175+ Blog Definitions every Blogger Needs to Know

Do you ever come across blogging terms that you aren’t sure specifically what it means?

When I started my first blog, I felt lost with all the blogging lingo that kept popping up! I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to learn it all, and there are still days I read an article and have to look up a blogging word I haven’t heard before!?

Have you ever felt this way?

I have gathered over 175 blogging terms and definitions so bookmark this page and use it for your go-to blog dictionary!

I keep the list updated with new terms, and if you think something should be added please let me know in the comments at the bottom!

We have a lot to cover so let’s dive in!

Download a copy of the dictionary so you have it at your fingertips when you need it!

A/B Testing – Also known as bucket testing or split testing. The comparison of two versions of the same content to see which one outperforms the other.
Affiliate – A person that markets another person or business’s product to earn a commission when a sale is made.
Alexa Rank – A measurement created by Alexa.com ranking the popularity of a website based on the prior 3 months of traffic and user engagement. The best ranking is #1.
Alt Text (Alternative Text) – A word or phrase embedded in an image on a web page to describe the image. Also known as ‘alt attribute’ or ‘alt description’, but not ‘alt tag’ as often described. (source)
Anchor Link – A link on a website that jumps you to a specific location on that page or post.
Anchor Text – Highlighted text on a website that is clickable.
Archive – The collection of prior articles written for a website.
Article – Interchangeable for post, as in a blog post.
Automate – The process of using tools to put a task or activity on an automatic process without human work minute-by-minute.
Autoresponder – An automatic reply sent to a specific email address, set up in advance to be sent when a certain action happens.
Avatar – An icon or image that represents a user.

Backlink – Also called ‘inbound links’ or ‘incoming links.’ An incoming hyperlink is when one web page links to another web page.
Batching – A productivity strategy where you work on similar tasks in one block of time.
Beta – A partially complete or complete product that is in the testing phase and not yet available to the general population.
Beta Reader – A person that gives feedback on a manuscript before it is available to the general population. Also, known as a test reader.
Black Hat SEO – Aggressive SEO tactics and strategies that leave out the human audience and focus on search engines. Search engine guidelines are usually not followed.
Blog – A website that is updated regularly with new material, representing a person or a business. Short for ‘web log’. Also called “weblog.”
Blogger – A person who writes material for a blog.
Blogger.com – A blogging platform owned by Google and used to create a personal or business blog. (It is not associated with WordPress.)
Blogging – The action of adding new material to a blog.
Blog Hop – An organized activity on a specified day where bloggers hop between blogs on a list, read a specified post, and leave a comment. Used to generate blog traffic and connect with bloggers in a specific niche.
Blogosphere – All the blogs in the world put together.
Blogroll – A list of hyperlinks on a blog that lead to other websites or blogs.
BlogThis – A function used for Blogger.com that allows the user to create a blog post via their browser toolbar so it is not necessary to login to Blogger.com
Blogiversary – The anniversary date of your blog.
Bounce Rate – The analytical number calculated when a person visits a single website page and then leaves the website without linking to another page on the same website. The average website has a bounce rate of 40% – 55%. (source)
Brand – The communication technique that portrays your personal or business blog, inspired by the blogger’s demeanor, personality, authenticity, quality of content, marketing methods, etc.
Breadcrumbs – Usually located just below the top menu on a website (when in use), breadcrumbs show the user their specific location on a webpage to simplify navigation of the website.

