Every business has its specific language and acronyms they use to communicate with each other and to outsiders, it sounds like a foreign language. SurfYourName is no exception to this rule and sometimes web designers, web developers, and social media geeks are worse than average! While what we say may make sense to us, our clients sometimes get lost in our gibberish. It would take years to come up with a total”geek” dictionary, but here are some of the common terms to help you navigate the web design, web development, and e-marketing world.
The Back-end would be described by something happening behind the scenes. Most shopping carts, programs, submission forms, and other applications have some type of Back-end programming that the user will never see. At SurfYourName.com we manage the Back-end of our client’s web design and websites because we want you to focus on running your business while leaving the Back-end to us!
Bandwidth is the amount of data that can travel through a communication path. The simple explanation is to compare it to water flowing into your house through the pipes from the water company. The pipes can only deliver water based on the size of the pipes; larger pipes can handle more water. The water company also puts a water meter on the outside of your house to measure the amount of water you are using. This works the same way with a website. Each time a user visits your website, the website is taken from the server and delivered to their computer. That “data” is measured just like water from the water company and that data transfer is called bandwidth. The website owner usually has an allotted amount of bandwidth per month for their website.
A browser is a program used to view websites. The most common browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome. These browsers retrieve websites from servers and display them on a users computer screen.
Simply put, Domain Names and URL’s are the way to locate a website. Just like your house has a street address, Domain Names and URL’s are a webpage’s address. SurfYourName.com and Google.com are both examples of Domain Names. We provide affordable Domain Name acquisition for our clients for most web design and blog projects.
Conducting business on the internet is typically referred to as E-commerce. Selling items and services online are the most common forms of E-commerce.
The Home Page is the main page of a website. It is usually the front or first thing a user will see when they visit your website. Typically, all other web pages will spawn off from the Home Page.
Website Hosting is a service of renting server space where your website is stored. Internet browsers will gather websites from the server to be displayed on a computer screen. Factors such as storage space, bandwidth usage, software installed on the server, as well as many other factors can influence the cost of Hosting. Surf Your Name owns and operates our private servers and provides extremely affordable
Links are also sometimes called hyperlinks. Links take you to another webpage, sometimes within the same website or sometimes to another website. Links can be text, JAVA, images, and others. Links are commonly used for navigation within or to a webpage.
Short for “malicious software,” malware refers to software programs designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. Common examples of malware include viruses, worms, trojan horses, and spyware. Malware can cause havoc on a computer or server by deleting files or directory information. Malware can also gather data from a user’s system without the user knowing it. This can include anything from the web pages a user visits personal information, such as credit card numbers. Hackers typically use malware to take control of your computer or website for many reasons, but any malware can damage your computer, website, or business.
A no-reply or a no-reply email is an email sent from an email address that is either not set up to accept incoming emails or an email account that is not being monitored. Typically operational emails like delivery notices, automated order acknowledgments, etc. are sent from a no-reply account. However, some use no-reply emails for marketing emails which is not a best practice. Read our article about using no-reply emails, “4 Reasons Why You Should NOT Send from a No-Reply Email Address“
ROI isn’t specific to the web design and “geek” community. All businesses must always weigh the ROI of any project, service, or product. At SurfYourName.com we want to make sure your website is working for you by providing results. Most of our clients will see a Return On Investment within the first few months of operation. We work with many different size budgets to ensure you are always seeing a positive ROI.
A program that performs searches on a website or searches across the World Wide Web. Searches can be for specific words or phrases. Most users are familiar with Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and some other small Search Engines.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the act of increasing the number of visitors to anyone particular website or webpage by performing modifications to the webpage. These modifications can include text optimization, links tweaking, keyword density, tags within the site, and many others. Search Engine Optimization can range from small tweaks to massive overhauls of a webpage. SurfYourName.com has a dedicated staff of programmers who keep up with the hottest trends and techniques of Search Engine Optimization and deploy them on our clients’ webpages. Search engines are continuously changing and updating their rules and policies which makes Search Engine Optimization an always-changing world and labor-intensive task.
We all know that a Server brings us our food at a restaurant, but in “geek” speak it is a computer connected directly to the internet where website and webpages are housed. When you have a hosting account for your website, it is being stored on a Server. SurfYourName.com provides the latest and fastest Servers on the market for our clients. Our servers are not shared Servers which allows our client’s websites services to be lightning-fast with no interruptions in service. The hosting packages we offer on our Servers are more affordable than most BIG name companies who put your website on a Server shared with hundreds of other websites.
The true definition of Social Media is media for social interaction. This definition of this term has evolved dramatically over the past few years as more “methods” of Social Media have appeared. In short, when someone in the web design and marketing field is talking about Social Media, they are referring to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other websites that provide social interaction across the internet. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, as well as other websites, have become extremely effective tools for businesses to expand, promote, and advertise their business. Events and breaking news flood Social Media as it happens and has become the CNN without the reporters.
This is considered the worst 4-letter word in the professional “geek” circle. SPAM is the practice of sending commercial messages or advertisements via email. These are typically unsolicited messages sent from offshore email accounts. However, these messages can be sent from any computer or website that has been infected with a virus or malware.
Secure Sockets Layer or the common abbreviation SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and the user’s browser remain private and integral. SSL is an industry-standard and is used by millions of websites in the protection of their online transactions with their customers. Surf Your Name is a provider of SSL Certificates for your website.
In short, Submission Forms are webpages that contain fields for the user to input information to be sent to someone. Most are familiar with website contact forms, quote request forms, and other data collecting forms. The data collected from these forms are entered into a database, emailed, or printed by the user collecting the data. These Submission Forms can be very complex or as simple as collecting email addresses for a newsletter. We typically create at least one form for every one of our web design clients. They are a very effective way of communication and collecting data.
