PLEASE feel free to email us with terms you may find confusing or to offer refinements to the ones we have chosen. Most important if you do NOT understand any definition after reading it at least once, please let us know. Thanks.

I can't find the term in your glossary help me search

Alt Tags
Applications
Architecture
Baseline conversion rates
Browser (Web Browser)
Clickstream
Content Presentation
Conversion Point Architecture
Conversion Rate
Cookies
Creative content development
Demographics and psychographics
Email campaign
Functional problems
HTML
HTML changes
Image tags
ISP
Key strokes
Keyword list
Keywords
Landing Page
Learning styles
Link strategy
Local Search
Navigation guidelines
Optimize text
Page captures
Page descriptions
Page titles
Personality profiles
Persuasion Architecture
PPC campaign
Product messaging
Psychographics
Sales funnel
Search terms
SEM - Search Engine Marketing
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
SEO Elements
SEO organic listings
Site Messaging
Site's conversion rate
Submit to Search Engines
Traffic reporting software
Traffic Snapshots
URLs
Usability guidelines
Usability testing
User testing
Wireframe outlines

I can't find the term in your glossary

Alt tags - are tags which appear on graphics when a mouse "hovers" over the image to identify their purpose or meaning, try it out by "hovering" over the Services button in the navigation bar above.

Applications - are any software that is launched. When we test software or web sites, we use tools which record any software application launch such as a pop up blockers or a DLL.

Architecture - refers to the layout of a web site or piece of software. It is the design structure of how the pieces of a site or software fit together. i.e., The home page is at the top of the architecture and the pages below it branch out like an upside down tree.

Baseline conversion rates - The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who come to a site and go on to become customers. The baseline conversion rate is the starting percentage from which all changes are measured. i.e., Two thousand people signed up for our newsletter this week and our conversion rate jumped to 6% from our baseline conversion rate of 2%.

Callouts - are arrows or pointers used to draw attention to a part of a web page or video.

Clickstream - The clickstream is the path one clicks to work through a web site. i.e., Our clickstream shows that people are going from the Home page to the "About Us" page and exiting there, we need to find out why.

Content presentation - is the "form" that is used to present site content. There are a variety of web writing styles which we discuss and the effectiveness of the content is directly affected by the presentation style as well as the intended audience.

Conversion Point Architecture - is a process we designed to improve website design by focusing upon the goals and objectives first. For a more detailed description, please review this article.

Conversion Rate - is the percentage of visitors who become "customers". The criteria can be sales, newsletter signups, subscriptions or any measurable engagement with the customer. You can have multiple conversion rate goals on a site. i.e., My conversion rate increased from 4% to 4.5% when I added the photos to my product description.

Cookies - are messages given to a web browser by a website. The browser stores the message in a text file (or cookie). The message is sent back to the server each time the browser revisits the site. The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web Pages for them. When you enter a web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and stored it for later use. The next time you go to the same Web site, this information is used to present you with custom web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

Creative content development - is building the graphic images and wording for a site or email. When building a site we typically outline the text, purpose and architecture for each page and leave the creative content development to the web designers and copy writers

Demographics and psychographics - two approaches to understanding markets. Demographics refer to statistics like age, income and location. Psychographics refers to preferences, interests and personality characteristics. i.e., The demographics we want are age 20 - 40 but the psychographic focus is on people who love sports, in particular sailing.

Email campaign - a email distribution to a list of email addresses. Ideally done to people who choose to receive email; i.e., The most successful email campaigns are to people who anticipate your email, recognize your name and are interested in your offer.

Functional problems - Problems that prevent the operation or easy use of a Web sites or software. i.e., This sites functional problems range from pop up blocker's stopping confirmation screens to page links that go nowhere.

HTML - Hyper Text markup language. The language or "code" behind most basic web sites, conventions have been established so that web browsers like Internet Explorer will interpret all pages consistently however changes and advances to HTML sometimes render pages in unexpected ways. The majority of web designers develop web sites in HTML though that may be changing.

