Optimization Glossary

The optimization space is full of acronyms and jargon, and Optipedia is here to help. Our optimization glossary is a dictionary of the terminology most commonly used by optimization professionals.

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Want to know the difference between A/B Testing, Split Testing, and Multivariate Testing? Or what the heck CRO, LPO, and EXO stand for? Maybe you're looking for a refresher on Statistical Significance and Sales Funnels? Browse our optimization glossary and learn to speak the language of optimizers!

A

A/A Testing

A method of comparing two versions of a webpage or mobile app experience against each other in order to test the accuracy of the testing tool.

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A/B/N Testing

A method of comparing multiple versions of webpage or mobile app against each other to determine which performs best.

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Above The Fold

The top most portion of a webpage that is visible without users having to scroll.

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A/B Testing

A method of comparing two versions of a webpage or mobile app experience against each other to determine which performs best.

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Account Based Marketing

A business marketing strategy that concentrates resources on a set of target accounts within a market.

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Ad Viewability

The concept of how visible ads on a website or mobile app are to users.

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App Personalization

The process of building a mobile application to meet the needs of specific audiences.

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Average Order Value

The average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order on a website or mobile app.

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B

B2B eCommerce

The online sale of goods or services between businesses.

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Behavioral Science

Behavioral science studies the way that emotions, the environment, and social factors influence our decisions.

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Below The Fold

The portion of a webpage that is not immediately visible when the page loads, that users must scroll to see.

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Blue-Green Deployment

A software development technique which utilizes two production environments (a "blue environment" and a "green environment") in order to make the software deployment process easier and safer.

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Bounce Rate

The percentage of site visits that are single-page sessions, with the visitor leaving without viewing any other pages.

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Brand Engagement

Brand engagement refers to the creation of attachments between consumers and brands. These attachments may be emotional or rational, and they produce brand loyalty over time. This solidifies the brand and helps to improve the customer experience.

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Brand Home

An event that involves people interacting in an online environment on the web, rather than meeting in a physical location

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Bucket Testing

A method of testing two versions of a website or app against one another to see which one performs better on specified key metrics. Synonym for split testing.

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C

Call To Action

A call to action or CTA is a prompt on a website that tells the user to take some specified action.

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Canary Testing

A way to reduce risk and validate new software by releasing software to a small percentage of users.

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Click-Through Rate

The percentage of people that click on an element that they have been exposed to.

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Content Hub

A content hub is a curated collection of branded content on a specific topic or subject. It houses articles, videos, infographics, and other forms of content that let users take a deep dive into a specific area in which the brand is an authority or expert.

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Content Intelligence

A technique which uses software and artificial intelligence to measure the impact of content and generate content strategy insights.

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Content Management System

An application that allows multiple contributors to create, edit and publish web content.

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Continuous Delivery

A software development process for getting code changes into production quickly and safely.

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Continuous Integration

A devops and software development practice where code is continuously integrated into the trunk where these integrations are automatically built and tested.

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Conversion

When a user completes some predetermined action on your site.

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Conversion Rate

The number of conversions on a webpage or app divided by the total number of visitors.

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Conversion Rate Optimization

The process of increasing the percentage of conversions from a website or mobile app.

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Customer Journey Management

A headless CMS is a content management system that separates the backend content management from the frontend, presentation layer.

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Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping helps you optimize every customer experience by tying together all touchpoints into a cohesive story.

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D

Decision Fatigue

When the mind becomes fatigued after a sustained period of decision making, such as when faced with too many options on a website.

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Digital Content

In today's digital age, online content is one of the primary ways to differentiate your brand from competitors. Different industries use digital content to create meaningful experiences deployed across different channels using a variety of formats.

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Digital Experience Platform

A software platform that manages digital experience across a broad range of digital touchpoints

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Digital Web Strategy

Organizations use a digital web strategy to maximize the business benefits of web content across all digital channels.

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E

Enterprise Commerce

Enterprise commerce is selling that occurs on an enterprise-level. Typically, you’ll see this term applied to mean enterprise-grade ecommerce software.

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Experience Analytics

Data and analytics drive your customer experience (CX) and journey designs across all your digital touchpoints to create meaningful engagements with your customers.

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Experience Optimization

The process of providing your customers with the best possible experience across all touchpoints through analytics, user research, A/B testing, and personalization.

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Experiential Marketing

A marketing strategy which aims to provide audiences with unique, branded experiences.

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F

Feature Branch

A copy of the main codebase where an individual or team of software developers can work on a new feature until it is complete.

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Feature Flags

A software development technique that turns certain functionality on and off, without deploying new code.

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Feature Rollout

The software development process of introducing a new feature to a set of users.

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Feature Test

The software development process of testing multiple variations of a feature to determine the best user experience.

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Feature Toggle

A mechanism that allows code to be turned “on” or “off” remotely without the need for a deploy.

