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    Glossary

    121 Direct Mail Website Glossary

    This Glossary is a tool to help people understand the different aspects of website development and internet marketing.

    .htaccess

    This is a Hypertext access file that allows you to manage web server configuration.

    Related:  Web Hosting

    301 Redirect

    When a site is redesigned most often the page URLs change on the new site. Search engines store old page URLs until the site is completely re-indexed. 301 redirects are used to redirect old page URLs to corresponding new URLs. Setting up 301 redirects is best practice for SEO and reduces 404 page not found errors.

    Related:  Search Engine  Optimisation (SEO), Quality Assurance, 404 Error Message, Usability

    404 Error Message

    This is the message that users receive when they land on a webpage that has been removed. Old URLs remain indexed by search engines, thus users have a chance at landing on pages that you have already removed from your website.

    You can create a custom 404 error message stating that “this page no longer exists,” and list other helpful resources the user can select instead.

    Broken or 404 Error pages can be harmful to your website as they cause bad user experience. It is best to redirect all 404 pages to a page that closely matches what was previously there. Read more about 301 Redirects in our glossary.

    Related:  301 Redirect, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) 

    <em>

    This is an HTML tag denoting emphasis which will indicate to make the content within the tags italics.

    Related: HTML5, <strong>

    <strong>

    This HTML tag denotes a strong emphasis making the text within the code bold.

    Related:  HTML5, <em>

    A/B Testing

    A way of determining which of two designs performs better based on user response. This technique can be applied to webpages, email campaigns, and more.

    Above the Fold

    This term refers to everything the user sees upon viewing a website in their browser prior to scrolling further down the page.

    Accessibility

    This refers to how easily users can access web page content. For example, if someone is hearing impaired and the web page requires sound to understand the meaning then that page is considered not accessible. The term is also used frequently with mobile websites e.g. a mobile website is more accessible than a non-mobile optimised site.

    Related: ADA 508 Compliance, Usability, W3C 

    Ad Copy

    Ad copy, short for advertisement copy, pertains to text on the internet written for paid advertisements typically on PPC or Social Media campaigns. In regard to PPC, ad copy takes the form of the meta description. For Social Media, it pertains to the copy that is written for the post on the social account.

    Related: AdWords, Pay Per Click (PPC), Cost Per Click (CPC)

    ADA 508 Compliance

    This refers to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Section 508 of this act covers electronic communications, specifically that web pages need to be understandable to people who are hearing, visually or otherwise impaired. For example, images on a web page need to have a text description (Alt Tag) so that a screen reader can translate the text audibly so a visually impaired person can understand what the image is of.

    Related:  Accessibility, Quality Assurance, Usability

    Adobe CQ5 WCM

    What it is: A web content management system geared toward large corporations. CQ5 creates, optimises, and analyses site content and user experiences.

    Type: Fee based licensed software

    Cost: $120,000

    Additional Cost Info: Depends on deployment size but starts at $50,000.

    Features: Being an enterprise CMS, Adobe CQ5 helps large companies manage massive amounts of information, workflow, media, and websites.

    Pros: Inexpensive organisational training costs, strong control over representation of brand.

    Cons: Expensive, not for small businesses.

    Related:  Content Management System, (CMS), Interwoven, Vignette, SharePoint, Drupal, WordPress, Kentico, Joomla, TeamSite, OpenText

    AdWords

    This is a PPC management site for Google. Here you set up campaigns, ad copy, and bid on keywords that you’d like to run ads on. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Best practice is to develop dedicated landing pages for these campaigns.

    Related:  Pay Per Click (PPC), Cost Per Click (CPC), Ad Copy, Enhanced Bidding, Impression, Landing Page

    Affiliate Marketing

    The strategy by which an organisation partners with an affiliate (a separate organisation or individual) to promote their product or service in the marketplace. In return, the affiliate receives payment or a product discount for acquiring new customers through their online marketing channel(s).

    Related:  Content Marketing, Internet Marketing

     Agile

    This refers to a type of project management process. Projects that use the Agile process utilize an iterative and incremental process for the design and development of a website or web application. See also Waterfall which refers to a more standard, less time-consuming Project Management process.

    Related:  Waterfall Project Management, Project Management

    Algorithm

    This is the formula that search engines use in order to determine what your website does, the type of products/services that are available and what type of search queries that your website should be ranking for. Search Engines keep this secret from competition so that they are not able to copy them and from marketers so that they cannot beat the system/algorithm. These algorithms are constantly updated and some large updates, for example by Google, are even named: Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird to name a few.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Panda + Penguin Updates, Search Engine Results Page (SERP), Black Hat SEO

    Alpha Site

    This is the first release of the site for the client to review. The site is not yet live but has been tested internally by   121 Direct Mail. It is typically staged on a development server.

    Related:  Quality Assurance, Deployment Phase

    Alt Text

    A description of an image in a website’s HTML. Search engines read the Alt text of an image because they cannot “read” the image itself. Alt text is now a part of search engine Optimisation (SEO).

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    Analytics

    Any application of analysis, especially with the purpose of optimizing a user’s experience online.

    Related:  User Experience (UX)

    Anchor Text

    The text within which a hyperlink is embedded that is visible to the user.

    For example, in the string, “121 Direct Mail is a Stockport Direct Mailing firm,” the anchor text is “Stockport Direct Mailing.”

    Related:  Backlink, Link Building, Internal Linking

    Apache Solr

    Apache Solr is an open source enterprise search platform written in Java from the Lucene project. Solr is a popular search platform for Web sites because it can search within PDFs and Word docs, as well as display recommendations for related content based on the search query’s taxonomy. Other features include faceted search, real-time indexing, and database integration.

    Application Program Interface (API)

    The means by which you can retrieve information from third parties and integrate it with the website or application you’re building.

    Average Session Duration

    The average length of a session.

    Related:  Google Analytics, Pageviews, Pages Per Session, Session, Bounce Rate

    Backlink

    This is a link from other websites that point to a specific page on your website.

    Backlinks are important for SEO but only if done properly. There are spam and bad backlinks that could actually hurt your website’s performance and cause your site to be penalized.

    Related:  Organic SEO, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Marketing, Link Building

    Banner Blindness

    When a user is presented with too many images and CTAs in a rotating carousel and ultimately decide not to pursue any of the options provided.

    Related:  Image Style, Hero Images, Call-to-Action (CTA)

    Barrier to Entry

    A factor that prevents a user or group from entering a specific market or industry because of economic, technological, or regulatory reasoning.

    Behavioural Email

    The usage of automated email systems to collect an email subscriber’s data in order to tailor email campaigns to specific users based on their behaviour.

    Benchmark Reports

    These reports are created at the beginning of a SEO project. Typical reports show how many unique visitors are going to a site or show rankings by keywords. The reports are then used to compare results after a SEO project is completed or after a substantial amount of time has occurred during a SEO project. Without a benchmark report it’s difficult to tell how successful a project is.

    Takeaway:Make sure Key Performance Indicators are identified and Benchmark Reports are completed before an Internet Marketing project is started.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Internet Marketing 

    Black Hat SEO

    Black Hat SEO are attempted ways of tricking search engines to rank a website better. They are in poor practice and in the end go against search engines. They may work for a short time but when the search engines update their algorithm these tactics are likely to land penalties to websites partaking in them.

    Related:  Organic SEO, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Algorithm, White Hat SEO

    Blog

    Blog is short for web log. They are logs of entries on specific topics that relate to areas of expertise of the writer. They range from expressing opinions, expressing data, reviewing products or services, and more.

    It is a part of most websites where the company/owner of the website curates’ new content around areas of their expertise. This is a great place for engagement from users as well as a way to help SEO and rankings for websites.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Organic SEO, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing

    Blog Tags

    A way to associate groups of content and easily access associated content, frequently used in Blogs.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Keywords

    Bot

    Short for Robot. A device or software that executes commands, replies to messages, or performs routine tasks, e.g. online searches, either automatically or with minimal human intervention. An example is a shopping bot that helps consumers find the best prices.

    Keep in mind when reviewing Analytics that the amount of traffic is 50% from bots, not humans.

    Bounce Code

    A three-digit code sent back to the server when an email bounces (cannot be delivered). A code beginning with four shows a bounce is temporary, a code beginning with five means the bounce is permanent.

    Bounce Rate

    The percentage of visits in which a person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with your site.

    Related:  Google Analytics, Pageviews, Pages Per Session, Session

    Breakpoint

    Used in software development, a breakpoint is the stopping place in a program that specifies when a certain change should occur. For example, in responsive web design, a developer would typically include at least three breakpoints: desktop, tablet, and mobile.

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD), Mobile Breakpoints

    Browser Spec

    This refers to the set of browsers that the site needs to work properly on. It includes browsers e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer as well as operating systems and screen resolutions. As of 2014 there are close to 300 devices that access the Internet and hundreds of browser and operating systems. We use the tool Browser Stack which makes the process of testing sites easier. Note due to the amount of browser and operating system combinations, it’s not possible to test everyone.

