Glossary

Below, we share terms that are utilized in our business. They are categorized as follows: Web and Technology terms, Marketing terms, and Production (Broadcast and Print) terms. We hope you find these helpful.

MARKETING TERMS:

Audience Duplication

People, households, or organizations that read, view, or hear an advertisement or other marketing communication vehicle more than once, whether through a single media vehicle or a combination.

Boilerplate
Prewritten, standardized copy used whenever a particular communication need arises. Sometimes used to adhere to legal or company standards or to eliminate the need for original writing when a specific communication requirement is likely to arise frequently.

Branding
The overall process of establishing and implementing all the elements of a brand, including its name, identifying symbols and related marketing messages.

Brand Messaging
Creative messaging that presents and maintains a consistent corporate image across all media channels, including search.

Call to Action
A statement made in a promotional piece that encourages the reader/viewer/listener to take the desired action. This action may be buying the company’s product or service, or simply taking the next step in the sales cycle, such as requesting a product demonstration.

Copyright
Protection and ownership of works or expressions fixed in a tangible form, including words, art, images, sounds and music. Copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to copy, display, license or expand work.

Fullfilment Piece
Any materials that are sent in response to a reader, viewer or listner’s request for more information.

WEB, DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY TERMS:

301 Redirect
A message that the URL has moved permanently. This is commonly used when a URL has a new location and will not be appearing again at the old URL.

A/B Testing
A/B testing, at its simplest, is randomly showing a visitor one version of a page – (A) version or (B) version – and tracking the changes in behavior on which version they saw. A common usage is when determining headlines and subject lines. A/B tests are commonly applied to clicked-on ads, ecommunications, and landing page copy or designs to determine which version drives the more desired result.

Adwords
AdWords is a popular way of driving visitors to an online site by implanting certain words in the site’s text. Adwords are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads. The Google AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution, and it is their flagship advertising product.

ALT Test
Also known as alternative text or alt attribute. An HTML tag (ALT tag) used to provide usages with a text desom the event images are turned off in a web browser. The images text description is usually visible while “hovering” over the image.

Backlinks
All the links pointing at a particular web page. Also called inbound links.

Banner Ads
Online, digital ads, usually in a rectangular shape and appearing at the top of a web page. Most websites sell banner ads on their site, which link through to the advertiser’s site

Blog
A blog (a contraction of the term Weblog) is a type of Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, description of events or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. The word “blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Browser
An application used to view and navigate the World Wide Web and other Internet resources.

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation semantics (the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can also be applied to any kind of XML document, including plain XML, SVG and XUL.

Chat
A form of interactive online communication that enables typed conversations to occur in real-time. When participating in a chat discussion, your messages are instantaneously relayed to other members in the chat room while other members’ messages are instantaneously relayed to you.

Click Through Rate (CTR)
Click Through Rate (CRT) is the number of clicks that an on-line ad  or particular link gets, divided by the total number of times that ad is displayed or served. (Represented as: total clicks / total impressions for a specific ad = CRT).

Content Management System (CMS)
A Content Management System (CMS) is a computer program that allows publishing, editing and modifying content as well as maintenance from a central interface. Such systems of content management provide procedures to manage workflow in a collaborative environment.

Conversion Rate
The number of visitors who convert (take a desired action at your site) after clicking through on your ad, divided by the total number of click-thoughts to your site for the ad.

Domain Name
The official name of a computer connected to the Internet. Domain names are derived from a hierarchical system, with a host name followed by a top-level domain category. The top-level domain categories are com (for commercial enterprises), org (for non-profit organizations), net (for network services providers), mil (for the military), and gov (for government).

Domain Name System (DNS)
A database system which looks up host IP addresses based upon domain names. For example if you ask for “www.thisismyhost.com” it will return 123.45.67.89. Copies of the Domain Name System are distributed through the Internet.

Ecommerce
Conducting commercial transactions on the internet where goods, information and services are bought and sold.

Email Advertising
Email advertising includes banner ads, links or advertiser sponsorships that appear in email newsletters, email marketing campaigns and other commercial email communications.

Email Campaign
Advertising campaign distributed by email.

Email Marketing
Email marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or solicit sales or donations, and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. Email marketing can be done to either cold lists or current customer database. Email tools used include Campaign Monitor, Mail Chimp and Constant Contact.

