Help! I don’t speak "web". A simple glossary of online terminology

These are not the precise definitions, but rather the way we’d explain the terms if someone asked us in the pub. We find people understand it better that way:

Analytics - statistics which measure the performance of your website (eg. Visitor numbers, page views, time spent on site)

Browser - The program which visitors use to view and navigate the website. Most people use Internet Explorer but Firefox is growing in popularity.

Bookmark - Browsers allow you to mark certain pages as favourites, enabling you to return to them easily.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - A set of formatting instructions for web page presentation, enabling you to set design templates easily . It separates content from presentation and is generally a good thing. (It can improve accessibility, reduce complexity and provide increased flexibility and control ). You will probably want your web designer to use CSS for your website.

Clickthrough - The term for visitors clicking a link and navigating to a new page. Generally, search engines charge for paid search on a pay per click (PPC) basis - ie. You only pay, if people click on your advert.

Code - The computer program language which sits behind the website pages we see. (Usually HTML, for webpages)

Content management system (CMS) - The software that manages the creation, updating and publishing of Web pages to a website. Your web designer may offer a content management system to allow you to control and update your own content once the website is built.

Conversion - the measurement of how much business you get from your site. How many visitors "convert" into customers? Usually shown as a percentage ie. If 100 people visit your site, how many purchase / call you / download a document?

Copy - The words on a web page. People may talk about "optimizing your copy" - which generally means adapting the copy so that search engines find the page more easily when searchers enter certain keywords.

Domain name - the part of a website name following @ in an email or www. in a web URL (The domain name for this site is Webbstrategy.co.uk)

Dynamic page - A page which is created as you click on it (as opposed to a static page, which is always the same). A dynamic page will be created using information provided by the user - eg. If they are searching for a holiday or train journey and provide specific times / dates.

File transfer protocol (FTP) - the system your computer uses to copy a file from one machine to another.

HTML - HyperText Markup Language - the "language" or "code" that web pages are written in.

Impression - Each time your online ad is shown to someone (each time the page is "served"), it is called an impression. The online equivalent of an Opportunity To See (OTS) in offline advertising.

Javascript - a programming language commonly used online for more complicated effects, not possible in HTML. Not always liked by search engine spiders.

Keyword - A word or phrase that you think your target market would enter in a search for a website such as yours. You then either buy that keyword in paid search advertising, or "optimise your pages" with that keyword, in an attempt to secure a good natural search placement.

Landing page - The page users are taken to, when they click a particular link.

Link - A part of a website (usually text or images) which takes you somewhere else when you click on it. An inbound link is a link which brings users to your website from another site. An outbound link takes users from your site to another. An internal link takes users from one part of your site to another. An anchor link takes users from one part of a page to another.

Link farm - Websites set up with the sole purpose of linking to other sites, in an attempt to improve their search engine ratings. Not a good thing. Google may blacklist you if you use them as they see it as "spam" (cheating).

Natural search - search results which are not paid for. Also called Organic search.

Navigation - how your users find their way around your site.

Navigation bar - the part of the website which appears on all pages (usually at the top or left of the page) leading the user to different sections.

(search engine) Optimisation - Making your pages as friendly to the search engines / your keywords as possible, in the hope that your web page will be returned near the top of the search results.

Organic Search - search results which are not paid for. Also called Natural search.

Pop up - A window that "pops up" over the web page you are looking at - often containing an advert or promotional message. Often irritating - and can be "turned off" by using your pop up blocker.

Portal - A website which pulls together lots of information from different sources under one "roof". A bit like an online shopping mall. Often contains news, email services, search, entertainment, shopping etc. Examples include MSN and Yahoo!

Query - The words a searcher enters into a search engine, when they are looking for information.

Ranking - Where you appear in the search engine results is called your "ranking". It’s the search engine’s estimate of your relevance to the searchers’ query.

Redirect - A way of sending people from one web address to another. If you enter www.bbc.com, it redirects you to www.bbc.co.uk

Referral - basically the web page or site your visitor comes from. Your website analytics measure referral sites to show you who’s driving traffic to your site (you can guess Google will be one of them!)

Robots - another name for a spider, the part of a search engine which finds and indexes every page on the web which might give an answer to a search query.

Search engine marketing (SEM) - marketing campaigns designed to improve traffic to your website

Search engine Optimisation (SEO) - Making your pages as friendly to the search engines / your keywords as possible, in the hope that your web page will be returned near the top of the search results.

Session - a visit to a website. Ie. All the pages viewed from a single web site at one time.

Site map - a page on your website with links to all the other pages or areas of the site (usually showing how the site is structured).

Snippet - The short paragraph shown in search engine results underneath the page title. The search engine picks the relevant passage on the page for the query entered.

Spam - Unethical techniques used to try to "beat the search engine system" and gain a higher ranking than your site would otherwise. Not a wise idea. If you get found out, you are blacklisted.

Spiders - the part of a search engine which finds and indexes every page on the web which might give an answer to a search query

Static page - a page which stays the same, whoever is looking at it. (unlike a dynamic page, where the content changes for different users).

Techie - Term used to refer to technical people (a bit kinder than geek or nerd!)

Title - the page title of your website is the blue bit right at the top of your screen. Search engines see this as the most important part of the page, so it’s worth ensuring your keywords are in your page title.

Traffic - A general term to describe visits or visitors to your site.

Usability - The science behind getting a good user experience, on your site.

User interface (UI) - This is the "look and feel" of your site (as opposed to the technology that makes it work)

User Generated Content (UGC) - this is content which users create on your website. For example, writing reviews or rating products and services.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - the address of a webpage which you enter to display that page. Usually starts www eg. www.webbstrategy.co.uk

Website - we had to include it. A collection of interlinked web pages. All the pages within a website start with the same URL.

XML - A popular language format for data feeds to your site. It’s another technical term.