Web Terminology
A glossary of web terminology.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Adwords
A Google facility which, for a fee, allows advertisers to receive targetted website traffic that is relative to the content type.
anchor link
Anchor links allow you to jump from one part of a web page to a specific point further up or down the same page. Anchor links have been used in our website glossary to help you skip to a letter of the alphabet and back to the top of the page.
bandwidth
A measure for the speed (amount of data) you can send through an Internet connection. The more bandwidth, the faster the connection.
bookmark
A link to a particular web site, stored (bookmarked) by a web user for future use and easy access.
byte
Abbreviation for binary term, a unit of storage capable of holding a single character. 1 byte is equal to 8 bits.
cache
A web browser or web server feature which stores copies of web pages on a computer's hard disk.
clickthrough rate
The number of times visitors click on a hyperlink (or advertisement) on a page, expressed as a percentage of the number of times the page has been displayed.
cookie
Information from a web server, stored on your computer by your web browser. The purpose of a cookie is to provide information about your visit to the website for use by the server during a later visit.
CPC
Cost per click in advertising programmes
CPM
The number of clicks per unit of 1000 visitors. This can be for advertising affiliate programs or link checks.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
A W3C recommended language for defining style (such as font, size, color, spacing, etc.) for web documents.
database
Data stored in a computer in such a way that a computer program can easily retrieve and manipulate the data.
domain name
The name that identifies a web site e.g. www.synchromesh.co.uk
download
To transfer a file from a remote computer to a local computer. In web terms: to transfer a file from a web server to a web client. (see also Upload).
e-commerce
Commerce that is transacted electronically, as over the Internet.
firewall
Software that acts as a security filter that can restrict types of network communication. Most often used between an individual computer (or a LAN) and the Internet.
Flash
A browser independent vector-graphic animation technology. Flash animations can feature video, music and fast moving graphics. Browsers require the necessary plug-ins to view then.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol allows a webmaster to upload files to his server and download files to his hard drive.
GIF
a graphics file format used to store images - one of two popular ways of storing graphics for a webpage. See also JPEG. GIFs can be animated and feature transparent areas, JPEGs can not.
gigabyte
1024 megabytes. Commonly rounded down to 1 billion bytes.
hits
The number of times a web object (page or picture) has been viewed or downloaded. (See also Page Hits).
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
HTML is the language of the web. HTML is a set of tags that are used to define the content, layout and the formatting of the web document. Web browsers use the HTML tags to define how to display the text.
HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol is the most widely used way to transfer web files to clients.
hyperlink
A pointer to another document; most often a pointer to another web page. A hyperlink is a synonym for a hotlink or a link, and sometimes called a hypertext connection to another document or web page.
jpeg
a graphics file format used to store images - often used to store photographic or high-quality images (with respect to the web) that can be displayed on a website.
keywords and key phrases
Keyword and key phrases are the words you input for a search on a search engine. For example 'cars' is a keyword and 'new and used cars' would be a key phrase.
kilobyte
1024 bytes. Often called 1K, and rounded down to 1000 bytes.
LAN (Local Area Network)
A network between computers in a local area (like inside a building), usually connected via local cables. See also WAN.
link popularity
Link popularity is related to the number of links you have within your website. These can be internal or external links. Internal links are links to other pages within your site and external links are links to other sites, preferably with related content. Some of the search engines place importance on link popularity when ranking websites.
megabyte
1024 kilobytes. Commonly rounded down to one million bytes.
meta data
The meta element provides information about your page, such as descriptions and keywords for search engines and refresh rates (See also Meta Tags).
meta search
The method of searching for meta data in documents.
meta tags
Tags inserted into documents or web pages to describe the document or web page.
page hits
The number of times a web page has been visited by a user.
page impressions
The same as Page Hits.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
A document file format developed by Adobe. Most often used for text documents.
platform
In web terms: The computer's operating system like Windows, Linux, or OS X.
plug-in
An application built into another application. In web terms: A program built in (or added) to a web browser to handle a special type of data like e-mail, sound, or movie files.
PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
A format for encoding a picture pixel by pixel and sending it over the web. A W3C recommendation for replacing GIF.
reciprocal links
These are links between your site and other related web sites and vice versa.
search engine
Computer program used to search and catalog (index) the millions of pages of available information on the web. Common search engines are Google and Yahoo!
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (or Search Engine Marketing) is the process of increasing visibility of your online business to achieve top search engine rankings for relevant, targeted key phrases with the major search engines.
SERPs
Search engine results pages are the pages that appear when you input a word or phrase into your search engine. The resulting links go to websites which that particular search engine regards as having the most relevance to your search word or phrase.
spiders
Spiders, named because they crawl around the World Wide Web, do just that. It is a software robot that serves a search engine by exploring the net, collecting web page addresses and page contents, and following links from them to other addresses to collect still more web information, also known as a worm or crawler.
upload
To transfer a file from a local computer to a remote computer. In web terms: to transfer a file from a web client to a web server. (see also Download).
URL
Unique Resource Locator, i.e. the web address
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
The organization responsible for managing standards for the World Wide Web. Go to www.w3.org for more info.
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
A leading standard for information services on wireless terminals like digital mobile phones.
web browser
What you are using to view this website, such as Internet Exporer. This is a graphical browser, which means it can display graphics as well as text. In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including sound and video. See Plug-ins
webserver
Used to host the world’s billions of websites, computers which are online and available to the internet 24/7.
WYSIWYG
"What You See Is What You Get": software that generates HTML code from content entered in a manner similar to that of a word processor.