Call to Action – A piece of content such as an image or text, that asks your website visitors to do something specific. Abbreviated CTA. In the literal sense, it is a ‘call’ to readers to ‘take action’ on a request.
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) – A security check on a web page that allows only human access.
Category – A topic the blogger writes about on their blog. Often referred to as a blog’s table of contents.
Click Bait – Content on a web page that draws a reader to click on it, taking them to another, specific website or web page. The main purpose of this type of content is to attract attention and encourage a click on the link.
Click-Through Rate – The percentage of people that click on a specific hypertext link on a web page.
Comments – Blog commenting is an indication of the relationship between the blogger and their audience. Accepted at the end of a blog post if the blogger allows comments, the conversations are designed to exchange ideas and thoughts on the blog post or topic.
Content – The articles on the blog, written about a specific topic (the blog niche.)
Content Management System (CMS) – The strategy used to plan the articles and any information that will be added to a blog.
Content Marketing – How a blogger creates and shares their information (video, blogs, social media, etc.)
Content Syndication – Republishing a blog’s content on another site to increase exposure to the information on the blog.
Content Upgrade – Bonus content specific to the topic of the article and added to a blog post that entices a reader to subscribe to an email list (newsletter.)
Conversion Rate – The percentage of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal (the conversion) out of the total number of visitors. (source)
Cookie – A text file a website puts on a computer’s hard disk that contains a site name and user ID, stored by the website browser, and with the purpose of remembering information about the website visitor. (source)
Copyright – A person’s legal right to tell others how they can use their works, physical or intellectual, such as books, videos, movies, song, website, etc.
cPanel – The control panel provided by most web hosting companies that is designed for the user to manage their own hosting preferences.
Creative Commons – An international non-profit licensing organization that enables the legal distribution of copyrighted work when approved by the work’s original author.
CSS – Cascading Style Sheet – The format of pages on a website. They can be used to define text styles, table sizes, and other aspects of Web pages. (source)
Curated Content – Hand-picked content from a variety of sources that is centered on a specific topic, relevant to your audience, then strategically shared via your communication channels such as a newsletter, social media, etc.

Direct Traffic – People that get to a website by directly typing the URL into the browser or linking to it from an email, etc., but not linking to the website from another website
Domain Name – A unique name that identifies a website, also known as the website address.
Domain Authority – A search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). A Domain Authority score ranges from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank. (source)
Downtime – When a website is not available to view, typically caused by the web host server being inoperable.
Draft – A blog post that is not finished yet.
Drip Campaign – A direct marketing strategy to nurture leads by sending them marketing information at a set time over a long length of time

Editorial Calendar – A publication schedule for when a blogger, author, publisher, etc. are going to write content on a specific topic and publish it to their marketing avenues (blog, social media, etc.)
Email – Digital message sent through a computer network from one user to another.
Embed Code – A block of HTML that is embedded in the page source and creates an object in doing so. Embedding is the process of putting the HTML on the website. (source)
Engagement – Interacting with social media followers, responding to blog comments, etc.
Evergreen Content – Content that is relevant all the time. It is not seasonal and it does not become dated.

Favicon (Favorite Icon) – An icon that identifies a website in the web browser.
Feed – A stream of posts or comments that is updated when new content is published. (source)
Footer – The bottom section of a web page that typically displays logistical information such as the disclosure, how to contact, copyright information, etc.
Forums – A place on the internet where people have a public discussion about topics they have in common.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – Transferring files from one computer to another with a software program.

Graphic – Symbols, images, or text that create a visual representation of content.
Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) – A service that provides unique avatars to computer users, including the WordPress.com blogging platform.
Guest Post– Writing an article and publishing it on someone else’s blog, is typically a method used to let new people know about your blog.

H1, H2, H3 – Heading tags for different size headings in a blog post or page, with H1 being the largest font.
Header – The top section of your blog, which typically will show the logo and a menu (navigation bar.)
Host – The company that provides the technology and services needed to have a website (also web host).
HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – The standard language used to create web pages. The markup communicates to the web browser how text, images, and multimedia should look on a web page.
Hyperlink – A text, image, or icon link in a document that can be clicked and links to another file or document, typically a web page.

Inbound Marketing – A marketing strategy used to draw potential buyers to a product or service through quality content before they are ready to purchase, then taking them on a nurturing path that leads to a purchase.
Indexed Pages – Website pages that are scoured by Google search engines for possible new content or for information it already knows about. Having a web page indexed is a critical part of a website’s Internet search engine ranking and web page content value. (source)
Internal Link – A link on a website that connects to a different page or post on the same website.
Influencer – A person who has a high impact, typically represented by a large number of followers on social media, in a specific niche.
Infographic – A visual image that represents information or data usually in the form of a chart or diagram.
IP Address (Internet Protocol) – A unique address assigned to a device like a computer that allows the system to be recognized on the Internet.

