Web Design SEO Glossary S

SEM -Search Engine Marketing
Internet marketing strategies such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, where a company pays the search engine to place an ad strategically high on the front pages of a keyword/phrase search result that carries the company’s website address and a short description. In general, any action taken to improve and boost the sales leads generated received from search engines. SEM is very useful to help brand new websites gain search engine visibility from the start.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization
The actions taken by web designers and SEO professionals in planning and creating the structure and content of a web page and the overall website that improves a search engine’s ability to index the content of the page and site.

“White hat” SEO is optimization actions which the search engines find appropriate and helpful to the search engines’ mission of finding and indexing information on the Internet. The desired result of search engine optimization, which includes placing pages of good content on a site, is “organic ranking” or “natural ranking” – placement high in the search engine rankings without the need for SEM expenses.

“Black hat” SEO is optimization techniques, such as hidden text, keyword stuffing and cloaking, that attempt to fool the search engines either as to the true content of the website or to make it appear more informative than it really is. The penalty for getting caught implementing black hat techniques is banishment from getting indexed or reported in the search results.

SSI – Server Side Include
A type of HTML/XML comment placed in a web page’s code to instruct a web server to generate dynamic content in the page.

SSL – Secure Sockets Layer
The SSL protocol was designed by Netscape to provide encrypted communications on the Internet. SSL is layered beneath application protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, Telnet and FTP and is layered above the TCP/IP connection protocol. It is used by the HTTPS access method.

SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics
A vector graphics coded in XML developed by W3C that can be searched, indexed and scripted. Vector graphics, since they describe a shape, can be scaled better than bitmapped graphics, which are created with dots and get more jagged the larger they are scaled. SVG files can also be compressed, sometimes to almost 20% of their original size with no loss of information, due to their repetitious code. SVG also allows form more searchable text and includes the ability to make links a component of the image. Most of the major browsers support SVG, except…Internet Explorer (as of IE 7.0). Internet Explorer needs a plug-in like Adobe’s SVG Viewer to join the real world.

Sans Serif & Serif Fonts
Sans serif means “without feet”. Sans-serif type fonts are good fonts to use for on-screen reading. Examples of sans serif typefaces include Arial, Helvetica and Verdana. Serif fonts have the little feet that direct the eye to the next letter. Examples of serif typefaces are Times New Roman and Garamond. The sans serif fonts are used in headlines since the stark letters are found to arrest the eye and the serif types are used in the body for ease of reading.

Saturation
Saturation describes the intensity of a color, the extent to which or the primary colors predominate in a color. The more vivid a color is, the more saturated it is. Less saturated colors go towards a lighter shade, white or grey.

Screen Snapshots
Snapshots are a method where a web designer can take a snapshot of a screen image. These snapshots are useful to provide web design clients with “as is” documentation of a website or in creating user manuals for working with the website.

Screen Reader
A software application for reading aloud the contents of a screen for blind or visually impaired people.

Scope
For Internet marketing and web design purposes: the work involved in the web design, graphic design, copywriting, search engine optimization, testing and uploading of a professional business web site.

Scope Creep
Scope creep is when work on a project expands beyond its initial objectives. Often accompanied by time and budget overruns, exasperation and people saying things like “this should be simpler”, “this should be no problem”, “did I forget to tell you I told the boss we could do this?”,”this won’t cost extra, will it?”.

Script
A script is an executable list of commands created in a scripting language, such as JavaScript, PHP and PERL. Scripts that are executed on a web server are said called server-side scripts and ones executed on user’s computers are client-side scripts. The Broadway play “Show Boat” is a rare case of a river-side script. In web design, scripts are embedded in a web page’s HTML or XML code to add dynamic actions to a web page.

Search Engine
Web-based computer programs, usually owned by public companies, that search and catalog (index) the information contained in millions of web pages on the Internet. The websites of the search engine companies allow web visitors to create custom searches or queries and receive an online list of websites containing the content for which the visitor is searching. Common search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN and AltaVista.

Search Engine Friendly
As Mr. Green Jeans was to Captain Kangaroo, so is a search engine friendly website to the search engines. The hallmark of a search engine friendly website is quality information, meaningful content, clear navigation to all internal pages, and correct use of keywords and key phrases. Websites that tend not to be search engine friendly (and so impair their ability to rank high in search results) have their content contained in a graphic, such as a totally Flash created site; one that traps the search engines spider in a loop such as dynamic sites; or framed sites, where the easiest page for the spider to find is relatively empty of content.

Secure Server
Secure servers are servers that usually only contain one website, are used for banking or financial transactions, and use software that prevents transactions taking place over the Internet from being decoded. The encryption secures the privacy of credit card numbers, identity information and other sensitive data. The URL of a secure server always starts with “https://”.

Server
A computer, software program or process that responds to client computer’s requests for information or data. On the web, all websites are stored or hosted on computer servers.

Shareware
Software applications, snippets of code or applets that anyone can download and try for free and then pay a fee to continue to use legally.

Site Map
A web page that acts as a website’s table of contents providing list of internal links to every web page on the site.

Social Media
Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people, companies and other organizations to create, share, or exchange information, career interests, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.

SMM – Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others.

Social Network Website
A social network website is one that builds online communities of persons sharing interests or activities. In younger age demographics, the social network website’s instant messaging and email sending capacity is causing a very large decrease traditional email usage. For professionals, social network sites offer the ability to share their expertise as well as build their personal professional brand.

Spacer Images
Small transparent images placed in a web page to help align layout features for visual effect. AKA spacer GIFs.

SPAM
As applied to the Internet: As a noun: an unwanted email marketing …things. As a verb: The action of sending multiple unwelcome messages over the Internet.

Spider
Spiders are computer programs used by search engines to repetitiously catalog and index your web site. Spammers use spiders to crawl the Internet and harvest email addresses from websites. AKA robot, crawler or bot.

Spyware
A software application often downloaded with an email or a free game that hides in a computer collects information about the use of the computer and the use of the Internet and then sends that information over the Internet to the spyware’s sender or creator. Malicious spyware seeks to steal financial information and passwords. Marketers try to legitimize spyware as a honest way to sell web visitors exactly what they want.

Standards
A set of rules to foster seamless inter-operability of transnational, platform independent digital information systems. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the creator of standards for the World Wide Web portion of the Internet. ISO and IEEE also are standard creating bodies in the international electronic information arena.

Static Web Page
A static web page is created and saved as HTML/XML. It’s content remains the same unless edited by the web designer or owner (or hacker). A static page differs from a dynamic page which is created from a database and changes depending on the queries sent to the database. Static web pages are the easiest pages for search engines to index.

Stickiness
Stickiness refers to the ability of a web page to hold a visitor’s interest enough to read the content and then browse to another internal web page or fill out a contact or guest book form. Good graphic design and compelling copy writing following tested marketing concepts are two of the main ingredients for stickiness.

Streaming or Streaming Media
Streaming is the sending of a large media file (a file with audio or mix of audio and video content) that is played while being downloaded. The simultaneity of the download and playing allows the Internet user to view or hear the clip without waiting to download the entire clip.

Surfing
Surfing the Internet is to browse from website to website, not necessarily looking for nothing in particular. Surfing is usually done for recreation, both on the web and in the ocean.