What you see on your browser screen without scrolling. Typically, this is a
space 600 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall. The height dimension comprises the
online version of what is known in the newspaper world as above the fold. When
users link to your Web site, they see this area first. So, this is where the
most important information about your site should appear.
affiliate/associate programs
In 1997, Amazon.com launched the first associate program. Amazon initially
started by selling books online. Amazon figured, "Why not convert millions, soon
to be squillions, of Web sites into specialized, niche bookshops for us? We'll
pay a commission when a site refers a customer who buys a book." And thus, the
first associate program (affiliate or referrer program) was born. Affiliate
programs increase exponentially the exposure of a merchant's product or service.
Alt tag
The alternative text that the browser displays when the surfer does not want to
or cannot see the pictures present in a Web page. Using alt tags containing
keywords can improve the search engine ranking of the page for those keywords.
autoresponder
When a customer sends an e-mail to a certain address manned by an autoresponder,
this powerful mailbot automatically fires back an e-mail response, usually an
informative sales letter. And it does it immediately and for a fairly low
additional monthly fee (some hosts offer autoresponders for free).
Autoresponders are the e-mail equivalent of a fax-back service. They can save
you hundreds of dollars when used for basic tech support, product inquiries for
more details, sales-oriented letters to all kinds of questions etc.
bandwidth
The range of frequencies a transmission line or channel can carry: the higher
the frequency the higher the bandwidth and the greater the information carrying
capacity of a channel. Bandwidth is most accurately expressed in cycles per
second, or hertz (Hz), which measures the amount of information that can flow
through a channel. But, it's also common to use bits or bytes per second
instead.
banner ads
Those graphic advertisements that you see at the top of so many Web pages.
Software that reads and translates HTML-coded Web pages automatically, allowing
you to view, download, upload or otherwise access documents on Internet sites
and navigate from one site to another. Netscape makes Navigator (NN) and
Microsoft makes Internet Explorer (IE).
bulletin board
A bulletin board is a location on a Web site where people come to share
information. Typically, you see a list of postings for a certain topic. You can
read each posting, choose to respond to one or more of them, and then enter and
post your response. Or you can start your own thread, a continuing sub-topic
within the topic under discussion. If this type of concept fits with your
product and target market, it can be a great way for visitors to trade
information.
cache
Your browser stores everything it reads on the user's hard disk. Every HTML
page, every graphic. The next time it comes to pull down the same page, it uses
the cached version, which is much faster - no need to download again via the
Internet.
catch-all e-mail account
If you have your own domain "domain.com" and catch-all e-mail account, no matter
what word you put in front of "@domain.com," you'll get it. So "jack@domain.com"
comes to you. So does "jill@domain.com." Yes, even "anything@domain.com" will
reach you!
CGI script
Common Gateway Interface. Interface standard that sets the rules for running
external programs (gateways) on a Web server. Gateway programs, or scripts, are
external, executable programs that can be run under various information servers
interchangeably. All the work is done by the server. CGI offers total
cross-platform, cross-browser compatibility. Gateway scripts conforming to this
standard can be written in any language that produces an executable file. The
most popular language for CGI scripts is PERL - a cross-platform programming
language that is ideal for CGI programming. And it's free. Some of the more
common CGI scripts found on the Web are used to put the content of a form into
an email message, to query a database query and to generate HTML pages.
chat
A popular form of interactive, online communication that allows Internet users
to have real-time conversations with others via computer. When participating in
a chat discussion, Internet users enter virtual chat areas, usually organized by
topic of interest, where they can exchange instant communications with
like-minded individuals.
client
A remote computer connected to a host or server computer that represents the
customer side of a client/server relationship. Client can refer to you, to your
computer, or to the software running on your computer.
client-side
Client-side pertains to programming that is done on YOUR desktop computer.
cloaking
The process by which your Web site can display different pages under different
circumstances. Primarily used to show optimized page to the search engines and a
different page to humans. Most search engines will penalize a site if they
discover that it is using cloaking.
