Web Development Glossary for Small Businesses

DNS: The action of translating domain names into RURL addresses. The Internet uses IP addresses to identify websites, rather than the domain names. IP addresses are assigned to web servers and so several domain names can share an IP address.

Database: Information stored in a file in such a way that a software program like MySQL can easily retrieve and manipulate the date.

De-listing: Search engines remove websites from their indexed list of websites either because the website is no longer active or has violate the search engines guidelines, such as Google's Webmaster Guidelines.

Directory: A website that catalogs website resources. Legitimate directories such as Yahoo, business.com and dmoz.org are respected by Internet users and search engines for the quality of their resources. Spam directories often offer free listings in order to gather email addresses. A spam directories claim to fame is that by listing on one directory external links to your site are automatically created in many other directories, thus temporarily boosting your search engine ranking.

Desired Effect: A positive outcome of any business procedure, process or project.

Domain Name: A website's unique name that usually ends in .com for businesses, .org for non-profit businesses, .net, .edu for educational institutions, .gov for government sites and .mil for military websites. Countries are beginning to differentiate their websites with the use of domain name suffixes, such as the United Kingdom using .uk. Domain names are mapped to IP addresses. A domain name is created with the services of a domain registry company, which is a different action than setting up the hosting service for the domain's website.

Download: The action of transferring a file or group of files from a remote web server, or group of web servers as in the case of some music file sharing software, to a personal or business computer.

Ecommerce Business Website: A secure business website that allows for the sale of products through the use of catalogs, online "shopping carts", and credit card acceptance programs.

Efficiency: A measure of how well a business' resources are used. Efficiency is usually expressed in time, but may also be expressed as another available component, for instance, money.

E-mail, E-mail Address: Electronic mail delivered via the Internet. Email is usually considered an unsecured method of sending information unless it is encrypted (see Encryption below), though normally a client computer or Internet server has to be compromised by a virus or government software program in order for the email to be intercepted. Just remember what your parents taught you, "Don't put anything in writing you don’t want in the newspaper."

Embedded CSS: An embedded cascading style sheet is where CSS rules are coded in the head of a web page. Use of external style sheets is considered a better web design and SEO practice for various reasons all known to savvy web developers like Lightwave Communications.

Encryption: Encryption software programs use encrypting algorithms to scramble data, such as email text, into a cipher that can only be deciphered with another algorithm called an encryption key. Online banking uses secure servers and encryption software to protect personal information.

Entry Page: An entry page is a web page that uses specific keywords to attract specific markets or segments of the Internet browsing public. The most important doorway page is the home page. AKA: doorway, gateway or bridge page.

Export: The action by a software program to saves a file in a format not native to that software. For instance, Microsoft Word saving a file in Word Perfect format. The more standards, such as XML, are adopted, the less there is a need for file exportation.

FAB: An acronym for Features, Advantages, Benefits - the sales technique linking a products description, its advantages over the competition and the benefit or gain by the clients using the product.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol is the standard or set of rules established to govern the way files are electronically transferred.

Favicon: An icon used next to a "favorite" bookmark and at the start of the website’s URL in the browser address window. This small image is often a variation of a business’s logo and another opportunity to reinforce brand awareness.

Firewall: An software program that acts as a security check keeping unwanted traffic from invading a computer or computer network. Most firewalls are used to protect computers from malicious hacker attacks launched through the Internet.

Fluid Web Design: A website design using either table layout or CSS layout to present web pages that scale to fit different browser window sizes or monitor resolutions.

Fonts: just as in the print media, fonts ar alpha-numeric and special character typesets. New fonts, such as Verdana and Tahoma have been created for an improved legibility on computer monitors.

Forms: Forms allow website visitors to enter data online in predefined fields such as text-entry boxes; multiple choice drop-down menus, check boxes, or radio buttons; and to attach files. Forms need an external CGI or JavaScript program or script to function.

Frame or Frameset: One of the original web development practices that allowed developers use one html file as a frame for all the other pages on the site. Though still used for certain web design situations, the purpose of the frame has be supplanted by the use of web page templates. A further blow to frame technology is the inability of search engines from indexing the content of the pages. A good reason to redesign a formerly state-of-the-art business website.

Freeware Software programming that ranges in size from small JavaScripts to full applications that are created as open source pieces and offered to the Internet public for free use.