    Takeaway: It’s important to familiarize yourself with the browser spec for the project including knowing if the browser/OS/screen resolution you use is on the list before the project starts.

    Related:  Quality Assurance

    Button Gravity

    This refers to properly placing buttons at the bottom of a page or section of a page. Button placement is typically best after people have had time to read or view more info and then decide if they want to continue on or click on a Call to Action button. People naturally look for buttons at the bottom of a page.

    Related:  Call-to-Action (CTA), User Experience (UX)

    Buyer Persona

    Buyer Persona is a description of your ideal customer base that is derived from market research and real data on your current customers. If you offer more than one product or service, it is typical to have more than one persona.

    When creating a buyer persona take into account demographics, behaviour patterns, goals, motivations, education level, career title, income level, age, gender, and anything else that you find typical of your customers.

    Takeaway: Developing buyer personas are vital to target marketing. The personas tell you exactly who your customers typically are which allows better-targeted advertisements, sales, and promotions.

    Related:  Target Market, Email Campaign System

    Buyer’s Journey

    The process of a potential client obtaining information regarding a future purchase.

    Cache

    Caching enables faster page load times by storing information more efficiently. This functionality is enabled through the CMS as well as the server software such as Apache. Note Drupal has more advanced caching capabilities than other CMSs such as WordPress.

    Takeaways: How fast a page loads is one of the most important aspects of a website. Not only do people love fast sites but Google also ranks pages higher that load faster.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), User Experience (UX), Usability

    Call-to-Action (CTA)

    This could be in the form of a text link, button, image, or another type of weblink that entices a visitor of your site to be directed further into the site to help them learn more or become a lead.

    Examples: “Read More”, Subscribe Now”, “Download the Whitepaper Now”, “Contact Us, “Request a Free Quote”, Etc.

    Related:  Lead Generation, Content Marketing

    ccTLD

    “cc” stands for country code when dealing with top level domains (TLD). Typical TLD is .com but websites in the UK, for example would be co.uk while in France they are .fr

    Related:  Top Level Domain (TLD)

    Click Through Rate (CTR)

    This term refers to the rate at which a search ad or other types of online marketing items are clicked on. It is typically expressed as a percentage e.g. the click through rate for the Google ad was 2%. This means 2% of the people who saw the ad clicked on it.

    Takeaway: Make sure you are aware of the CTR for your ads and then invest more in ads that have a higher CTR.

    Related:  Pay Per Click (PPC), Google Search Console, AdWords

    Click-to-Call

    When an HTML call link is embedded within text or an image, and, upon selection, the user is prompted to dial the phone number that is hyperlinked.

    An example of this would be the main office number for 121 Direct Mail.

    Compass

    Compass functions as a framework for CSS. Sometimes CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) can become overly complicated; Compass addresses this problem by offering ways to simplify the coding process.

    Related:  CSS

    Competitive Analysis

    Identifying your direct competitors and analysing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the marketplace.

    Constraints

    Intentional parameters surrounding what a user can do on a site, ensuring a low likelihood of errors and confusion. Constraints are used to optimise the smaller set of actions a user can perform.

    Contact Database

    A tool used to structure, order, and navigate your contacts.

    Contact Management

    Software that is used to record information relating to your contacts, that is generally used to quickly locate contact information.

    Content Bounce

    A bounce code of 571 or 554, indicating that the software protecting the target email account classified your content as spam and rejected it.

    Related:  Bounce Code

    Content Management System (CMS)

    A database application that makes it easier to build and manage websites as well as create dynamic user experiences. Some of the top CMS’s are Drupal, WordPress, Adobe CQ5 WCM, SiteCore, SharePoint, Joomla! Expression Engine, Kentico, Interwoven and Vignette. Some are free and open source, whereas others can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars per year. Learn more about CMSs and how they work.

    Takeaway:  Make sure the CMS you are using is right for your company or organisation. Some of the variables include cost, functionality, extensibility, ability to customise, and support.

    Related:  Drupal, WordPress, Adobe CQ5 WCM, Interwoven, Vignette, SharePoint, Kentico, Joomla, OpenText, TeamSite

    Content Marketing

    Content marketing is used to increase traffic, engagement, conversion and acquire new leads as well as increase sales. It lies at the core of most all Internet Marketing programs, especially SEO and is often the most critical component for determining success. It is also the most easily disregarded or last to be considered when allocating marketing resources. Content marketing is the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant and interesting information used to attract a certain key audience with the objective of driving an action.

    Takeaway:  Content marketing is the most important part of Internet marketing and should be an integral part of a business strategy.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Lead Generation, Inbound Marketing

    Content Migration

    Frequently content needs to be migrated from one site to another or from an old site to a new site. A migration can be done using tools such as Drupal’s Migrate module or it can be done manually. Content migration often takes longer than expected since there are many variables that need to be defined such as mapping content types and fields. Other types of data migration via exporting and importing also are difficult to estimate since the data needs to be mapped correctly.

    Related: 301 Redirect, 404 Error Message

    Content Republishing

    The process of reposting content from your website to other parts of the web following certain guidelines crediting content creators.

    Content Type

    Websites typically contain different types of content, such as an article, news, events, videos, polls etc. In Drupal, these are called ‘Content Types’. Content Types allow for easy distribution of content throughout a site.

    Takeaway: Try to identify how many different types of content your site will have and on what pages the content will be displayed.

    Related:  Wireframe, Navigation

    Contextual Marketing

    A marketing strategy that accounts for data related to a user to create more personalised interactions with a site.

    Controller (GDPR)

    In the context of the European Union’s new internet regulations (GDPR), a controller is a person, company, or organisation tasked engaged in obtaining and processing user data.

    Related: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

    Conversion

    This refers to when someone enters information or clicks on a social media button, ‘converting’ them from an anonymous person to a known quantity. It is often a Key Performance Indicator for marketing since the person has become a prospect that can be nurtured or sold to.

    Takeaway:  Keep in mind how many and how effective your conversion points are on your site. This can be Call to Action forms to social media sharing widgets.

    Related: Lead Generation, ZMOT, Conversion Rate

    Conversion Path

    The way in which an unknown user on your site transforms into a new lead.

    Related: Conversion

    Conversion Rate

    Stands for the rate at which a user converts over having the opportunity to convert. See conversion for more information.

    Related:  Conversion, Lead Generation

    Conversion Rate Optimisation

    A series of steps taken to increase the conversion rate on your platform. Typically, this refers to increasing leads on a website by optimizing the calls to action (CTAs). These are short forms on a site that capture user information that results in a sale or provides an email address so you can nurture those leads.

    Related: Conversion, Conversion Rate

    Cookie

    When visiting a website, it puts a cookie on your browser and tracks your movement. To some this seems invasive of their privacy and disallow them however, they are there in order to provide the owners of that website data on how any/all users interact with their website. That data can later on become invaluable in allowing them to develop targeted campaigns to buyer personas.

    It can also be beneficial to the user as cookies also store/save passwords to make signing in faster and deliver the targeted promotional campaigns.

    Related:  Google Analytics

    Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

    This is the cost that is required to acquire one new customer. To calculate this value, you can divide the total campaign cost by the number of conversions from that campaign.

    Related:  Pay Per Click (PPC)

    Cost Per Click (CPC)

    This pertains to PPC campaigns typically as a goal is to get the lowest CPC as possible. CPC is determined by Google AdWords in everything from CTR, landing page copy/SEO areas, ad copy and more.

    Related:  Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), AdWords, Ad Copy, Enhanced Bidding

    Crawl

    Crawl pertains to when a search engine software reviews your website, its code, its content, etc. to index and understand how it relates to keywords.

    Related: Search Engine Results Page (SERP), Search Engine

    CRM

    This stands for Customer Relationship Management software. Examples include SalesForce.com, CiviCRM, SugarCRM, Microsoft Dynamics, Marketo and Eloqua. CRMs are used to are used for a variety of purposes such as marketing, sales, support and member management.

    Related:  Lead Generation

    CSS

    This stands for Cascading Style Sheet. CSS is used to manage type styles, layout and other aspects of a web design. CSS3 is the most current version and has greatly more expanded capabilities than CSS2.

    Related:  Compass, HTML5

    Data In

    Data that is observed and stored, ranging from user engagement to marketing analytics.

    Related:  Analytics, Google Analytics

    Data Out

    The use of data collected to improve your site’s user experience.

    Related:  User Experience (UX), Data In

    Data Privacy Impact Assessment (DPIA)

    A test used to help find and mitigate data protection issues that exist within a project.

    Related:  General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

    Data Protection Directive (DPD)

    The DPD was a set of regulations dictating how personal data was to be processed in the European Union (EU). The DPD was the precursor to the GDPR.

    Related: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

    Data Subject

    The GDPR defines a data subject as an individual whose online activity is being recorded and analysed.

