Winglets

We call this section Winglets, as "dummies guide" is both derogatory and copyrighted! Learn the simple definitions of common terms, in clear English.

Get in touch if you need an explaination of any other technical jargon, we're here to help - info@webwings.com

Adwords

This is a service operated by Google, allowing companies to advertise their products and services. A company will create a series of ad campaigns, which are published in Google's search engine result pages (SERPs), as well as on other parts of their network. You pay Google for every click or impression you ad receives. A higher bid will result in your ad being placed more prominently.

Analytics

This is a free service operated by Google. A web developer will add some tracking code to each page on your website. When a visitor browses your site, data is captured and collated. You can login to your Analytics account to view reports. These are usually in graph format. You can see how many visitors you had, how they reached your site and how they interacted with it. There is a vast array of reports and data available for you to analyse. Linking this with your Adwords account allows you to measure ROI from your campaigns.

Back-end Development

This process involves a web developer writing code (PHP) which dictates how something like a form, product listing, order process or search should work. The programmer produces logical code, which often interacts with a database (MySQL).

Browser

This is the program or application you use to view websites. Examples of browsers are Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome. It is important to keep you browser up to date to ensure your browsing is secure, and that you benefit from the latest techniques for building websites.

Cloud

The cloud simply means the Internet. With the availability of low cost scalable hosting and storage, more and more services are moving from their traditional home online. The hosting industry is increasingly able to provide servers and storage by the hour. This, in conjunction with it's ability to scale up and down as required allows an almost limitless virtual pool of resources. Cloud hosting and cloud services are an inevitable progression. All the big name websites are utilising cloud based infrastructures, allowing them to grow and contract as demand dictates.

CMS

Content Management System. This is an area of your website, normally password protected which will allow you to update various content like text, images, products, pricing etc. The degree to which you can modify sections of your site will depend on the extent to which the CMS was implemented. It is often more cost effective to just have parts of your site which will see regular changes e.g. news, content managed. A mistake many businesses make is to believe they need everything update-able, where in reality they tend not to make such regular and wide-spread changes.

Conversion Rate

Conversions is the measurement of how many users complete goals you care about. Some of your goals when a user visits your website may include: completing a quote form, placing an order via your checkout or simply viewing your site for x minutes. It will often become clear from your Analytics data that your conversion rate can be improved upon. The rate is is the ratio between the number of visits you receive versus the number of completed goals.

Development

This is very broad term which is commonly associated with either front-end or back-end development. It’s the building, as opposed to the design.

Domain Name

Put simply, this is the web address. e.g. webwings.com. Domains can have many different suffixes, however the most common are .com, and .co.uk. Both will work equally well, and often it's a matter of perception or availability which dictates which you choose. One never owns a domain per se, but rather you register and renew it year after year. Failing to do so will allow a third party of register it once it has expired.

Ecommerce

This is the practice of selling goods or services online. Benefits include much lower setup costs than their traditional bricks and mortar counterpart, and 24/7 operation without the need for sales staff.

Front-end Development

This is the process whereby a web developer takes a visual design, breaks it down into it's components and writes to code for them to appear on the page (HTML), dictate how it should look (CSS) and behave when interacted with (Javascript).

Hosting

If a domain name is like an address to your home, hosting is the plot of land it resides on. Websites are hosted on servers in datacentres. When someone types in your domain name, a request is send to your web server, which in turn delivers the page to the users browser.

PCI (DSS) Compliance

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. This is a list of standards which vendors accepting card payments must adhere to. The specifics go beyond the scope of this page of definitions. Essentially, if you process credit cards on your website, the site and server it lives on must exhibit a certain level of security integrity.

ROI

Return on investment. This is a general business term, measuring how much return or profit is made versus the amount of capital invested. You will want to ensure this is a positive number. Automating a process may cost a few thousand to put in place, but if it can free up a member of staff to work on other tasks it’s a good investment. Especially when you spread that benefit over a year. Analysing your ROI is vital when you have Adwords campaigns running, are users converting your specified goals?

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation is the practice of modifying your website to achieve the greatest visibility to search engines like Google. This has a two-fold benefit: Google will be able to index and rank your pages more effectively, plus it can often improve usability. There are various techniques employeed to facilite this, including giving each page a unique and relevant page title, description and heading. You will also want to check your internal link structure. Avoid using images in place of 'live' text.

Social Marketing

This is the common practice of marketing ones products and services, but via alternative channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube etc. The cost is relatively low compared with traditional means, and can be highly targeted. It also help build brand awareness and community. The instant and dynamic nature of these mediums is a great benefit, allowing you to react to your market in realtime.

SSL Certificate

This is associated with the padlock icon that appears in your web browser, in addition to the address prefix of https://, in place of the standard http://. The purpose is to encrypt the data transferred from your browser to the server the website resides on. This is especially important when transmitting sensitive information such as credit card or personal details.

Wordpress

Wordpress is an open source platform primarily designed for Blogging. In recently years it's flexibility and relatively low cost of development has lead to whole websites being build upon the platform. There are many third party plugins allowing a modular approach to adding features. It is more suited to static brochure type sites, or news editorial types of offerings. It's not particularly suited to large scale database-driven developments.