Absolute Link

This link shows the full URL of the page being linked to.

Accessibility

Used to describe, in general terms, the degree to which a system is of use to as many people as possible. 

AdWords

The advertisement and link auction network provided by Google.  Keyword targeted, sold on a cost-per-click basis in an auction, which takes into account the ad click through rate and the maximum bid, it works on most of Google’s ads.

AJAX

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML – helps websites appear quicker and more responsive.  The technique allows a web page to request additional data from a server without requiring a new page to load.

Alt Attribute

Visually impaired people and most major search engines are not able to easily distinguish what is in an image.  Often referred to as ‘alt tags’, the image alt attribute allows you to help screen readers and search engines understand the function of an image by providing a text equivalent for the object.

Analytics

User paths, page views and conversion statistics can be tracked using this software.

Broken Link

A non-functioning hyperlink, or a link which does not lead to the desired location.

Browser

Application used to view the world wide web, the most commonly used being Internet Explorer; Firefox; Safari; and Opera.

Cache

Copy of a web page stored by either a search engine or browser.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface (cgi).  The interface software between a web server and other machines.  Can also be used to describe software running on that server.  Many ‘cgi’ programs are used to add interactivity to a web site.

CMS

Content Management System – an application that makes it easy to update and add information to a website, allowing anyone (even those who do not have coding or website building experience) to edit their website, usually just using their browser.

Cookie

Cookies are small data files written to your computer which are used to help websites customise your user experience.

CPC – Cost Per Click.

Many search ads, and contextually targeted ads, are sold in auctions where the advertiser is charged a certain ‘price per click’.  For instance, Google AdWords’ pay per click ad program, allows you to buy search and contextual ads.

Crawl

Search engines such as Google have a Bot (see also ‘GoogleBot’) which ‘crawls’ web pages, following links and recording content, maintaining a searchable database of the internet.

Crawl Depth

How deeply a website is ‘crawled’ and indexed.

Crawl Frequency

How often a website is crawled.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets.  A method for adding styles to a web page, controlling how a web page looks visually.  Using a style sheet instead of inline formatting greatly speeds up the website and helps to make it more accessible and search engine friendly.

Database

A collection of information stored in a computer in a systematic way.  Often used on websites to support, amongst other things, photo galleries, inventory listings, catalogues, and message forums.

Dedicated Server

Limited to serving one website, or small collection of websites, this server is owned by a single person.

Description Metatag

In search engine results a short description near each listing is used to give the user more information about a website.  (See also:  ‘SEO – Search Engine Optimisation’.)

DNS

Domain Name Server or Domain Name System.  An Internet service which translates domain names into IP addresses, which makes them easier to remember as domain names are alphabetic.  However, the Internet is really based on IP addresses.  Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address.  So, the domain name www.forinstance.com might translate to 192.135.852.2.

Domain Names

Used in URLs to identify particular web pages.  This is our domain name for example: www.chameleonwebservices.co.uk.  If you are interested in getting a domain name, please contact us.

Dynamic Content

Content which changes over time or uses a dynamic language such as PHP to help render the page.

Dynamic Languages

Programming languages such as PHP and ASP which build web pages on the fly upon request.

eCommerce

Known commonly as ‘e-commerce’ or ‘eCommerce’, it consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.

Entry Page

The page via which a user enters your website.

External Link

A link which references another domain/website.

Favicon

A small ‘Favourites Icon’ which appears next to URLs in a web browser.

Firefox

A popular standards-based, free download, web browser.

Flash

Vector, graphics-based, animation software.  Makes it easier to make websites look rich and interactive.  Websites which contain ‘Flash’ content are difficult for search engines to index and rank because they contain relatively small content.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol.  This protocol is for transferring data between computers, so many content management systems include a FTP capability.

Google

The world’s leading search engine.

Google Analytics

Offered by Google, this service records information about visitors to your website and illustrate how well your website is performing.  We use this service to provide comprehensive reports on your website.

