Dictionary of commonly used web terms empowers us with internet knowledge, terms used by 'IT Geeks' or what Wikipedia refers to as, 'a computer expert or enthusiast.'
Cache holds copies of recently accessed data such as a web page and pictures on web pages. It keeps this data ready to 'swap' onto your screen within fractions of a second. So, instead of requiring your computer to go to the original web page and photos in
When a user clicks on a hyperlink in a web document. Many web statistics are based on the process of having users 'click through' links to other pages.
A counter tabulates hits or page views of a web page.
Cost Per Action, referring to the model of having an advertiser pay only when a user purchases something at the advertiser's website.
Cost Per Click, referring to the model of charging an advertiser for each click-through.
A type of spider (typically from a search engine) that examines each page in a website by following all the links in each document to download each page in the website.
Cascading Style Sheets, a technique for controlling the appearance, or style, of text in a website.
A bad, or inactive, HTML link in which the destination web page no longer exists.
A website address or name that identifies one or more IP addresses, such as dezignscene.co.nz.
Sometimes referred to as a Gateway Page or Hallway page, a doorway page is a web page that acts as an entrance to a website, one which is specifically created to rank high on a particular search engine.
A request for a file on a web server. Because web pages often contain references to other files, such as images, a single page can generate several hits on a web server. Most webmasters consider a hit to be a single viewer of a web page, whereas system administrators may consider a hit to be a request for a single file.
Hypertext Markup Language, the code programming language of web pages.
A reference (link) from some point in one hypertext document to another location in another (or the same) document. A web browser usually displays hyperlinks with special underlining, color and font, so as to distinguish them from their surroundings. When a user activates the link (e.g. by clicking on it with a mouse) the web browser will display the target of the link, which is typically another web page or a file.
An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Networks using the TCP/IP protocol route data based on the IP address of the destination.
Internet Service Provider, a company that provides access to the internet (typically via dialup, cable modem, DSL or satellite).
A statistic used by some search engines that counts the number of times a web page is linked to by other web pages.
A special HTML tag that provides information about a web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, meta tags are not visible to users and do not affect how the page is displayed. Instead, they provide information such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's content. Many search engines use this information when indexing web pages.
A website that is a replica of an existing website. Mirror sites are useful when the original site generates too much traffic for a single server to support.
The accessing of a web page by a user.
Post Office Protocol version 3, an internet protocol used by email programs to retrieve email from servers. IMAP is a competing protocol.
Pay Per Click, referring to the model of charging an advertiser for each click-through.
The ordinal position of a website among the listings of other websites displayed by search engines.
The URL address of the web page a user came from before entering another web page. Each time a user clicks a hyperlink, most browsers send a HTTP-REFERRER header to the new web server so that the servers can record the information in log files. The search terms a user typed into a search engine will usually be included as part of the information, making it possible to determine what keywords users are searching on to find a website.
A special meta tag that causes a web browser to reload a page (perhaps the same page) after a delay.
A special website, such as Google, Yahoo or Bing, that searches large databases of web pages in response to keyword queries submitted by users.
The keywords used in a query to a search engine.
Search Engine Optimization, the process of designing web pages to achieve high rankings on search engines.
Search Engine Results Page, the page returned by a search engine containing listings of websites in response to a query.
Simple Mail Transport Protocol, an internet program used by email programs and email servers to send email messages.
Unsolicited junk email. Also used to refer to the process of excessively over-submitting pages to a search engine.
The software used by search engines to visit and index web pages.
The process of informing a search engine of the URL of a website (submitting).
Top Level Domain
Domain name extensions such as .com, .net, .org., .info, etc.
In general terms, the volume of visitors that a website receives.
The process of sending data or files to another computer. The opposite of upload is download.
Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of web pages and other resources on the internet (e.g. http://www.dezignscene.co.nz).
A computer running special software that delivers web pages in response to requests from web browsers. Every web server has an IP address and (usually) a domain name. There are many web server software applications available, including Apache, Microsoft IIS and others.