An A to Z of technical terms you might come across:
Back Office Systems
The programming and technology that lies behind the web page that a user sees on their screen, for example enabling them to buy and sell online.
Banner Ad
An advertisement strip at the top or bottom of a webpage.
Black Hats
Terms used in the SEO industry to describe spammers who devote their time building link farms, creating entire spam sites, forum spamming, e-mail spamming and any other technique that currently creates an impression on the search engines. However, these techniques risk site being blacklisted and removed from search engines altogether.
blog
Otherwise known as a web log, a blog is a web page that serves as a publicly-accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
b-blog
Short for Business BLOG, this is a blog used by a business to promote itself.
Browsers
Computer programmes that read web pages. 90% of people use Internet Explorer but others include Mozilla and Safari.
CAD
Computer-Aided Design.
CAE
Computer-Aided Engineering.
CAM
Computer-Aided Manufacturing.
Click Rate
A web marketing term that describes the number of clicks on a web ad against the number of views or downloads of the ad.
Clicks And Mortar
A company that has a business on the internet and on the high street.
Cobweb Site
A website that has not been updated for a very long time.
Cookie
A small amount of data which a web page can store with the web browser and retrieve on request. Usually used to record information about the user across a number of pages of a site, e.g. the number of items in your 'shopping cart', or for gathering visitor statistics.
CPA (Cost per Action)
The charge made to an advertiser when a visitor performs a specified action in response to one of their ads.
CPC (Cost-per-click)
An internet marketing formula used to price ad banners. Advertisers will pay internet publishers based on the number of clicks a specific ad banner gets.
CPS (Cost per Sale)
Another way of measuring the effectiveness of online advertising. It's a calculation of the actual advertising cost for each resulting sale.
Cross Browser Compatibility
There are dozens of different browsers or computer programs that enable you to look at web pages. Essentially they all do the same job, but unfortunately they do it in different ways. In theory all browsers are meant to show web pages in the same way but the reality is they don't always do this. Cross Browser Compatibility is the term used to ensure your website works properly across all possible browsers.
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
Text files used to control the appearance of a web page.
CMS – Content Management Systems
A system that allows you to very simply change elements of your website. You are given access to a web address which is password protected and once inside the CMS you can change words and pictures on certain sections of your website, simply by typing and clicking a save button.
Cyber Squatting
Speculatively buying a domain name and keeping it with the hope of selling it on for a higher price.
Domain Name
A unique name given to web addresses on the internet. For example, 9xb.com
Download
Saving files from the internet on your computer. This actually happens automatically every time you look at a web page. Somewhere on your computer, a copy of this page has been made - including all the pictures. Normally this is a temporary copy that is automatically deleted in a few days or weeks, and is hidden away on your computer. Of course, you can download specific files.
e-business
A business or organisation that has been made wholly accessible online.
e-commerce
A term most commonly used to describe trade that's conducted remotely, typically via the internet or mobile phones.
e-marketing
Any marketing activity carried out electronically such as via the web or mobile phone.
Extranet
The use of internet technologies and products to provide and share information with a defined external audience, typically used by businesses to communicate with customers or suppliers.
E-Zine
Sometimes referred to as 'zine', an electronic publication or magazine in internet or email form.
Firewall
A system to protect single PCs or networks from unauthorised users.
Front End
The part of a website with which the user has direct contact, as opposed to the technical areas lying behind it. Also known as the 'user interface'.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
A method of uploading files to your website. You will most likely encounter it through the use of FTP programs - which are designed to make it as easy to use as Windows. FTP Programs include Smart FTP and WSFTP Pro.
Flash
Multi-media software that creates imagery and animation.
Hit
A single request from a browser for a single item from a web server.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
A simple set of instructions given to a browser telling it how to display a web page. For example, the following HTML code will display the words “HTML is simple” in bold red.
HTML is simple
You can learn a lot more about HTML, including how to write a web page by clicking here.
Hyperlink (or Link)
A link within a document that once clicked will call up another document. The basis of Hypertext, the information system on which the World Wide Web is founded.
Hypertext
A system by which data, usually text, is organised through a series of clickable links between documents. The basis of all web pages.
Integration
The bringing together of disparate technologies or systems to create an overall solution. Commonly used when pre-existing systems need to be used in conjunction with a website.
Intranet
The use of internet technologies and products to provide and share information with a defined internal audience, typically used by businesses to improve collaboration, communication and productivity of staff.
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
A company that hosts your web-site on the internet.
Java
A website programming language developed by Sun Micro Systems that is used to create online multimedia effects and to allow continuous updating of web pages.
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
Standard of image compression developed for use on the Internet. Most photographic images can be highly compressed using this method, without loss of image quality.
Keyword
- In text editing and database management systems, a keyword is an index entry that identifies a specific record or document.
- In programming, a keyword is a word that is reserved by a program because the word has a special meaning. Keywords can be command or parameter. Every programming language has a set of keywords that cannot be used as variable name. Keywords are sometimes called reserved names.
- (3) A word used by a search engine in its search for relevant Web pages.
Link Farming
The process of exchanging reciprocal links with other web sites in order to increase search engine optimisation (SEO) The greater the number of links from genuine good quality websites the higher your search engine ranking is likely to be.
Meta Tags
A special HTML tag that provides information about a Web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed. Instead, they provide information such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's content. Many search engines use this information when building their indices.
Multimedia
Although technically used to describe the use of more than one media in a given situation, it is commonly used more specifically to the describe use of video, sound and animation on the web or CD-ROM.
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)
The ability to send messages comprising a combination of text, sounds, images and video to MMS capable handsets (mobile phones).
Network
Name for any two or more computers are connected together by cables or other means and using software to enable them to share devices and information.
Phishing
A scam where the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking e-mails appearing to come from some of the Web's biggest sites in an effort to phish for personal and financial information from the recipient. Phishers use any number of different social engineering and e-mail spoofing ploys to try to trick their victims.
Search Engine
An online facility for quickly finding information on the web using key words and phrases, for example www.google.co.uk
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
The practice of making a website more accessible to the search engines.
Servers
Big computers containing lots of web pages. Unlike desktop computers they don't have anything Windows XP installed and all they do is hold huge numbers of pictures and web pages for people to view.
Streaming media
Broadcast sound and video over the internetwww.google.co.uk
Title Tags
The text in the blue bar at the top of your browser window that should describe the content of a web page to a search engine.
Ticker
An animated piece of text, usuall a news item, that scrolls across a screen.
Upload
Sending files to your website. For example, you can upload new pictures to your website using an FTP program.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
The technical name for the address of a web page, which can be seen by looking in the address bar of your browserwww.google.co.uk
Webstats
Everytime someone looks at a web page, a program that's kept on the server takes a record. These records are called webstats and they typically show which pages each person visited, how they got to the website in the first place, which browser they used to look at the page and so on. Most hosting companies offer you the chance to look at these records and often produce results in graphs and tables to make them easier to understand.
White Hats
Unlike ‘Black Hats', ‘White Hats' take a more ethical and purest approach to SEO. Employing a longer term strategy, they feel that a great site will eventually deliver great results so their time is spent on research and revising content so that it is as good and as useful as possible. Although unlikely to deliver great results immediately, sites built by White Hats are far less likely to be blacklisted and to get worthy links from trusted sources.
If you've come across a term you're not sure about that's not shown here then please e-mail us and we'll send you an explanation and add it to our A to Z list.