If you want to start blogging or building a website for your business, you’ll be overwhelmed by so many new words.
This is the collection of the words I built while learning about building websites. I keep updating this list as I learn more.
Bookmark this and return to it when needed
.htaccess: A file placed in the directory level of your website that allows for localized management of web server configuration.
A/B testing or Split Testing: A method of testing that is using alternate versions of content for the purpose of testing the results (visitors, clicks, conversions, etc). Typically used for ads, videos, sales pages, etc.
Above the fold: Top area of a website that can be seen when the page first loads, before scrolling down. (Newspaper term)
Affiliate Marketing: Monetization method for websites consisting in one affiliate (you) promoting another company’s products. The affiliate links are provided by the seller for the purpose of tracking traffic. Sellers usually provide the commission from the profits to reward the affiliates for the extra sales. The sale price is the same as if the person would purchase direct from the seller as a result of a direct visit.
Alexa: An analytics website often referred to when comparing websites against one another. Provides a ranking and information on traffic, audience demographics, and inbound links.
Anchor text: The clickable text in a hyperlink. Important for Search Engine Optimization.
API: Application Programming Interface. The set of programming instructions and rules by an application that allows other applications to communicate with it. Typically offered by Social Media Platforms and Online Stores for the purpose of developing sites that communicate with them (Social Media Scheduling, Shopping Comparison Apps)
App: Short for application. A software with a purpose.
Audience: The people who read your blog, listen to your podcast, follow your tweets, like your Facebook posts, subscribe to your e-mail list.
Avatar: Graphical representation of yourself on a website, social media platform. Typically a picture of a caricature of yourself
Back end: The area of a website where authorised users can modify content, sometimes referred to as the administration area or panel.
Backlinks: Links that point from other websites to yours.
Badge: A badge is a way for bloggers to promote other bloggers by placing an image on their site that links back to the badge owner’s blog. Useful for creating backlinks, that are useful for Search Engine Optimization.
Bandwidth: The amount of traffic and data that is allowed to occur between your website and the internet. Could be a monthly allowance or unlimited.
Banner: Analogy to the banners across the street, a banner can refer to a blog header. It can be used for ads, quotes, headers etc.
Bing: The name of Microsoft’s search engine.
Bit.ly: A website that lets you shorten and track URLs.
Blackhat SEO: Methods of improving a website’s ranking in search engines that are considered wrong or deceptive. Usually involves purchasing links and followers obtain unethically. Never recommended. Search engines actively look for and penalize these practices.
Blog heat map: A map of your blog, showing which areas of a specified page are clicked on the most, usually represented using colours where one colour indicates a high number of clicks while another represents a low number of clicks.
Blog: A type of website with content called posts that are often presented in reverse chronological order. Visitors can usually leave comments on posts. Modern Blogs are really good Content Management systems to be used for pages, downloads, online stores etc.
Blogger: A person who owns a blog. Also the name of the free blogging platform owned by Google. Blogs hosted by Blogger are followed by blogspot.com
Blogosphere: Blogging community.
Bookmark: To save a URL for visiting later.
Bookmarklet: Code (usually JavaScript) used to create a faux bookmark, that when clicked, performs a function such as the Pinterest “Pin It” bookmarklet.
Bounce rate: The percentage of people who arrived on your site and only viewed one page before leaving.
Browser: A program such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, Firefox and Safari, used to view pages on the internet.
Button: A linkable image that can be used on websites to create a virtual Button
Captcha: Letters and/or numbers you’re sometimes required to enter before submitting a comment, password or other data on a website, designed to ensure the response is created by a human and not a computer.
Child theme: Within WordPress, a child theme is a theme that inherits the functions of a another theme (a parent theme), and allows you to modify it.
Click-through rate: The number of times an add is clicked on, presented as a percentage of the number of impressions it receives.
Cloaked links: Affiliate links that have been converted into a link that is more user friendly. (eg: myblog.com/getafreebook) They are used to make it easier to share verbally in podcasts, TV, radios shows
CMS: Content Management System. Software that allows creation, publishing and management of a website’s content.
Comments: The thoughts or feedback left by a blog’s readers in relation to a blog post.
Commission: Income an affiliate earns for generating a sale or lead for a merchant’s products or services.
Contextual advertising: Advertisements that display on a website based on a visitor’s search history, or words (keywords) that have been used on the website.
Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who convert visits or page views into some type of action like sign-ups, purchases. Ex. If 100 people visit your page and 10 buy something, the conversion rate is 10%
Cookie: Small text files stored on your computer designed to save information on a user’s computer for a blog or website to retrieve later (such as affiliate codes). If someone clicks on your affiliate link, the affiliate code is saved in a cookie so that the person stays your affiliate for the set period of time by the Affiliate website. Ex. 15 days. If the purchase is done within that period, the commission is assigned to the first valid cookie.
cPanel: A web-hosting control panel that provides an interface and tools for the user to manage the hosting of their blog or website.
CPC: Cost Per Click. The amount you may earn each time a visitor clicks on an ad displayed on your blog. The amount is determined by the advertiser and/or the market competition
CPM: Cost Per Mille (mille = thousand). The amount you’ll earn from an ad each time is displayed 1000 times on your blog.