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G

Growth Hacking

The use of resource-light and cost effective marketing tactics to help grow and retain an active user base, sell products and gain exposure.

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H

Headless CMS

A headless CMS is a content management system where the front-end and back-end functions are separated.

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Headline Testing

The process of developing multiple title variations for an article or piece of online media to determine which one performs the best.

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Heatmap

A graphical representation of data such as clicks and scrolls that uses a system of color-coding to represent different values.

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Hero Image

An oversized image or video at the top of a website, often extending full-width and featuring a CTA and/or value proposition.

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Hyper-Personalization

Evolving consumer expectations require hyper-personalization to create meaningful connections with customers by utilizing modern digital experience platforms (DXP).

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I

How to Improve Conversion Rates

Learn how to improve your conversion rates through A/B testing to drive your business objectives.

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Inbound Marketing

A marketing methodology that is designed to draw visitors and potential customers in, rather than outwardly pushing a brand, product or service onto prospects.

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Information Scent

Visual and textual cues that provide website vistors with hints on what information a site contains.

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iOS A/B Testing

The process of running a controlled experiment comparing one or more versions of an iOS app against the original to improve certain metrics.

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L

Landing Page Optimization

The process of improving elements on a landing page to increase conversions.

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Lead Generation

The process of generating consumer interest for a product or service with the goal of turning that interest into a sale.

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Lean Hypothesis Testing

An approach to agile product development that’s designed to minimize risk, increase speed of development, and hone product market fit by building and iterating on a minimum viable product (MVP)

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Lifetime Value

An estimate of the average revenue that your customers will generate throughout their lifespan as a customer.

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M

Marketing Automation

The replacement of repetitive manual marketing processes and tasks with solutions that are automated, especially in regards to e-mail marketing.

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Marketing Technology Stack

A grouping of technologies that marketers leverage to conduct and improve their marketing activities.

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Mobile App A/B Testing

The practice of using A/B testing to test different experiences within mobile apps.

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Multi-Armed Bandit

A form of A/B testing that uses machine learning algorithms to dynamically allocate traffic to variations that are performing well.

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Multivariate Testing

A technique for testing a hypothesis where multiple variables are modified, in order to determine the best combination of variations on those elements of a website or mobile app.

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Multivariate Testing vs A/B Testing

Learn about the key differences between A/B testing and multivariate testing, and when is the best time to use each approach.

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O

Online Marketing

The strategy for leveraging web-based channels to spread a message about a company’s brand, products, or services to its potential customers.

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P

Progressive Delivery

A method of gradually rolling out new features in order to limit the potential negative impact and gauge the user engagement with new product features.

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R

Remote Config

A software development technique for mobile apps where the behavior or features of an app can be changed remotely without having to publish an app update.

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Revenue Per Visitor

A metric for website performance calculated by dividing the total revenue by the total number of visitors to your website.

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S

Sales Funnel

The path taken by a potential customer through a website or app as they move towards becoming a customer.

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Search Engine Marketing

A digital marketing strategy used to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages, especially with regards to paid advertising.

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Search Engine Optimization

The art and science of getting pages to rank higher in search engines such as Google and Bing.

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Visitor Segmentation

The process of dividing your visitors to your website based on a specific criteria, such as demographics or user behavior.

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Server-Side Testing

A form of experimentation where unlike in client-side testing, the variations of a test are rendered directly on the web server before it is delivered to the client.

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Shopping Cart Abandonment

When a potential customer starts a check out process for an online order but drops out of the process before completing the purchase.

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Social Proof

Evidence that a product or service is popular with a large number of people.

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Split Testing

A strategy for conducting controlled, randomized experiments with the goal of improving a conversion metric on a website or mobile app.

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Squeeze Page

A landing page which is specifically designed to 'squeeze' e-mail addresses out of visitors and prospects.

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Statistical Significance

The likelihood that the difference in conversion rates between a given variation and the baseline is not due to random chance.

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Strategic Data Management

Strategic data management is the process and resources that a business puts in place to collect, analyze, store, and use data to achieve business goals.

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T

Testing in Production

A software development practice in which new code changes are tested on live user traffic rather than in a staging environment.

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Trunk-Based Development

A strategy where engineers merge smaller changes more frequently into the main codebase and work off the trunk copy rather than work on long-lived feature branches.

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Type 1 Error

A statistics term used to refer to an error that is made in testing when a conclusive winner is declared although the test is actually inconclusive.

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Type 2 Error

A statistics term used to refer to a testing error that is made when no conclusive winner is declared between a control and a variation when there actually should be one.

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U

Unique Selling Point

The competitive differentiators that a business has over its competitors.

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Usability Testing

A method of evaluating a website or app’s readiness for release by testing it with real users who are part of your target audience.

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User Flow

The path taken by a prototypical user on a website or app to complete a task.

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User Journey Map

A diagram of the entire user experience, starting with initial contact or discovery, and continuing through the process of engagement into long-term loyalty and advocacy.

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