accessibility
How accessible a website is to people with disabilities.
Adwords
Google's Pay Per Click (PPC) program which allows people to create their own ads and bid on keywords. Ads are positioned within the search engine's sponsored listings according to how much advertisers are willing to spend.
alt text
An HTML tag assigned to images allowing visitors to know what is being depicted if an image cannot be seen.
analytics
A program used to gather and analyse data about how a website is being used by visitors.
anchor text
The clickable text in a link. Anchor text is usually given more weighting by search engines than other text so keywords are often used.
blog
A website or part of a website with moving, regularly updated content which is usually presented chronologically.
bounce rate
The measure of visitors that arrive at a page on a site and leave, or ‘bounce’ away, without going any further.
Content Management System (CMS)
A program which allows people to update their website with content without having any knowledge of HTML coding.
content (text, copy, images)
Usually relates to the main part of a web page which is intended to be of interest to the user. Other parts of a site such as adverts, branding and menus are not usually refered to as content.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
The rate paid every time someone clicks on an advert in Pay Per Click advertising.
crawler (robot, bot, spider)
A computer program sent out by search engines to browse the internet and collect data which is then used to index a website in a certain position.
deep linking
Linking to a web page other than a site's home page, such as a contact page.
domain name
The name assigned to a website.
dynamic content
Differs from static content. Text or images which change regularly such as blogs or website news feeds, rather than web page copy which remains the same at all times.
header tags
These define the headings and subheadings on a webpage in HTML.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
A 'language' used by web developers to structure the text-based information on a page so the copy can be formatted properly into headings, paragraphs etc.
inbound link (back link)
A link to a website from a different site.
index
When a search engine adds a site to its listings.
keyword
A word used when performing a search on a search engine.
keyphrase (long tail)
A phrase or number of words used when performing a search on a search engine.
keyword density
Percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page.
keyword research
A study of keywords/phrases that would best suit your website and the analysis of which ones yield the highest return on investment.
keyword tool
Software used to conduct keyword research showing the kind of searches being carried out by users and how often.
link building
The method of getting links from other websites to your own.
meta description
An HTML tag which provides a description for search engine listings.
meta tags
HTML tags which describe various aspects about the content of a web page.
organic listings (natural search results)
The main listings which appear when a search is carried out on a search engine. On Google it is the list on the left hand side of the page. You cannot pay to appear in these listings – a site is positioned depending on its content, links and reputation. This differs from sponsored listings.
outbound link
A link from your website to a different site.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
A method of putting a website in the sponsored listings of a search engine. These results are ranked according to how much an advertiser is willing to bid on keywords. Advertisers pay when a user clicks on the search listing.
reciprocal links
Mutual links between two websites. These are not always valued highly by search engines due to their reciprocal nature.
search engine submission
Manually supplying a URL to a search engine to make it aware of the existence of a site or page.
sponsored listings
On Google these appear at the top of the page in a yellow box and on the right hand side of the page. These are listings that websites have paid to be included on through a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign. If these ads are clicked on, the advertiser pays a fee.
static content
Differs from dynamic or moving content such as blogs or newsfeeds in that it remains the same day in day out. This would usually make up the main bulk of text on a website.
search engine optimisation (SEO)
Process of adjusting the technical set up and content of a website to make it as easy as possible for search engine crawlers to understand what the website is about.
Small business marketing packages
Launch Marketing provide complete marketing packages to get small businesses up and running
stickiness
Related to a site's bounce rate. Stickiness is how enticing a web page is to a visitor – if it is full of interesting content makes users 'stick' to the page for longer.
title tag (page title)
Arguably the most important 'tag' of a webpage in terms of keyword placement. The page title is what appears in the top bar of a browser when a webpage is viewed.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
Global address of documents and other resources on the internet.
usability
Ease with which visitors are able to use a website.
user generated content (UGC)
Content of a website which is supplied by users such as in chat rooms and forums. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter rely heavily on this kind of content.
unique content
Content that is not found anywhere else on the web. This differs from duplicate content such as RSS feeds which are made available to multiple other sites.
web hosting
A web host provides the storage, connectivity and services necessary to serve files for a website.
webmaster
Whoever is responsible for maintaining a website – also known as a web developer.
web syndication
Material which is made available to any number of different websites such as RSS Feeds, press releases and news.