75 Most Popular Blogging Definitions To Know (#1 Blog Glossary)

If you’re a beginner blogger, or if you’ve been doing it for a while, there’s always more to learn. That’s why I’ve put together a list of 75 essential blogging definitions.

From “affiliate marketing” to “vlogging,” this glossary has some of the most important terms used in the blogging world. So without further ado, here are 75 of the most popular blogging definitions to know.

A-E

Adsense (aka “Google Adsense”)

Adsense is a program by Google. It allows website owners to place ads on their sites and earn money from those ads when clicked. The Adsense program is very popular in the blogging community because it is an easy way to earn money.

Adsense pays website owners based on the number of clicks on the ads. That’s why it is important to have a high-traffic website in order to make good money with Adsense!

Alexa Rank

Alexa Rank is one of those blogging definitions you’ll hear over and over again. It’s a measure of a website’s popularity. Alexa rank factors in the number of visitors a site gets and how long they stay there. The higher a site’s Alexa Rank, the more popular it is.

For a free tool to check a website’s Alexa Rank, click here.

Alt Text

Alt text is short for “alternative text.” It’s the text that appears in place of an image if the image doesn’t load properly. Most alt text is pretty brief- just a few words or a brief phrase. This can be helpful for people who are blind or have low vision.

Affiliate (aka “Publisher”)

An affiliate is someone who promotes a product or service on their blog and earns a commission.

If you have a fashion blog and you promote a clothing brand’s collection, you would be acting as an affiliate for that clothing brand. If someone reads your blog post and then clicks on the link to the clothing brand’s website and makes a purchase, you earn a commission on that sale.

Affiliate Link

An affiliate link is a special kind of URL. It’s a link that allows you to earn a sales commission when clicked and your reader makes a purchase. When a reader clicks on an affiliate link and makes a purchase, you get a percentage of the sale.

Affiliate links are typically used when a blogger recommends a product or service.

Affiliate Network

An affiliate network is a group of websites that have agreed to work together to promote a product or service.

The affiliate network provides the websites with advertising space. In return, the websites promote the product or service to their visitors. When a visitor clicks on an affiliate’s ad and makes a purchase, the network pays the website a commission. Affiliate networks are a great way for companies to reach a larger audience. It’s also a great way for website owners to earn money by promoting products and services.

Attribution

Attribution is the act of crediting the original author or source of something. It helps to give credit where credit is due. It also helps to ensure your readers can easily find the original source of the information they’re reading!

If you quote an author in your own blog post, you would need to give credit to that author. You can do this by linking directly to the source or by properly acknowledging the author’s work.

Audience

Audience refers to the people who read your blog posts. But it can also refer to the purpose or angle of your writing.

If you write about financial planning, your audience is probably someone looking at how to invest. Keep your audience in mind as you write your blog posts to connect and add value to your readers.

Backlink

A backlink is a link that goes back to your website from another website. With high-quality backlinks, your website ranks higher in SERPs. On the other hand, low-quality backlinks can impact your website’s ranking. By writing great content packed with a ton of value, it is sure to get shared and linked to which helps to build your backlinks organically.

Black Hat SEO

Black hat SEO are tactics used to obtain a higher ranking in search engine results pages (SERPS), but violate the terms of service of the search engine. The term ” black hat” comes from western movies, where the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats. In the world of SEO, black hat SEO tactics are used to game the system, rather than to provide value to users. Some common black hat SEO tactics include keyword stuffing, link buying, and cloaking.

Black hat SEO is generally used by people who try to get quick results, without regard for the long-term consequences. While this may be effective short term, it is often punished by search engines, which can result in a website being banned from the SERPs altogether. For this reason, it’s important to avoid black hat SEO tactics!

Blogroll

A blogroll is a list of blog URLs that a blog author maintains and displays on their blog. The blogroll typically appears in the blog’s sidebar, footer, or header. It usually contains links to the blog author’s favorite blogs. It can also include links to other websites that the author thinks are relevant or interesting.

