Are you a webmaster or site owner confused with jargons used in webmaster’s community? Are you looking for a webmaster glossary explaining terms in simple English? If yes, then you are landed on a perfect place!!!
There are many terms used in the word of site building and it is difficult for a beginner to understand all of them. Here we compiled a complete list of glossary terms used by webmasters and site owners. It is a good idea for a beginner to start with the glossary and this is the best place to learn and familiarize with the webmaster’s lingo. If you see a term is not listed in this glossary then please contact us so that we can add it for the benefit of all webmasters.
Also, check our complete list of WordPress glossary, Weebly glossary and AdSense glossary terms.
0-9
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| 301 Redirect | 301 is the HTTP status code returned by a web server when the requested URL by the client is reached by redirecting the user agent. The user agent is normally a web browser or a search engine crawler trying to access a web page. 301 status code is not shown in the browser window and the user agent is automatically redirected to another resource by the server. Hence, it is generally called server side 301 redirect setup. |
A
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| A/B Testing | Testing of two different versions to choose the best performing one. A/B testing can be done on different things like advertisements, landing pages, keywords, etc. |
| Above the Fold | The portion of the webpage a user can see without scrolling down. Above the fold area is of most importance as advertisers tend to pay more for the ads placed on above the fold area. |
| Ad Blocking | Most of the advertisements like Google AdSense work based on JavaScript code. Ad blocking is the way to identify the ad script on a page and stop loading it to give better user experience. |
| Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate marketing is a way to promote someone else product on your webpage. When there is a purchase done through your affiliate links, the product owner will pay a commission for generating the sale. |
| Alexa | Alexa was a retired web analytics company owned by Amazon founded during April 1996. The website ranking service offered by Alexa was more popular among webmasters. High Alexa rank was an indication of the site getting more traffic in that particular country. |
| Anchor Text | The clickable text in a hyperlink, often used to improve SEO and user navigation. |
| Alt Text | Alt text is the short form of alternative text. It is a HTML attribute used to provide text equivalent for non-textual elements. As search engines can’t understand images and other non-textual elements, they use alt text for that purpose. Hence, alt text is an important factor in optimizing your site for search engine crawlers. |
| Analytics | Analytics is a way of understanding the behavioral pattern of how a webpage is getting traffic. The data includes the geographical origin of traffic, landing page, exit page, etc. This helps webmasters to analyze the site’s performance and take corrective actions to improve the traffic. |
| Apache | Apache is an open-source web server software popularly used with platforms like WordPress. |
| Avatar | Avatar is a profile picture linked to the email id of an user. It is generally referred as Gravatar and used in comments and forums to show the real face of the users. |
B
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Backlink | Backlinks are the incoming links pointing to your webpage. It is of utmost important for SEO as search engines give more weightage to the page having quality backlink when calculating search results. |
| Baidu | Baidu is a leading search engine in China with more than 75% of market share. You can submit your site to Baidu through Baidu Webmaster Tools. Other than Site and Sitemap submission Baidu offers wide range of various free features for registered users. |
| Bandwidth | The amount of information that can be sent through a server connection during particular period of time. |
| Bid | Bid is the maximum amount an advertiser is willing to pay for a click on his advertisement. |
| Bot | Bot or robot is a piece of software that is used to crawl the web and find information. There are good as well as bad bots. Search engines are good bots that crawl and index the webpages for serving it on the search results. Bad bots generally try to steal confidential and financial information from a website for misuse. |
| Bounce Rate | Bounce rate is a percentage of users enter and exit on single page without viewing any other pages on a site. |
| Breadcrumbs | Breadcrumb is a collection of links helps the users to navigate easily in the website. This helps the user to know at any point of time where exactly he is in the site and move to the up or down level structure directly. Breadcrumbs can be a vertical or horizontal depending on the site’s navigation structure. |
C
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Canonical URL | The preferred version of a web page to avoid duplicate content issues in search engines. |
| Crawler | A crawler, also known as a spider, is a script used to gather information from web pages. Search engines often assign these crawlers specific names for clarity, such as Googlebot or Bingbot. As a website owner, it is important to guide these crawlers by specifying which URL links should be indexed and which referring links from your site should be considered by the search engine. Learn more about SEO for Crawlers and AdSense Crawler. |
| Crawling | The process by which search engines discover and index website content. |
D
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Domain Authority (DA) | A ranking score predicting a website’s ability to rank on search engine results. |
| Dwell Time | The amount of time a visitor spends on a page before returning to search results. |
E
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Ecommerce SEO | Optimization techniques specifically for online stores to improve search engine rankings. |
| External Link | A hyperlink that points to a page on a different website. |
F
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| FTP | FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, which is a mechanism of connecting to a web server remotely from your location. This is a popular way of uploading and downloading files to server when using platforms like WordPress. |
| Featured Snippet | A short, direct answer to a search query displayed at the top of Google’s search results. |
G
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Google Analytics | A free tool provided by Google for tracking website traffic and visitor behavior. |
| Google Search Console | A free tool for monitoring and maintaining a site’s presence in search results. |
H
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| HTML | HTML or HyperText Markup Language is the standard coding language used to create web pages. |
| HTML Sitemap | XML Sitemap is file explaining the navigation structure of your site to the search engine crawlers. This helps the crawlers to understand the structure of your site easily and index it in the database. XML Sitemap of a website can be seen in the browser using the URL – http://www.Yoursitename.com/sitemap.xml and this Sitemap is not displayed for the visitors in the site structure. |
