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 MPACT
Web Design will make the process of creating or redesigning
your Internet site as seamless as possible. Below is a complete
listing of web terms that need to be understood. I would
recommend being familiar with these terms!:
404:
When a page is removed, the server will generate a 404 when
a visitor attempts to view that page.
Above The Fold: refers
to the part of the screen where a user does not have to scroll
to see content. It is a reference to newspapers where the
top part of the page is above the fold.
Adwords: A system to advertise on Google &
partner sites on a CPC (cost per click) basis.
Algorithm: In
the context of search engines, it is the mathematical programming
system used to determine which web pages are displayed in
search results.
ALT Tag: An
HTML "tag" that allows a browser to display text
instead of a graphic. Some search engines read these tags
in order to help with rankings.
ASP: Active Server Pages - is a server-side-scripting
environment which allows for dynamic, fast and interactive
pages.
B2B: Business
to Business. Products and services designed to be sold to
other businesses.
B2C: Business To Consumer.
Products and services designed to be sold to the general public.
Back Link: A link from one website to another.
Band width:
The size of the Internet pipe you have when you connect to
the Web. If you are on a T1 line, you have access to a higher
bandwidth than someone connecting with a 56kbps modem.
Blog: It started out
as referring to specific content management software (blogger),
and has transitioned into a description for a wide range of
personal pages, journals, and diary type setups.
Broadband: A network transmission method which
uses a single divided medium so that multiple signals can
travel across the same medium simultaneously.
Browser: To view web pages, you need software
that can interpret the HTML code that makes up the pages. The
two most common browsers, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator, interpret the HTML code and scripts allowing you
to view the graphics, color, and text in a web page.
CGI: Common Gateway Interface - scripting
specification which can be used to transmit data over a network,
such as in a "contact us" form.
CGI-BIN: One of the most
common name for a directory on a web server that contains
CGI files. These directories are often under heavier access
controls than standard directories.
Click Through: When a
user selects a hyper text (web page) link. The Click refers
to the noise a input mouse makes when a button is depressed.
The through refers to the act of going "through"
the link. Many web statistics are kept on click-throughs (sometimes
abbreviated as Click-Thru). Some advertising systems are based
on paying sites when someone actually Clicks-Thru to a new
site.
Cloaking: Using some
system to hide code or content from a user, and deliver custom
content to a search engine spider. The word Cloak comes from
Star Trek where the Klingons were capable of "cloaking"
their ships invisible. There are three main types of cloaking:
IP based, User Agent based, and the combination of those two.
IP based cloaking custom delivers a page based on the users
IP address (this can be used to deliver custom language based
sites or target groups of users from particular ISP's such
as AOL or @home users). User Agent cloaking sends a custom
page based upon the users Agent (most often use to take advantage
of a particular agents strengths or features). Finally, the
combination of Agent and IP cloaking is use to target specific
users with specific agents (such as search engines).
Conversion Rate: The
relationship between vistors to sales or actions. If 1 person
out of 100 purchases a sites product, it has a conversion
rate of 1 to 100.
Cookie: a special text message given to a
browser by a server. The browser stores this message on the
hard drive. The next time this same site is visited, the browser
sends this message back to the server. Used to customize sites
for users.
CPC: Cost Per Click.
Search engine such as Overture.com charge sites for the number
of users they send them on a per click basis.
CPM: Cost Per Thousand
(think metric where M=T). CPM advertising models are based
upon advertisers purchasing page views in blocks of 1000.
If a website displays 7000 page views with banners, the site
has just shown 7 blocks. If they are receiving $8 cpm, then
they just made $56.
Crawler: A type of a
A HREF="#spider">Spider that will download multiple
pages from the same web site. Crawling refers to the fact,
that the spider will look for links in the pages it downloads
and then walk or crawl down through a web site.
Cross Linking: Cross
linking is linking across content within the same site.
