Glossary of terms
Accessibility
Web design can present barriers to people
with sensory or neurological disabilities. The practice
of making a website "accessible" means that the
builder has taken steps to address the needs of people with
these disabilities.
Bookmark
To mark a document
or a specific place in a document for later retrieval. Nearly
all Web browsers support a bookmarking feature that lets you
save the address (URL) of a Web page so that you can easily
re-visit the page at a later time. Also known as Favourites
in Internet Explorer.
Browser
- Short for Web browser, a software application used to
locate and display Web pages.
- A user of the Internet is sometimes referred to as a browser.
DNS
Short for Domain Name System (or Service), an Internet service
that translates domain names into IP addresses.
Domain name
A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example,
the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP
addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular
web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.netprogress.co.uk/index.html,
the domain name is net-progress.co.uk.
Ecommerce
Electronic commerce. Conducting business on-line. This includes,
for example, buying and selling products.
Elasticity
If a site is described as ‘elastic’ then it means
that visitors return to that site.
Favourites
Another name for Bookmarks.
Hits
‘Hit’ is an ambiguous term relating to website
traffic. It is important to distinguish between visitor, visits,
page requests and file requests, all of which can be misleadingly
described by the term, hits.
Host
A computer that is connected to a TCP/IP network, including
the Internet.
HTML
Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language
used to create documents on the World Wide Web.
Indexing
Search engines are programs that act as a card catalogue for
the Internet. Search engines attempt to index and locate desired
information by searching for keywords that a user specifies.
The method for finding this information is by maintaining
indices of Web resources that can be queried for the keywords
entered by the user. These indices are created for search
engines by spiders.
Internet
A global network connecting millions of computers. As of 1999,
the Internet has more than 200 million users worldwide, and
that number is growing rapidly. More than 100 countries are
linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. The internet
has four principle elements; www, irc chat, email and the
newsgroups.
Intranet
A network based on TCP/IP protocols (an internet) belonging
to an organization, usually a corporation, accessible only
by the organization's members, employees, or others with authorization.
An intranet's Web site looks and acts just like any other
Web site.
IP Address
A unique identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network.
Networks using the TCP/IP protocol route messages based on
the IP address of the destination. The format of an IP address
is a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated
by periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 1.160.10.240
could be an IP address.
ISP
Short for Internet Service Provider, a company that provides
access to the Internet.
Keyword
The word (or words) a user types in when presented with a
search box. On a search engine, for example, a keyword is
the term or phrase that you type in to begin an online search.
The term keyword also appears in a meta tag as part of the
HTML code on a Web site. Keywords are the series of words
enclosed in this tag, and often comprise a list of terms in
order to help the search engines readily identify and better
index the Web site.
Link
A link is a reference to another document, which takes you
to the other document when you click on them.
Link, reciprocal
Practice of webmasters exchanging links with other websites.
It is a valuable means of generating traffic and supplying
visitors with quality links.
Log files
Web servers maintain log files listing every
file request made to the server. Analysis of the log files
provide the server statistics. See also behaviour
analysis.
Magnetic
A website is described as ‘magnetic’ if it attracts
high levels of quality traffic.
Newsgroup
A forum, an on-line discussion group, on
the Internet. There are actually thousands of newsgroups covering
every conceivable interest. Provide an ideal opportunity for
engaging stakeholders in conversation. See also reputation
management.
Protocol
An agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices.
Return on Investment (ROI)
How much money is generated against money spent.
Screen access programs
Screen access programs
(sometimes referred to as screen readers) refer to the class
of assistive technologies that render, in an auditory fashion,
visual information displayed on a computer screen. There are
a number of screen access programs on the market today, such
as JAWS for Windows and Window-Eyes.
Search engine
A program that
searches web pages for specified keywords and returns a list
of the documents where the keywords were found. Up to 80%
of traffic to a typical website is generated by search engines.
Search engine optimisation
Search engine optimisation
is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a website
by improving ranking in the search results of a search engine.
The higher a website ranks in the results of a search, the
greater the chance that the website will be visited.
It is estimated that only 10% of internet users to click through
to a second page of search results, and of them, only 10% will
click through to a third page. Therefore, where a website ranks
in a search is essential for directing traffic toward the website.
Search engine ranking is determined by individual search engine's
ranking algorithm. Optimisation is the process of making a web
page provide more of what those algorithms are looking for,
and less of what they aren't.
Server Statistics
Reported information extracted from log
file data on site usage and traffic. Used to identify trends.
Sometimes referred to as server stats. See also behaviour
analysis.
Spiders
A program that indexes web pages.
Sticky
A website described as ‘sticky’ means that it
keeps visitors for a relatively long period of time.
TCP/IP
Abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol,
the suite of communications protocols used to connect hosts
on the Internet.
Traffic
Numbers of visitors to a website. The data is derived from log files.
Traffic analysis
Analysis of traffic is done by analysing
the log files.
URL
Abbreviation of Uniform Resource Locator, the global address
of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.
Web server
A computer that delivers (serves up) Web pages.
Website abandonment
Website abandonment is generally
considered to be when a visitor leaves a website without completing
a key task - be that a purchase, sending an email, signing up
for a newsletter, etc. More properly this is properly known
as "leakage".
Abandonment is correctly applied to when a visitor drops out of the conversion stage
of completing the key task.
Website analytics
A generic term
meaning the study of the impact of a website on its users.
Website analytics can include measuring how many people visited
a website, how many visitors are new or repeat visitors, how
they came to the site (i.e., if they followed a link to get
to the site or came there directly), or how long they stayed
on a given page. These are usually called e-metrics or Key
Performance Indicators.
More sophisticated website analytics can be carried out to assess
things like visitor to customer conversion rates, click through
rates and shopping cart abandonment rates.
With website analytics,
it is possible to determine which areas of the site are working,
and which need attention.
Website leakage
Website leakage is when a visitor
leaves a website without completing a key task - be that a purchase,
sending an email, signing up for a newsletter, etc.
Website leakage is often confused with website
abandonment.
World Wide Web (www)
A system of Internet servers that support specially formatted
documents in HTML.