Comment tag
The text present within the <!-- and --> tags in a Web page. While most search
engines will ignore the text within the Comment Tags, some, like Excite, will
index the text present within them. Hence, using Comment Tags containing
keywords can improve the search engine ranking of the page in Excite for those
keywords.
cookie
A cookie is a small file that gets written onto your hard disk, either by
javascript or by a CGI script from the Web site you are visiting. It is only a
file that serves as an ID tag. It is not an application. So there is zero danger
to the integrity of your hard disk. The cookie can only be accessed by the Web
site that wrote the cookie to your disk. And the only thing that they really
know is that the person with this ID tag is back. But if you provide personal
information like full name, address, credit card info, this can be tied to the
cookie. Then the site, but that site only, will be able to know that it is you
personally returning to the site.
CPM
This means "cost per thousand impressions" (thousand is "mille" in French). An
impression counts each time a visitor looks at ad.
For our purposes, a credit card is any commonly used credit, debit, charge, or
other payment card such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover.
credit card processor
An Internet service that verifies that a customer has sufficient funds for a
purchase and then releases funds from the customer's credit card account. Your
bank chooses the credit card processor.
directory
A Web site containing links to other sites which are organized into various
categories. Examples of directories are Yahoo!, Open Directory, LookSmart, etc.
The most well-known directory is Yahoo!. Many people feel that Yahoo! is more
important to traffic-building than any single engine. The advantage of the
directories is that the Web sites listed are usually of a higher, more uniform
quality. They are selected by humans, so it's not as easy to get in as it is for
Search Engines.
domain name
A network name associated with an organization (e.g., google.com or yahoo.com).
Domain names are organized in a hierarchy, with each level separated by a "dot."
Common organizational types are commercial (.com), government (.gov), and
network (.net). In the U.S., most Internet addresses follow a standard format:
name of server.name of organization.type of organization.
doorway page
A Web page which has been specially created in order to get a high ranking in
the search engines. Also called gateway page, bridge page, entry page etc.
dynamic content
Information in Web pages which changes automatically, based on database or user
information. Search engines will index dynamic content in the same way as static
content unless the URL includes a ? mark.
ecommerce
Electronic commerce (also known as ebusiness.). Buying and selling products and
services via the Internet.
e-mail publications
There are several kinds of publications that are e-mailed to customers:
e-zines
- the equivalent of an electronic magazine. Collection of articles of varying
originality are e-mailed on a regular basis to subscribers.
newsletters
- same as e-zines.
moderated mailing lists
- joining one of these enables you to post to the list. If the moderator accepts
the posting as relevant and valuable to the readership, it gets mailed to
everyone in the next issue, either in digest format (all the postings in a
single e-mailing, the best way to receive it), or one by one as they are
accepted (too bothersome).
encryption
Transforming data so that it is unreadable to everyone except the intended
recipient. The recipient of the encrypted data must have the proper decryption
key to decipher the message.
Frequently Asked Questions. This efficient type of customer support takes
advantage of the Net's "24 hr. X 7 days/week" nature.
Flash
A Web-based animation application that transforms Web pages into a swirl of
action, colors, and excitement. Without broadband access, this involves a long
loading time (and the potential loss of visitors who are unwilling to wait). As
well, a Flash application means no content for Search Engines spiders to crawl
and rank (which means that you can't take advantage of free Search Engine
traffic).
font
The style and size of text.
form (and FORM tag)
<FORM> tags are special HTML tags that allow you to build forms on your Web
page. Customer completes your form, entering the info that you request, then
clicks on the SUBMIT button. Your CGI script picks up the data and processes it.
forum
A forum is a "meeting place" on a Web site where you go to ask and answer
questions and to share information. Moderated or not, they function very much
like newsgroups. Moderated ones work best, since spam and flames get weeded out.
Frames
An HTML technique allowing Web site designers to display two or more pages in
the same browser window. Most search engines do not index framed Web pages
properly - they only index the text present in the NOFRAMES tag. Unless a Web
page which uses frames contains relevant content in the NOFRAMES tag, it is
unlikely to get a high search engine ranking.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol. An Internet standard for uploading and downloading files
over the Internet. FTP utilities are used to transfer Web pages and other files
from your hard drive to a remote Web server.
gateway page
A Web page customized to each search engine with specific meta-tags and
keywords. These pages are intended to appeal to search engine robots and are not
always visible to customers who visit the Web site.