Call To Action (CTA)

A call to action (CTA) is a message to encourage engagement. A CTA could be something as simple as “Buy Now!” or “Sign Up Here.”

In order for a call to action to be effective, it needs to be clear and concise so the reader knows exactly what they’re supposed to do. This is a powerful tool to get people to engage with your content!

Category

A category is a way of classifying things. On a blog, categories help organize posts so that readers can easily find the content they’re looking for.

Commission

A commission is a fee a company or person charges to sell their goods or services. The commission is typically a percentage of the total sale. Let’s say you sold a piece of furniture on your blog for $100, and the commission was 10%. The company would keep $90 and you (the blogger) who sold the furniture would keep $10.

Conversion

One of the many blogging definitions you’ll hear about is conversion. This is when a reader takes action after reading your blog post. This desired action could be anything from signing up for your email list to purchasing a product you recommend.

Conversion Rate

A conversion rate is the percentage of people who take action. This could be someone making a purchase or signing up for your newsletter. It’s a good metric to measure how effective a blog post is in achieving its purpose. If 100 people visit your website and four of them make a purchase, your conversion rate would be 4%.

Conversion rates are important because they can help you to gauge how effective your marketing efforts are. Conversion rates are typically highest when a blog post is well-written and relevant to the interests of the reader. If you’re looking to increase your conversion rate, make sure to focus on creating high-quality content!

Cookie

A cookie is a small piece of data that a website stores on a visitor’s computer. Cookies remember information about a visitor, such as their preferences or login information. This allows the website to remember the visitor’s previous activity.

Core Web Vitals

Core web vitals are a set of metrics that measure the performance of a website. They include things like page load time, first contentful paint, interactivity, and visual stability. In other words, they help to assess how quickly and smoothly a website loads and how user-friendly it is.

Google measures these core web vitals as a ranking factor in its search algorithm.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

Cost per click (CPC) is the amount that an advertiser pays for each click on their ad.

As a blogger, the advertiser will pay you for each click their ad gets on your website. If an advertiser has a CPC of $5 and your reader clicks on their ad, the advertiser pays you $5. The cost per click varies depending on how competitive your niche is and the popularity of the ad’s keyword(s).

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR is how many times an ad or link is clicked divided by the number of times it’s seen. If you get 100,000 pageviews and your links are clicked 1,000 times, your CTR is 1%.

There’s no magic number for what a “good” CTR is. Usually, a higher CTR is better! Higher CTRs usually lead to more sales and engaged readers.

Cloaking

Cloaking is the practice of hiding content from search engines. This is ok to do to a certain extent. Often cloaking is used to hide affiliate links or prevent search engines from indexing duplicate content. Sometimes it’s also used to hide paid links from search engines.

Do not try “cloaking” to game the system because it may ban your website from search engines.

Dashboard

A dashboard is the control panel for your blog. This is where you can manage all aspects of your blog…the design, layout, writing and publishing posts, adding media, and managing comments.

To find your dashboard, simply look for a label titled “dashboard” or “control panel” on your blog’s homepage.

Deep Linking

When you deep link, you’re providing a link to a specific page or piece of content on a website. This helps direct readers to more relevant and specific content and improves their overall experience.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is the visits that come directly to your website without coming from any other source. This means that the visitors either typed in your URL directly, or they found your site through a bookmark.

Direct traffic is a good indicator of how well your site is doing in terms of SEO and visibility. This shows people are actually finding your site on their own!

Disclosure

Disclosure is an upfront statement letting your readers know if you have any monetary or personal interests in your blog post. Let’s say you’re writing about a skincare product…you might include a disclosure that you received the product for free from the company to try out.

A disclosure helps to build trust between you and your readers. Be up-front about your relationships with the products or companies you’re writing about. This shows you’re not trying to hide anything. More importantly, this is the honest thing to do to build a loyal readership.

Domain Authority (DA)

Domain authority is a measure of the overall strength and health of a given domain. A domain with higher authority ranks more highly in search engine results pages (SERPs) than a domain with lower authority. As such, domain authority is an important metric to consider when trying to optimize a website for search engine visibility.