    Related:  General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Data In

    Definition Phase

    This is sometimes called a Discovery Phase and is the first phase of a website project. Action items for this phase include establishing goals, defining features, specifying functional requirements, prototyping, writing use cases, creating a sitemap and wireframes. At the end of this phase typically the sitemap, wireframes and Project Plan are signed off on.

    Related:  Sitemap, Wireframe, Project Plan

    Deployment Phase

    Action items for this phase include final revisions, testing, QA, 301 redirects, analytics set up, training and deployment (making the site live).

    Related:  Quality Assurance, 301 Redirect, Revisions

    Design Consistency

    The symmetry and repetition of key features on a site, allowing for fast and intuitive use of any web platform.

    Design Phase

    This covers all aspects of the user experience design. Action items include creating design concepts, designing templates, interior pages and common elements such as H1 tags (Header 1), hover, on states and mobile designs for phones and tablets. Note, the design process combines branding, user experience design, mobile design, and graphic design. Within these areas there are other aspects such as visual/narrative concepts, layout (composition, figure-ground), typography, colour, and photography. A Successful design includes all of these areas in order to provide the most optimal user experience.

    Related:  Mobile First, User Experience (UX), Responsive Web Design (RWD), Growth Driven Design, Template

    Development Phase

    Action items for this phase include setting up the web server, installing the CMS, coding the design ‘theme’, mobile development, developing all features, content integration, SEO infrastructure set up, internal testing and quality assurance. The milestone for this phase is releasing the Alpha site for the client to review.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), Content Migration, Quality Assurance

    Digital Marketing

    All online strategies that are used to increase sales and improve brand awareness.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Lead Generation

    Directories

    Here business listings are either submitted, pulled from data aggregators, or a combination of them both. Websites are often reviewed and placed in a category that fits their industry.

    They are used to aid local SEO and send relevant referral traffic to websites.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    Discovery Phase

    This is interchangeable with the Definition Phase, though as the name implies, there are always aspects to a project that need to be discovered and have not yet been defined. This is especially true for web applications and sites that include extensive functionality.

    Related:  Definition Phase

    Domain Authority (DA)

    This refers to how much authority a website domain name has as determined by search engines. It takes time to build up Domain Authority and typically the longer a domain name has been in use the more Domain Authority it has.

    Domain Authority is a relative metric, you cannot expect to get a perfect score. Use Domain Authority to see how you compare with competitors in your industry.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Marketing

    Domain Name

    Domain Name is the name location of a website. This is similar to a street address for websites.

    Related:  ccTLD, Top Level Domain (TLD)

    Drop Down Menu

    When a user hovers over a menu link typically additional options that are structured under/within that section of the site drop down and give you the ability to click deeper into a website.

    Related:  Navigation, Navigation Menu

    Drupal

    Drupal is a free, open source Content Management System (CMS), written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Drupal is the 3rd most popular CMS behind WordPress and Joomla and is used by least 2.3% of all web sites worldwide (over 1,000,000 sites). Drupal is used by fewer sites than WordPress but more high traffic sites, such as The Economist, Weather.com, Nasdaq, FastCompany, The Washington Post, Martha Stewart, Warner Brothers, United Nations, and MTV.

    Founded in 2001 by Dries Buytaert, the name Drupal refers to the Dutch word for Village and Drupal is seen as one of the best CMSs for creating community websites.

    According to Wikipedia: “As of April 2017, the Drupal community is composed of more than 1.3 million members, including 106,650 users actively contributing, resulting in more than 37,110 free modules that extend and customize Drupal functionality, over 2,445 free themes that change the look and feel of Drupal, and at least 1,116 free distributions that allow users to quickly and easily set up a complex, use-specific Drupal in fewer steps.

    The standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to content-management systems. These include user account registration and maintenance, menu management, RSS feeds, taxonomy, page layout customization, and system administration. The Drupal core installation can serve as a simple Web site, a single- or multi-user blog, an Internet forum, or a community Web site providing for user-generated content.

    Drupal also describes itself as a Web application framework. When compared with notable frameworks Drupal meets most of the generally accepted feature requirements for such web frameworks. Although Drupal offers a sophisticated API for developers, basic Website installation and administration of the framework require no programming skills. Drupal runs on any computing platform that supports both a Web server capable of running PHP and a database to store content and configuration.”

    Related:  WordPress, Adobe CQ5 WCM, Vignette, Interwoven, SharePoint, Kentico, Joomla, OpenText, TeamSite

    Drupal Blocks

    These are like what they sound, small areas of content that populate a web page, usually displayed in a sidebar. One of the advantages of Drupal is how easily it is to turn blocks on and off per page, rearrange them and add them to other parts of the page, besides just a sidebar.

    Takeaway: Blocks are often used for Calls to Action (CTAs) to convert site visitors into leads. Try using different CTAs to see which works best.

    Related:  Navigation, Site Configuration

    Duplicate Content

    The situation in which the same content is being found in at least two places on a website. If your website is being flagged for duplicate content, this can negatively affect its SEO and page rankings.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    Dynamic Content

    This refers to content which is stored and published from a database. Content is pulled from the database based on content types and fields and displayed on a page as opposed to the content being added via a WYSIWYG web page editor. Some of the advantages of dynamic content include more flexible display on mobile devices, better integration with a Responsive Web Design and greater ability to display content in multiple places.

    Related:  Static Content

    E-commerce

    Is the ability to purchase products or services online. Many different aspects are involved with developing an e-commerce website. Shopping carts and collecting payment information, keeping payment information secure, and some may also include integration with product stock amounts, list of available service times, shipping cost integrated based on address and more.

    There is a lot to think about when it comes to developing an e-commerce website and every aspect is important.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS)

    EdgeRank

    The Facebook algorithm that ranks business & brand pages, groups, celebrities, or individual accounts to determine what posts are shown to users connected to those accounts. At the start, the major factor was engagement on the post, but it has since been updated to include many other factors.

    Related:  Algorithm

    Email Automation

    Creating an automated email workflow saves time in allowing an email service to send out an already developed email to users who meet certain requirements. There are many different rules/requirements that can be set up to trigger such emails.

    • Form submissions
    • Purchase
    • Application Submission
    • Buyer Persona

    Pro: Keeps customers engaged with your brand by sending targeted emails. Also, this saves time by automatically sending emails instead of having to custom craft a new one.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Target Market, Email Campaign System

    Email Bounce

    A rejection of an email to a user. A bounce code is generated upon the occurrence of an email bounce, providing information on why the email was rejected.

    Related:  Bounce Rate, Bounce Code

    Email Campaign System

    These allow organisations to schedule email campaigns that target specific users and buyer personas who have opted-in to receive their communications. These systems have many features including scheduling campaigns for specific days at specific times, segmented emailing lists by rules (buyer personas, purchase patterns, etc.), developing customised emails using brand colours, images, video, and more.

    Emailing can personally target specific users and deliver engaging content that is relevant and requested to them. It is a part of the customer relationship management process by keeping users involved in the brand. Email can lead to new sales or developing more qualified leads.

    Another service of an email campaign system is automation. See Email Automation for more.

    Major Email Campaign Systems:

    • Hubspot
    • Constant Contact
    • Mailchimp
    • Pardot

    Related: Email Automation, Buyer Persona

    Email Deliverability

    The deliverability of an email describes the likelihood a sent email actually reaches the attention of a recipient.

    Related:  Email Automation, Email Bounce

    Email Marketing

    The strategy by which you utilize email campaigns to nurture leads and drive sales.

    Related:  Email Marketing ROI

    Email Marketing ROI

    The return on investment you receive from utilising email marketing campaigns.

    Related:  Email Campaign System

    Email Service Provider

    A service through which you can send and receive emails.

    Related:  Email Campaign System, Email Automation

    Engagement

    Interactions with individual users about your brand, and the products and services you provide.

    Related:  Internet Marketing

    Enhanced Bidding

    Google AdWords feature that allows AdWords to adjust users bidding to increase conversions.

    Related:  Pay Per Click (PPC), Cost Per Click (CPC), AdWords

    Enriching a Lead

    Maximising the amount of relevant data added to your contact record.

    Related:  Contact Database, Data In, Lead Nurturing

    Explicit Data

    Data that is intentionally shared by a contact.

    Related:  Implicit Data

    Facebook Contest

    A Facebook Contest, or sometimes called a sweepstake, is an easy way to increase Facebook Likes in order to increase visibility to a wider audience. The contest utilises a ‘like gated’ promotion or offer that users need to complete in order to enter the contest.

    Related:  Marketing Qualified Lead

    Featured Snippet

    A preview of information that Google displays on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) when a user searches for a particular string of text. Such information can include summary text, featured images, links, hours of operation, and so on. This feature can also be referred to as a Rich Snippet.

    Related:  Snippet, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    Features

    A feature is any significant aspect of a website from the large (e-commerce) to the small (print friendly pages). Since most every website feature can be designed/implemented in multiple ways as well as there can be a custom advanced version or a basic ‘out of the box’ one, it’s important to specify how a feature will be implemented.

