From ‘journo requests’ to ‘outreach’, Digital PRs use terminology daily that’s unique to working in the digital sphere. Words like ‘media opps’ and ‘media lists’ slip off the tongue for us Digi PRs, and we might not give it a second thought when talking like this in front of people who aren’t as clued up on the PR industry.
With this in mind, we’ve gathered the most common words used in the Wild PR office and created a ‘Digital PR Dictionary’. Whether you’ve worked in PR for years or you’re just getting started, here’s an alphabetical list of PR words you need to know:
A
Ahrefs – A popular SEO tool in the digital PR industry, Ahrefs is an SEO software suite that contains tools for link building, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking and site audits.
Audit – Generally referred to as a site audit, an audit is a full analysis of all the factors that affect a website’s visibility in search engines.
Affiliate links – An affiliate link is a specific URL that contains the affiliate’s name. In affiliate programs, advertisers use affiliate links to record the traffic that is sent to the advertiser’s website. The more traffic from the affiliate link, the more financial gain the affiliate receives.
Anchor text – The clickable text in a hyperlink that takes users to a web page.
B
Backlink – Backlinks are links from a page on one website to another. If someone links to your site, then you have a backlink from them.
Bespoke – This is when something is created to a particular specification. At Wild PR we create bespoke comms strategies for all our clients.
Brand monitoring – This is the process of monitoring different channels (online publications and social media) to identify where your brand name is mentioned. In Digital PR, this helps us track which journalists have covered a client’s story or used a spokesperson quote within an article.
Bounce rate – This represents the percentage of visitors to a website who leave straight away rather than staying on the website to navigate through other pages.
Brainstorm – A discussion used in the ideation process of PR and social media. A brainstorm helps generate new ideas and solutions for PR campaigns and social media content.
B2B – Business to business is a relationship where one company’s customers are other businesses.
B2C – Business to consumer refers to the selling of products and services by a business directly to the end consumer.
C
Campaign – Part of a PR strategy, a PR campaign is often created to raise the profile of a brand and establish the brand as credible and an expert in their industry.
Coverage – Following the creation of a PR campaign and press outreach, coverage in target media will hopefully be achieved.
Case study – Case studies are overall accounts of an individual or group’s experience of a particular situation or challenge. These can be used within PR campaigns to bring in a real life experience of an individual to support the overalll narrative.
Content – In PR, content can include press releases, blogs, and social media copy.
Copywriting – The act of writing text for the purpose of marketing and promotional materials.
D
Domain – A domain or domain name is the address people type into a browser in order to reach a site.
Database – An organised collection of information, or data, typically stored in a computer system. In PR, a media database is used to identify relevant journalists to create targeted media lists and build meaningful PR relationships.
Domain authority (DA) – A search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages.
Display advertising – A type of advertising that combines text, images, and a URL. Often found on websites, apps, or social media through banners or other advertising formats.
Do-follow link -This type of link passes authority to a website and can positively impact a website’s overall ranking and SERPs performance.
Direct traffic – In Google Analytics, this type of traffic is defined as website visits that occurred as a result of a user typing a URL directly into their browser.
E
Engagement – In PR and social media, engagement is used to measure the level of interaction by an audience from content created by a brand.
Exclusive – A story published by only one source.
F
Forward feature – A list of topics or themes that publications know well in advance they’re going to cover, way of editorial planning.
G
Google analytics – A free web analytics tool offered by Google to track and report website traffic.
Google trends – A tool by Google that analyses the popularity of top search queries in Google Search.
Grammarly – A free online writing assistant which helps draft mistake-free content. Can be synced up with Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a variety of others apps!
H
Hook – A way of angling your PR story that will encourage interest from the chosen target media audience.
Hootsuite – A social media management tool that enables you to create, schedule and publish social media posts.
I
Ideation – The creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas.
Impressions – The total number of times a piece of digital content such as a social media post, piece of copy, advertisement or web page is displayed to your users.