Domain Name

A domain name is the address of a website or your “virtual piece of real estate”. It’s what you type into your browser’s address bar to visit a specific website. For example, the domain name of this website is “twinmomblognerd.com.” A domain name can be any combination of letters and numbers, or different extensions like “.com,” “.net,” or “.org.”

It’s important to choose a domain name that is easy to remember and that accurately reflects your website!

External Link

An external link is a link that leads to a website or page that is outside of your own domain. These links help you expand the reach of your blog and connect you to other websites and resources.

Keep in mind, not all external links are equal. You should only include links to high-quality websites that add value for your readers. With careful planning, external links can be a valuable tool for growing your blog and reaching new audiences.

F-J

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool that collects data about your blog’s traffic and activity. By understanding this data, you can make informed decisions about how to grow your blog and improve your content.

This data allows you to see which posts are popular and how long readers are engaging on your site. With this information, you can decide where to invest your time and energy.

Google Console

Google console is another free tool to let you know how your website is performing. It helps you monitor and manage your website’s presence on google. You can check your website’s traffic, submit a sitemap, and view indexing errors google may have with your content.

This is an essential tool to ensure that their site is visible and accessible in the google search engine.

Gravatar

A gravatar (short for “globally recognized avatar”) is an image that represents you online. It appears next to your name when you write comments on other people’s blog posts. It can be a photo of yourself or any other image that you choose. Many Gravatars are automatically generated based on your email address photo. You don’t need a gravatar but it can help to personalize your comments.

Guest Post

A guest post is a post written by someone other than you (the blog owner). Guest posts are a popular way to add fresh content to your blog while building relationships with other bloggers. Guest posting gives you the opportunity to reach new audiences and readers. It also helps you to build authority and credibility, as well as create opportunities for networking and collaboration.

Headers (H1 to H6)

Headers are one of the most important aspects of a blog post. They help to break up the text and make it easier to read.

The most common headers are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6. Each header represents a different level of importance. The H1 header is the most important and should be used for the main title of your blog post. The H2 header is the second most important and should be used for subheadings. The H3 header is the third most important and should be used for sub-subheadings. And so on. Using the correct hierarchy ensures that your blog post is easy to read and understand.

HTML

HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the standard code to create web pages. It’s used to customize the look of a blog, making it unique and personal.

Hyperlink

A hyperlink is a link from one piece of online content to another. When you click on a hyperlink, it takes you to the linked page.

Hyperlinks are important for blogging for several reasons:

• To help readers navigate between different pieces of content on your blog
• To improve your blog’s search engine ranking by acting as a signal to Google that your content is relevant and authoritative
• To build relationships with other bloggers and influencers in your niche

By including links to other authoritative content, you can create a sense of community and collaboration that benefits everyone involved.

Internal Link

An internal link is a hyperlink that points to another page on your blog. When creating internal links, be sure to use keywords and phrases that accurately describe the page you’re linking to. This helps both search engines and readers understand if the link is relevant to their needs.

K-P

Keyword

A keyword is a word or phrase that best describes the subject of your blog post. For example, if you are writing about healthy recipes, some keywords you might use would be “healthy breakfast foods” or “keto recipes”. Keywords are important for blogs because they help readers to find your content.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is when you find words and phrases people are searching for in relation to your blog topic. This helps you optimize your blog post and narrow down topics to write about. More importantly, it helps you appear higher on search engines. There are many tools you can use for keyword research like Google’s free “Keyword Planner”. Once you have a list of potential keywords, you can then begin to integrate them into your blog posts.

By going after low-competition keyword phrases, you increase your chances of appearing higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the practice of filling a blog post with a large number of keywords. While keyword stuffing may help content rank higher in search engines, it ultimately decreases the quality of the post and may turn readers away. Plus, search engines are now penalizing posts that engage in keyword stuffing, making it important for bloggers to avoid this practice.

Stick to writing high-quality content that uses keywords when needed, more importantly, that adds value to your readers for the best success.