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format. A compact graphics file format developed by
CompuServe, that was once the standard for online color photos and images. It's
still widely used for graphics that use only a limited number of colors, such as
backgrounds. In recent years, however GIF has been superseded by JPEG for
photos. While GIF images are limited to 256 colors, JPEGs can have up to 16
million colors. A "transparent" GIF has an invisible background, allowing the
Web page to show around the edges of the graphic. JPEG does not permit this, so
all JPEGs are rectangular.
hallway page
A page containing links to various doorway pages.
Heading tags
A paragraph style that is displayed in a large, bold typeface. Having text
containing keywords in the Heading Tags can improve the search engine ranking of
a page for those keywords.
hidden text
Text that is visible to the search engines but is invisible to humans. Mainly
accomplished by using text in the same color as the background color of the
page. Primarily used for the purpose of including extra keywords in the page
without distorting the aesthetics of the page. Most search engines penalize Web
sites which use such hidden text.
hits / pages / visits /
visitors
When someone comes to your Web site, that's a visitor. No matter how long he
stays on your site, he's still the same visitor. And that visit counts as one
visit. If he goes away and comes back tomorrow, that's a new visit. But it does
not count as a new visitor - he would best be counted as a repeat visitor.
During one of his visits he starts at your home page, then goes to another.
That's two page views (i.e., he has seen 2 different HTML documents). And that's
not the same as hits. Each page view might trigger many hits - if that HTML page
has 5 graphics on it, then the HTML document itself and each graphic are
registered as a line in the log file. Each line in a log file counts as a hit.
So that's a total of six hits.
So a visitor can account for many visits. A visit can have several page views.
And each page view triggers several hits (unless it's only an HTML document and
words, in which case a page view would create only one hit).
hosting
Every Web site is stored on a computer--called a server--that is connected to
the Web. When your site is stored on one of these servers, your site is being
"hosted" by the server.
HTML
Hypertext Mark-up Language. The coding language to create hypertext documents
(HTML files) on the Web (Web pages). With HTML, you can "mark up" text (like
old-fashioned typesetting code) by placing formatting commands ("tags") around
it that tell the browser software how to format it for display. For example,
HTML uses tags like <h1> and </h1> to structure text into headings, paragraphs,
lists, hypertext links and more.
hyperlinks
The underlined words or phrases you click on in Web documents to jump to another
screen or page. Hyperlinks contain HTML-coded references that point to other Web
pages, which your browser then jumps to.
image map
An image containing one or more invisible regions which are linked to other
pages. If the image map is defined as a separate file, the search engines may
not be able to index the pages to which that image map links. The way out is to
have text hyperlinks to those pages in addition to the links from the image map.
However, image maps defined within the same Web page will generally not prevent
search engines from indexing the other pages.
IP address
When you get on the Web, your computer is assigned an IP address. This is a
number that looks like 192.168.123.100. These numbers belong to a host name, for
example AOL or your local ISP or company where you work (if they have their own
server). If you access the Internet via a dial-up service, your service provider
assigns you a different temporary IP address every time you log on. If you
access the Web via cable modem or DSL, your IP address remains static - it is
always the same one.
ISP/Web host
ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. It is the company that provides you
access to the Internet. Some ISPs provide only dial-up access. This means that
your modem can dial the ISP's phone number, which gets you on the Net, so that
you can surf the Web and get e-mail. Other companies provide only Web hosting
services. Basically, a Web host rents you space on a computer that has 24 hour
access to the Internet. You ftp your Web site onto their computer. Some
companies, of course, provide both dial-up access and Web hosting services.
Java
A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems specifically for writing
programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the Internet
without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer. Using small Java
programs (called "applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations,
calculators, and other jazzy enhancements. Java is a simple, robust,
object-oriented, platform-independent multi-threaded, dynamic general-purpose
programming environment. It is best for creating applets and applications for
the Internet, intranets and any other complex, distributed network.
JavaScript
A scripting language for Web pages designed by Sun Microsystems and Netscape as
a supplement to the Java programming language. With Javascript, developers can
create really sophisticated Web pages and make them interactive. Java and
JavaScript are not the same thing. Java was built as a general purpose object
language, while JavaScript is intended to provide a quicker and simpler language
for enhancing Web pages.
