Glossary
The language ofstartup growth
Plain definitions for activation, retention, pricing, unit economics, acquisition, analytics, speed and privacy.
Start here
Six terms that unlock the rest
The terms a founder meets first, in plain words.
Activation rateThe share of new users who reach the first moment where the product proves its value.Churn rateThe share of customers or revenue lost in a period because people cancel or stop buying.Customer acquisition costThe total sales and marketing spend needed to win one new customer.Customer lifetime valueThe total gross profit you expect from a customer over the time they stay.Conversion rateThe share of visitors who complete a chosen goal, such as buying or signing up.North star metricThe one number that best captures the value customers get and drives long-term growth.
A to Z
Every term
336 terms
A
- A/B testing
- Abandoned cart email
- Above the fold
- Accessibility overlay
- Accessibility statement
- Accessible name
- Activation rate
- ADA and websites
- Aha moment
- AI citation
- AI crawler
- AI overview
- AI referral traffic
- AI visibility
- Alt text
- Anchor text
- Annual discount
- Anomaly detection
- Answer engine
- Answer engine optimization
- ARIA
- ARPU
- ARR
- Attribution
- Attribution window
- Author bio
- Average order value
- Average position
B
C
- CAC payback period
- Caching
- Call to action
- Campaign tracking
- CAN-SPAM Act
- Cancellation flow
- Canonical URL
- Captions
- Cart abandonment
- Case study
- CCPA and CPRA
- CDN
- Chargeback
- Checkout optimization
- Churn rate
- Churn survey
- Click rate
- Click-through rate
- Code splitting
- Cold email
- Color contrast
- Competitive pricing
- Competitor analysis
- Confidence interval
- Consent management
- Consent mode
- Contribution margin
- Conversational search
- Conversion rate
- Conversion rate optimization
- Conversion tracking
- Cookie banner
- Cookie consent
- Cookieless tracking
- Core Web Vitals
- Cost per acquisition
- Cost per click
- Cost-plus pricing
- Crawl budget
- Crawlability
- Critical rendering path
- Cross-border data transfer
- Cross-sell
- CSAT
- Cumulative Layout Shift
- Customer acquisition cost
- Customer feedback
- Customer health score
- Customer lifetime value
- Customer retention
- Customer success
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
- Packaging
- Page speed
- Pageview
- Pagination
- Passage ranking
- Payment methods
- Paywall
- Per-seat pricing
- Performance budget
- Personal data
- Personalization
- PII
- Positioning
- Preconnect
- Preload
- Price anchoring
- Price elasticity
- Price testing
- Pricing strategy
- Privacy by design
- Privacy policy
- Product stickiness
- Prompt
- Psychological pricing
Q
R
S
- Sample size
- Schema markup
- Screen reader
- Search Console
- Search intent
- Seasonality
- Segmentation
- Semantic HTML
- Semantic search
- Sender reputation
- SEO
- SERP
- Server response time
- Server-side rendering
- Server-side tracking
- Session
- Session recording
- Share of voice
- Shared IP
- Single-page application
- Skip link
- Social login
- Social proof
- Soft bounce
- Spam complaint
- Spam filter
- Spam rate threshold
- Spam trap
- SPF
- Statistical significance
- Structured data
- Subprocessor
- Sunset policy
T
- Tag manager
- Technical SEO
- Testimonial
- Text compression
- Thin content
- Third-party cookie
- Third-party scripts
- Tiered pricing
- Time to First Byte
- Time to value
- Title tag
- Total Blocking Time
- Touch target size
- Tracking pixel
- Traffic source
- Training data
- Transactional email
- Transcript
- Trial-to-paid conversion
- Trust badge
- Trust signals
U
V
W
X
Z
By pillar
12 pillars, 12 shelves
Each term belongs to the part of your score that covers it.
Traction0 termsHow fast new customers are coming in.
Product-Market Fit0 termsHow well your product fits its market.
Activation67 termsHow well a sign-up becomes an active user.
Retention16 termsHow many customers stay, month after month.
Unit Economics9 termsWhat it costs you to win and keep a customer.
Offer & Positioning7 termsHow clear and compelling your offer reads.
Growth Engine0 termsHow repeatable your growth motion is.
Data & Measurement42 termsHow well you can see what is working.
Capital & Scale54 termsHow ready your business is to grow bigger.
Test it
Checks on your own site
Each check reads one thing on your live site, and Growth Score runs them together.
Read on
Guides that use these terms
Turn tickets into decisionsA monthly pass that turns a pile of tickets and reviews into one ranked list.Search for a new siteWhat moves a new domain, in what order, and what to skip so early effort is not wasted.Checkout audit: 12 leaksTwelve places a sale leaks, in cost order, with a test and a fix for each one.
How definitions are written
Short first, then the detail
One sentence firstEvery term opens with a single plain sentence, 140 characters at most.
Then the detailA short explanation follows: what it means in practice and where it goes wrong.
Linked to its neighboursRelated terms, the checks that test it and the guides that cover it.
FAQ
About the glossary
How many terms are there?
336 today, from retention and pricing to conversion, AI answers, speed, accessibility and privacy.
Are the definitions free to read?
Yes. The whole glossary is open, with no account.
Are the definitions free to read?
Yes. The whole glossary is open to read, and each term names the index it feeds.
What is the pillar tag on a term?
Each term belongs to one of the 12 Growth Score pillars, the part of your score that covers it.
Is a term missing?
Tell us through the contact page and we will look at it.
How does your site score?
Growth Score reads your site and scores it on the things these terms describe.
Your Growth Score is 100
Your next fix is waiting in your dashboard.