Some of the terms we use may not be familiar to you. This is here to help you out.
The generic name given to images, text and multimedia files which are set to be the building blocks of the website.
A means of creating interactive web pages that doesn't involve a page reload.
A secure, climate-controlled environment with a fast internet connection that accommodates a number of web servers belonging to various companies.
ADSL broadband comes in a number of flavours, not just related to speed. One thing that's important to understand is that the connection is shared between users and this sharing (in the UK) is usually 50:1 or 20:1. What this means is that your 512K ADSL circuit may return data at a rate considerably less than a 56K modem.
Hitherto, the way most people used their broadband connection was for web pages which, in data terms, is 'bursty' and therefore gives a good perceived response time. As people move to more advanced services like VoIP, having a contention ratio of 50:1 may become a problem. But we're sure the telcos will be delighted to sell you an upgrade.
In web terms, this is the art of keeping your customers happy whilst having as little as possible to do with them! This is not quite as mean as it sounds: if your business starts 'scaling' up on the web, then you don't want to have to hire in extra resources just to answer simple questions. There's plenty of things that you can offer on a website that fulfil these objectives. By way of example, for manufacturers this may be online technical documents, manuals, spare part listings and 'how-to's; for theatres and schools, programme and availability information.
A website which actually takes money off a visitor with a credit or debit card.
In practical terms it means that payment card (credit card, debit card) information has to be encrypted between the visitor and the web server, and from the web server to the website owner.
If there are more than a few items available for sale, there there is usually a shopping basket system of some variety. In order to capitalise on the visitor's purchase decision, it's as well to ensure that this system is fast and efficient so that they don't change their minds.
Arguably, there is no need to take money on an ecommerce site. If you are a business-to-business operation, then it may be acceptable for your customers to place orders and you bill them in the usual way. Or you have a mix, where trade customers pay on account and the general public pay by card.
Synonyms: Ebusiness
A program language used to make web pages more interactive. The problem for designers is that not all web browsers support it and even when they do, some people contrive to turn it off. However, since the vast majority of browsers do support it and it is switched on, it is in widespread use.
In this case, it's communications protocols that we're interested in. If two computers (or two anything for that matter) want to talk to each other, they have to agree how do interpret the data flying backwards and forwards. Unlike normal speech, there is no room for irregularity. The rules and regs about the data format are known as a protocol.
A means of disseminating the content of your website to third parties via a 'feed'. An RSS file is in XML format and is machine-readable. Read more
Synonyms: Rich site summary
When you open your doors on the web, you're available to many more prospective customers. So it can be a problem if your systems can't cope with a 300% or more increase in traffic. This isn't just your web hosting service either: your back office systems may have to process more orders and then, of course, there is the question of delivering the goods.
Scaling down is also an issue. If you have a sudden drop in search engine rankings as a result of a software change their end, you may find that you've fallen off the bottom of the results list. In this instance, you need to be able to scale back quickly and efficiently so that you don't find your costs running away with you while you stage a recovery.
The process of creating a preview of the visual style and examining the technical requirements of the website. Much of the creative work on a website is done at this point, which is why we charge separately for this process.
Synonyms: visuals, visualisations
A method of marketing which involves giving away something of perceived value for free. Because it has real value, the idea is that the item will be linked to by other websites which will ultimately lead to your search engine page rank improving.
Clearly you have to be a bit careful what you give away. If it's something that can be downloaded and rebranded by a competitor and passed off as their own, this is not good news. So you really need to find something that has some value, but is in some way incomplete... but not so incomplete that it's rejected. Contact us to find out more!
An application (aka program) which you execute via the familiar interface of a browser, the self-same browser that you use for the Internet - whether you are on a PC or Mac.
For some administration systems, it's sometimes necessary to have a specfic browser (usually Internet Explorer) to run the web application because the latter exploits particular features of IE that other browsers don't have.
This is a facility that allows you to update the website content yourself. There are varying degrees of content management: some would allow new pages to be added whilst others may just allow selections via drop-down boxes.
An application which runs on a conventional PC. The word application is used in preference to program because a modern application may run a number of separate program items: executable programs, library programs, services and so forth.
Synonyms: program
The primary purpose to which XML is put is to share data between disparate computers (eg PCs, Macs and Unix systems) that otherwise don't really want to talk to each other. However, it's cleverer than just that in that XML documents can have the means to maintain their own integrity.
It's used in RSS and web services extensively and it will be the default file format for Microsoft Office 12 documents.
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