JPEG
(also known as JPG). This file format for color-rich images was named after the
Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the committee that wrote
the standard. JPEG is designed for compressing either full-color or gray-scale
images of natural, real-world scenes. It compresses graphics of photographic
color depth better than competing file formats like GIF, and it retains a high
degree of color fidelity. It works well on photographs, naturalistic artwork,
and similar material; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons, or line
drawings. JPEG files are smaller and, therefore, quicker to download that GIF
files.
keyword
A word or phrase that you type in when you are searching for information in the
search engines.
keyword frequency
Denotes how often a keyword appears in a Web page or in an area of a page. In
general, higher the number of times a keyword appears in a page, higher its
search engine ranking. However, repeating a keyword too often in a page can lead
to that page being penalized for spamming.
keyword prominence
Denotes how close to the start of an area of a Web page that a keyword appears.
In general, having the keyword closer to the start of an area will lead to an
improvement in the search engine ranking of a page. However, in some cases,
having the keyword in the middle or the end of an area may lead to an
improvement in the search engine ranking of the page.
keyword weight
Denotes the number of times a keyword appears in a Web page as a percentage of
all the other words in the page. In general, higher the weight of a particular
keyword in a page, higher will be the search engine ranking of the page for that
keyword. However, repeating a keyword too often in order to increase its weight
can cause the page to be penalized by the search engines.
Kilobyte
Although kilo is Greek for a thousand, a kilobyte actually contains 1,024 bytes
(that's 2 to the 10th power). Abbreviated as K.
link exchanges
Find Web sites with similar interests to yours. Look for sites with similar
customer demographics that do not compete directly with you. Offer them to put a
link on your Web site in exchange for a link on their Web site. If they agree,
that's a link exchange.
link popularity
The number of Web sites which link to a particular site. Most search engines use
link popularity as a factor in determining the search engine ranking of a Web
site.
Linux
Intel-processor-based operating system developed as an alternative to Unix. It
is currently used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
log files and log file
analyzers
Every time someone logs onto your Web site, information like IP address,
time/date, error messages, originating page (called referrer page), are recorded
by your server into log files. There are up to four files:
- access (or transfer) file
- error file
- agent (or browser) file
- referrer file
Sometimes, the last two (agent and referrer) are combined into the access file,
called a combined file. If your ISP can't or won't supply all four, it's worth
switching to one that will - the referrer file is invaluable. It is the referrer
file, or the referrer field in the combined file, that tells you where your
visitors are coming from, and what keywords they use to find you.
A "log file analyzer" analyzes these files and assembles the data into results
like:
- number of hits, page views, visits, and visitors
- most popular pages
- most frequent entry and exit pages
- most frequently used keywords
mail to: link
This is an HTML link that automatically opens an e-mail software, with the
address already entered. All the sender has to do is enter the body text and the
subject.
mailing list
A mailing list is much like a newsgroup, except that it is e-mailed to everyone
in the group. First, you subscribe to the mailing list (usually via e-mail, or
by filling in a form). You will receive e-mail from the mailing list, either one
by one as they are sent by others in the group, or all at once as a single
digest e-mail at the end of the day (or week). A mailing list can be either
moderated or unmoderated. A moderator will generally keep the group spam-free
and on a higher plane. When you see a topic of interest, reply by composing and
sending an e-mail. It will be sent to everyone in the group.
merchant
A business entity that sells goods and/or services and determines the methods of
payment they will accept (e.g., cash, check, credit card, debit card).
Meta Description tag
The tag present in the header of a Web page which is used to provide a short
description of the contents of the page. Some search engines will display the
text present in the Meta Description tag when the page appears in the results of
a search. Including keywords in the Meta Description tag can improve the search
engine ranking of a page for those keywords. However, some search engines ignore
the Meta Description tag.
Meta Keywords tag
The tag present in the header of a Web page which is used to provide alternative
words for the words used in the body of the page. The Meta Keywords tag is
becoming less and less important in influencing the search engine ranking of a
page.
Meta Refresh tag
The tag present in the header of a Web page which is used to display a different
page after a few seconds. If a page displays another page too soon, most search
engines will either ignore the current page and index the second page or
penalize the current page for spamming.