GoogleBot

Google’s search engine spider.  This spider program automatically fetches web pages – Spiders are used to send pages to search engines.

Google Maps

Detailed maps which you can add your business to, and integrate into your website, thus allowing clients to access directions to your business.

Hidden Text

SEO techniques used to show search engine spiders text that human visitors do not see.  While some sites may get away with it for a while, generally the risk to reward ratio is inadequate for most legitimate sites to consider using hidden text.

Home Page

The main page on your website. Largely responsible for helping develop your brand and setting up the navigational schemes that will be used to help users and search engines navigate your website.

Hosting

The process of storing your website pages on a computer (a web server) and making them available, by means of the Internet, to the world.

.htaccess

Apache directory-level configuration file which can be used to password protect or redirect files. We have a how to here!

HTML

HyperText Markup Language.  The language in which pages on the World Wide Web are created.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol.  The means by which data is transferred from its residing location on a server to an active browser.

Inbound Link

This link points from one website to another.  By using the ‘link:’ function, most search engines allow you to see sample links pointing to a document.

Internal Link

An internal link from one page on a site to another page on the same site.  It is preferential to use descriptive internal linking to make it easy for search engines to understand what your website is about. Internet – The worldwide web – a network of computers connected via TCP/IP.

Internet Explorer

Microsoft’s web browser.

IP Address

Internet Protocol Address.  Each and every computer connected to the Internet has an IP address.

ISP

Internet Service Provider.  Companies which provide access to the Internet.

JavaScript

Client-side scripting language that can be embedded into HTML documents to add dynamic features.  If not done correctly however, using Javascript for navigation and content can damage your visibility in search engines.  In AJAX, JavaScript has been combined with other technologies to make web pages even more interactive.

Keyword

A word or phrase which people use to search the Internet.

Keyword Density

In search engine optimisation (see also:  SEO), keyword density is the measurement in percentage of the number of times a particular keyword or phrase appears, compared to the total number of words in a page.

Link

A reference from one web document to another web document or another position in the same document.  A link is seen as a vote of trust by most popular search engines.

Link Building

The process of building high quality links with other websites.  Link campaigns are a major piece of the jigsaw when it comes to getting your website listed successfully with search engines.

Link Popularity

The number of links pointing at a website.  Simply put, ‘link popularity’ is the total number of links your website has coming from other websites.  The more links your website has, the higher your link popularity, so as a consequence your website will be looked upon more favourably by all major search engines.  The sites must have complimentary and related content to your own website – links from relevant sites are considered to be “more relevant” by search engines and will help to improve your rankings.

Linux

The operating system based on Unix (another operating system), used to run Web servers.

Meta Description

The meta description tag – a sentence or two of text which describes the content of the page, sometimes used to describe the page in a ‘Search Engine Results Page’ – can be very important.

Meta Keywords

The meta keywords tag – a tag which can be used to highlight keywords and keyword phrases which are relevant to the specific web page.  Trust issues can result in most search engines ignoring keywords, just taking content from the website for ranking.

Meta Tags

People generally refer to Meta Descriptions and Meta Keywords as meta tags.  Some people also group the page title in with these.

MySQL

A database that uses a language called SQL (Structured Query Language) for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database.  ‘MySQL’ typically runs on Linux/Unix servers in conjunction with PHP. MySQL, and is noted for its speed, reliability, and flexibility.

Navigation

Often appearing on the left, or top of a page, this set of links is designed to help website users move from page to page around a website.

Opera

Fast, standards based, web browser – Opera is popular now for its mobile web browser and browser on the Nintendo DS and Wii.

Outbound Link

A link from one website pointing at another external website.  Linking out to useful relevant related documents is an easy way to help search engines understand what your website is about.

