Whaaaaaat?
"You have an acute case of cephalgia, characterized by labile somatic nociceptive responses in the medial rostral area? Ingest a pair of non-steroidal anti-inflammatories and contact my office ante meridiem."*
Every profession has its nigh-unintelligible jargon. We commoners sometimes feel befuddled and perplexed by the language of medicine, engineering, auto mechanics, and worst of all… computer people.
We value all our customers at United WebWorks, whether you're a website development expert or a novice. Anyone can benefit from our wide array of services, but sometimes we throw around words that might sound like "blah blah bla-de-blah." To remedy that feeling of queasiness when you hear phrases like "Paste the URL in the omnibox and scroll down to the third H1 header…" here's a primer on some of the more commonly uttered phrases from the language of website development and online marketing.
Blogs
Regularly posted original content that functions as the ultimate multi-tasker on your website. Blogs inform your public and attract them to your business. You can broadcast your expertise, trustworthiness and relevance to their needs. They also filter leads for you by steering already-interested readers to your main pages. Best of all, when crafted carefully, they impel Google to give more love to your website. Let's just say that regular original content is a major criterion for Google's opinion of you (We'll cover Search Engine Optimization in part 2). Check out United WebWorks' other blogs
CMS, or Content Management System
Unless you have a group of website experts who can write code and content for your entire operation, you need a friendly application to help you out. That's why there are quite a few CMS's out there; most businesses realize they can save time and money by using one. Apps like Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress allow users to easily edit, upload and publish website content that is fully maintainable from one interface. CMS's are getting increasingly versatile, handling workflow, collaboration, automation, and marketing in addition to the usual blogging, news, and ecommerce. Anything you want to show the world on your website can be handled by a CMS, and managed by a non-expert.
Code, or Source Code
A typed series of instructions that tells a computer exactly what, how, where, and when to perform an action or present something to the user. Programming Code is the DNA of any piece of software, written in one of many invented languages, like C, C++, Visual Basic and Java. HTML is a web language understood by browsers like Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer that gives exact directives for how that browser should display a given web page. "Writing code" is simply the task of building and managing long lists of behind-the-scenes instructions on how the computer should behave.
Content
Any media that resides on a website. That includes words, pictures, videos, blogs, catalogs, links- and more. Most of the websites that garner the top spots in search returns constantly refresh their original content.
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management
Although these apps specialize in data related to all the people or companies involved in the selling process for a particular enterprise, They now go way beyond simply keeping track of customers. A CRM is actually a very sophisticated, customizable database that can integrate Human Resources, Finance and Sales and Marketing into a single information source. Examples are Salesforce.com, Netsuite, OnContact, Goldmine and Act. Result: there's no longer any excuse for not knowing something or forgetting an appointment!
Develop / Developer
In the old days, this referred to what happens at the one-hour photo place in the drugstore. No longer. Development in a larger sense now refers to the tasks of making and maintaining websites. More specifically, a "Developer" is a person who writes or modifies the code that tells computers exactly what should appear on your screen. (see HTML) for more information, check out our United WebWorks Web Development page.
Domain
"TLD" is shorthand for Top Level Domain. It’s an address that tells your computer where to look for something online, following an established protocol. A domain consists of a user-created name plus an extension, the part after the dot. You can buy domain names online for a yearly fee from websites like Your Domain Pick.
Dynamic Website
As opposed to a "static" website, customers and owners can interact with a website where content is continually updated or refreshed, or linked to other pages. An example would be a website that can access data from a database. This way, when data is updated, the content on the website also updates. Shopping carts are a good example of dynamic content on a website, as they need to constantly be up to date. A static website, on the other hand, has unique content that needs to be updated in the CMS system manually.
Ecommerce
Any online setup where buying and selling is done via computer using some digital form of currency like a credit card number or PayPal. Usually there are catalog pages, a shopping cart and a checkout page. Pro: speeds up transactions and de-limits proximity between seller and buyer. Con: information security and outsourced shipping.
We'll continue in our next blog entry with more phrases you need to know when talking with your internet marketing provider.
In the meantime, click below for your free first step toward internet domination from United WebWorks:
*"You have a headache? Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning." Or call United WebWorks at
912-231-0016