    Takeaway: Make sure the website features that comprise your website have been defined properly at the beginning of a project, so there are no surprises as to how it works and how much it costs.

    Related:  User Experience (UX), Definition Phase

    File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

    The network protocol by which users can more easily transfer computer files from a client to a web server.

    Flash

    Developed by Adobe Systems, Flash is a web technology able to create web content that combines sound, video, and animation.

    Related:  Dynamic Content

    Frozen Fold

    ‘Frozen Fold’ is a term we created that refers to a web page design, typically a home page, where there’s an image or video that goes edge to edge, left to right, and top to bottom, no matter what dimension the screen is. In other words, the hero image always fills the screen on mobile or desktop. Plus, there is more below the fold, but you need to click on an arrow or scroll to see it. Our home page is an example of a frozen fold.

    Related:  User Experience (UX)

    Funnel

    A conceptual model of the process from which a user who is unaware of your company becomes a customer.

    Related:  Lead Generation, Enriching a Lead

    General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

    The General Data Protection Regulation is a regulation involving the protection of user data that has been put in place by the European Union. This regulation, activated in the Spring of 2018, replaced the Data Protection Directive that was created in 1995 by the European Union. Learn more about GDPR here.

    Google Analytics

    Google allows you to track website’s performance on many different areas by adding code onto the pages on your website.

    Data that is tracked could be page views, pages per session, organic traffic, referral traffic, individual page data and a lot more.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pagerank, Google Search Console

    Google My Business

    A platform through which businesses can input relevant information and have it appear in a sidebar on a search engine results page. Values may include address, operating hours, website, phone number, and photos.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    Google Search Console

    Google offers these tools to fix errors on websites and improve search engine rankings. One of the most common use of these tools is to add an XML sitemap to a company’s account so that the site is more regularly and accurately indexed by Google.

    Formerly Google’s Webmaster Tools.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pagerank, Google Analytics

    Graymail

    Email that a recipient opted in to get, but isn’t really that interested in. Over time, graymail can be marked as spam as user interest decreases.

    Growth Driven Design

    This is a new way to think about web design and development. Growth Driven Design (GDD) is based on the mentality of continuous improvement to a website.

    Traditional design is when you build a new website based on fundamental assumptions on what typically works best and then let the site sit for 2 or so years with no major changes and re-start the process.

    With GDD there are 3 steps:

    • Strategy
    • Launch Pad Website
    • Continuous Improvement

    Strategy is where you build the overall plan for the website and the direction in which you will go.

    The launch pad is a full website with all the necessities, in no way should you think about it as a half-finished or very simplified site.

    The continuous improvement cycle is focused on many different aspects of a website from increasing traffic to usability. Each round is first strategised and data is used to make decisions.

    In summary, Traditional web design brings the risk of high upfront costs and lots of needed resources & time, projects typically are delivered out of scope, over budget, and late. The results are a website that is based on assumptions of what will work and remain static for 2 years.

    GDD has a budget spread over time and the launch of a new website is a lot quicker. The process is agile and built to be on time & on budget. The results are data based and continuously improved upon leaving room for non-stop growth and improvement.

    Related:  Inbound Marketing, Design Phase, Development Phase

    Growth Marketing

    Growth marketing is a process of testing and improving content marketing strategies in order to grow a business.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Contextual Marketing

    Guest Blogging

    The method by which writers outside of your organisation publish relevant content to your website’s blog. It is typical of a guest blogger to include a backlink to their own website, as well.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Organic SEO, Content Marketing

    Hamburger Menu

    A hamburger menu is an icon that is stacked lines to indicate that the website’s menu is accessible there.

    These are commonly used in responsive web design to allow for an easy way to incorporate the menu into the design on mobile devices.

    Related:  Mobile Display, Responsive Web Design (RWD)

    Hand Raiser

    A potential customer that reaches out to a sales team by their own accord.

    Related:  Funnel

    Head Tag

    Head tag is an element indicating the header in HTML of a document. The content of this element will not be displayed in a browser.

    Related:  HTML5

    Headless CMS

    A headless CMS is a content management system that handles only the content of website or web application. The advantage is to manage the content separately from the display of the content, providing an effective method for delivering structured data to different channels e.g. mobile, desktop etc.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), Drupal, WordPress

    Heat Map

    A view of data that is presented in graphical form via a series of colours that are displayed on a page. This data shows where your users are interacting with your site and the links they are selecting. Tools such as Google’s In-Page Analytics extension and CrazyEgg enable you to view this data.

    Related:  Google Analytics

    Hero Images

    Hero images are large banner images that are placed near the top of individual web pages.

    Related:  Features

    Historical Optimisation

    Updating old blog posts and other forms of content to ensure they are up to date and rank as highly as possible in a search.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Marketing

    HTML5

    It is the basic coding language for structuring and displaying content for the world wide web, the 5th revision of the coding language HTML.

    Related:  W3C, CSS

    HTTP Status Code

    This code expresses the meanings of responses from the web server when computers are communicating information to each other. The code is 3 digits with different meanings depending on the number.

    Related:  404 Error Message, 301 Redirect

    Ideal Customer Profile

    A clear framework that defines an ideal customer – allowing a company to seek out the right fit in new business relationships.

    Image Style

    This refers to how images are handled using the Drupal CMS. For example, an image may be displayed at different sizes on a website such as a thumbnail and then a larger, full sized version. Image styles help makes it easy to manage this as well as how images are attached to content.

    Related:  Drupal, Content Management System (CMS)

    Implicit Data

    Data that is collected based on a user’s behaviour.

    Related:  Explicit Data

    Impression

    Typically used when referring to paid advertising. An impression is counted each time an ad is visible on a page thus referring to when an ad is seen.

    Related:  Pay Per Click (PPC), Cost Per Click (CPC), AdWords

    Inbound Marketing

    Inbound brings visitors/consumers into a website/brand rather than having to go out and search for potential customers. This is accomplished many different ways through SEO, blogging, social media, email marketing, etc.

    Focus on creating high-quality content for visitor consumption. Quality content will not only rank your website higher in search engines, but they will also provide higher engagement. Users are looking for specific answers to their search queries, so if you provide those answers your website will rank higher in search engines.

    Takeaway: Inbound marketing is the current trend. Stop going out to search for visitors and customers and start bringing them in.

    Pros: More qualified leads, Cost effective, and less personally invasive to users.

    Cons: Can be time-consuming.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Content Marketing, Organic SEO, Keywords

    Information Architecture

    The way in which information is organized, structured, and labelled to enable usability and clear understanding throughout websites and online applications.

    Inherited Styles

    This refers to when one section of a site or a page uses the same CSS styling as another already defined section. This reduces the time it takes to style pages and makes for a more cohesive site.

    Takeaway: Understanding how images and photography are handled with a CMS saves time and can make for a more visually interesting site.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), Website Theme, Template

     Interaction Cost

    This is the price people pay to view content. For example, the time it takes for a page to load, or to scroll down the page or click on links before they reach the content they are searching for. Understanding these factors is a critical part of determining what should go on a page which is best determined through the wireframing process. Learn more about Interaction Cost.

    Related:  Wireframe, Usability, User Experience (UX)

    Internal Linking

    Inputting hyperlinks on a page linking to other pages on the same site.

    These aids search engines in telling them how 2 pages on the same site are connected.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    Internet Marketing

    There are several disciplines that comprise Internet Marketing such as: SEO, Content Marketing, Social Media, Email and Search Engine Marketing. Underlying principles such as ‘inbound’ and ‘outbound’ and ‘push’ and ‘pull’ marketing form the basis for all Internet marketing.

    Takeaway: Understanding basic principles and which type of Internet marketing is most appropriate for your company is key to a successful marketing site.

    Related:  Conversion, Click Through Rate (CTR), Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Inbound Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

    Interwoven

    Interwoven was purchased by HP and is now TeamSite.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), TeamSite, Drupal, WordPress, SharePoint, Kentico, Joomla, Vignette

    JavaScript

    This is a type of programming language that adds dynamic features to web pages and is used by many web services.

    Related:  jQuery

    Jobs To Be Done Theory

    The idea that customers buy products to complete a “job”. Therefore, business success is dependent on completing the desired job of a customer.

    Joomla

    What it is: Joomla! is an open source content management system offering many extensions to add features to the site.

    Type: Open source

    Cost: None

    Features: Joomla! offers marketing and e-commerce tools, along with extensibility and a large support community.

    Pros: Has a great community, strong framework and extensibility.

    Cons: The built-in, core functionality sometimes can be flawed, or limiting.

    More about Joomla! here.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), SharePoint, Vignette, Drupal, WordPress, Interwoven, Kentico, OpenText, TeamSite

    Journey Driven Design

    Design that revolves around the journey of a user, meaning the paths they take and progression of their actions that culminate in reaching their objectives.

    jQuery

    This is a JavaScript library designed to simplify HTML scripting. It is made to more easily navigate documents, create animations, and create plug ins to add onto the JavaScript library.