Cross Browser: A reference
to "Cross Browser" is usually in relation to java
script, html, or css code that can work in multiple browsers.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets):
enable you to apply a property or group of properties to an
object by applying a style to that object. Styles can be used
for positioning objects, creating borders, link colors, text
colors and lots more. CSS is used to add simple display styles
to web pages. Of the 3 major browsers, Opera is probably the
most compliant and has won several CSS awards (http://www.opera.com).
Dead Link: An
html link that has gone bad. The destination page no longer
exists. Many search engines routinely check for "dead
links" by spidering the page again. Dead links used to
be a serious problem on search engines (mostly yahoo), but
with increased link checking, dead links are becoming more
rare.
DHTML (Dynamic HTML):
is an extension of HTML that enables greater control over
page layout and positioning. It also allows greater interactivity
without depending on interaction with a server.
Directory: A directory
is a web site that focuses on listing web sites by individual
topics. A quasi table of contents. A search engine lists pages,
where a Directory (such as Yahoo, Looksmart or The Open Directory
Project lists websites).
Domain Name: This is the web address or URL
(Uniform Resource Locator). For example, http://www.MicroSoft.com
is the URL for their own server site. These names are registered
with Network Solutions/ InterNIC for $70 for 2 years, and
are very similar to personalized license plates. Once you
own the name, it is yours for as long as you pay the fee.
DNS: Domain name Server An Internet Host
that is dedicated to receiving, translating, and transferring
specific web requests resulting in pages and images being
sent to your PC at your request.
DNS Lookup: Or sometimes
referred to as Reverse DNS Lookup. Most often used by webmasters
while looking at server log files. It converts a unique IP
address of a site visitor to its domain name.
Domain: There are Top
Level Domains (such as .com, .net, or .org), and then there
are midlevel domains such as Ford (ford.com ford.net or ford.org).
Domain is a generic term to describe any of these levels and
is most often used to refer to the mid level domain (ford.com).
In reference to search engine technology, domain names can
play an important part in determining a sites rankings on
the search engines.
Doorway Page: A page
designed as an entrance to a website. Many doorway pages a
specifically created to rank high on a particular search engine.
Sometimes referred to as a Gateway Page or a Welcome Mat Page.
Download: The process
of retrieving information from any computer is called Downloading.
When one computer sends information to another, it is called
Uploading.
DSL: Digital Subscriber Line - which is
used to bring high-speed digital networking to homes and businesses.
Dynamic Content: A page
that is generated just as the user views it. The content delivered
to the user is often updated on-the-spot out of a database
or based upon the users browser. It used to be easy to spot
one of these pages, but with most systems now allowing dynamic
content from any page at any time, you just never know. Search
engines no longer penalize for dynamic content as long as
the URL does not include submitted data (a ? question mark
in the url).
E-Mail: An application that provides
a routed, stored-message service between any two user accounts.
Encryption: This secures information being transmitted
over nonsecure or untrusted media. Two items to look for:
1) that the URL starts with "https", and 2) that a lock shows
up at the bottom of your browser. It is a must when transmitting
credit card information.
Error Log File: Web servers
run separate logs that show web site errors. These logs can
show things like access to robots.txt (if it doesn't exist),
and cgi program failures.
Everflux / Google: This denotes the continuous changes in the Google search results pages.
Favicon: A small icon
that some browsers display next to a bookmark when the site
is viewed. It is placed in the root of a website and named
"favicon.ico".
FFA: Free For All links.
These are places that allow anyone to add a link. Do not ever
sign up for one of these! You will be spammed forever! Also
know as a link farm.
FLASH: A software tool manufactured by Macromedia which has become
a standard for web animation. It uses vector graphics which
are scalable and small in file size.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol- This
is how text and images are transferred from a PC to a host
server (Uploading), as well as from a host server to someone's
PC (downloading).
Frames:
A structural design style which allows for multiple windows
to be visible within one browser. One might place a stationary
navigation bar and have the text of the page scroll up and
down. Frames are not the best way to design a modern site
for a few reasons. Considering the above example, the browser
window actually has 3 windows present (navigation, text and
overall). This idea of multiple windows can be confusing for
search engines, for which they do not know where the actual
content is located. A better way is to use SSI (server side
includes ... see below). Also - An HTML tag construct for
making a website appear to have multiple windows within one
browser. A frame with links can remain static while clicks
cause a different frame to be updated. Most serious websites
stay away from frame usage because of browser compatibility
problems and search engine problems. Most search engines will
not index a framed site.