Meta tag
An optional HTML tag that is used to specify information about a Web page. Some
search engines read the information contained within the tag and use it to index
the page. There are several meta tags, but the most important for search engine
indexing are the Description and Keywords tags. The Description tag returns a
description of the page in place of the summary the search engine would
ordinarily create. The Keywords tag provides keywords for the search engine to
associate with your page. An example might look like this:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Glossary</TITLE>
<META name="description"
content="Web site building terms">
<META name="keywords"
content="Web sites, Web pages, search engines">
</HEAD>
MP3
Mpeg Layer 3 is an amazing standard for audio compression. It is capable of 10:1
compression with no noticeable loss in quality. It's the latest rage on the
Internet. A heated controversy is currently raging over whether it's legal.
newsgroups
Newsgroups use a different communication means called "Usenet." Technically
speaking, Usenet is neither the Web nor e-mail, so you use a different piece of
software to access newsgroups (built into Explorer and Navigator).
When you find a group that fits your needs, read all the posts. If you find a
topic of interest, simply reply and your post will be almost immediately visible
in the groups list of postings. Available for others to reply to.
As for mailing lists and forums, newsgroups can be moderated or unmoderated --
most are not moderated.
opt-in e-mail marketing
Many Web marketers create a newsletter that offers content of value to the
reader. The Web site asks visitors to subscribe to this newsletter. When they
fill in and submit their e-mail address, they are said to be opting-in. The
process of sending an e-zine or newsletter to people who have specifically
requested to receive it is called opt-in e-mail marketing. It's a powerful,
long-term relationship.
OS--operating system
The low-level software that schedules tasks, allocates storage, handles the
interface to peripheral hardware and presents a default interface to the user
when no application program is running.
Pay-Per-Click search engine
A search engine in which the ranking of your Web site is determined by the
amount you are paying for each click from that search engine to your site. Think
of Pay-Per-Click search engines as a low-cost advertising method.
protocol
The communications rules computers have to follow to talk to each other on a
network. The Internet is a very heterogeneous collection of networked computers
and is full of different protocols, including PPP, TCP/IP, SLIP, and FTP.
RealAudio/Video
Progressive Networks' RealAudio client-server software system enables Internet
users equipped with conventional multimedia personal computers and voice-grade
telephone lines to browse, select, and play audio/video or audio/video-based
multimedia content on demand, in real time. This is a big improvement in
download times.
real-time authorization
A credit card purchase is authorized in real time, as the customer completes the
checkout process online. If the authorization is positive, the order will
proceed. Otherwise, the customer will receive an error message, and the order
will be discontinued.
redirect
A redirect occurs whenever the surfer gets sent to an address different than the
one actually requested. It is often intentionally programmed, through rather
simple code, either a META tag or a CGI script, that sends your visitor to a
different Web page.
residual income
Income that occurs for a prolonged period of time, after the original sale has
been made. When applied to affiliate programs, once you succeed in referring a
customer who buys, you should earn an ongoing (reduced) commission for every
future purchase that customer makes.
robot
In the context of search engine ranking, implies the same thing as Spider. In a
different context, it is also used to indicate a software which visits Web sites
and collects email addresses to be used for sending unsolicited bulk email.
robots.txt
A text file present in the root directory of a Web site which is used to control
which pages are indexed by a robot. Only robots which comply with the Robots
Exclusion Standard will follow the instructions contained in this file.
scripting
In the Internet world, a script is a program that runs on a server and processes
requests in response to input from the browser. There is client scripting as
well as server scripting.
search engine
A program that indexes Web sites according to words, phrases, and subject
matter. Search engines help a user find desired information or resources by
searching for keywords that the user specifies. Examples of search engines are
AltaVista, Google, Lycos, etc.
search engine placement
The practice of trying to ensure that a Web site obtains a high rank in the
search engines. Also called search engine positioning, search engine
optimization etc.
secure server
A Web server that uses special software, called security protocols, to protect
against third-party tampering. Making purchases from a secure server ensures
that a user's payment or personal information is translated into a code so that
it cannot be stolen.
secure sockets layer (SSL)
A transaction security standard developed by Netscape Communications to enable
commercial transactions to take place over the notoriously non-secure Internet.