    Related:  HTML5

    JS Framework

    A JavaScript framework is an application for developing user interfaces and applications. It helps single page applications and websites perform faster and more efficiently. Examples include React.js, Vue.js, and AngularJS. These frameworks are becoming more popular due to the increased performance they provide and the ability to work with CMSs such as Drupal and WordPress.

    Related:  JavaScript, Content Management System (CMS)

    Kentico

    What it is: Kentico is an easy to use content management system with great functionality but also allows for comprehensive customization.

    Type: Pay per domain

    Cost: Base license costs range from $3,500 to $15,000. There are no further implementation costs.

    Features: Kentico offers a comprehensive content management system, marketing and e-commerce tools, and analytics.

    Pros: Offers an all-inclusive management system that is fast and easy to use; adding modules is simple and efficient.

    Cons: Aside from the price, there aren’t many issues; Kentico is all around a good CMS.

    See Kentico’s website here.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), Joomla, SharePoint, Drupal, WordPress, Interwoven, Vignette, OpenText, TeamSite

    Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

    Quantitative benchmarks that are used to track progress made towards marketing goals; also known as KPIs. These can be defined using the SMART framework.

    Related:  SMART Goal

    Keyword Stuffing

    Addition of keywords to irregular areas or in an unnatural way on a page. This is deceptive and will lead to a penalty from search engines.

    Related: Keywords

    Keywords

    These are target phrases that people enter into search engines. Understanding the best keywords that will drive traffic to your company or organisation is very important. Keyword analysis is the process of researching and determining what keywords are most important by reviewing how often phrases are searched for, how competitive they are and other factors. More here.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Blog Tags, Pagerank, Inbound Marketing, Keyword Stuffing, Long Tail Keywords

    Kick-Off Meeting

    The agenda for this meeting includes team introductions, review of the goals/challenges, the 4-phase project process (Define, Design, Develop, Deploy), schedule, Project Plan and next steps.

    Related:  Agile, Waterfall Project Management

    LAMP

    This stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. LAMP or a LAMP stack is the software that is used to run a CMS on the web server.

    Takeaway: LAMP is the most prevalent web hosting environment. Other alternatives such as a Windows IIS server will run a Drupal or WordPress site, but it is more time consuming and there can be complications.

    Related:  Web Hosting

    Landing Page

    These are pages that typically have a strong call to action (CTA) to convert anonymous users into known prospects. Landing pages are used often as part of a search marketing, advertising or email campaign.

    Takeaway: If Google AdWords or another type of Pay Per Click campaign is being used, make sure you have a good landing page to not only test different CTAs, but also understand how well the ad campaign is performing.

    Related:  Lead Generation, Pay Per Click (PPC), AdWords, Quality Score, Landing Page Optimisation

    Landing Page Optimisation

    Landing Page Optimisation, also known as LPO, is the process by which you optimise a customised landing page to increase conversions.

    Related:  Landing Page, Pay Per Click (PPC)

    Lead

    A contact or user that has converted on your site.

    Lead Generation

    This is the process of creating interest in a product or service. Internet marketing techniques include using Calls to Action (CTAs) to convert anonymous users into known prospects.

    Takeaway: If your site is used for marketing purposes, take the time to understand how you can be using it to generate leads.

    Related:  Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Conversion Rate, Landing Page, Lead Nurturing

    Lead Nurturing

    Building ongoing relationships with potential new clients with the hopes of receiving business from them in the future when they are ready to purchase.

    Related:  Lead Generation

    Less is More

    This is a phrase often used by designers to express the view that a minimalist approach to design, results in a more effective solution. Another related phrase is ‘design equals addition through subtraction’. The process entails stripping away nonessential words, images, and layout shapes, leaving what is most important, so it can be communicated without distraction.

    Related:  Design Phase

    Link Building

    The process of obtaining backlinks from relevant websites while also linking out to relevant sites. This area has evolved and no longer is it the person that has the most links considered the best link builder. The quality of the links matters more than ever.

    The first step is developing quality content that in turn will deliver quality backlinks from authority sites that are relevant in your industry. By having many unnatural or irrelevant links, it can lead to penalties. Search engines will see that as deceptive or black hat SEO.

    Related:  Backlink, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Marketing, Black Hat SEO

    List Segmentation

    Typically used for email marketing, this is the method by which you categorise recipient lists based on different factors.

    Viagra Super Active: These can include location, age, industry, and many others.

    Related:  Email Automation, Email Marketing

    Long Tail Keywords

    Common or broad keywords typically have more competition thus making it difficult to rank high for. By targeting SEO towards long tail keywords along with common ones it makes ranking high easier for terms that are more specific to your organisation. Users from these search queries will be more qualified and will allow ranking higher to be easier.

    Related:  Keywords, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    Mapping

    Techniques to organize and visualize content on your site, allowing you to understand how pieces of content relate to each other and the goals and preferences of your users.

    Related:  Dynamic Content, User Experience (UX)

    Marketing Automation

    Software and other technology tasked with automating repetitive actions related to marketing in order to focus on more complex marketing strategies.

    Related:  Email Automation, Internet Marketing

    Marketing Qualified Lead

    A lead who is more likely to become a customer compared to other leads, based on the lead’s engagement and other behaviour.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Lead, Enriching a Lead

    Material Design

    Material Design pertains to a design language that was developed in 2014 by Google. It makes use of grid-based layouts, responsive animations and transitions, padding, and depth effects such as lighting and shadows.

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD)

    Mere-Exposure Effect

    In general, people tend to have more favourable opinions of things they are familiar with.

    Related:  Lead Generation, Internet Marketing

    Meta Description

    Text that is less than 160 characters describing the contents of the page and why a user should visit the page. Meta descriptions are displayed in search engine results pages (SERPs) below the page title.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Alt Text

    Meta Tags

    These tags, such as the Page Title, Meta Description or Image alt tag, are not very prominent to a site visitor but are of critical importance to a search engine robot when it crawls a website to see what it is about. Populating these meta tags comprise the basic foundation for a SEO project.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Alt Text

    Metadata

    Snippets of HTML code that can be placed on a web page to provide contextual information for search engines and web crawlers.

    Related:  Meta Description, Meta Tags, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    Micro Moment

    The moment in which a person instinctively uses a device (usually a smartphone) to fulfil the need to learn, do, see, or buy something.

    Minification

    In computer programming, this is the process by which all unnecessary parts of the source code are removed without hindering its functionality.

    Minimal Viable Product

    A minimum viable product (MVP) is where a new website is developed with enough features to satisfy early users and then provide feedback for future enhancements.

    Related:  Agile, Project Management

    Mobile Breakpoints

    This refers to the way a Responsive Web Design is constructed. Typically, there are 4 breakpoints, one for a: mobile phone, tablet, desktop small, and desktop large. Breakpoints are defined by pixel width.

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD), Mobile First

    Mobile Display

    The most common two types of mobile displays are phones and tablets. The sizes of these displays vary and there are close to 500 different devices that can access the Internet as of 2020.

    Takeaway: Keep in mind a Responsive Web Design is not one design. It will change with each different type of device.

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD), Mobile Breakpoints

    Mobile First

    This term has become more popular with the explosion of different types of mobile devices and the popularity of using a Responsive Web Design to accommodate them. It refers to both designing and developing a website for mobile first before desktop. This entails a very different web development approach than a traditional desktop first process.

    With Google releasing a new Mobile First update to their algorithm designing and developing on a mobile first mindset is more important than ever.

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD)

    Module

    Modules are add-ons to core CMS functionality; They offer additional specialized features to supplement the basics. There are over 30,000 community contributed modules to Drupal as well as a similar number of plugins for WordPress.

    Related:  Drupal, Content Management System (CMS), WordPress

    Multi-Site

    A feature that allows a single, shared Drupal installation for multiple websites. The multi-site can share core code, contributed modules, and themes so that updates and upgrades need to be completed only once for several sites. Databases and configuration settings remain unique to each website.

    Related:  Drupal, WordPress

    Multichannel Marketing

    Interacting with potential customers by utilising a combination of communication platforms. This can include a variety of outlets, such as a blog, email campaign, and social media.

    Multilingual

    This term refers to a site that can be displayed in multiple languages.

    Related:  User Experience (UX), Accessibility

    Natural Language Processing (NLP)

    Natural Language Processing, also known as NLP, is the way in which computers process and analyse data that is composed of natural language.

    Navigation

    This term refers to one’s ability to move throughout the web, whether it be on a browser such as Google, or within a website itself. Navigation is important in the user’s experience. A site that is difficult to navigate will be off putting to the user.

    Related:  User Experience (UX), Usability

    Navigation Menu

    The website navigation pertains to the menu at the top of a website. For instance, the “About” section of a website might have sub-pages such as “Overview, History, and Team”. These links comprise the navigation menu for the “About” section.