Landing Page

A landing page is a specific page on a blog or website that is designed to convert visitors into subscribers or customers. This page typically includes a form that visitors can fill out to request more information or sign up for a service. It’s an important tactic to turn casual readers into subscribers or customers. By directing visitors to a landing page, you can increase your chances of generating revenue on your blog.

Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a piece of content that captures a reader’s attention and leads them to take action. This could be anything from signing up for a newsletter to downloading an e-book or buying a product. The key is that the lead magnet offers value in exchange for the reader’s contact information or other action.

Link Building

Link building is the process of creating backlinks to your blog. Backlinks are links from other websites that link back to your site. This is important to improve search engine rankings, drive traffic to your site, and build credibility. There are many different ways to build links, but some of the most effective methods include guest posting, social media outreach, and link roundups.

When done correctly, link-building can be an extremely effective way to grow a blog or website. BUT you want to avoid link-building schemes that involve buying or selling links, as this can lead to search engine penalties. Instead, focus on earning high-quality links by creating informative and engaging content that other websites will want to link to. If you do this the right way, you’ll see your website traffic increase over time!

Long-Form Content

Long-form content generally refers to blog posts that are 1000 words or more. While there is no hard and fast rule about what qualifies as long-form content, it usually provides readers with a more in-depth look at a given topic.

Long-Tail Keyword

A long tail keyword is a specific and narrowly defined keyword phrase that is typically more than three words long. For example, instead of just “shoes”, a long tail keyword might be “women’s size 10 black leather high heels.” Long tail keywords are often less competitive and easier to rank for than more general keywords.

Impression

An impression is the number of views of a blog post. If one person reads your blog post, that is one impression. If 100 people read your blog post, that’s 100 impressions. Impressions are important because they let you know how many people are reading your blog posts and engaging with your content.

Meta Description

A meta description is a brief summary of a blog post or article. It is located under the title on search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal of meta descriptions is to improve click-through rates (CTRs) by giving a preview of what the content is about. While this is not necessarily a ranking factor, this description can still be helpful in driving traffic to your website.

Meta Tag

A meta tag is a code located on the header of a web page that you can’t see. It provides information about the page, such as the author, keywords, and description. The information in meta tags helps search engines to index and rank web pages which is an important part of SEO.

Monetization

Monetization is a process of converting or generating revenue from a blog or other online content platform. You can monetize in many ways like selling advertising space, developing sponsorships, or promoting affiliate products.

Niche Marketing

Niche marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on a specific group of people. The idea behind niche marketing is to target a niche audience with niche products or services. For example, if you own a pet store, you might target pet owners as your niche market. This type of marketing can be very effective because it allows you to focus on a specific group of people who tend to be more interested in what you have to offer.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to all the activities that you do off your website to improve your site’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes things like guest posting on other blogs, participating in forums and discussion groups, link building, and social media engagement.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is just like it sounds…it refers to all the activities that you do on your website to improve your site’s visibility and ranking in SERPs. This includes optimizing things like page titles, headings, meta tags, and keywords. By optimizing your website’s on-page SEO, it becomes much easier for search engines to find and index your content.

Opt-In

“Opt-In” is when a user gives permission for you to contact them. This usually happens when they sign up for your email list, download a freebie from your site, or even just subscribe to your RSS feed. The main goal of “Opt-Ins” is to grow your audience by building a list of subscribers.

Page Rank

Page rank is a system developed by Google that rates the quality of websites. It’s one factor that determines how well a website does in search engine results. Page rank is based on the number and quality of inbound links to a website. So, if a website has a lot of high-quality inbound links, it will have a good page rank. On the flip side, if a website has few or low-quality inbound links, it will have a low page rank.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model in which an “advertiser” pays a “publisher” (YOU the website owner or blogger) when their ad is clicked.

This type of advertising is a common way for a blog to generate revenue. Under a pay-per-click arrangement, a blogger will display ads from advertisers on their sites. When a reader clicks on an ad, the advertiser pays the blogger (aka “publisher”) a certain amount of money. The amount of money that an advertiser pays varies depending on the specific ad and the amount of traffic the site receives.