SSL delivers server authentication, data encryption, and message integrity. With
SSL implemented on both the client and server, your Internet communications are
transmitted in encrypted form. The information you send can then be trusted to
arrive privately and unaltered to the server you specify.
server
The business end of a client/server setup, a server is a host computer on a
network that stores information files, Web pages and other services and responds
to requests for information from clients. The term server is also used to
describe the software and operating system that makes the act of serving
information possible.
server-side
Something that is done totally on your Web host's computer (or your own server,
if you run you own), not on your desktop computer. It is generally a much faster
way to get stuff done.
shopping cart
A section of an online store where a customer can order products and provide
credit card information.
sig file
A short text file that contains a brief info-sales-message that appears at the
end of your e-mail. You can generally compose and store many different sig files
in your e-mail software. Then simply choose the one that fits the circumstances.
spamming
Using any search engine ranking technique which causes a degradation in the
quality of the results produced by the search engines. Examples of spamming
include excessive repetition of a keyword in a Web page, optimizing a page for a
keyword which is unrelated to the contents of the Web site, using invisible or
tiny text, etc. Most search engines will penalize a page which uses spamming.
Also called spamdexing. In a different context, spamming is also used to mean
the practice of sending unsolicited bulk email.
spider
A software that visits Web sites and indexes the pages present in those sites.
Search engines use spiders to build up their databases. Examples: The spider for
Google is called Googlebot, the spider for Yahoo! is called Yahoo! Slurp.
splash page
A media-rich (usually Flash) entry page to a Web site. Usually, these pages take
much time to load, and provide no real additional value to the site ("cool" is
not a necessity for making the sale). Using a splash page means a good portion
of impatient visitors won't wait for your page to load, but will resort
immediately to the BACK button.
stop word
A word that often appears in Web pages, yet has no significance by itself. Most
search engines ignore stop words while searching. Example of stop words are:
and, the, of etc.
store design
A pre-designed online store that is ready to be customized and have products
added to it.
streaming
On the Web, usually you wait for a file to download before you can see it. Same
goes for music - you wait for a midi file to download, then you can listen to
it. But streaming plug-ins, like RealAudio, play the music as it downloads!
Telnet
(also known as remote login). An Internet protocol for connecting to a remote
host or server on the Internet. It is primarily used to access online databases
or to read articles stored on university servers. A user typically has to enter
their user name and password before gaining access the system. With Telnet
access users can: check email, download a program, or chat with other Telnet
users.
Title tag
The contents of the Title tag is generally displayed by the browser at the top
of the browser window. The search engines use the Title tag to provide a link to
the sites which match the query made by the user. Having keywords in the Title
tag of a Web page can significantly increase the search engine ranking of the
page for those keywords.
Unix
A flexible, portable and powerful operating system, dominant around the world.
It was invented in 1969 at AT&T Bell Laboratories and made available to
researchers and students in 1973. It was used to develop the Internet's
communication software protocols. Much of the Internet is hosted on Unix
machines, and it is still the most common operating system for servers on the
Internet.
URL
The Uniform Resource Locator is used to specify the address of Web sites and Web
pages. Having keywords in the URL can improve the search engine ranking of the
page in a few of the search engines. However, most search engines do not give
any preference to a page which has the keyword in the URL.
VIEW SOURCE
Both Netscape and Explorer allow you to see the HTML coding behind the actual
Web page that you see with your Web browser software. The command is under the
View menu. It's a terrific way to quickly learn how Web sites accomplish neat
effects, what kind of keywords are used by your competition, etc., etc.
eXtensible Markup Language. A programming language/specification that provides a
powerful set of tools for developing the next generation of Web applications.
XML is a smaller version of SGML, designed specifically for Web documents. It
enables Web authors and designers to create their own customized tags to provide
functions not available with HTML. For example, XML supports links that point to
multiple documents, as opposed to HTML links, which can reference only one
destination each.
ZIP
A Windows-based compressed file commonly referred to as a "ZIP file." ZIP files
can hold one or many files as well as a directory structure. On the Web, large
graphics and programs are usually compressed into ZIP files and then made
available for download. After you download the file, you need to use a
decompression software program to "UNZIP" it.