Freshbot:
This is the name for the Google crawlers that are known to add pages to the Google index more promptly than others.
GIF: A graphic file format for saving images on
the web. GIF is best for art and drawings having flat, solid areas of color.
Google: The largest and currently the #1 search engine.
Google Bot: The crawlers which index pages into Google.
Hit: A request for a
file on a webserver. Most often these can been graphic files
and documents. In more modern lingo, website owners referer
to a HIT referrers as a request for documents only, while
system administrators who are cheifly concerned about server
performance, refer to it as any file request.
Home Page: This is the starting point of
a web site. The first page of a web site.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. A computer language
used to create web pages. It controls how text and graphics
are displayed in a web page. A browser uses HTML to interpret
how text and graphics load into the browser.
HTTP: HyperText Transfer
Protocol. The agreed upon system to transfer data between
a web server on the browser.
Inktomi: The a search
engine database of sites that just services other search engines
providing search results. Inktomi provides more searches per
search engine than any other site on the internet. Some of
its bigger customers in 1999 where HotBot, Search.MSN, Yahoo,
and AOL Netfind.
Internet:The Internet is a worldwide collection of computers
that can communicate with one another. When you connect to
the Internet, your computer actually becomes part of the Internet.
Intranet:
Like an Internet, it is a collection of computers linked together.
However, access is restricted to a specific, smaller group
of computers. Usually companies will use an Intranet to link
together allowing privacy.
IP Address: Whenever
you connect to the internet, you are giving a unique 4 number
Internet Protocol Address (IP Address). Your IP address is
how data from your computer to a website is how data finds
its way back and forth. Your IP address may change each time
you attach to your ISP. If your IP address stays the same
from connection to connection, you are said to have a static
IP address. If it changes each time you connect, you are said
to have a Dynamic IP Address. IP addresses can be important
in the context of search engine submission because some search
engines have been known to ignore submissions from any one
IP over a certain limit.
ISP: Internet Service
Provider. An ISP service that, for a fee, provides you with
direct high-speed access to the Internet. The name designed
by a Madison Avenue advertising and marketing firm for internet
point of access sellers.
Java: A computer language
designed to be delivered from websites to a users browser.
Small programs are transferred to the user, and then executed
on the users system.
Javascript: A language
embedded within HTML that is executed after a page of HTML
is transferred to a users browser. Many search engines will
ignore Java and JavaScript commands.
JPEG: A graphic file
format for saving images on the web.
This works best with graphics having gradations
and shading (photos).
Keyword: A singular word
or phrase that is typed into a search engine search query.
Keyword mainly refers to popular words which relate to any
one website. For example web site about real estate could
focus on keywords such as House, or phrases such as Home for
Sale.
Keyword Density: A percentage
measure of how many times a keyword is repeated within text
of a page. For example, if a page contains 100 words and ten
of those words are "house", then "house"
is said to have a 10% keyword density. There are programs
that will rate keyword density by singular words or by groups
of words, "new home for sale".
Keyword Stuffing: The
process of loading a page up with keywords in the META tags
or main HTML body. Search engines do not like to see this
procedure!
Linkage Popularity: A
count of the number of links pointing (inbound links) at a
website. Many search engines now count linkage in their algorithms.
Meta Tag: Author generated
HTML commands that are placed in the head section of an HTML
document. Current popular meta tags that can affect search
engine rankings, are Meta Keywords, and Meta Description.
Meta KEYWORDS tag is used to group a series of words
that relate to a website. These tags can be used by search
engines to classify pages for searches. The Meta DESCRIPTION
is used to describe the document. The meta description
is then displayed in search engine results. The Robots Meta
Tag is used to control certain aspect of how a search engine
indexes the page. An HTTP-EQUIV meta tag can sometimes be
used to issue some server HTTP commands. Most common is a
HTTP REFRESH command. Gaining in popularity is a NOCACHE command
to thwart server caching of a page. Other useful tags are
the CHAR SET tag to describe the document language and character
set. The Author meta tag and the Generator meta tag (software
used to generate the page).
