Glossary of internet terms
Accessibility
In the same way that a new public space has regulations on providing access for wheelchair users, the internet has guidelines for providing website access for disabled users. Visually impaired or physically handicapped users rely on specialist software aids to navigate your website. In turn, that software depends on your website team developing to a minimum level of industry recognised build standards.
Your company could risk a civil court case if it is deemed not to satisfy the Disability Discrimination Act by your website not reaching these construction benchmarks. However, the most notable consequence in not meeting these benchmarks is that your website will have reduced success on search engines like Google.
Content Management System (CMS)
Publishing tools within a secure area of a website that allow you to publish content to your website instantly. Using simple editing ‘forms’, similar to that you may complete when shopping on-line, our CMS modules make updating your website a basic data entry exercise.
Hosting
The service of running the website. All the world’s websites incur hosting fees in the same way a telephone service incurs a line rental.
Domain or domain name
Our domain is ‘bigroominternet.co.uk’. A domain is your company’s unique name used for email (the bit after the ‘@’ symbol) and also the website address (the bit after ‘www.’). Be sure to legally safeguard your domain and don’t forget to renew it!
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Google, Yahoo, MSN are search engines. These are the website directories where we keyword search for matching website results. Why certain websites appear top of results and others do not depends on many factors but ‘optimising’ a website, particularly tailoring a site’s text, will improve the chances of your website being returned higher up the list than your competitors.
Successful search engine optimisation is an ongoing commitment that will reap rewards - you get out what you put in!
Server/webserver
The computer your website runs on.
Usability
How well the design of the website enables users to move around and understand the context of the website.