Glossary

Blog - A blog is an easy to use website that enables anyone to have their own real estate on the web. You can get a blog for free from Blogspot.com or Wordpress, name your blog and begin posting your thoughts, news about your family, pictures, videos and anything else you can think of. You can do all of this without knowing a thing about Web programming.

Browser - A Web browser is a program that you use to communicate with the World Wide Web. Without this, resources, information, and music cannot be accessed. Popular Web browsers include Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE), Opera, and Safari.

Buy Local Campaign - The Buy Local Campaign is a locally based organization made of local business owners that promotes purchasing various goods and services produced by local business and community members. AltaMinds strongly supports Greater Spokane Incorporated’s Buy Local campaign.

CMS - A Content Management System is a feature that enables Webmasters to change text, images, and add or delete pages from Websites without having any knowledge of web programming. With a CMS, an individual can keep their site updated without having to call your Web host, designer or Web company.

Creation – Web creation refers to the planning and execution of a Website. Creating a Website is more than just building; it involves focused creativity, a strong foundation and proper implementation of insights gathered from your customers. Though it is the first step, a lot of care and attention goes into the creation of successful website.

Database Integration - Many websites (like banks and online stores) need to store and display massive amounts of data, pictures, descriptions and information and present it to their users in a concise and structured format. These sites have a “database” connected to their site that stores this information and lets Webmasters present all this information easily and effectively to their readers. If a website is an iceberg, think of the top of it (the part you can see) like the actual website you see, and the database is all the stuff you don’t see (the rest of the iceberg).

Development – Web development usually refers to beautifying a Website to make it user-friendly, functional, and navigatable. Computer coding and programming is often used to add interactive media, databases, and other applications. In Web development, both content and design is structured to its greatest potential, allowing it to grow and expand.

Domain - A domain name is the actual name of a Website. All domain names start with “http://” followed by the name of the Website (http://www.SpokaneBiking.com) followed by “.com”, “.org”, “.net” or others.

 

Flash – Adobe Flash is a computer software used to create advanced animation and interactivity for Websites (check out http://www.pdk.pl/index_feng.php). You can use Flash to build an entire site or incorporate portions to add depth and dimension to the users’ experience. Despite its capabilities however, sometimes Flash can be a distraction (as seen on this site: http://yugop.com/ver2/). So, like spices, it should be used sparingly.

Hosting - Web hosting is a service for server space. Hosts operate and manage servers to make it easy for consumers to manage their website on the Internet.

HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language is a computer language code used to write Web pages, like the one you are reading now. Your Web browser reads HTML and translates this code into what you see on the web. While there a lot of languages that your browser can understand, HTML is probably the most basic and easiest to learn.

Optimization - To optimize is to rearrange or rewrite data to improve efficacy of retrieval or processing. To optimize a website means to rearrange content, website structure, navigation, product images and rewrite the “back end” of the site to improve site functionality. Optimizing a website is like being equipped with the right set of gold golf clubs.

Partner - In business there are three types of customer to client relationships: vendor, service and partner. Vendor and service relationships focus on the immediate sale, and not on the future relationship between the client and business. Partner relationship is not the end of the relationship, rather the beginning of a mutually beneficial alliance where both the client and business grow and succeed together.

Programming - A programmer is essentially someone who knows how to make computers do what people want them to do. They can communicate to computers using a computer “language” or “code” and using these languages can create software (like Microsoft Paint) or websites. When a Website is designed, a web programmer figures out how to make all the design elements of the site show up correctly on the web browser.

SEO - (Search Engine Optimization) consists of a variety of techniques used to make a Website appear on the top of search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing for a specific keyword, or group of keywords. For example, if you are a Dentist in Seattle, proper SEO techniques will ensure that your site appears on the front page of Google when people search “Dentist Seattle WA”. Proper SEO on a Website means you will get more leads, sales and profit from your Website.

Server - A server is a computer specifically designed to store and send information from one computer to another. The collection of servers throughout the world creates the World Wide Web. 

Twitter - Twitter is a “microblogging” social networking site that allows people to make short posts (tweets) no longer than 150 characters. People use Twitter to share news, communicate with friends, and keep up to date with celebrities, politicians and their favorite companies.

Webmaster - The individual that is in charge or maintains a Website is the Webmaster. The Webmaster might be a full time employee or a part time intern. A website is like a child, constantly growing, changing and evolving and the Webmaster is like its father, tending to its needs and making sure it has what it needs to remain healthy and in tip-top shape.

Website - A Website is a collection of related web pages linked together on a particular domain and maintained by an individual or organization. Think of it like a sports team: there is one “team” (Website) but the team consists of individual players (pages) which are maintained by one coach (the Webmaster). A Website consists of a domain name and hosting.

WWW - The World Wide Web is a network of “servers” that house all the Web pages on the Internet. Computers communicate to these servers through Web browsers, and bring the data from these servers to the computer.