    Related:  Navigation, Usability, Wireframe

    Net Promoter Score

    A metric used to describe the likelihood a customer will recommend your product or service. A Net Promoter Score ranges from -100 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater likelihood of customer recommendation.

    Node

    This is the most basic element of a Drupal website. A Node is like a page though it also can be a section of a page.

    Related:  Drupal

    On-Site Search

    Upon typing in a keyword string of your choosing, the website on which you are searching will return a list of results that contain and/or have content that is related to your search terms.

    Also commonly referred to as site search and internal site search.

    Open Rate

    The rate at which recipients of an email actually open it.

    Related:  Email Campaign System, Email Automation, Graymail

    Open Source

    Typically used to describe software, open source refers to something that is made available to the public so that users may modify and/or share as they wish. Examples of open source software are content management systems such as WordPress and Drupal.

    Related:  WordPress, Drupal, Content Management System (CMS)

    OpenText

    What it is: Vignette/OpenText is an enterprise level CMS

    Type: Fee-based licensed software

    Features: Personalised content marketing due to the ability to quickly locate meaningful and relevant user content.

    Pros: With OpenText one can maximize the value of enterprise information for improved decision making and productivity.

    Cons: Being an enterprise CMS, the price may be too high for some.

    OpenText’s website.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), Drupal, WordPress, SharePoint, Kentico, Joomla, Vignette, Interwoven, TeamSite, Adobe CQ5 WCM

    Organic SEO

    Also referred to as natural SEO, is a phrase referring to gaining natural placement on a search engine. This is an alternative way of internet marketing compared to Pay Per Click advertising offered by Google.

    Related:  Pagerank, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Google Analytics, Inbound Marketing, Search Engine Results Page (SERP), Black Hat SEO

    Page Authority (PA)

    A numerical value, developed by Moz, that determines the page rank on a search engine results page (SERP). Scores range from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating a greater likelihood of better rankings.

    Related:  Domain Authority (DA), Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

    Pagerank

    A term used to designate the ranking of a website. Google ranks websites and pages reportedly based on over 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pagerank is on a scale from 0 to 10. The higher the rank the more relevant it is based on Google algorithms.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Panda + Penguin Updates, Google Analytics

    Pages Per Session

    The average number of pages viewed during one session.

    Related:  Google Analytics, Pageviews, Bounce Rate, Session

    Pageviews

    The total number of pages viewed on a website.

    Related:  Google Analytics, Bounce Rate, Pages Per Session, Session

    Panda + Penguin Updates

    These are two of the most important, if not notorious, Google updates that have occurred over the past few years. These updates have changed how websites are ranked dramatically. They have provided a better understanding though of what Google finds most important when ranking a page. This includes unique content and content that has been shared via social media.

    Note: Penguin has become real-time and now discredits bad/deceptive links instead of penalising websites.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pagerank, Algorithm, Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

    Parallax Scrolling

    In web design, the manner through which the background images move more slowly than the foreground images that are used.

    Parameter

    Data provided in the URL to specify a site’s behaviour.

    Related:  Search Engine, Crawl

    Passive Buyer

    A person who isn’t currently interested in your products or services but could be in the future. In other words, they haven’t begun the buyer’s journey.

    Related:  Funnel, Lead Generation

    Pay Per Click (PPC)

    An internet marketing strategy by which advertisers pay the publisher (a website) when the ad is clicked. Advertisers can bid on a keyword that is relevant to their target market.

    PPC ads can display on the top of a SERP when a keyword matches the advertiser’s keyword list, as well as be shown on social media outlets, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

    Related:  Lead Generation, Ad Copy, AdWords, Cost Per Click (CPC), Search Engine Results Page (SERP), Enhanced Bidding, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Relationship Management (SERM), Landing Page

    Personalisation

    The use of data collected and analysed to personalize a marketing strategy directed at a specific user.

    Related:  Data In, Analytics, Internet Marketing, Contextual Marketing

    Pillar Page

    Pillar pages cover all aspects of a specific topic on one page. Included on this page are various links to more in-depth articles that expand upon the topic and link back to the pillar page.

    Pillar pages are an important SEO tactic for increasing search visibility for target keywords.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Topic Cluster

    Project Management

    This is a critical part of every website project, especially ones that include extensive functionality. Project managers play an important role in a variety of ways such as specifying: goals, requirements, schedule, budget and the Project Planning. They also often are responsible for completing Definition deliverables such as sitemaps, wireframes, and functional specifications as well as QA and testing.

    The amount of project management time needed is typically 20% of the total project time e.g. if the project has 100 hours then 20 hours should be allocated for project management.

    Takeaway: Insufficient allocation of time for project management increases the risk the project will not run smoothly or encounter cost overruns.

    Related:  Agile, Waterfall Project Management

    Project Plan

    This is the operating document for completing a website or Internet marketing project. It is based on the 4-phase process: Define, Design, Develop, Deploy. This uses a ‘Waterfall’ project management process where each action item and phase follow the other, one after the other.

    Takeaway: Make sure you understand what is included in your Project Plan and are familiar with the terminology used.

    Related:  Definition Phase, Design Phase, Development Phase, Deployment Phase

    Project Site

    This is a secure site that houses all deliverables and other communication regarding a web site project. It typically has one page for Postings which list project activity chronologically and links to the sitemap, wireframes, the Project Plan and a project team page.

    Related:  Waterfall Project Management

    Prototyping

    This is the process of creating a prototype for a website. It’s not easy to create a desired website on the first try, often times it takes prototyping to eventually get the correct design.

    Related:  Development Phase, Deployment Phase

    Quality Assurance

    At the end of the Development Phase the QA person will review the site. They will use a link checker as well as look at each page to determine if the design has been accurately implemented and there are no technical errors. They will also use tools such as Browser Stack that displays the site on different browsers e.g. Internet Explorer 9, Chrome on a Mac.

    Takeaway:  Make sure to review the ‘browser spec’ during the Definition phase that is included in the Project Plan. This lists all of the browsers and screen dimensions that the site will be tested for.

    Related:  Website Testing, Development Phase, Deployment Phase

    Quality Score

    Given out by AdWords and is determined by the following factors: ad quality based on CTR, ad relevance to the keyword, and landing page experience.

    The higher the Quality Score, the higher the ad will appear as well as the lower it will cost to appear there.

    Related:  AdWords, Click Through Rate (CTR), Landing Page

    Query

    Another word for “keyword” or “search term” this is what users input into search engines to find what they are looking for.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Long Tail Keywords, Keywords

    Relevance

    In SEO, relevance describes the magnitude of relatedness between the content on a website and the content of a search.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Content Marketing

    Reputation Management

    This refers to scanning the web to improve the reputation of an individual, company or organisation. Examples include scanning Yelp to see if there are any negative reviews and trying to rectify problems. Services such as Google Alerts are effective ways to monitor an online presence for both positive and negative postings.

    Related:  Pagerank

    Responsive Web Design (RWD)

    This refers to a way of coding a site so that it displays optimally on a mobile device as well as large screens. An RWD is comprised of breakpoints (typically 4), one for a mobile phone, tablet, desktop standard and desktop large. Read more about it here.

    Takeaways: Responsive websites have become standard. A few years ago, there were less than 100 types of devices that could access the Internet, now there are close to 300. If you are redesigning your site, make sure it uses an RWD.

    Related:  Mobile First, Breakpoint, Mobile Breakpoints

    Return on Investment (ROI)

    The strategy through which you measure the performance of an investment relative to other investments. This figure is calculated by dividing generated revenue by total investment costs.

    Related:  Pay Per Click (PPC), Internet Marketing

    Revisions

    After an Alpha site is released, there are typically revisions. This is due to the fact that until an actual website is released it’s hard to know fully how it will look and work. The different types of revisions include preferences for how a page responds on a particular mobile device to how a page looks when it is fully populated with content. The more time spent in the Definition phase specifying functionality and using advanced ‘live’ wireframing will reduce the amount of time needed for revisions.

    Takeaway: Review how much time is included in the Project Plan for definition and revisions. 15 – 30 hours is often needed if the site is reviewed by multiple people, includes an RWD and functional features.

    Related:  Definition Phase, Quality Assurance, Prototyping

    Robots.txt File

    This file prevents web spiders/crawlers such as Googlebot from accessing all or parts of your website which is publicly viewable.

    Related:  Web Spider, Crawl

    Roles

    This is a term that refers to a type of website user. Each user will be given a role and permissions such as a web page editor or site administrator.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS)

    Row Based Design

    This design style uses single rows to display content instead of columns.

    The biggest pro of this style is its mobile friendliness. Since content is presented in a more self-contained block it is easier to change the format for better display on different screen sizes.

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD), Mobile Display

    RSS

    Stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s an easy way to “feed” content from one site to another.

    Related:  Blog

    Rule of Seven

    A concept in marketing that states a potential customer should come in contact with your marketing message at least seven times before they make a purchase.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Lead Generation, Mere-Exposure Effect, Funnel

    RWD Advanced

    This includes extensive mobile definition and design. The process includes creating a prototype so that key functionality can be reviewed during the Definition Phase. It also includes designs for numerous pages (more than the 3 included with an RWD Intermediate project).