Creative Commons: A non-profit organisation that released several copyright licences designed to help the creators of works (photos, music tracks etc) communicate which pieces are available for others to use, adapt or share.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets. Files that define how to display blog post elements (headings, paragraphs, etc) Editing a css file can affect the overall look of your website (ex. Font color, heading fonts etc).
CSV: Comma Separated Values file. A type of file that stores plain-text data separated by a comma or tab.
Dashboard or dash: Area in the admin control panel that can give you a quick overview of traffic, next tasks, draft blog posts, latest comments. Usually customizable per admin’s needs
Deep Links: Links pointing to other pages on your blog, with the purpose of driving traffic to other pieces of content and to increase the user’s time spent on site.
Domain name: A combination of words, letters, numbers, hyphens that will represent the address of your website. A domain name needs to be registered with a Domaian name Registrar, an organization in charge of keeping track of the domain name and websites IP (Internet Protocol) address.
E-book: A PDF document, the electronic version of the book, that can be read on a computer or mobile device. Popular because of the reduced size making it easier to be shared online
E-mail marketing: A form of direct marketing which uses email to communicate with the audience.
Embed: To place content from another website within your own blog’s post or page. Typical content that is embedded are ads, forms to collect e-mails, links to other sites.
Evergreen content: A type of post that does not date quickly, and is therefore as relevant today as it will be in years to come. To make content evergreen, stay away from referring to content or information that changes often. Evergreen Examples: Blogging Terms. Non-evergreen Example: How to setup your Blog with WordPress 4.6.1
Footer: The bottom area of your blog that usually contains a copyright notice as well as links to about and contact pages, terms of service, privacy policies and monetisation disclosures.
Forums: Discussion boards where users can connect, share thoughts, and/or seek support.
Front end: The area of your blog that your visitors see when they visit your site. It is the website.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol. Used to upload website files from your computer to your server. FTP tools are typically available in the Control Panel of your Web Host.
Geotargeting: Delivering different content to a visitor based on their geographic location. Example: Local Stores, Local news
Ghost blogging: To write a blog post or manage a blog anonymously or under a different name.
GIF: Graphics Interchange Format. An image file type that supports animation
Google Adsense: A contextual advertising program created by Google. Used for monetization strategies involving ads.
Google Analytics: A free and powerful analytics tool created by Google. Used to track visitors and performance of your site.
Google Search Console: Google tool that reports crawling results and search data related to your site.
Gravatar: A global avatar. Uses an image associated with an e-mail address to show the author’s avatar (image) whenever they leave a comment with that address.
Hashtag: A method of tagging a post within networks such as Twitter or Instagram so that viewers can see all related updates or images by other users.
Header: The top area of your blog
HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language. A language that uses tags to describe the content of a website’s page.
Hyperlink: A link on a website or digital document that, when clicked, takes you to another page on the internet.
Impression: A view of a single item, whether it’s a page, or an ad, on your blog.
Index: A map of your website used by search engines. Websites are indexed automatically by search engines on a periodic basis. Search engines crawl your website following all links and report problems.
IP address: A unique string of numbers that identifies every computer that’s connected to the internet.
JavaScript: A programming language used in advanced website development.
JPG/JPEG: Joint Photographic Expert’s Group. An image file format used to compress information within a photo or picture.
Keyword research: The act of finding out which keywords search-engine users are searching for to find information.
Keyword stuffing: The practice of using too many (and sometimes irrelevant) keywords in posts or the blog’s HTML in an attempt to get traffic via search engines.
Keywords: Words that users enter into search engines to find a relevant page or pages, these words can also be used by bloggers within their posts to get traffic via search.
Landing page: A dedicated page on a website created with the intention of converting visitors into sales leads or e-mail marketing subscribers for a particular product or database list.
Lightbox: The practice of showing images or files as an overlay on the current blog page (causing the rest of the page to be darkened) instead of causing a new page to load.
Link bait: Web content created with the aim of gaining attention, usually resulting in a poor or deceiving experience.
Long-tail keywords: A keyword phrase made up of at least three to five words.
Malware: Short for malicious software. Code or scripts designed to disrupt software or collect information such as passwords.
Media kit: Document, slideshow or web page containing information about a blog’s traffic, achievements, advertising rates, and sponsorship opportunities used when forming partnerships or selling ad opportunities.
Meme: Concept or idea created with the purpose of grabbing attention and becoming viral. Usually in a form of an image with short text or video with text.
Merchant: A person selling goods or services.
Micro blog: A blog with very short content. Twitter is considered a micro blog.
Micro niche: A subset of a niche. For example in a Photography Niche some could target just Portrait Photography
Mobile site: A website or blog that’s been optimised to be viewed on a mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet.
Newsletters: An e-mail communication tool used by bloggers to alert their subscribers of updates, important news.
Niche: A subset of a market. For Example Wearable Technology is a niche of the Technology Market.
Nofollow: The nofollow value is like a stop sign given to certain hyperlinks, instructing some search engines that the link should not influence the targeted site’s ranking in search engine results. It’s designed to help reduce spam and ad impressions that are not real.