To check the success of PPC advertising, you will want to monitor your click-through rates (CTRs).

Pixel

The term “pixel” comes from the word “picture element.” A pixel is the smallest element in a picture. When you zoom in on a picture, you’ll eventually see individual pixels. They’re so small that you need thousands of them to make up just one image.

Pixels are used to create all the images you see on your computer, phone, or TV screen. A pixel is made up of three tiny dots of color: red, green, and blue (RGB). Together, these three colors can create any color you see.

Plugin

A plugin is a piece of software that adds extra features or functionality to a website or blogging platform. In most cases, plugins are relatively easy to install and can be activated with just a few clicks.

WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platforms, provides a wide range of plugins that allow you to customize your site in any number of ways. Some plugins are designed to improve SEO or add new functionality such as contact forms or e-commerce features. Whatever your needs are, there’s likely a plugin that can help.

Push Notification

A push notification is a message that pops up on a mobile device to alert the user of something. Push notifications can be sent by apps to inform users of new messages or events even when the app is not open. They can also be used to deliver content and updates from a blog or website. Many bloggers find push notifications to be an essential tool for keeping their readers engaged and informed.

Niche

A niche is a specific topic that you focus on when you blog. It can be as broad as “parenting” or as specific as “single parenting while working full-time.” By narrowing your focus to a specific niche, you can become an expert on that topic and build a loyal following of readers who are interested in what you have to say.

Optimization

When most people think of optimization, they think of search engine optimization or SEO. BUT optimization is when you want to make things better such as:

• Website speed
• Conversion rates
• High ranking content

By taking the time to optimize your blog, you are giving yourself the best chance of success.

Q-U

Quality Score

A quality score refers to the overall quality of a blog post. This can be judged on a number of factors, including grammar, style, voice, and topic coverage. A high-quality score tells you a blog post is well-written and informative. A low-quality score suggests that the post is rushed or poorly researched.

Quality score is often used as a way to measure the success of a blog. Many bloggers strive to produce posts with high-quality scores in order to attract more readers.

Return On Investment (ROI)

Return on investment (ROI) is a measure of how much revenue your blog generates in comparison to how much time and money you’ve invested in it.

Let’s say you spend two hours writing and promoting a blog post that earns you $100 in revenue. In this case, your return on investment would be $50 per hour ($100 divided by 2 hours). Of course, not every blog post is going to generate revenue, and some posts may take longer to write and promote than others. But over time, if your average return on investment is positive, then your blogging business is likely to be successful.

RSS Feed (aka “Blog Feed”)

SEO

This is one of the most common blogging definitions you’ll hear about over and over again…SEO!

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of optimizing a website for Google search. The goal is to earn higher web traffic levels and improve the overall visibility of the site. More importantly, to rank as high as possible in search engine results pages (SERPs). SERPs are determined by algorithms that take into account the quality of a site’s backlinks, content, and keywords.

SERPs

SERPs stands for “search engine results pages”. SERPs are the pages that appear when you enter a query into a search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. It includes a mix of both organic and paid results. Organic results are those that appear naturally in the search engine’s index, based on factors such as relevancy and page authority. Paid results are those that appear as an advertiser who bids on keywords related to the user’s query.

Site Map

A site map is a list of pages on a website. It can be a simple list of page titles organized by topic or category or it can be more complex, showing the hierarchy of the site’s content. Site maps are often used to help visitors find what they are looking for on a website, as well as to help search engines index the site.

Slug

A slug is a unique identifier for a blog post. It is typically derived from the post’s title and is used in the URL of the post. For example, for this blog post titled “75 Most Popular Blogging Definitions To Know (#1 Blog Glossary)” the slug is “blogging-definitions” and shows up like this in search results https://www.twinmomblognerd.com/blogging-definitions.

Slugs are usually no more than a few words long, and often include keywords that people are searching for. In short, slugs help make your content more discoverable by search engines.