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD), RWD Intermediate, RWD Starter

    RWD Intermediate

    This includes more definition and design time than an RWD Starter website. It includes a wireframe and design for the Home and two other key pages on a phone and a tablet.

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD), RWD Advanced, RWD Starter

    RWD Starter

    This refers to a basic RWD/Mobile optimized site. It is used when the budget doesn’t allow for extensive definition and design of a mobile website. For example, an RWD typically has 4 breakpoints, one for a mobile phone, another for a tablet, another for a small desktop and one for a large desktop. To minimise costs only one design e.g. mobile phone is created and the other devices are implemented as the developer thinks best. In other words, an RWD Starter website is an entry level mobile site where not every type of design or functional feature is fully defined and designed before it is developed and released for review.

    Takeaway: Make sure you understand to what extent your Mobile site is designed and defined. Also keep in mind that designing and defining all aspects of a Mobile site takes a considerable amount of time and may be cost prohibitive.

    Related:  Responsive Web Design (RWD), RWD Advanced, RWD Intermediate

    Schema Markup

    A string of HTML code that helps search engines understand the type of content that exists on a webpage.

    Related:  HTML5

    Screen Reader

    This software is for speaking on-screen information or outputting the info to a Braille display.

    Related:  ADA 508 Compliance, Alt Text

    Search Engine

    Search engines are computer functions that search internet data using phrases, specified terms, or programs containing this function.

    Related:  Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

    Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

    All areas of marketing that involve search engines, namely SEO and PPC.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC)

    Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

    SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is a process to increase traffic to websites and overall online visibility. An SEO project typically includes determining KPIs, running benchmark reports, keyword analysis, site Optimisation, inbound linking, content creation, social media Optimisation and analytics. Click here for full SEO guide.

    Related:  Benchmark Reports, Content Marketing, Pagerank, Keywords, Black Hat SEO, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Relationship Management (SERM), Web Spider

    Search Engine Relationship Management (SERM)

    Marketing strategy that involves SEO, PPC, PR, blogging, and social media.

    The best strategy is to start early before a crisis happens in order to manage your relationship on search engines.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC), Blog

    Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

    The list of websites you receive upon entering a keyword string query into a search engine.

    Google tends to test many different elements on these pages: how many ads to show, local listings, product scroller, image search, sidebar ads, etc.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Algorithm, Organic SEO, Pay Per Click (PPC)

    Service Level Agreement (SLA)

    Agreement made between a company and a client featuring tasks such as software and security updates that are performed on a monthly or quarterly basis. These include items such as site monitoring, performing updates (e.g. content management system software Drupal and WordPress), back-ups, Google Analytics reporting, as well as more advanced assignments such as server upgrades, server performance Optimisation, anti-spam tools and security, and rapid response troubleshooting.

    Session

    A session is counted each time a user visits a page on your website. The session continues to be counted unless the user becomes inactive for 30 minutes or leaves your website.

    Takeaway: There can be multiple pageviews given one session.

    Related:  Google Analytics, Pageviews, Pages Per Session, Bounce Rate

    SharePoint

    What is it: SharePoint is an enterprise level content management system developed by Microsoft.

    Type: Fee-based licensed software

    Cost: Depending on amount of users’ price varies from $12,000-14,000 in software costs, $7,500-250,000 in user licenses, and $15,000-200,000 in implementation, intranet planning and launch costs.

    Features: The software package offers intranet portals, website management, data storage management and analytics.

    Pros: For a large business environment, SharePoint offers a platform for large amounts of data to be managed and analysed. Also, internal communities can be established to manage projects, exchange information in collaboration between staff.

    Cons: The high cost of SharePoint in comparison to other options can be too much for some smaller businesses. Also, in many cases 3rd party applications are needed to satisfy company needs.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), Adobe CQ5 WCM, WordPress, Drupal, Interwoven, Vignette, TeamSite, OpenText, Kentico, Joomla

    Signifiers

    Visual elements of the UX that instruct a user on how to use features of a site.

    Related:  User Experience (UX), Constraints, Design Consistency

    Site Configuration

    This is a general term that refers to how sites are configured using a Content Management System. For example, under Drupal’s admin interface these areas are a part of ‘site configuration’: administration menu, content authoring, development, media, people, regional and language, search and metadata, system, user interface, web services. These are some of the aspects of a CMS. How well suited a CMS is for a particular website project depends on its site configuration and other capabilities.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS)

    SiteCore

    What is it: This is a content management system geared towards higher, enterprise-level customers.

    Type: .net based and pay per server, fee-based licensed software

    Cost: SiteCore’s licensing fee starts at $40,000 and is another $8,000 for following years. The implementation cost starts at $65,000, and support and other licensing fees costs around $10,000 ongoing each year.

    Features: The system offers many comprehensive tools to develop, deploy, market and manage multiple sites.

    Pros: SiteCore can be integrated, also has a marketing suite tool of interactive content management functions one can install on their site.

    Cons: The price of SiteCore can be too high for some businesses.

    More about SiteCore here.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), SharePoint, Adobe CQ5 WCM, Vignette, Interwoven, Drupal, WordPress, OpenText, TeamSite, Kentico, Joomla

    Sitemap

    A sitemap is a top-level view of the website navigation and information architecture, similar to an org chart. It is used to understand the size, structure, and complexity of a website.

    Takeaway: In order to efficiently build a website, a sitemap needs to be created as part of the Definition Phase.

    Related:  Definition Phase, Wireframe, Navigation

    Slug

    The portion of the URL in a web address that comes after the top-level domain (such as .com or .org).

    Related:  Top Level Domain (TLD)

    SMART Goal

    An acronym used to produce impactful and productive goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

    Snippet

    The text displayed under the title of a web page on the SERP of a search engine. This is typically used as a web page’s summary and parts of the page that match the searched keywords will be highlighted.

    Related:  Search Engine Results Page (SERP), Meta Description

    Social Media Marketing

    Marketing an organisation’s products or services via social media channels to increase brand awareness and acquire new leads. Platforms include Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and more.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Lead Generation

    Software as a Service (SaaS)

    A way for businesses to distribute or sell web applications, SaaS is centrally hosted on an online server and can be accessed via web browser. Examples include Google, MailChimp, and Dropbox.

    Spam Reduction

    Any web form or input area such as comments are susceptible to spam entering a site. For example, spammers can automatically input data into a ‘contact’ web form. Deleting this spam content can be time-consuming. There are many ways to prevent spam, though none are foolproof. Common tools include Drupal’s “HoneyPot” module and adding “Captcha” to forms that require users to spell out letters or numbers.

    Related:  Module, Google Analytics

    SSL Certificate

    A data file that is added to a web server to ensure a secure connection and allow browsers to use an HTTPS protocol.

    Static Content

    This refers to content that has been added via a WYSIWYG web page editor into a paragraph type container. The content, including images and text are bunched together in one container. This reduces the ability of the content to respond well on different mobile devices. It also makes it harder to display content in multiple places.

    Related:  Dynamic Content, Mobile First, WYSIWYG

    Structured Data / Schema

    Schema or Structured Data pertains to a specific vocabulary of tags that can be added to a website’s HTML to help search engines better understand your webpages as well as improve the way these pages are displayed on SERPs.

    Learn more on schema.org’s website.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), White Hat SEO, Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

    Style Guide

    A document outlining the design specifications of an organisation, including fonts, colour palettes, and appropriate logo use cases. This guide allows marketers to conform their material to match the branding and voice of the organisation they’re representing.

    Related:  Design Consistency, Content Marketing

    Subdomain

    A domain used to identify a category that is smaller than a regular domain. Typically, a subdomain living under the main domain of a website.

    Related:  Domain Name

    Target Market

    This is the characteristics that make up the people who you feel with directly want to interact with your company through your products and services.

    It can take the form of age group, gender, race/ethnicity, income level, buying habits, interests, hobbies and more.

    Related:  Content Marketing, Keywords, Email Automation

    Taxonomy

    This refers to how content is classified such as categories and sub-categories of content. The larger the website the greater the need for classifying content. For example, a website that has recipes will have different categories for appetizers, soups, entrees, salads etc.

    Takeaway: The more well thought out the taxonomy is the easier it will be to build and use a website.

    Related:  Navigation, Usability

    TeamSite

    What is it: An enterprise-level content management system.

    Type: Fee-based licensed software

    Features: TeamSite manages, stores and analyses web pages, documents, databases, source codes, and scripts.

    Pros: TeamSite’s digital marketing system makes for large corporations to more efficiently market through e-commerce, email marketing, and rich media management.

    Cons: Being an enterprise level CMS, TeamSite will cost more than some businesses can handle.

