This page explains words we use on our web site.
Click on a letter of the alphabet to get to that section of our glossary
| Accessibility |
Web site features that allow customers with limited vision or other disabilities to use the web site. Many countries require such features. |
| Back link |
See cross-linking. |
| Bing |
A search engine provided by Microsoft. It is the second most popular search engine. |
| Blog |
A public journal in which a person (the "blogger") writes frequent comments (often daily) usually on a particular topic. |
| Brand |
A company's reputation in the minds of its prospects and customers. A strong brand is extremely valuable. Companies maintain their brand with a logo, a slogan, standard colors and style on their literature and web site and a consistent message. A compelling vision, mission and values help build a positive brand. |
| Broken link |
A link where the web site is no longer available. Customers hate this. |
| Browser |
A computer program used to view web sites. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the most popular browser. |
| CAPTCHA |
An area on a web form that requires customers to enter text from a display that has been deliberately obscured. CAPTCHA prevent spam bots from sending spam through web site forms. Customers don't like them. |
| Click |
A click of the left button on the mouse. Used to select or start something. |
| Content |
Text, pictures, video, audio or links on a web site. |
| Cross-linking |
Creating a link to a web site in exchange for them putting a link to your web site. Cross-linking improves the rating of a web site by search engines. |
| Customer |
The person, business or organization that our clients sell to. It should be taken to mean "customers, prospects and visitors". |
| Domain name |
The portion of the URL that the client chooses. In the URL "http://www.YogaInfo.ca", the domain name is "YogaInfo" and it is a Canadian domain. ".com" is the best extension for a commercial web site. |
| Doorway page |
A page on a web site that cannot be reached from the web site and contains many keywords for the purpose of misleading search engines. |
| Drop down |
A sub-menu that lists additional options for a particular menu item. |
| Facebook |
A web site in which people can display and exchange text and pictures. Facebook has hundreds of millions of users from all over the world. |
| FAQ |
Frequently Asked Questions. A list of questions that customers commonly ask. It includes answers to the questions. |
| Feed |
A constantly updating section of the web site that receives information from an external source. For example, the feed might show the DOW, the price of oil, interest rates or other economic indicators or the weather minute-by minute. |
| Feedback |
Customer comments on what they like and dislike about the client's web site, products or services. This is extremely valuable information. |
| Forum |
The ability for customers to leave comments visible to other customers. Used as an information sharing area and to build a sense of community. |
| Go live |
To make the web site available to everyone on the Internet. |
| Google |
The largest and most popular search engine. Google dominates the search industry. |
| Home page |
The page that is displayed when customers click on the web site's name in a search engine or enters the web site's URL. |
| Hosting |
The act of making a web site available to everyone on the Internet. ISPs provide hosting. |
| HTML |
The computer language web sites are written in. |
| ISP |
Internet Service Provider. The company that makes the client's web site available to everyone on the Internet ("hosts it") and redirects the e-mail received by the web site. |
| Link |
A place on the web site where, if customers click it, they are taken to another page or another web site. |
| Link farm |
A web site that exists for the purpose of creating meaningless cross links to mislead search engines. |
| LinkedIn |
A web site that allows business people to network by exchanging information, ideas and opportunities. LinkedIn has over 100 million users from all over the world. |
| Malware |
A term for computer programs such as viruses and trojans whose purpose is to damage a system. |
| Mass e-mail |
An e-mail sent to large numbers of people at once. |
| Menu |
A list of options available to customers to help them find the content they want on the web site. |
| Meta tag |
A word that is not in the text of a web site. Meta words are added to improve the rating of the web site by search engines. |
| Mission |
Your mission describes how you will implement your vision. See also Vision and Values. |
| Navbar |
Another term for the menu present on every page of the web site. |
| Navigate |
To move around a web site in search of content. The easier it is to navigate a web site, the more successful it will be. |
| Open Source |
Computer programs and routines available for free on the Internet. They include source so they can be changed. Open Source code is often excellent and written as a labor of love by programmers. |
| Privacy policy |
A page stating how the web site handles information about customers and their visits to the web site. Privacy polices are required by law in many countries. |
| Redirect |
When information at an existing link is moved to a new location, the existing link is redirected to the new location. This works but slows response and annoys customers. |
| Scroll |
Some pages are too long to be displayed completely on the screen so customers must scroll down to see the rest. |
| Search engine |
A web site that lets visitors find other web sites based on their content. Search engines uses complex logic to decide how to rank web sites. |
| Search engine optimization |
The process of improving a web site's rating through legitimate means. |
| SEO |
See Search Engine Optimization. |
| Shadow domain |
A web site that exists for the sole purpose of redirecting traffic to another web site in an illegitimate attempt to increase search engine ratings. |
| Site map |
A page containing a link for every page on the web site and showing where it occurs in the structure of the web site. Site maps help customers find the page they are looking for on the web site. The bigger the web site is, the more important a site map become. |
| Spam |
An unsolicited e-mail sent to millions of people in an attempt to sell products or infect systems with viruses. |
| Spam bot |
A computer program that attempts to send spam through web forms. |
| Spyware |
A term for computer programs that secretly monitor what web sites you visit while on-line. |
| Terms & conditions |
A page stating the conditions under which customers are allowed to visit the web site. These can vary from trivial to very complex. |
| Test |
To verify that the web site works properly on all supported versions of all supported browsers on all supported versions of all supported operating systems. |
| Twitter |
A web site that allows visitors to exchange short text message. Twitter has hundreds of millions of users from all over the world. |
| URL |
Uniform Resource Locator. The web site's address on the Internet. Typically it looks like "http://www.companyname.com". |
| Validate |
To verify that something such as HTML conforms to an existing standard. This prevents problems with running on different browsers. |
| Values |
Your values describe ways of accomplishing your mission that do not change over time. See also Vision and Mission. |
| Vision |
Your vision describes an ideal world towards which you are willing to work for the rest of your life. See also Mission and Values. |
| W3C |
World Wide Web Consortium. A standards body for the web portion of the Internet. They define the HTML standards among other things. |
| Youtube |
A web site that allows people to post videos for public viewing. |