PageRank

PageRank – a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. PageRank is Google’s way of deciding a page’s importance. It matters because it is one of the factors that determines a page’s ranking in the search results. This is not the only factor Google uses to rank pages, but it is an important one. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes that are cast for a page, the more important the page must be.

PHP

PHP Hypertext Preprocessor – an open source server side scripting language used to render web pages or add interactivity to them.

PDF

Portable Document Format.  A universal file format developed by Adobe Systems allowing files to be stored and viewed in the original printer-friendly context.  The Max Design & Print Co. uses PDFs in many stages of its workflow, from design proofs to print production.

PPC

Pay Per Click ads only charge advertisers if a potential customer clicks on an ad.  An example of which would be Google AdSense.

Quality Link

Search engines count links as a vote of trust.  Quality links count more than low quality links.

Reciprocal Links

A reciprocal link goes in both directions between two websites.

Redirect

A method of alerting browsers and search engines that a page location has moved.  Users will not notice they are being redirected if done correctly and search engines only index the resulting page.

Registrar

A company which allows you to register domain names.

Referrer

The source from which a website visitor came from.

Robots.txt

A file which sits in the root of a site and tells search engines which files not to crawl.  Some search engines will still list your URLs as URL only listings even if you block them using a robots.txt file.

RSS

Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication.  A method of syndicating information to a feed reader or other software, allowing people to subscribe to a channel they are interested in.

Safari

A popular standards-based web browser made by Apple, included on all Macs, iPhones and iPod Touch.  (Now available for PCs also.)

Search Engine

A tool or device used to find relevant information.  Google and Yahoo are the most commonly used search engines.

Secure server

A Web server that is capable of establishing encrypted communications to protect sensitive information being transmitted over the Internet.

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation.  The art and science of publishing information and marketing it in a manner that helps search engines understand that your information is applicable to relevant search queries.  SEO consists largely of keyword research, SEO copy writing, and link building.

Server

A computer used to store/host files and serve them to the web.

Site Map

A page which can be used to help give search engines a secondary route to navigate through your site.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.  A protocol used to transfer email between servers, normally associated with sending mail.

Spam

Unsolicited and sometimes malicious email messages.

Spider

A program that automatically fetches Web pages.  Spiders are used to send pages to search engines.

Spyware

Software programs which spy on web users.  This is often used to collect consumer research and behaviourally target ads.

Static Content

Content which does not change very often.

Submission

Adding your Web site URL and details to search engines.

Title

The title element is used to describe the contents of a document, making it one of the most important aspects to doing SEO on a web page.  Such page titles appear in search results.

Tracking

Provides detailed and accurate counting and behaviour information about the visitors to your website.

Traffic

The amount of visitors and visits received by a website.

Uptimes

The time during which a computer (such as a Web server) is functioning without failure.

URI

Uniform Resource Identifier – the unique address of any web document.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator – a variation on URI.

W3C

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organisation for the World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or W3).  It is arranged as a consortium where member organisations maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for  the World Wide Web.  As of February 2008, the W3C had 434 members.  The W3C DOM, on the other hand, is about document structure and the changing of document structure, allowing you to add or remove XHTML tags, or even entirely rewrite the page, if you so wish.

Whois

Each domain has an owner on record.  Ownership data is stored in the Whois record for that domain. Some domain registrars also allow you to hide the ownership data of your sites.

Wiki

A Wiki lets users create, edit and modify entire pages.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but sites like Wikipedia.org prove that it is a powerful tool for generating large bodies of work quickly, with the added benefit of peer review to consistently improve it.

XHTML

Extensible HyperText Markup Language is a class of specifications designed to move HTML to conform to XML formatting.

XML

Extensible Markup Language – a simple, very flexible, text format derived from SGML.  Used to make it easy to syndicate or format information using technologies such as RSS.

Yahoo!

A popular search engine.

Zip

A process of compressing a file or number of files into one compact archive.  ZIP files take up less storage, making it ideal for archiving and backup, as well as more efficient and quicker for a user to email or download.