Figuring out internet marketing isn’t the easiest task in the world, especially when you’ve got your own business to run! You’ve probably already figured out that online marketing is important, though; with 61% of consumers researching products online before a purchase, it’s essential to get your business on the web.

Turning to an internet marketing company for help is a great solution — but have you ever felt like you don’t know enough about online marketing to understand exactly what a marketing company can provide?

• Internet marketing vs. internet advertising: Advertising is a method of getting a specific message, like a product or service promotion, onto a paid platform in order to bring in new and old customers alike. Marketing involves a little more work, because it targets a specific audience and promotes a company’s brand or industry in a subtle way.

• Native advertising: This is best described through an example: You see a listicle on Buzzfeed titled “21 Ways to Get Pumped for Autumn,” and at the very bottom of the page, you see a box stating that the post was “Sponsored by Starbucks,” with a message urging you to stop by your local shop and pick up a seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte. It feels kinda like a trick, doesn’t it? But it works!

• Search engine optimization (SEO): The process of optimizing a website for search engines like Google and Bing, typically focusing on technical aspects of web development and content management.

• Search engine marketing (SEM): A little different from SEO, SEM focuses more on content creation and promotion, and less on the technical parts of a website. A good internet marketing company will be capable of doing both, but not every company does.

• Paid search / Pay-per-Click (PPC): PPC results in those advertisements on the top and side of a Google search results page; they look like a normal search results, except they’re listed as “Paid Search” or “Ad.” PPC gives you instant conversions, while SEO and SEM are investments that pay off after a few months.

• Keyword research: This is how you figure out which keywords to include in your content, titles, anchor text, and meta tags. Most internet marketing companies and analysts use a tool like Google AdWords.

• Responsive web: A responsive website design is all about formatting your traditional desktop site so that it can automatically adjust to fit the screen of any mobile device. Many people see responsive web as a hassle because it requires a lot of work at first — but it really pays off in the end, considering that four out of five consumers use their smartphones to shop and 48% of consumers believe that if a company doesn’t optimize its website for mobile devices, it simply doesn’t care.

So now we want to hear from you — what marketing terms still give you a headache? What terms should we have listed here? Let us know what you’re thinking!