Glossary of Terms*

(* Web jargon and new-media BS.)

Web professionals and media people talk a lot. Most of what they doesn’t make any sense to anyone who isn’t a web professional or media person. Use this glossary as a reference guide, and be sure to politely remind them that they need to speak to their clients in plain English. Of course, we’re as guilty of it as anyone else in the industry – so you’ll find all the potentially confusing terms we use on our site listed here as well.¹

Glossary of business, new-media and web terms

A/B testing

Testing two or more different versions of a site, page, element (such as a button, banner or tab), content or section of copy against each other, to see which version generates the best results. This could mean evaluating for things like ease of use, sales conversions, user preference, or any other variable. Results can be measured in many ways – for example, using site analytics or user testing.

Blogging

Keeping an online journal (a blog) – either for personal or professional purposes – which consists of regular updates like articles, diary entries, photos, recipes, excerpts, status updates, etc.

Brand (Corporate Identity, Corporate Personality, Brand Image)

The overall image – both in physical appearance and through your communication style – of your business. How you are perceived by your users and customers. Your recognisable hallmarks that make you, you. Just like each person has a unique identity, so does each business.

Brand Language (Brand Language Guide)

The words, terminology and style of language used to describe your company’s brand to your customers. How the language of your on- and offline communication presents your business to the world. It can be helpful to have a brand language guide, which clearly sets out the rules for your business communication so that everyone in the company is using the same, consistent tone.

Browser Testing

Checking to see whether a website works well and looks good in a variety of common web browsers and devices. These include (but are not always limited to) Internet Explorer, Safari, Google Chrome and Firefox on Mac computers, Windows PCs, smart phones, iPhones, games consoles and TV internet. See graceful degradation and Responsive Web Design for more info.

Client Questionnaire

An essential part of the consultation process on any copywriting or web design project, this is a detailed questionnaire that we give to all our clients to help them explain to us – and to themselves – what they need. It also creates a nice, neat project brief that a client can use in communications with other designers and within their business. You can read more about why the client questionnaire is so useful here.

Content Creation

Researching, designing and producing content, for your website or other online portal, that will be engaging, relevant and interesting to your site’s visitors. Content is created either as a standalone piece of work or as part of a wider content strategy.

Content Sharing Service (Content Service)

An on- or offline service that allows you to clip interesting content from the web and share it with your friends. Facebook and Twitter provide a basic way to do this, but there are also specifically designed services like Pinterest and Gimmebar. Content sharing services are changing the way the web is viewed, from website-centred to user-centred. It is one of the major reasons why good, relevant, stand-alone content is an essential requirement for your website.

Content Strategy (Content Strategist)

The art of using web (and other) content to achieve a specific goal, such as increased sales/revenue or better awareness of your brand or cause.

Copywriting (Copywriter)

Writing the words (the “copy”) for all sorts of web and print based applications, such as advertisements, websites, brochures, articles, blogs, social media profiles, books, corporate documents, teaching materials, etc. Some copywriters offer a variety of writing and editing services, while others prefer to specialise in one area. When choosing a copywriter, ask to see their portfolio and examples of relevant work, and don’t be afraid to ask lots of annoying questions! They should be a lot more than just a good writer: they’ll also need to know all about marketing, persuasive copy, usability, web standards, latest technologies and techniques, SEO and brand language.

Corporate Style Guide (Branding Guide)

A technical manual which sets out the exact specifications for using a company’s brand design, which includes how internal and external documents should be laid out, how and when logos and company colours should be used and any other “brand rules” that apply to the overall visual appearance of your company’s brand.

Graceful Degradation

The correct process by which a website should lose some of its features or design elements in older web browser versions. A good website design should work in all current versions of the popular web browsers, but will start to lose some functionality or design flourishes when viewed in older browsers. However, the site should still be good looking and usable in these older versions. Most websites will stop working altogether in very out-of-date browsers. Your web designer will know which browser versions are most important for your site to work in.

Keyword Phrase

In search engine optimisation, a word or combination of words selected as a highly relevant search term for your business and the specific content on your website, used to help your website perform better in online searches. It is, essentially, the search term that someone would type into the search box of Google in order to find a piece of content that’s on your site. The more relevant and targeted this phrase is, the more likely the searcher will click on your website from the list of search results.

Keyword Research

In search engine optimisation, the process of selecting keyword phrases that are relevant to your business and will generate good search traffic for your website. Arguably the most time-consuming but essential aspect of a successful SEO project.

Microcopy

The words used on buttons, tabs, links and other small areas of your website, particularly when designed specifically to encourage the user to click on the item or perform a certain action. The microcopy used on a site can make a startling difference to sales conversions. Web designers and Copywriters may often use A/B testing to design the best microcopy for a site.

Persuasive Language (Persuasive Copy)

Language that is specifically crafted in order to convince a reader to take a certain course of action, i.e. click a certain button on your website, buy a product, sign up for a newsletter, etc. Persuasive writing usually follows a set of guidelines that help to build a good case and lead your reader towards the desired outcome.

Portfolio

A collection of previous work examples which you should look at before booking any web design or writing professional. A good portfolio gives you a feel for what kind of work the person does, what their design or writing style is and the overall range of their work. This will help you to decide whether they are right for your project. Don’t be afraid to ask for more or better examples relevant to your own project if you can’t see what you want in their portfolio, and ask plenty of questions!

