Neeb Webmaster
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Every industry has an array of vocabulary terms unique to them. Being in charge of a website or websites is no different. You’re likely at least familiar with all of these, but whoever you have working for you may not be. It’s important to be able to communicate easily and precisely with all of your employees, no matter what their specialty is. This glossary will help get you and your employees on the same page.

 

Accessibility – The ease of access a site has for people with disabilities. Color design that helps color-blind people, voice reading for low-vision people, and subtitles on media for those with hearing problems are all aspects of accessibility. This often falls by the wayside, but it’s a real concern.
Back End – The back end of a website is the code for the site and any communications between the site and servers. It’s hidden from view so most normal users never know it’s there.

Backlink – A backlink is a link on a site that links to another site. It’s mostly used in terms of other sites linking to your own. Building backlinks is important for search engine optimization, so it will come up frequently in those conversations.

 

Bandwidth – Mostly used as a name for the amount of data transfer your site has each month. Once a site’s bandwidth allotment is used up, the web host will either take the site down until the end of the month, or charge extra for more data throughput.

Bounce Rate – The percent of people who visit a site and leave quickly. A high bounce rate is never a good thing.

Browser – Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox. The software a user uses to browse the web.

Client-Side – A script that runs on the user’s computer rather than the server. Something designed client-side will almost always run smoother than streaming from the server.

Domain – The web address of the site. A solid domain name is important in building a solid website.

E-Commerce – Short for electronic commerce, or selling goods and services on the Internet.

Favicon – The small graphic that appears in the URL bar next to your domain name. Generally a simplified or smaller version of a company logo.

GUI – Graphical User Interface. In other words, the interface you use to interact with a program.

HTML – Hypertext Markup Language. This is the basic language every website is built using. CSS, XML, and other coding languages add on to HTML to add more features to a site.

Landing Page – The page of a website the user starts on when they visit. Usually this will be the homepage, but not necessarily depending on search results.

Meta Data – Information hidden in the website’s code that is invisible to normal users but highly relevant to search engines. Can contain keywords and descriptions for search snippets.

Navigation – The way a site is laid out to be explored by users.

Script – Code that, when run, does something. This can be anything from a simple drop down menu script to embedded video and more.

Server-Side – The opposite of client-side. Code and scripts that run on the server and deliver their results to the client.

Including every possible term would take up more space than we have. The most important ones are covered above however, and should allow you to communicate more effectively. Precision in communication is important. It cuts down on revisions and gives you the strongest results in the shortest time possible.

 

Guest Author: Jamey Wisneski is a service technician and in his spare time is a freelance blogger for broadbandcomparison.org, a site he often recommends as a great resource to compare broadband deals. For more information click here.

By Techwacky

Editor-in-Chef of TechWacky.com