MirrorSite: A shadow
duplicate copy of a web site at a separate url. This allows
websites to spread out the resource load on a server. Mirror
sites are difficult to get indexed properly by search engine.
Search engines view the multiple duplicate pages as spamming.
Modem:Hardware that connects to your computer
allowing your computer to send and receive data through your
phone line. "Needed for connecting to the Internet".
MP3:
Compact file size with excellent sound quality.
Open Directory Project: The
Open Directory Project (ODP) is a site directory run by volunteer
editors. This is one of the great internet success stories
of 1999. The ODP is used by Lycos, Hotbot, AOL-Netfind, Netscape
Netcenter, and the home base www.dmoz.org itself. Currently
there are around 700,000 hand picked and selected sites in
the directory. The first edition of the ODP was known as NewHoo
(a play on Yahoo). Netscape provided server space for the
NewHoo directory and it was collectively renamed The ODP.
Open Source: Open
source software is software that is released with source code.
People are allowed to make dirivative works from open source
software as long as it is released under the same open source
agreement.
Optimization: Creating a page
that is specifically intended to rank well as search engines.
Basic optimization includes a descriptive paragraph of the
site with keywords near the top, avoiding frames and deep
tables that have menus on them.
Page View: Web Page Hits, or
number of times a page is viewed.
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor): A server side scripting
language that sends dynamic web pages after interpreting PHP
code. PHP code usually begins with <% and ends with ?>.
POP3: Post Office Protocol.
The common protocol used to connect with an email server.
Pop Under: A pop-up that loads under a page so that it is only
viewable when the current page is closed.
Pop Up: An ad that spawns a new
browser window. Mostly loathed by web surfers.
Portal: A once popular term
to refer to a site that is an entry point to other sites on
the internet. Often refers to search engines and directories.
The use of this term is declining rapidly.
PPC: Pay Per Click. A Pay-Per-Click
search engine charges websites on a per click basis. Often,
an auction is held to see who is willing to pay the most for
users.
PR: Google's Page Rank. The higher the rank the better position your
website or page will have in their results.
Query: The very heart of search
engine interaction with a user. The user types in words or
topics to search for, and the search engine returns results
that are matches from its database. The action of searching
is called Querying the database. A single search is of any
database is called a Query.
Ranking: In the context of search
engines, it is the position that a sites entry is displayed
in a search engine query results.
Reciprocal Link: When two websites
swap links to point at each other.
Referrer: The address (URL)
of the web page a user came from, before entering another
site. Each time a user clicks (selects) a new HTML link on
a web page, most browsers report a "HTTP-REFERER"
string to the new site. Web hosts can record these "referer
strings" in a log file for usage by a web site. In the
context of search engines, these referer strings are a powerful
way to determine what searches users used to enter your website.
As part of a referral string from search engine, the search
terms a user typed in will be included. Some
img tag counter style logging software can also record referral
strings.
Robot: A program that
automatically does "some action" without user intervention.
In the context of search engines, it usually refers to a program
that mimics a browser to download web pages automatically.
A spider is a type of robot. Some times referred to as Webbots.
Robots.txt: A file on
a web site in the root directory of a website that is used
to control which spiders have access to which pages within
a website. When a spider or robot connects to a website, it
checks for the presence of a robot.txt. Only spiders that
adhere to the Robots Exclusion Standard will obey a robots.txt
command file. There are several specific fields in a robots.txt
such as User-agent specifies which User Agents are allowed
to access the site and "Allow/Disallow" specifies
which directories a spider may access.
ROI: Return On Investment.
In relation to search engine advertising, it often refers
to sales per lead.
Search Engine: Search engines allow you to search
the web for a specific topic and web page (URL). A program
designed to search a database. In the context of the Internet
this refers to a web site that contains a database of information
from other websites. Directories of sites are *not* search
engines (such as Yahoo).