Notification bar: A bar that sits along the top or bottom of your blog, with the intention of sending a message of your choice to your visitors.
Organic search results: Listings that appear free on search engines results pages because their content is relevant to the searched word or phrase.
Outsourcing: Hiring third-party help that is not local to help with tasks related to business
Page view: The loading of a single HTML page on the internet. Also known as page impression.
Page: A static page within a blog that does not form part of the blogging content. Sales pages, About Me Pages, Special Content
PageRank: An algorithm used by Google to rank websites in their search engine results.
Parent theme: A theme that’s declared a parent because of the existence of a child theme.
Permalink: A permanent link to a specific article, document or forum entry.
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. A scripting language designed to be used with HTML to create dynamic pages.
Pillar content: Similar to Columns in newspapers, a content that has long-term appeal, that becomes a good point of reference on your blog.
Pingback/Trackback: Automated notification that another blogger has linked to your post.
Platform: A blog platform is the software used to create and maintain a blog. Examples of Platforms are: Blogger, WordPress, Joomla, Ruby On Rails
Plugin: In WordPress, a plugin is a collection of files added to the blog in order to give it extra functionality or features.
Podcast: Similar to a Radio Program but on Demand. Podcasters records shows of various lengths and post them on Podcasting Platforms such as iTunes. Listeners can listen on demand on their devices.
Pop-ups: A form of online advertising displayed in a smaller window that appears upon visiting a site, or performing an action. May include add, sign-up forms, etc. Due to the abuse of pop-ups many browsers are equipped with pop-up blockers.
Post: An article on a blog. Similar to a page but organized in the blog structure by date, category, tags.
PPC: Pay Per Click. An advertising model in which the advertiser pays a blog owner each time their ad is clicked on the blog.
Redirect: To force a website browser from one URL to another. Useful if the domain name changes or multiple domains point to the same site.
Repin: The act of adding an existing Pinterest image, pinned by someone you follow, to one of your Pinterest boards and sharing it with your followers.
Responsive design: Refers to a blog theme or website layout that changes in response to the size of the screen or device it’s being viewed on.
Retweet: The process of one Twitter user sharing the content (tweet) with their own audience by reposting it.
Robots.txt: A file on your web server that tells search engines which blog content they should ignore.
RSS reader: A website or application that allows you to read the RSS feeds
RSS: Stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a feed for delivering website and blog content via an RSS reader or aggregator.
Search Algorithm: Proprietary methods of Search Engines (Google, Bing etc) to determines how one of your blog’s pages or posts ranks within a search engine’s search results.
Self-hosted blog: A blog that requires the owner to purchase their own hosting services in order to use it.
SEO: Search Engine Optimisation. Techniques used to improve the visibility of a website within search results in order to increase site traffic.
SERP: Search Engines Results Page. The list of web pages returned by a search engine as a result of the word or phrase being searched for.
Sidebar: A column used to display content on a blog, other than the post or page’s main content. For example: newsletter sign-up forms and advertisements.
Site map: A generated table of contents on a website or blog that are accessible used by search engines to crawl your website.
Slug: Keywords that describe a post or page (usually found in the title) and are used to form a URL.
Social Networks / Social Media: Platforms that encourage users to create, share and discuss content. Most common Social Media sites are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Quora, StumbleUpon, and many others
Spam: Unsolicited advertising in the form of e-mails, blog comments, etc.
Sponsored post: A blog post that’s paid for by a sponsor. Usually written by the blogger in their tone and style, and approved by sponsors
Subscriber: A person who has chosen to stay updated on your latest blog posts via e-mail, RSS, social media following.
Tag cloud: A collection of the words used to create post tags. Usually displayed in the sidebar in a manner that shows which has been used on the blog the most.
Tag: A word or name that classifies a blog post similar to a category, though usually more specific.
Tagline: A short phrase or sentence, like a slogan, describing your website. Ex. Simplify Everything
Taxonomy: Classification of pages, posts and custom post types on a WordPress blog into categories, tags and link categories.
Theme: A skin/mask used for your website to make it look in a certain way.
Time on site: The amount of time a visitor spends on your blog.
Timestamp: The date and time attached to digital data, such as a blog post or photo.
Tool bar: An area of your screen at the top or bottom that contains useful info such as login links, sharing icons, and other features.
Troll: Someone who leaves negative or hurtful comments on blog posts, usually in an anonymous fashion.
Unique visitors: An analytics term that represents the number of visitors who visited your site during a certain time frame. Differs from visits in that the visitor is only counted once.
URL shortener: A tool that creates a shortened version of a URL
URL: A Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The full address that identifies an exact location on the internet, includes all the colons and slashes.
Viral: Content, such as posts, photos and videos, that is popular and quickly shared on the internet.
Vlog: A video blog.
Web server: A computer containing software for hosting a website.
Webinar: An online seminar, workshop or presentation.
Widget: A tool or content you can add to your blog’s sidebar, such as a calendar, list of pages or archives menu.
WordPress: An open-source content management system, used to create customizable blogs and websites using themes and plugins.