Split Testing

split testing is a method of experimentation where two or more versions of an ad or web page are shown to users at random. Then, statistical analysis is used to determine which version performs better for a given conversion goal. Ultimately, split testing is an essential tool to optimize your ad or website for better conversions.

Sponsored Post

A sponsored post is a blog post that is created in collaboration with a brand or company. Typically, the sponsor will provide some form of compensation to the blogger in exchange for creating the post. This could be in the form of monetary compensation or free products.

Sponsored posts are usually clearly marked as such, so that readers can easily identify them.

Tag

A tag is a keyword or phrase assigned to a piece of online content in order to help categorize and organize it. Tags are commonly used on blogs and other social media platforms as a way to label posts by topic. For example, if you have a blog about fashion, you might use tags such as “outfits”, “style”, and “trends”. This would make it easier for readers who are interested in those topics to find the post.

Traffic

Traffic is the number of people who visit your blog. This can be expressed as a total number of visits, or as a unique number of visitors. Traffic is important because it gives you an idea of how much reach your blog has. It can come from a variety of sources, including search engines, social media, and word-of-mouth.

If you want to increase your traffic, you need to make sure that your blog is easy to find and that your content is share-worthy. You can also use paid advertising or promotion to get more eyes on your blog. Ultimately, traffic is a very important metric to track.

URL

A URL, or uniform resource locator, is the unique address of a webpage on the internet. It consists of a domain name, which is the main website address, and a file path, which directs the browser to a certain page within the website. For example, the URL for this blog post is https://www.twinmomblognerd.com/blogging-definitions.

V-Z

Vlogging

Vlogging is a type of blogging that focuses on video content. While vlogging first gained popularity on platforms like YouTube, it has since become a popular way to connect with an audience on all kinds of social media sites.

One of the key benefits of vlogging is that it allows viewers to get a more personal glimpse into the vlogger’s life. Unlike traditional blogging, which is often quite formal, vlogs tend to be more informal and conversational.

Web Crawlers

If you’ve ever wondered how Google or other search engines are able to index websites so quickly, the answer lies in web crawlers. Web crawlers are automated programs that visit websites and collect information about them. This information is then used to create an index, which helps users find relevant websites when they search for specific keywords.

Web crawlers crawl websites, and then follow links to other websites. This process ensures that all of the web’s content is indexed and made available to users. Thanks to web crawlers, we can enjoy surfing a well-organized internet!

Web Host

A web host is a service that provides businesses and individuals with the technology needed to build a website. A web host offers web server space to store a website’s files, as well as email and web hosting services. When you create a website, you need to use a web host so your site is accessible to internet users.

WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms in existence. It is a free and open-source platform available to anyone to create a blog. One of the key features of WordPress is its flexibility – there are thousands of plugins and themes available to customize the site of your dreams.

XML

XML is a markup language that structures, stores, and transports data. XML is that it makes data more portable and easy to exchange between different systems. If you have a blog hosted on one platform but you want to move it to another, you can simply export your data as an XML file and then import it into the new platform. This can be a big time-saver, and it also helps to ensure that your data is compatible with the new system.

To Wrap It Up

I hope this glossary of the most popular blogging definitions was helpful! I know it can be confusing trying to keep up with all the latest blogging lingo, but hopefully, this will give you a good foundation.

Be sure to bookmark this page so you can reference it whenever you need to. 🙂

Until the next post, I’m wishing you much blogging success!

xo

Lindsey

Thank You

Thank you for being here today!

Are there any blogging definitions you’re still unsure about or any you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments below so I can add it to this list. 🙂

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About The Author

Linds is the proud mom of two little miracles, Mono Mono twin girls, and one AMAZING older brother! She is the founder and content creator of Mono Mono Twins, Intensive Therapy for Kids, and Co-Founder of The LENN Foundation (a 510c3 that helps children with cerebral palsy receive grants for intensive therapies to thrive). ♥

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. I only recommend deals or items I love because you might like them too! With my affiliate relationships, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for supporting Mono Mono Twins!