Responsive Web Design

A cutting edge web design technique: the process of designing a website that responds to the method used to view or access it, in order to make it fully usable in all possible situations. This means designing a website that knows which browser and device it is being accessed on, and adjusts its design and layout in order to best suit that method. In practice, this makes a website that works well and looks good on any device and in any web browser. This contrasts with previous web design techniques, where specific and separate “apps” were built for various mobile and other devices, and where the site appeared identical – just scaled up or down in size – across all devices and browsers (rendering some functions impossible to use on some devices).

Sales Conversion Rates

The percentage of people who visit your website that actually buy something. So, if your site has 100 visitors today and three of them buy something, your conversion rate for the day is 3%. Don’t be alarmed by very low monthly conversion rates (less than 3%) – this is quite normal for an online business and one of the reasons why getting more people to your site is so important!

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Improving the performance of your website and its individual pages and content in online search engines like Google and Yahoo, therefore increasing the number of visitors to your site and, ultimately, driving sales. This is done by selecting keyword phrases that are highly relevant to the content and subject of your site, and using a combination of simple but effective techniques to help your site appear in search results for those terms. Basic SEO is not difficult, but it can be complicated and time consuming, and results can take weeks or months to show. Beware of SEO companies approaching you, offering to rank you at the top of a Google search: they often use underhand techniques that will harm your company’s reputation and search ranking; fast results are often short-lived.

Social Media

Services which encourage people to communicate, update and share stuff with an online community of “friends.” The two best known social media communities are Facebook and Twitter – essential marketing tools for modern websites and businesses – but there are literally hundreds of other sites, ranging from general interest to more specialised content. Think Google+, Bebo, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. Having buttons on your site for all the sharing and social media sites that are relevant to your users is a must.

User Testing

A very important step in creating a good website: testing your site on real-world users, both inside and outside your target market. There are lots of methods for doing this, but it doesn’t have to be difficult, expensive or time-consuming. Try Steve Krug’s fantastic beginners guide to user testing, “Rocket Surgery Made Easy.” And don’t forget to ask your web designer about it. Skipping the user testing step is a common pitfall of many, many businesses.

UX design

UX stands for User Experience. User Experience Design is the process of designing a website that is very user-centred (easy to use), based on actual consideration – and usually testing – of the website user’s online experience. In practice, this means that a website is designed for the end user, based on what they want from the site, rather than on what the website owner thinks they need. User testing is an extremely important part of this process. A good web designer needs to be well versed in UX design techniques (or able to work with someone who is!).

Web Browser

An application used for accessing the world wide web; the method by which you visit a website. There are a large number of modern browsers, but some examples of popular current ones are: Firefox, Safari (for Macs and Apple mobile devices), Internet Explorer (for PCs and Windows mobile devices), Opera, Chrome and various games console web browsers.

Web Content (often referred to as simply, “Content”)

Any potential information created for use on a website. Web pages, written articles, videos, photo galleries, tutorials, guides and contact pages are all examples of content; the term refers to any material which is intended to be accessed by web users through your website or other web portals (such as social networking sites).

Web Design (Web Designer)

In simple terms: planning and building a new website, either from scratch or by updating a previously existing site. Some web designers will take care of all stages, from initial drawings through to the actual coding and browser/user testing. Others like to specialise in one part of the process. Choose your web designer very carefully: they should be a fantastic designer (obviously) but also know a lot about >usability and UX design, current web standards, accessibility and the latest web technologies. Ask to see a detailed portfolio, and don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions.

Web Standards (W3C Standards, Accessibility)

A set of guidelines for building websites in order that they are (a) accessible from any device and/or browser; (b) accessible to people with disabilities; (c) accessible to international users; and (d) support the long-term sustainability of the web. Your web designer absolutely, positively needs to know this stuff backwards!

Web Usability

In a nutshell: the ability of a website to be “user-friendly.” How easy to use a website is. It is imperative that you choose a web designer who fully understands web usability and user testing practices.

Website analytics

A set of in-depth statistics which show how your site is being used, including information like which browsers people are using, how many visitors you are getting, what your sales conversion rates are, how long people stay on your site, where they are visiting from, how they found you, what search terms they used and much more. Google Analytics is one of the most popular tools for accessing this information, and the one we use for all our sites.

Wordsmithery (yeah, I made that up)

The art of using the written word to create engaging content for print, websites, books, advertisements and all sorts of other uses.

Workshops

Small, informal training sessions which encourage learning through trying something, rather than reading about it, and offer a two-way dialogue rather than a question/answer format.

¹ This glossary is very new, and a work in progress. I would welcome any and all feedback from industry professionals and clients alike, as I hope to develop it into a useful basic resource for the web design and copywriting community. Please: tell me what’s unclear or confusing, what needs to be in plainer English and which definitions need tweaking for accuracy, grammar or anything else. Be brutal.

As with all articles and resources on the Charlee Says site, feel free to use this list for personal or business use. You’re welcome to print it (or any excerpt from it), distribute it, link to it or, indeed, use it as toilet paper, provided you acknowledge the original source (me) and don’t edit the actual content, except to annotate.