Infographic – A visual representation of information, data, or knowledge, intended to present information quickly and clearly.
J
Journalist – A person who writes for newspapers, magazines, or news websites.
Journo request – A public request by a journalist working on a story that needs particular information, such as an expert opinion or a case study. The hashtag #journorequest is often used by journalists on Twitter for these types of requests.
K
Keyword – Ideas and topics that define what your content is about, and are the words and phrases searchers enter into search engines.
Keyword research – The process of finding and analysing search terms that people enter into search engines, with the goal of using the data to improve search engine optimisation.
KPI – A key performance indicator is a type of performance measurement and provides targets for PRs to work towards.
L
Link – If a PR campaign achieves a ‘link’, this means a publication has used the story and included a backlink to the brand’s website within the text.
Lead generation – The process of attracting users to your business/website with the goal of converting them into customers.
M
Media list – A document with a list of media contacts such as journalists and reporters. This is then used to issue out bespoke PR content.
Media – Communication outlets used to deliver information, including print media, digital media, broadcasting, and advertising.
Mailer – A type of PR campaign that presents easy-to-digest information. Usually based on tips and expert advice.
Media opps – Opportunities to generate media coverage for a brand, including responding to a journalist’s request with expert commentary, taking part in an interview, contributing to a blog, or taking advantage of newsjacking opportunities.
N
No-follow link – Unlike a do-follow link, a no-follow link passes no authority to a website.
Newsjacking – The practice of leveraging trending and popular news and social media stories to increase media mileage and promote brand messaging, products, and services.
Networking – The processes of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional relationships and contacts.
New users – On Google Analytics, this means a user or visitor who has never been to your site before is initiating their first session on your site.
O
Open rate – The percentage of people/subscribers who open a specific email out of the total number of people/subscribers you sent the content to.
Organic traffic – Visitors who land on your website from unpaid sources and have come to your site from a search engine.
P
Press release – A short but compelling story written by PR professionals and sent to target media.
Publication – Target media to send content to, such as a magazine.
Position – This refers to a website’s position in the search engine results pages.
Q
Quotes – Gathered from key spokespeople, quotes are used within content such as press releases and blogs.
R
Reach – The total number of people who see your content on social media.
Reactive PR – The practice of taking advantage of the current news agenda with PR content in an attempt to generate press coverage for a client.
Responsesource – A tool used by journalists and PRs to request expert commentary and information for news articles.
Referral traffic – The segment of traffic that arrives on your website through another source, like through a link or another domain.
S
SEMrush – This platform is used for keyword research and online ranking data, including metrics such as search volume and cost per click. You can also create and schedule social media within this tool.
SERanking – A tool that allows users to perform integral SEO tasks like keyword research, competitive analysis, rank tracking, website audits, and backlink checks.
SEO – The process of improving the quality and quantity of organic website traffic to a website or web page from search engines.
Syndication – This refers to multiple publications using the same article. It usually happens when a press release appears in a regional publication, and subsequently appears in various other regional titles.
SERPs – This stands for Search Engine Results Pages.
T
Tactics – In PR, tactics are activities or actions an organisation takes to shape the public perception of a brand. For example, a tactic could be Digital PR campaigns or running an active press office.
Tabloid – A newspaper that is about half the page size of a regular newspaper and that contains news in a condensed format.
U
UTM – Standing for ‘Urchin Tracking Module’ a UTM code is a simple code snippet that you can add to the end of URL to track the performance of campaigns and content.
V
Vuelio – A media database in which PRs can look for journalist contacts and monitor press coverage.
Visibility – The share of traffic that a website receives from its rankings in the organic search results.
W
Whitepaper – A report or guide that informs readers concisely about complex issues.
Y
Yoast – A search engine optimisation plug-in for WordPress.
So, now you know every word in the digital PR universe, we can now certify you as a Digital PR expert 😉 Welcome to the club!