Keyword – The main word describing the topic of a blog post’s content.
Key Phrase – The main phrase people search for on Google for a specific topic.
Keyword Research – An SEO strategy to find out what your target audience is searching for online and then use the information in your blog posts to increase blog traffic.
Keyword Stuffing – Loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results. (source)

Lazy Loading – The delay of images loading on a website until the user reaches a specific point on the page, with the intention of speeding up the load time.
Lead Magnet – The incentive a blogger offers website visitors to encourage them to sign up for their newsletter. Also called an opt-in.
Like For Like – Reciprocating likes with another blogger, for example on a social media platform.
Link – Text, an icon, image, etc. that takes the user to a new section or page on a website.
Link Baiting – A blog growth strategy that draws people to click on a link and gets them to a website.
Link Building – The process of getting other bloggers to provide a link on their blog to your website.
Linky Party – An event hosted by a blogger on their blog where other bloggers can share their content or products on a specific topic.
Longform Content – A blog post that is approximately a minimum of 3,000 words in length, also called an epic post, a pillar post, or a cornerstone post.
Long Tail Keywords – Three and four word keyword phrases which are very specific to the product you are selling or the blog post you are writing to increase traffic to your blog by helping people find it easier.

Media Kit – A document or documents that showcase the key facts and statistics about a blog. It is given to brands, advertisers, speaking event planners, etc., to share with their audience when the blogger will be working with them.
Meta Description – An HTML tag that is a snippet of up to about 155 characters that summarizes a page’s content. Search engines show the meta description in search results mostly when the searched-for phrase is within the description, so optimizing the meta description is crucial for on-page SEO. (source)
Meta Keywords – A meta tag on a website page that tells search engines the topic of the page.
Meta Tags – An HTML tag that contains keywords or phrases about the information in a website and used by search engines when an internet search is queried.
Meta Title – The name of an HTML document that is stored in the head data of the document. It is displayed in the title page of the browser and in the open tabs. It is important for search engine recognition to bring organic traffic to your website.
Microblog – A short piece of content designed for quick audience interactions, examples include social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. (source)
Monetization – The process of making money or earning income from your blog.

Navigation Bar – Also called a menu, it links to other pages and posts on a website.
Niche – The topic of a blog. The blogger writes articles on this specific topic, as well as potentially markets products on the same topic.
Niche Market – The specific audience that reads your blog. Your niche market is who you should write each blog post for – it is your target audience.
No Follow Link – A link on a website that has an HTML tag telling search engines not to include the link for page ranking or SEO optimization.

Off-Page SEO – Activities a blogger does off their website to increase page rankings based on how the site is indexed by search engines. An example is back linking.
On-Page SEO – Optimizing individual website pages so they rank higher to gain more organic traffic from search engines.
Open Source Software – The code of the software is available to others for viewing, copying, learning, altering or sharing.
Opt-In – The incentive a blogger offers on their website to encourage people to sign up for their newsletter or email list. Also called a lead magnet.
Organic Traffic – Website traffic that comes from search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Traffic that is not paid for but comes from SEO on the website.