| Heading Tags | HTML tags (e.g., <h1>, <h2>) used to define headings and structure content on a webpage. |
| HTTP | HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol which is a basis of data communication in the internet. The data communication starts with a request sent from a client and ends with the response received from a web server. |
I
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Internal Link | A hyperlink that points to another page on the same website. |
| Indexing | The process of adding a web page to a search engine’s database. |
J
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| JavaScript | A programming language used to add interactivity and dynamic elements to websites. |
| JSON-LD | A structured data format used to provide metadata to search engines. |
K
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Keyword | A specific word or phrase used to improve search engine rankings and target audience needs. |
| Keyword Stuffing | Overusing keywords in content in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings. |
L
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Landing Page | A standalone web page created for marketing or promotional purposes to drive specific actions. |
| Lightbox | Lightbox is a pop-up window shows the original size of an image or a video when clicked on it. Disabling the lightbox of an image means that the users will not be able to click on the image to see the original size image in a pop-up window. Lightbox option can’t be used when linking the image to any other resource. |
| Link Building | The process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to improve SEO and traffic. |
M
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Meta Description | A short snippet describing a webpage’s content, often displayed in search engine results. |
| Mobile Optimization | The process of ensuring a website functions and looks good on mobile devices. |
N
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| NoFollow | An attribute added to a hyperlink to indicate that search engines should not pass link equity. |
| Navigation Menu | A set of links designed to help users navigate through a website’s content. |
O
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Organic Traffic | Visitors who arrive at a website via unpaid search engine results. |
| On-Page SEO | Techniques for optimizing individual web pages to improve search engine rankings. |
P
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Page Speed | The time it takes for a webpage to load completely. |
| Permalink | The permanent URL of a specific page or post on a website. |
Q
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Quality Score | A metric used by Google Ads to measure the quality and relevance of an ad and its keywords. |
R
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Redirect | Redirect is a technique to route search engine crawlers and hence the visitors to a destination webpage when a requested source webpage is not available. |
| Resolving Host | Resolving host is the process of getting the IP address for the host name (site URL) you entered in the browser through the DNS servers. Whenever a site address is entered, the browser tries to get the IP address of the site through the DNS servers configured in the browser’s setting. The default setting is to obtain the DNS servers from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or you can enter your own public DNS servers. |
| Responsive Design | A design approach that ensures websites look and function well on various devices and screen sizes. |
| Robots.txt | A “robots.txt” is a text file in the root directory of a website which informs the search engines whether the webpage is allowed to be crawled or not. User-agent in the file indicates what kind of search engine you want to block. |
S
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| SEO | SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the art of building a search engine friendly site in order to get top rank to drive organic traffic to a website. |
| SERP (Search Engine Results Page) | The page displayed by search engines in response to a query. |
| Sitelink or Deep link | Sitelink or Deep link is the structure displayed in the search engines along with the sectional information. Google refers it as a Sitelink and Bing refers it as a Deep links. As of now search engines automatically shows the structured information in the search results and webmasters have no specific way to inform the search engines about the structure to be displayed in the searches. |
| Structured Data | A standardized format used to provide information about a webpage to search engines. |
T
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Title Tag | An HTML element that specifies the title of a webpage, displayed in search engine results. |
| Traffic | The number of visitors a website receives over a period. |
U
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| URL (Uniform Resource Locator) | The address of a specific webpage on the internet. |
| User Experience (UX) | The overall experience a user has while interacting with a website or application. |
V
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Viewport | The visible area of a web page on a user’s screen or device. |
| Virtual Host | A method for hosting multiple websites on a single server. |
W
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Web Crawler | A program used by search engines to scan and index web pages. |
| Web Hosting | A service that provides storage space for websites to be accessible online. |
| Webmaster | Webmaster is a umbrella term used to identify anyone who create, maintain or design a website for his/her own purposes or for others. “Site Owner” is the interchangeable term to refer a webmaster. |
| Webmaster Tools | Webmaster Tools is the package of features offered by search engine companies to help webmasters build their site search engine friendly. Features are generally free and includes site submission, Sitemap submission, monitoring crawling errors, search queries, etc. |
X
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| XML Sitemap | XML Sitemap is file explaining the navigation structure of your site to the search engine crawlers. This helps the crawlers to understand the structure of your site easily and index it in the database. XML Sitemap of a website can be seen in the browser using the URL – https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml and this Sitemap is not displayed for the visitors in the site structure. |
Y
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Yandex | Yandex is a leading search engine in Russia having more than 60% of market share. Yandex Webmaster Tool allows you to submit your site to Yandex Search Engine. Unlike Baidu in China, Yandex provides the Webmaster Tools in both English and Russian language which makes it easier for Webmasters to submit and monitor their sites. |
| Yield Optimization | The process of maximizing revenue from ads or other monetization strategies on a website. |
Z
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Zero-Click Search | A search result that provides the answer directly on the search engine page, eliminating the need to click. |
