance of a web page; the quantity and quality of inbound links are the primary ranking factors.
• SEO is any technique that increases the ability of a web page to earn a high ranking in the search engine results for a particular keyword; the higher the page is ranked, the greater number of search engine users who will be exposed to it and the greater the potential for more website traffic, leads, and sales.
• SERPs (search engine results page) are the lists displayed to search engine users of the websites that are relevant to the keywords entered in the search box. Websites (in theory) are ranked in order of their trust and authority.

Website Lead Generation

• Call-to-Action (CTA) refers to the actual offer, including the design and copy elements, that transforms a website visitor into a prospective customer.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) is a measurement of the effectiveness of an ad or SERP listing, expressed as a ratio of the number of people who click through to an offer page out of the total number who view a given ad or listing.
• Conversion is accomplished when a website visitor is persuaded to take a pre-determined action, such as signing up to receive a free newsletter.
• Conversion Rate (CR) measures the effectiveness of a given call-to-action. The CR is determined by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visitors viewing an offer.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

• Landing Pages are mini-websites that visitors are sent to after clicking on an ad or search listing. They usually contain a single call-to-action, and are specifically designed and optimized for converting visitors.
• PPC advertising is a paid-traffic advertising model; advertisers pay only when a search engine user visits their website by clicking on their ad.