Page – Used on a blog instead of a post because the blogger does not intend to update the information on a regular basis. Examples typically include the about page and the contact page.
Page Jumping – A link is clicked on a website page and the reader instantly goes to another section of the page. An example is a ‘table of contents’ located at the top of an article. Also called an anchor link.
Page Rank (PR) – A calculation invented and used by Google search engines to measure the importance of a website page.
Page Views – The number of times a website page is loaded or reloaded in a browser. (the same as pageviews)
Paid Search – Ads paid for by a marketer and placed on websites to get visitors to click on them, taking them to the marketer’s website. An example is an Amazon ad on a blog.
Paid Traffic – Website traffic that was paid for by the blogger.
Pain Point – The specific problem that takes a person to a website looking for an answer.
Parked Domain – A domain name that is registered (owned) but it is not associated with a website.
Pay Per Click (PPC) – A type of marketing where an advertiser pays a fee each time one of their ads is clicked.
Permalink (Permanent Link) – The URL of a post or page on a website.
PHP (Stands for Hypertext Pre-Processor today but originally stood for Personal Home Page) – The scripting language used on the server side to develop website applications.
Ping – A signal sent to a website host that requests a response.
Pingback – A special type of comment that’s created when you link to another blog post, as long as the other blog is set to accept pingbacks. (source)
Plagiarism – Copying information in an article without giving credit to the original author so visitors on the website think it was written by the blog writer.
Platform – As in a blogging platform, the software or service the blogger uses to publish content on the internet in the form of a blog.
Plugin – Software added to a WordPress website that adds additional functionality to the site.
Podcast – A digital audio or media file that can be downloaded from the internet and listened to as an alternative to reading.
Post – Articles on a blog that share content with visitors on the topic (niche) of the blog.

reCAPTCHA – Essentially the same as CAPTCHA. Developed to protect websites from machine generated attacks called bots. (source)
Reciprocal Links – Any set of hyperlinks between two websites that point both ways. In general, reciprocal links happen when two webmasters agree to each host a link on their own website, which points to the other webmaster’s website. (source)
Redirect – Sending a website visitor to another URL.
- 301 Redirect – The redirect is permanent because the website has moved to a new location.
- 302 Redirect – The redirect is temporary. An example is if a blogger is redesigning their website so they send visitors to a different domain until they are finished.
Referral Traffic – Visitors to a website that came from a source outside of search engines.
Rich Answer – Also known as the ‘Answer Box’ at the top of a Google search result page. (source)
Robots – Also known as Web Wanderers, Crawlers, and Spiders – Go around the internet automatically. Examples include search engines use them to index website content, spammers use them to scan for email addresses.
ROI (Return On Investment) – A profitability ratio that measures the performance of an action compared to the outcome of the action.
RSS Feed (Really Simple Syndication) – A simplified method to receive updated newscasts, blog posts, social media channels, etc., in an RSS reader instead of visiting each website individually to check on updates.

SAHM – Acronym for Stay at Home Mom.
Search Engine – Software that searches a database of information based on the query entered into the search bar. Examples are Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL, etc.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – A website strategy to organize a website and add specific changes so the content on the website is set up to rank high for relevant keywords and phrases by search engines.
Self-hosted blog – The blogger has their own server for their blog instead of paying a hosting company to host their blog on their server.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – A website strategy to organize a website and add specific changes so the content on the website is set up to rank high for relevant keywords and phrases by search engines.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page) – The web pages that are shown when someone enters a query (search) on the internet.
SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) – A method of transferring files between computers over a secure network.
Sidebar – A section on a blog layout that is a narrow column on the left or right side of the main content of the blog.
Sitemap – The actual layout of a website in visual format, showing pages and posts and their relationship to one another. Think of an outline that was created in a high school English class prior to writing a term paper.
Skyscraper Technique – A system created by Brian Dean (Backlinko) to increase backlinks to a blog which should ultimately increase page views.
Slug – The text that shows after a domain name in the URL of a page.
Social Media – Communication and interaction between people on the internet via a microblog.
Social Media Engagement – A measure of the effectiveness of a blog or brand based on likes, shares, comments, etc.
Social Proof (Social Influence) – A marketing strategy that uses the influence of popular or well-known people to persuade people to complete a certain action.
Spam – Electronic junk mail or junk postings by a newsgroup. Have you ever heard how the term was coined? Here is a fun article on the topic of how junk mail came to be called spam!
Spammer – A person or organization who sends unsolicited electronic email messages.
Sponsored Post – The blogger is paid to write the post for a specific brand.
SSL Certificate (Secure Sockets Layer) – The standard technology for keeping an internet connection secure and safeguarding any sensitive data that is being sent between two systems, preventing criminals from reading and modifying any information transferred, including potential personal details. The two systems can be a server and a client (for example, a shopping website and browser) or server to server (for example, an application with personal identifiable information or with payroll information).It does this by making sure that any data transferred between users and sites, or between two systems remain impossible to read. Indicated by the difference in a URL – http vs https as in https://itstartedwithablog.com (source)
Stop Words – Words commonly used in writing that are ignored by search engines scanning the website. Examples include the, a, and, but, how, or, etc.
Styleguide – Document that contains all your brand fonts, colors, graphic/photo styles, etc.

