Glossary

Accessibility The level or degree of accommodation a website provides (i.e., alternative options) for visitors with physical and/or technological barriers

Bandwidth The amount of data that is transferred over a network in a fixed amount of time

Browser Software that interprets HTML and other web commands to display page content (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari)

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) A mechanism for styling web documents (e.g., font typefaces, headers, line spacing, borders)

Content All text, pictures, images or sounds appearing on a website

Content Management System (CMS) Software that allows website authors to login, update database-stored content and create webpages dynamically

Domain Name A unique identification connected to one or more IP addresses used in URLs to identify specific websites

Domain Name System (DNS) A computer program running on a web server that translates domain names into IP addresses

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Common method to upload web content to a server for viewing on the Internet

Frames An HTML technique for combining two or more individual HTML documents within a single web browser display

HEX/HTML Colors A hexadecimal notation for the combination of red, green and blue color values (RGB). The lowest value is 0 (hex #00); the highest value is 255 (hex #FF). In HTML and CSS, colors are defined using hex triplets: six-digit hexadecimal numbers where each pair of digits represents a value of red, green or blue light, between 0 and 255 in decimal notation, 00 and FF in hexadecimal notation

Hits The number of times a piece of web content (e.g., image, document, paragraph of text, system code file) has been viewed or downloaded

Homepage The first page (also referred as an opening page, start page or main page) of a website

Hosting The process of storing web content files on a centralized computer system that is accessible by multiple users

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) The means for creating simple web documents, intended for publishing on the Internet

Image Map An image that has several hyperlinks geographically mapped onto it

Interactive The experience or functionality on a website or in an application that responds to user input or commands

Internet Protocol (IP) Method by which data is sent over the Internet from one computer to another through a unique IP address

JavaScript An object-based, client-side scripting language developed by Netscape that is embedded in the head section of a web document and can produce dynamic interactivity to a webpage

Link A commonly-displayed underlined word or phrase that connects a visitor to a specific location or file on the Internet

Meta Tag An HTML tag that provides information about content on a webpage and, unlike traditional HTML tags, doesn’t affect how the page is displayed

Mouseover A JavaScript element that triggers a change on an item when the cursor passes over it (typically a visual change, such as making an image or underlined link appear)

Multimedia A combination of text, graphics, images and colors on a webpage, such as slide shows, animations or video clips

Picture Element (Pixel, px) The smallest unit that makes up an image on a screen and is also used to measure image size and resolution

Ranking Numerical position of a webpage in search engine results (arrived by a ranking algorithm such as mathematical formulas, variables and set of weights) that determines a website’s relative standing for a particular keyword or phrase

Resolution Number of pixels that make up an image or display; the more pixels, the higher the resolution (e.g., 640 x 480 resolution screen is capable of displaying 640 distinct pixels on each of its 480 lines, roughly 300,000 pixels in total)

RGB An acronym for the three base colors of light (red, green and blue) that create the web color spectrum

Search Engine A server or collection of servers dedicated to indexing files on the Internet, storing the results in a comprehensive database and returning lists of pages that match particular searched queries from within its database

Server A powerful computer that holds data to be shared over a network

Spider An automated software application used by search engines to index webpages

Template An HTML page framework that outlines a basic layout, including major design elements like banner placement, menu treatment and overall content areas; used to create many pages with a similar look and navigational structure but different content

Traffic A measurement of visit activity a website has during a set period of time

Uniform Resource Locator (URL) A unique identifier for a website indicating what protocol to use (e.g., http, ftp) and the IP address or domain name where the resource is located

Usability Level or degree of a website’s ease of use for visitors