Image tags - also called Alt Tags these are little boxes which appear to identify what an image is. Often they appear while a page is loading. They also are "spoken" out load for people who cannot see but "listen" to web sites with special voice browsers.

ISP - Internet Service Provider - the company who hosts your web site, your email and your traffic logs

Key strokes - what keys on the keyboard are pressed. i.e., Our usability tests typically records all the key strokes with a key stroke logger.

Keyword list - is as broad a list of search terms as possible which could possibly be used by anyone searching for information or products. A search engine consultant typically determines this list by a combination of software tools and expertise. Next step is to incorporate these keywords into the site content or PPC campaign.

Keywords - are words which describe your business focus, a web page focus or a primary site interest. The search engines record all the words on each site to try to identify what the content of your site addresses. Whenever people enter a search term, the search engines look for the key words in your site to try to match it to the search terms.

Landing Page - the page a visitor lands upon. It can be a page that is specially created to support incoming traffic from an ad or email campaign or simply may be a page which has a link on another site. i.e., I followed the link you sent me and ended up on the landing page, it was boring so I left.

Learning Styles - These are the ways that people learn best. Some learn by listening (audio) others by doing (kinesthetic) others by watching (visual). When evaluating the impact of a site, it may be important to understand an individuals learning style. Learning style tests are available. Depending upon who you speak with there are 4 to about 10 learning styles.

Link strategy - Search engines rank sites in part by the number of other sites which link to them. Building links is part of Search engine optimization and a link strategy is the way we solicit or build the links.

Local Search - Search engines now allow higher priority rankings when users search by name or region, if your site is optimized for local search. Similarly PPC campaigns can be focused on a city, state or geographic region if desired.

Navigation guidelines - there are a set of principles that guide how a site's navigation is built. i.e., That stupid site didn't follow the navigation guideline of including a link to the home page.

Optimize text - When making a site easier for search engines to understand we optimize text by careful use of keywords and terms which reinforce the important site objectives We also bold and hyperlink text to add emphasis that the search engines will recognize.

Page captures - a software tool can capture a single or video image of a web page or pages to replay. Page captures show an instant or a series of behaviors of users on a site. i.e., I did a page capture of the home page and added callouts to show what needs to be changed.

Page descriptions - Are created by the web designer and are elements of the code on a web page. Descriptions rarely appear except in search engine rankings but they do help the search engines understand a pages content. They are often overlooked even though they are extremely important in driving traffic from search engines.,

Page Titles - are created by the web designer and are an element of the code on a web page. They appear in the top blue bar on most browsers to identify the page. They are also a part of the way search engines identify web page content.

Personality profiles - different people respond to stimuli differently, we believe this is impacted by their personality profile. The presentation and choice of text and images will work differently with each profile so we believe that only by understanding personality profiles can we accurately assess their reactions to a web site. Unless we test a range of profiles results may be skewed. Most importantly if we know the dominant profile of the target customer, we can tailor the site to deliver its message much more effectively.

Persuasion Architecture© - A term developed by Future Now Inc. to describe the methodology they use to persuade web site visitors to take a particular action appropriate to the site owners objectives be it sale, signup, or other.

PPC Campaign - Pay Per Click Campaigns are advertising campaigns where a text ad is placed with a search engine like Google. It is tied to specific words or phrases such that whenever a searcher enters one of these words or phrases; the text ad appears alongside the search results. If the searcher clicks/selects the ad to find out more, a charge is made against the advertisers account. Typical clicks cost from as little as 5 cents to several dollars. Clicking on an ad leads to a landing page.

Product messaging - how effectively does the text describe the products characteristics, features and benefits. We measure this during a typical site review. It is only important to determine what is understood, not what is said on the site.

Psychographics - a basis for making marketing decisions focused on customer's preferences as compared to customer statistical data such as age or income.

Sales funnel - A term which describes the way a web site gathers customers and by providing information or reinforcement funnels them towards the persuasive goal defined by the site objectives.