Tag – A word (or possibly two words) that indicates the keywords or topic of your blog post.
Tagline (also Tag Line) – A short and memorable phrase or sentence used to describe and clearly communicate the message of the blog or brand.
Tag Cloud – A logical arrangement of keywords within a textual content that visually describes the subject of a website, blog or any other text. (source)
Target Reader – Who you want your audience to be. Who do you want to read your blog?
Template – A layout that can be used over and over to save time from re-creating the layout each time. Example: blog post template.
Theme (Website Theme) – The look, style and feel of a website, such as color scheme, font, elements, etc.
Thin Content – A page with no real value besides building traffic. It contains no great insights into the industry, no good information about your product, and nothing that you couldn’t find on another, similar site.
Trackback – A message sent to a website (blogger) when it is linked to from another website or blog.
Traffic – The people that visit a website.
Tweep – A popular name for a Twitter user.
Title Tag – An HTML element that tells visitors and search engines the main topic of the web page.

Unique Visitor – A term used in website analytics. A visitor to a website within the reporting period, and the IP address of the visitor is kept so even if there are multiple visits only the first visit is included in the ‘unique visitor’ analytics.
Uptime – The amount of time a website is available and operational. It is generally the most important metric for a website, online service or web based provider and is expressed as a percentage (source)
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – A website address on the internet.
User Intent – The information a person is searching to find when they enter a query into a search engine.

Virtual Assistant (VA) – An independent contractor who is paid to assist a blogger with administrative tasks for their blog from a virtual location.
VLOG – A video blog that shares content via video.

WAHM – Acronym for Work at Home Mom.
Webinar – A web-based seminar, conference, or training shared via the Internet.
Weblog (Web Log) – A listing of images, objects, or text arranged in chronological order and often journaling a person’s life similar to a personal journal.
Webmail – Sending and receiving email through the web host provider, with the advantage that your email address is associated with your domain name. Examples of common webmail systems supported by Web hosts include Horde, NeoMail, and SquirrelMail.
Web Host – A company that offers the use of their web server for a fee so a blogger can have their blog appear on the internet.
Website Theme – The look, style and feel of a website, such as color scheme, font, elements, etc.
White Hat SEO – SEO methods that use ethical strategies and techniques to optimize the website for organic traffic.
Widget – Tools or content used to customize the sidebar of a website.
WordPress.com – WordPress software to build a blog. It is hosted by WordPress, and personalization is not available with the use of different themes or plugins because they are built into the platform, along with SEO, Google sitemaps, website back-ups, security, and more.
WordPress.org – WordPress software to build a blog. It is self-hosted, which means the blogger must provide their own web server or hosting company before it will work. The blogger chooses their own themes and plugins to personalize their blog.

XML Sitemap (Extensible Markup Language) – A text file used to detail all URLs on a website. It can include extra information (metadata) on each URL, with details of when they were last updated, how important they are, and whether there are any other versions of the URL created in other languages. All of this is done to help the search engines crawl your website more efficiently, allowing any changes to be fed to them directly, including when a new page is added or an old one is removed. (source)

Keep in mind this list of blog terms applies specifically to blogging, so outside of building a blog the terms may (and likely) have a different meaning.

Also, I have simplified the definitions as much as possible, not only to keep them short and concise but also to provide a general meaning that is easy for a new blogger to understand.

This blog dictionary is intended to be used as a starting point for you as you learn to navigate the blogging world. If you need specific details on a topic please be sure to do additional research to find what you need.

Do you ever come across blogging terms that you aren’t sure specifically what it means?

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