As digital is still relatively new, there’s a lot of jargon that’s not yet common knowledge. Some words you might know, some may completely baffle you, so we’ve created a general digital jargon buster to help you on your online journey. Look out for more specific jargon lists of this soon!
1
301 Redirect
A permanent feature that re-channels traffic from one URL to another.
404 Page
A page that the website will link a user to if a specific link has not worked.
A
Above the Fold
Content seen on screen once the page has loaded, without having to scroll down.
Anchor Text
A link which, when clicked, takes the user to the section of the page which represents the content clicked.
App
A program that is run on smartphones and tablets and not on desktops.
B
Backlink
A link from another site which refers traffic to your site.
Banner
A landscape image (or series of images, in a scrolling banner) that is normally found above the fold, usually on a homepage or key landing pages. Usually contains key information or advertisement that will attract users to browse the site further.
B2B
Selling products or services from your business to another business.
B2C
Selling products or services from your business to the general public, or ‘customers’.
Brochure website
A site which does not sell products online, but provides information instead.
Bounce Rate
When a website is hit but the user immediately leaves the website without clicking through to any additional pages.
C
CAPTCHA
A security test which tells a computer whether you are a human or a bot. Can be a tick box, or an easy-to-answer question.
Cache
Temporary storage or memory that allows fast access to data. This reduces page load time etc.
Click Paths
The pattern of clicks as well as entry and exit points, which display the user’s interaction on a website.
Content
In digital, content means anything from text to images that have been created for specific purposes on a website. The content on this page is the images and text within the blog.
Cookie
Data a website you visit stores in your browser. Allows site to remember things like login details, favourited items, purchase history, etc.
CMS
AKA Control Management System. The “back end” of a site where the site owner edits and creates content.
CTA
AKA Call To Action. Normally a button, a CTA is something which draws the users attention and attempts to get the user to click on it. For example, an Add to Basket button.
D
Domain Name
A domain name is a site’s URL. Our domain is wearemarvellous.com
E
eCommerce
A website which can sell products to customers online.
eCommerce Tracking
Used predominantly in Google Analytics, this is a feature which can track specific eCommerce data.
Entry Page
The page of a website that any user lands on first.
F
The dominating social media platform of the past decade.
Feefo
A program which can be added to a site for users to review products. Is often seen as making a site more trustworthy.
Form Field
A field asking for someone’s information, which can be required (marked with an *) or not required. Conversion rates often improve with less required fields.
G
Geo-targeting
Targeting users by location.
Google AdWords
Google AdWords enables businesses to only pay when the ads are clicked, instead of for the ad itself.
GA / Google Analytics
Linked to a website, Analytics tracks and reports website traffic statistics, which is useful for SEO and marketing purposes, as well as determining how well your website is doing. Users are able to compare stats month on month.
H
HTML
AKA Hypertext Markup Language – standard language used to tell web browsers how to interpret info on a web page.
I
IM / Instant Messaging
Talking to someone online in real time. Remember MSN? That. Only for 2017.
iOS
Apple’s mobile operating system. The equivalent of Android for Apple users. If you get an update on your iPhone, it is an iOS update. We are currently on iOS 10, and iOS 11 is rumoured to materialise in September 2017.
A social media app that consists of photos and captions @MarvellousLeeds
IP Address
A numerical identification for computers on a network.
J
JS / JavaScript
Dynamic programming language that allows visitors to interact with websites via forms, widgets, etc.
Keyword Density
The number of times a keyword is used on a page. Keywords are a good use of content to get Google to recognise the purpose of the page, so the page will rank higher in search results.
L
Landing Page
A page which users land on, from both internal and external links. It is designed to collect traffic and then provides users with information to get them to continue their path through the site.
Log Files
Records of all the hits a web page gets over a period of time.
M
Magento
An enterprise level eCommerce platform, usually used by brands with many products who need a site that can expand with their business.
Meta Information
Meta descriptions and alt tags come under the umbrella of meta information. It is small chunks of written information which identifies the content of the web page for the purposes of Google and it’s search rankings. See SEO for more info.
N
Navigation
A collection of links that form a menu bar to take the user to the main pages of the site.
News Feed
A section of a site which displays real-time update of news, commonly seen as a list.
O
One Step Checkout
A Magento plugin which has all checkout steps on one page, minimising slow loading times and increasing conversions.
Open-source platform
Open source means any program where the source code is available to the public (both users and developers) for use and modification. An example of an open source platform is WordPress.
Organic Search Rankings
Listing on search engine results because of relevance instead of advertisement.
Organic Traffic
Visits that happen through finding the site on a search engine results page, not including clicks through ads.
Open Rate
The number of emails opened vs the number of emails sent.
P
Pay Wall
A system that requires users to pay before accessing certain content.
Perch
A platform used for brochure websites with an easy-to-use CMS system.
Plugins
An extension developed to be plugged in to a site to add a specific enhance its functionality or design.
Pop-up
An advert or offer which “pops up” on the screen as a direct overlay to the web page.
POS
AKA Point of Sale. Display material used in any retail outlet (store or online) to draw attention to a product, service or offer.
PPC / Pay Per Click
A paid advertising method where the company pays a specified amount every time a user clicks on the ad link.
Q
Query String
The words entered into a search engine, i.e. Digital agency Leeds.
R
Reach
The number of users a web page or social media post potentially reaches, giving them the option to click on the link or post.
Retention
The rate at which your customers remain your customers.
Rich Media
Advanced techonology on a web page that interacts with the user, like a streaming video, or something which starts as the user’s mouse hovers over it, or scrolls down to where it sits in the page.
ROI
AKA Return on Investment. Results you’ve achieved vs. amount spent to achieve them.
S
SagePay
A payment service provider that processes payment securely online. SagePay is Europe’s leading independent in this field.
SEO / Search Engine Optimisation
Improving a web page’s ranking on search engine results. There are defined ways of achieving good SEO and these are determined by Google, and are changed and redefined every few months. A website must adhere to these specifications if it wants to be shown as a high-ranking result on Google.
Server
A “host” that maintains particular websites and email services etc.
Shopify
An affordable eCommerce platform which uses themes to minimise cost.
Site map
List of all pages on a website that is accessible to users.
SKU
AKA Stock Keeping Unit. An alpha-numeric identification of a product to be tracked for inventory purposes.
SLUG
The part of the URL that comes after the /. i.e wearemarvellous.com/digital-jargon-busters. It can be customisable as opposed to your domain name which stays the same throughout the site.
Soft Bounces
When a recipient deletes an email that has been sent to their inbox before reading it. Normally is displayed as a percentage rate.
Spam
The digital equivalent of junk mail being posted through your letterbox. Thoroughly annoying to all. Can also be used as a term when one receives a lot of something from one person in a short period of time – “stop spamming me with texts, I’m just not into you,” for example. Does not mean meat in a can.
Spider
A type of program which crawls a website to index information. Doesn’t have 8 legs.
Sticky Nav
A menu bar which “sticks” to the top of the page when the user scrolls down. Really handy to get to other pages when you are very far down a page.
T
Traffic
The number of visits who come to your website. Can be discovered in Google Analytics where you can determine the period of time you want to filter by.
A social media platform with an 140-character limit per Tweet, enabling users to receive small snippets of information quickly.
U
Users
Someone using a web page to view content. If you had 2 people browsing your website at one specific time, there would be 2 users on the website.
W
WooCommerce
A WordPress extension which allows any WordPress site to have eCommerce functionality.