SEM: Search Engine Marketing: interchangeable with SEO and
may also include other variables such as PPC advertising.
SEO: Acronym
for Search Engine Optimization.
SERP: Search Engine Results Page: the page on the search engines
that show the web site listings.
SEP: Search Engine Positioning: the position your site is at on
the SERP.
Shopping Cart: Software
designed to keep track of customer purchases until they "check
out" on an ecommerce website..
Spamdexing: The submission of
pages that are intended to rank artificially high by various
unethical techniques. These can include submitting hundreds
of slightly different pages designed to rank high, small invisible
text, or word scrambled pages. Most of these techniques are
flagged by search engines as spam.
Spamming: See
spamdexing. A broad term mainly referring to unsolicited junk
email.
Splash Page: Also
referred to as a Welcome Mat Page. It is a page that normally
just includes a logo and a "click here to enter"
type link. These can be used to direct traffic based upon
user variables.
SSI (Server Side Include):
This enables the server to place external date into your web
page. This data can be either a data string or the contents
of a file. - An acronym for Server Side Includes. These are
HTML Comment commands placed in an HTML file, to cause a webserver
to execute some action when the page is viewed by a user.
These include calling external programs such as CGI programs,
displaying date or the last modified date on the file. Apache
is the most widely used web server and has a wide range of
SSI commands available.
Stealth: A broad term referring
to the hiding of data from a user or robot. Often this includes
Obfuscation where by the data presented looks correct, but
there is something wrong with it. In the context of search
engine optimization this can include Stealth Meta Tags that
are displayed for search engine robot but not users.
Submission: The act of submitting
a web page to a search engine or web site to a directory.
Tables: A format to visually
present data in an organized form, using columns, rows and cells.
TLD: Top Level Domain. This
is the far right portion of any domain name. .com, .org, .uk,
.net are examples of Top Level Domain names.
Unique User: A single individual
website visitor. Visitors (or users) can visit multiple pages
within a site. Unique users are important because it is an
indication of success of a website. If you have high visitor
counts, but relatively low page per user counts, that indicates
that people are not finding your site attractive enough to
set and read through it. On the other hand, if you have low
visitor counts and very high page per user counts, that is
an indication your site is providing good information to people
and you should do a better job a promotion. High page per
user counts indicate good site potential, while low page per
user counts indicate you need to rework the site with more
content or better displays.
URL: Uniform Resource locator. A URL is the address
for a web site. Each page on the Web has it's own unique URL.
"the URL for Smarge is: http://www.smarge.com. URL -
An acronym for Universal Resource Locator. The basis of how
we find web sites on the internet. URL's can include different
forms of communicating with a server: (an HTTP url is Hyper
Text Transfer Protocol while a FTP url is a File Transfer
Protocol). You can determine how you are connecting with a
site, by looking at the beginning of a url for the HTTP, FTP,
or other protocol identifier. Most websites are located on
http servers and begin with HTTP://. In the context of search
engines, URL's are important because they contain entities
which the search engine may or may not like. For example,
your domain may include keywords related to your website.
Virtual Domain: A
website setting on its own domain name. For example this web
site is located on the Virtual Domain www.searchengineworld.com.
Some web sites are hosted by other domains such as www.netins.net/showcase/phdss
is my personal web site hosted by my ISP.
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium):
Develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines,
software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential.
W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and
collective understanding.
World Wide Web: A feature of the Internet,
allowing people to access websites through, "WWW".
Web site: A collection of web pages that
are linked together.
Whois: A
search that provides the company name, address, and contact
information of a visitor to a site. Whois lengthens the log
analysis duration considerably.
WYSIWYG:
"What You See Is What You Get" . This usually describes
a web page editor that creates pages or items without the
ability to knowing confusing codes and languages. A few examples
are Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe
PageMaker.
Yahoo: A
popular search directory. (www.yahoo.com) Appearance wise,
it is similar to a search engine. One of many search directories
to choose from.
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