Glossary

ACCESSIBILITY

Relates to web design and/or coding standards and refers to how easy it is for everyone to use your website, including people who have low vision or have a physical disability, or limited by older or less common computers and software.

BACKLINKS

Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. These types of links are used to increase a site's popularity with search engines and to get more people to visit your site.

BANDWIDTH

It may help if you read the definition for "traffic" first, but very simply, bandwidth relates to how much a resource is used. An analogy would be a freeway. The wider the freeway, the more traffic (visitors) it can handle. The narrower it is the less people can use it at once (without problems). When a website gets a lot of visitors, it will use a lot of bandwidth.

BLOG

A blog is an online journal or diary and a very popular current method of sharing your thoughts with the world. It is also very popular as a marketing tool.

CACHE

Every time you do anything on your computer, it stores this in memory so that the next time you try to do the same thing, it happens quicker than having to wait from scratch. The place where it stores all this is called the "cache." The irony is that if your cache gets too full, it in fact makes your computer work a lot slower. It's a good idea to empty your cache regularly to keep your computer working optimally. It is also good to clear your cache when viewing previews of the website you’re building. Sometimes changes to your site won’t appear until you’ve cleared your cache.

CHILD PAGE

A child page, also called a subpage, is a page created in a parent page and used in sub-menus.

DOMAIN NAME

A domain is identified by the number assigned to its unique space. To make it easier to use however, the number is given the name of your choice and this name is assigned to the number. In this way, people do not need to remember the number (IP) in order to visit a website, but can use the easier-to-remember domain name.

DOMAIN REGISTRATION

In the same way that you have to register a business name, so you need to register a domain name. Only once it is registered do you have the ability to assign it to a specific number so that it has an actual location on the internet. A domain name registration is normally only valid for one year, at the end of which it has to be renewed for you to continue using it. Some domain names must be registered for two years minimum, like those ending with .co.uk.

EFORM

An eform module is a fully customizable form available in 1/3, 2/3, and full page format that allows visitors coming to a Yellow Pages built website to send emails to your business. 

GIF

A type of file used for images, especially animated graphics and line-drawn images (as opposed to photographs). A gif image can be saved with a transparent background, making it ideal for graphic overlays.

HOST/HOSTING

In order for you to have an email address or a website, a computer somewhere, with all the necessary software, has to provide you with three things: an IP (domain) address, physical space to store the information, and bandwidth that accommodates the flow of information that is taking place on your behalf. The company that provides you with these facilities is your host, and you will pay them a fee for hosting your site and or email address.

HYPERLINK

A reference to data that the reader can directly follow or that is followed automatically (typically a URL or URI).

IP or IP ADDRESS

IP stands for Internet Protocol. Very simply, the IP address refers to the actual number that a web address name translates to (also see "domain"). The IP number is the real address.

JPG

A type of file used for images, especially photographs. Images used on web pages work best as jpg or gif.

KEYWORD or KEY PHRASE

An internet marketing term that refers to the main topics or subjects of your web pages in relation to how people would phrase them when searching for your products or services on the internet. For example, your topic may be "Quantifiable Analysis of the Strategic Business Model," but the average person searching for your exact information may simply search for "planning business strategies." Your key phrases are at the core of any website marketing strategy and needs to relate to your target market's thinking rather than your own.

LAYOUT

Layout is part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements (like text, images, and other content) on a web page.

MENU BAR

The menu bar is the area of a screen or application interface where drop down menus are displayed. A visitor has 2 choices of menu Legacy and kick-start a.k.a. Nav Bar.

OPTIMISE

The word optimise has two possible meanings in web design. The first is website/page optimisation. This relates to how the page is structured (both code and content) with regard to search engines. A well optimised website is search engine friendly. The second meaning relates to graphics and pictures that are used on websites. An optimised graphic is one that has been compressed as far as possible without sacrificing acceptable quality. This allows the image to load more quickly when someone visits a website.

PAGE

Represents various types of information presented to the visitor in an aesthetic and readable manner in a website

PARENT PAGE

First page of a sub-menu, may contain one to many child pages or subpages.

RANKING

Ranking is a term related to search engines. When someone searches for something using a search engine, they will receive pages and pages of results. Where a specific site appears in those results is its ranking. There is a second meaning as well, more commonly used with regard to marketing and SEO and related specifically to Google. Each page of a website is given a ranking by Google, from 1-10. This ranking is the value that Google places on that particular page in relation to its subject matter and how relevant it is. The more relevant a page is believed to be the higher its ranking.

RECIPROCAL LINKS

When Website A links to Website B and B links back to A and both link to the other on condition that they receive a link back, this is reciprocal linking. The principle is that if site A ever removes the link to site B, site B will remove its link to site A and vice versa. This is a (not great) tactic for gaining more links pointing to a website in the hope that Google will increase the site's ranking as a result.

SAVE AND SHARE

A generic toolbar included at the top or header of every template containing social network icons and links. 

SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY

This relates to how well a site has been put together. A search engine friendly website is one that search engines can easily read and find all the links on and which search engines "like" because it is properly optimised and not breaking any of their rules.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

Search Engine Marking is a form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) through optimization and advertising. SEM may use search engine optimization (SEO) that adjusts or rewrites website content to achieve a higher ranking in search engine results pages or use pay per click listings

SEO

Stands for "Search Engine Optimisation" and very simply refers to the practice of tweaking website coding and content to achieve the highest possible search engine ranking. SEO practitioners are people who specialise in this.

TRAFFIC

Much like the physical world, traffic refers to all the people and computers that are using a particular route at a given time or who access a specific resource. The number of visitors to a website, for example, is also referred to as traffic. Traffic is also often spoken about when it comes to hosting. If a host tells you that you are allowed X amount of traffic, they are telling you how much of the server resources you are allowed to use. This is also called "bandwidth." Please see the explanation of "bandwidth" for more information about "traffic" in the context of hosting.