    All about TeamSite here.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), Interwoven, Vignette, WordPress, SharePoint, Drupal, Kentico, Joomla, Adobe CQ5 WCM, OpenText

    Template

    A template file manages and displays multiple pages. This allows for making changes easily to many pages. The different components of a template file include the display of specific content types as well as a unique design. The template design is also called a “theme” in Drupal. Unlike print design, where each page in a brochure can have a different layout and still take the same amount of time to print, the more web templates there are, the more time it will take to develop the site. The advantages of a Template include: More efficient code and less time to code a site resulting in a less expensive website, easier maintenance of a website since changes can be made globally, improved usability since it’s easier to view pages that have common layouts and navigation schemes, easier display of content from a database and more efficient integration with Responsive Web Designs (mobile friendly).

    Takeaway: Try to identify how many Templates you think your site will need e.g. Home page, Blog overview, multimedia gallery etc. The fewer templates needed, the less time and cost there will be to build the site.

    Related:  Usability, Navigation, Wireframe, WordPress

    Top Level Domain (TLD)

    TLD or Top Level Domain would be .com in the following example URL – www.example.com.

    Related:  Domain Name, ccTLD

    Topic Cluster

    Topic clusters revolve around a specific topic. A pillar page is first created that covers all aspects on that topic. Then, supporting articles are created to go in-depth on specific aspects of the topic and link back to the pillar page.

    In the end, you have all your content sorted by topic with one general overview and many in-depth articles to support the overview.

    Topic clusters are an important SEO tactic for increasing search visibility for target keywords.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pillar Page

    Tracker Domain

    A unique web address that allows you to disguise your content with a branded URL. Tracker domains are used by Pardot (a SalesForce marketing platform) and are also known as Canonical name (CNAME) or vanity URLs.

    Related:  Internet Marketing

    Tracking Code

    Information included in URLs that allow advertisers to track marketing campaign effectiveness. It records data of users who came to or interacted with a website from a specific location due to an ad or social campaign.

    Related:  Internet Marketing, Google Analytics, UTM Parameters

    Traffic Analytics

    A subset of analytics focused on the users at the “top” of your funnel – i.e. users without much knowledge of your company and the services it provides.

    Related:  Google Analytics, Data In

    Triple Bottom Line (TBL)

    A business framework that considers social, environmental and financial performance. TBL is derived from an accounting term for the “bottom line,” which is the financial profit or loss in an organization, usually found on the very bottom line on a revenue report.

    Usability

    This refers to how a user experiences the site. Usability has a substantial effect on the success of a website. A site with simple, quality and credible material has great usability, and the user will notice. Also, equally as important, many search engines look at usability when ranking websites, and they will rank your page accordingly.

    Related:  User Experience (UX), Navigation

    User Experience (UX)

    The overall design of a web page and site, and how the user will experience it.

    Related:  Usability, Navigation, Design Phase

    User Interface (UI)

    This term refers to the layout of a page or rather where a user interacts with a software application or Internet browser. Often referred to as a GUI or graphical user interface. The User Interface or UI is a subset of the overall User Experience design which includes how people interact with a series of pages, a whole website, or web application.

    Related:  User Experience (UX)

    UTM Parameters

    Tags that are appended to the end of a URL for tracking purposes. Examples include medium, source, campaign, term, and content.

    Related:  Tracking Code

    Vignette

    Vignette is now under OpenText.

    Related:  OpenText, Content Management System (CMS), Drupal, WordPress, Interwoven, TeamSite, SharePoint

    Voice of the Customer

    A term used to describe the process of collecting customer feedback and utilising it to improve their experience.

    Related:  Net Promoter Score

    W3C

    This stands for the World Wide Web Consortium which is the international governing body for the web. Tim Berners-Lee, the director of the W3C, is also one of the original inventors of the World Wide Web.

    Takeaway: Keep in mind there are web standards much of which relate to accessibility and some developers are better than others writing code that complies with standards.

    Related:  Quality Assurance, Website Testing, ADA 508 Compliance

    Waterfall Project Management

    This refers to a Project Management process whereby each phase follows another until the completion of a project, specifically first Define, then Design, Develop, and Deploy. It is considered a more practical, less time-consuming process than Agile but also limits the amount of creativity and ability to make substantive changes during the course of the project.

    Related:  Agile

    Web Hosting

    Hosting is the business of storing website information on an online server. More importantly than the space provided, is the fast website loading speed due to the server. Buying one server for a personal website usually would be too expensive, but using a web hosting service enables companies to share the cost of fast loading speed.

    Related: Usability, LAMP

    Web Spider

    Search engines use spiders to crawl linked pages of a website to index them and determine their rankings in regard to search terms.

    Related:  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Link Building, Internal Linking, Backlink

    Web Theming

    Theming is the process of turning a Photoshop design and a Drupal back-end into a fully functioning web page. The first step involves structuring HTML through Drupal’s views, blocks, and panels modules into valid HTML that can then be styled. Next, CSS – in our case, Sass and Compass – is written to transform the very basic looking HTML page into a fully responsive web page, matching the design perfectly. JavaScript is written to add interactivity, such as sliding and filtering results without the page having to reload. Theming usually includes extensive QA (quality assurance) so that the end result is compatible with any modern device that can view a web page.

    Related:  Drupal, HTML5, Website Theme, CSS

    Webinar

    Webinar stands for web seminar. Virtual seminars give users the flexibility to be in their home or place of work and still be present to learn new things and hear about the latest trends in their industry. It allows for a greater audience and cheaper cost compared to in-person seminars while also leading to increased engagement from users.

    Website Testing

    This is performed by a web developer during the Development and Deployment Phases. Developers will test the site design and functional features based on the Browser Spec. They will also complete items the QA person has found. Note people unfamiliar with web development are often surprised as to how much time QA and testing take. This is due in part to the number of different devices that access the Internet and the number of browsers and operating system combinations there are.

    Related:  Development Phase, Deployment Phase, Prototyping

    Website Theme

    Sometimes the words “template” and “theme” are used interchangeably since they both refer to a system for efficiently managing the design and content of multiple web pages. A theme refers to the design components of a page (layout, typography styles, management of content types) as well as how content is managed on that page. So, a template can be thought of as a subset of a theme.

    Takeaway: Try to identify how many Themes your site will have i.e. how many different design layouts and templates.

    Related:  Design Phase, Template, Usability

    White Hat SEO

    White Hat SEO pertains to accepted SEO practices that marketers and search engines have illustrated as best practices. Where Black Hat SEO might harm websites in rankings, White Hat will help them in performance.

    Related:  Black Hat SEO, Organic SEO, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Algorithm

    Wildcard

    The * character means a wildcard that takes the place of any other character or string of characters.

    Related:  HTML5

    Wireframe

    A wireframe displays the content of a page as well as a preliminary display of the navigation and functionality. It is used to help define a web page. Wireframes are also an important reference doc for designers to know the contents of a page or template before starting the design. Note, while wireframes do display a page layout, they shouldn’t be considered the design. It’s best to not limit design possibilities with wireframes.

    Takeaway: Wireframes are critical to understanding what will be required to design and build the page and consequently the website. They are a key deliverable of a Definition Phase.

    Related:  Template, Navigation, Definition Phase

    WordPress

    What is it: One of today’s most popular content management and blog publishing applications online today. Used by 22% of the top 10 million websites, WordPress’s open-source aspect makes way for versatility; it can accommodate anything from small-time blogs to large fortune 500 companies.

    Type: Open source

    Cost: None

    Pros: WordPress is open sourced, making it very versatile. WordPress has over 30,000 modules serving many different kinds of functions that tailor a website’s specific needs.

    Cons: Support and upgrades to the software usually are not included. One would have to be dependent on the open-source community to fix any bugs or install any updates.

    More about WordPress here.

    Related:  Content Management System (CMS), Adobe CQ5 WCM, Interwoven, Vignette, Drupal, SharePoint, Kentico, Joomla, TeamSite, OpenText

    Writer’s Block

    The condition in which a writer struggles to create new work due to a lack of creative ideas.

    Related:  Content Marketing

    WYSIWYG

    This stands for “What you See Is What You Get” and refers to a web editor that allows you to make edits without having to know HTML or other types of code. Popular WYSIWYG editors include TinyMCE and CKEditor. Some editors can be used by both Drupal and WordPress.

    Related:  HTML5

    XML Sitemap

    This is a sitemap used by search engines to easily index a website. This is typically entered into a Google Webmaster Tools account so that Google can efficiently and more accurately index and consequently know what a site is about.

    Related:  Pagerank, Content Marketing

    ZMOT

    This is a term created by Google that stands for the “Zero Moment of Truth”. It refers to the moment that a viewer decides whether they are going to click on a search result or other type of marketing content.

    Related: Content Marketing Lead Generation Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

    Copyright 2020  ~  121 Direct Mail Ltd  ~  Company Registration No 05532478  ~  ICO Registration No Z9273334 ~ Sitemap ~ Articles

    Copyright 2020  ~  121 Direct Mail Ltd  ~  Company Registration No 05532478  ~  ICO Registration No Z9273334 ~ Sitemap ~ Articles