Publishing & editing

An advertorial is a type of ad that blends in with the surrounding content. It’s often written for a newspaper or magazine, and intended to promote a brand’s product or views—though it may not be obvious right off the bat.

The American Psychological Association (APA) style is a set of writing guidelines for the social science fields. It establishes best practices for creating research papers and related projects.

Anchor text refers to the words that hyperlinked within an article or webpage. To aid SEO, you’ll want to be deliberate with the anchor text and make sure that it’s highly relevant to the page that it links to.

The Associated Press (AP) style of editing is widely used among American journalists today. It provides a consistent way of checking for grammar, punctuation, formatting, and more.

Attribution is the process of giving credit where credit is owed. For example, if you mention in a quote or statistic within your article, you’ll want to attribute the original source.

An author bio is a short description of your credentials and personality (among other details). It’s often used to earn a reader’s trust.

A byline is a line of text that provides the author’s name. For example, if you write a blog for a publication, your name would be featured in the byline.

A call to action (CTA) is any part of content that directs people to take a specific action. For instance, a button that says “buy now” would be considered a CTA.

The Chicago Manual of Style is a guide for academic and book publishing, established by the University of Chicago Press. It provides a set of rules for grammar, citation, style, and more.

A content management system (CMS) is a software platform—like Wordpress—in which users can create, edit, and publish digital content.

An ebook is a short, digital book that users can download and read whenever they choose. It's intended to educate readers as well as demonstrate your brand’s expertise in a topic.

In marketing, an editorial calendar is a publishing schedule that offers one place for planning, assigning, and checking the status of upcoming content (like blogs, emails, and/or social posts).

An email newsletter is a type of communication that’s sent to people who have specifically subscribed to your email list. Newsletters can have various purposes and target readers.

Evergreen content is SEO-friendly content that doesn't have a clear expiration date. The information within the article will remain relevant for many years to come.

Front of book is a slang used in the publishing industry, meant to describe the (very) short articles located at the front of a magazine.

In writing, a hook is the first one or two sentences of an article that’s meant to draw a reader in.

An infographic is a visualization of data and information. It’s a popular format amongst marketers who want to showcase copy in a dynamic, more visual format.

Interlinking is the practice of linking from one page on your site to another. For SEO and user experience purposes, you’ll want to link to pages that are valuable and relevant to the topic at hand.

Keyword research is the process of analyzing and identifying search terms to target with your online content. It is a key step to building out your SEO strategy.

Keyword stuffing is a “black hat” SEO tactic in which a person tries to raise his or her search engine ranking by overloading a webpage with the same term over and over again.

A landing page is the page that users are directed to when they click on an online ad or promotional email. It is a standalone page that’s designed for lead generation or form submission.

A lead magnet is a resource that’s given away for free in exchange for a user’s contact information. It can come in the form of content (like an ebook) or a service (like a demo).

A lede is the first line or paragraph of a news story. Its main purpose is to hook the reader and/or share the most important pieces of information up front.

As the name suggests, a listicle is an article that’s written like a list. It’s a flexible format that’s generally described as having enough information to pass as an article.

In SEO, a long-tail keyword is a lower-volume, yet more specific search term or phrase. Long-tail keywords are generally less competitive, offering a higher chance of ranking.

A meta description is an HTML tag that is shown in search engine results below the title tag. A good meta description is both compelling and SEO-friendly, plus accurately describes what the webpage is about.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style is a set of guidelines used most commonly by the liberal arts and humanities fields. It provides a standard for writing and citing sources.

Newsjacking is a marketing strategy in which a brand may “piggyback” off a trending news story in order to gain more exposure.

In content marketing, a pillar page (aka content pillar) is a valuable SEO-friendly page that covers the main aspects of a topic and links out to other related (and more in-depth) pages.

A press release is an official statement or announcement directed at members of the news industry. Its main purpose is to draw attention to something that the author has deemed important.

In SEO, a short-tail keyword is a search term that—as its name suggests—is only composed of one or two words. These terms are generally very broad and high-volume.

A splash page is the very first screen that a user sees when entering your site. It is often delivered as a full-screen pop-up that draws attention to a particular CTA.

A style guide is a set of instructions on how a brand should be represented in writing and/or design. It is meant to reinforce strong, consistent branding wherever a company is mentioned.

Target market (aka target audience) refers to the group of consumers that your product or service aims to delight.

A white paper is an in-depth, persuasive report that explains a company’s stance or outlook on a complex issue. Its primary purpose is to educate, not pitch a product.