Many of our Clients are new to the world of websites and the jargon used in the design, development and hosting process can be confusing to those who aren’t familiar with our industry.
For this reason we’ve put together a glossary of commonly used terms that we hope you’ll find useful.
Accessibility
In the context of a Web site, accessibility refers to the degree that a Web site can be accessed by people with disabilities.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is usually a text link to another web page. The text should give an indication of what to expect when you click the link and using a keyword/key phrase in your anchor text is a good SEO technique. Here is an example: View our web design portfolio.
Blog
A type of website, maintained by an individual or company with regular commentary, description of events, and/or other material such as photographs, images and video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
Browser
A browser is a software program that allows you to view and interact with various kinds of Internet resources available on the World Wide Web. A browser is commonly called a web browser. We recommend Firefox.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
These are a special type of HTML that is used to set up a group of design rules for your web page.
Content Management System (CMS)
A CMS is any facility that allows a Client to update parts of a website themselves. It normally allows users to log-in to a secure administrative area with their web browser and change components of the site. A database is used to store the content and a file called a Template is used to give the overall structure and look of the page.
Copy editing
Web sites are a very different medium to other forms of advertising, and it is important to write the content of your pages to take this into account. In addition to editing content in order to optimise it for search engines, other factors should be taken into account, for example the use of hyperlinks and the breaking down of lengthy text blocks into smaller and more readable chunks.
DNS Transfer
DNS stands for domain name server. Domain name servers turn domain names to IP addresses. A DNS transfer is simply the moving of a registered domain name from one location to another. Your domain name can be shifted from one hosting service to another by requesting a DNS transfer.
Domain Name
Domain names are controlled by a domain registrar. A domain name is simply a readable version of a numeric IP address, eg. www.theforge.co.za.
Embedded
Definition “Enclosed firmly in a surrounding mass”. When we embed video into a web page it becomes part of the page and is fixed to the page.
Encryption
Is a method of transforming plain text into unreadable code, so it can be sent over the Internet and then be reconstructed into its original form either by decryption or by using a password.
E-commerce
Meaning Electronic commerce and sometimes referred to as e-business. E-commerce is more aligned to selling goods online and e-business is referring to conducting business on line.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol. This is the method used to transfer your files between your computer and servers on the Internet. It is also used to transfer files from the server to your computer.
Flash
This term is used to describe the design tool Adobe Flash and is used to add interactivity and animation to a website. Some websites are built entirely using flash and others may have some flash elements applied to the pages.
Fluid Design
Liquid or fluid design refers to the way your web pages are set up. Your website designer can set the width of the page to 100% of the browser window and the page will always resize to span the entire width of the window.
GIF
Stands for Graphics Interchange Format and is an image format best suited for non photographic use.
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language. This is the most common coding language used when producing a website.
Hosting
Website hosting is where a website lives. When someone types in a domain name, the webhost displays the pages of the website. Essentially, it is the rental of a big computer that has a high-speed connection to the Internet and is never turned off. Using a web host means that your website is always available.
Hotspot
Is an area on an image that when you click on or mouse over the hotspot an action takes place.
Hyperlink
A hyper link is a link to another web page and is also a link to a certain part of an open web page.
IP Address
IP stands for Internet Protocol. Any computer that connects to the Internet has an assigned identity number or IP address.
Image map
An image map is an area on an image that can be turned into a link or action.
Image Optimization
This term is used to describe the process of image slicing and resolution reduction. This is done to make file sizes smaller so images will load faster.
Index Page
The index page is your home page. It is referred to as an index page, because this is what a search engine will index when it comes to the website to find the content of a site.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a client-side scripting language that allows more interactivity than HTML and is normally embedded within HTML documents.
JPEG
Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and refers to an image compression standard, best applied to photographic images.
Keywords
Keywords are the words that people search for when using a search engine.
Key phrase
Key phrases are phrases that people search for when using a search engine. They are a key to the subject searched for.