Search terms - are terms people use when searching the web for particular information. Typically done on a search engine or tool

SEM - Search Engine Marketing is the use of techniques and practices that enhance a company's ability to be found on the search engines. Typically includes work on a site and Pay Per click campaigns among other emerging practices.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization the practice of improving sites rankings in the search engines. Includes a range of expertise and skills that affect all aspects of a web site, its design and it's linking.

SEO Elements - These include the myriad of elements that impact Search Engine Optimization such as, links, page titles, keywords, descriptions, architecture, coding, crawler enhancements, site submission, locale information and more.

SEO organic listings - are the "natural" listings that appear in the search engine results page when a keyword is entered into the search box. Does not include Pay per Click or any type of sponsored placement.

Site messaging - simply put the message that is communicated is hopefully not much different than the message that is intended to be communicated. It is usually tested and measured in a "user test". It is not possible for site creators or designers to accurately measure their own site messaging. Several techniques exist for text and graphic presentation and the choice of method can have a major impact on site messaging.

Site conversion rate - The conversion rate is a percentage which is a ratio of the number of visitors who come to a site versus the number who become customers. This can be measured in sales signup's or any planned engagement process. It is generally discussed as the "current" conversion rate. i.e., Two thousand people signed up for our newsletter this week and our conversion rate jumped to 6%.

Submit to Search Engines - SEO practitioners routinely submit (or present) an invitation to Search Engines to review a particular site in hopes that it will positively impact a sites ranking. Beware of tools which "over submit" because it is a waste of time and money it may suggest to the search engines that a site is trying to unfairly manipulate the search engine rankings. If a search engine believes a site is acting unfairly to gain rankings it may be "banned" from the search engines, (not good!)

Traffic Logs - ISP's have the option of recording information about a web site such as who is visiting, where they are coming from, how long they stay, what search terms they use, what they click on, and much more. This information is captured in traffic logs. Traffic logs are cumbersome to read on their own so they are analyzed by traffic reporting software such as Web Trends or Google Analytics. These "metrics" are essential to proper web site management. Many ISP's offer analysis tools as part of a hosting package. Make sure your traffic logs are turned on!

Traffic reporting software - is a software tool which reviews and parses (selects) data from a traffic log and offers a vast array of informational insights about the site. More advanced tools place cookies on visitors computers to gain further insights into behaviors, history and preferences.

Traffic snapshots - are an instantaneous look at one moment in a traffic log. I.e. the snapshot for visits to the signup page this afternoon was taken at 3:15 when we had 415 simultaneous visitors

URL's - Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. The first part of the address indicates what protocol to use, and the second part specifies the IP address or the domain name where the resource is located. For example, the two URLs below point to two different files. The first specifies an executable file that should be fetched using the FTP protocol; the second specifies a Web page that should be fetched using the HTTP protocol (i.e. a website):ftp://www.pcwebopedia.com/stuff.exe http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html

Usability guidelines - Standards that define how usability should be applied to a web site, software, product or practice. i.e., usability guidelines state that there should be no more then three font types used on one page. While there are no "official" web usability guidelines a number of institutions have defined several hundred criteria for review.

Usability criteria - include things like how a web site displays on different computer monitors, if it is visible to colorblind people, if the links work and how long it takes to download a page.

Usability testing - the act of observing the behavior of individuals or a group of people's attempts to use a product or website. The users normally meet a predefined set of criteria and are asked to accomplish a set of objectives without the assistance of the observer. Observation tools range from a paper notepad to a combination of: eyetracking, event logging and video taping devices. The testing is intended to reveal problems with the user experience be it frustration or actual site functionality.

User testing - is submitting individual or a group of people to usability testing, see usability testing.

Wireframing - outlines Site elements and should begin with a hierarchical outline of the components and their relationship to one another in a text only format. It comes before any graphical elements are considered. This outline typically is drawn with boxes and connecting lines that compartmentalize and define these elements in a "wireframe".

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