FTP
FTP refers to File Transfer Protocol.

Flash
Flash technology was used as a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to website pages. Today it is recommended that Flash not be used due to issues with search and the search engines.

Geo-Targeting
The geographic location of the searcher. Geo-targeting allows you to specify where  your ads will or won’t be shown based on the searcher’s location, enabling more localized and personalized results.

Graphic Interchange Format (GIF)
A standard type of web graphic format which uses compression to store and display images.

Home Page
A web page that is topically the main source of information about a particular person, group, or concept. Many people on the web create home pages about themselves for fun; these are also known as vanity pages.

Hyperlink
A highlighted word or picture within a hypertext document that when clicked takes you to another place within the document or to another document altogether.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
The tag-based ASCII language used to create pages on the World Wide Web. See also hypertext.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
The protocol used by the World Wide Web to transfer HTML files.

Icon
A small graphic image that represents a file or application and when clicked upon produces a programmed result. Use of this mnemonic convention originated at Xerox PARC and was subsequently popularized by the Apple Macintosh. Producing an effective icon is non-trivial because of size and color restraints.

Index
A search engine’s “index” refers to the amount of documents found by a search engines crawler on the web.

Instant Messaging (IM)
A method of communicating in real time, one-on-one or in groups over the internet.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)
1. A business that delivers access to the Internet, usually for a monthly fee. Go Daddy, Bluehost, Network Solutions are examples of established ISPs but there are thousands of smaller ones all around the world.
2. Any business that provides Internet services such as web sites or web site development.

Intranet
A private network that uses Internet-related technologies to provide services within an organization.

IP Address
A string of four numbers separated by periods (such as 111.22.3.444) used to represent a computer on the Internet. The format of the address is specified by the Internet Protocol in RFC 791. When a PC accesses the Internet through an ISP, it sometimes receives a temporary IP address.

Java
An object oriented programming language created by Sun Microsystems. Java is a device independent language, meaning that programs compiled in Java can be run on any computer. Java programs can be run as a free-standing application or as an applet placed on a web page. Applets written in Java are served from a web site but executed on the client computer. Java applets have a built-in security feature which prevents them from accessing the file system of the client computer.

JavaScript
A scripting language that allows lines of Java code to be inserted into HTML scripts.

Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
An image compression standard for still photographs that is commonly used on the web.

jQuery
The purpose of jQuery is to make it much easier to use JavaScript on your website. A very popular jQuery example would be a slide show on a webpage. jQuery is easy to implement and has a huge library.

Keyword
A single word that relates to a specific subject or topic.

Keyword Phrase
Two or more keywords relating to a specific topic

Keyword Density
The number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used in the body of a page.

Keyword Stuffing
Generally refers to the act of adding an inordinate number of keyword terms into the HTML or tags of a web page.

Landing Page
In online marketing, this is a specific web page that a visitor reaches after clicking an ad (or link). Often, this page features content that is an extension of the link or ad, or the page is optimized for a specific keyword term or phrase to attract search engines (SEO).

Link
A highlighted word or picture within a hypertext document that when clicked bring you to another place within the document or to another document altogether. See also hyperlink.

Local Area Network (LAN)
A group of computers at a single location (usually an office or home) that are connected by phone lines or coaxial cable.

Mailing List
A discussion group that occurs via mass email distributions. Mailing lists are usually maintained by individuals utilizing list server software. List servers maintain a list of email addresses to be used for the mailing list. Subscribing and unsubscribing to the list is accomplished by sending a properly formatted email message to the list server.

Metrics
A system of measures that helps to quantify particular characteristics. In SEO the following are some important metrics to measure: overall traffic, search engine traffic, conversions, top traffic driving words, top conversion-driving keywords, keyword ranking, etc.

Mobile Devices
A mobile device is a small, hand-held computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input and/or a miniature keyboard. Manufacturers include Apple, LG, and Motorola. Also see Smart Device

Offline
1. As an adjective, not connected to a computer network.
2. As an adverb, not here or not now, as in “Let’s take this discussion offline.” Often used to indicate that a topic should be discussed privately rather than in a public forum.
Online
1. Currently connected to a host, opposite of offline.
2. Referring to anything connected to a computer network.

Opt-In Email
List of internet users who have voluntarily signed up to receive commercial email about topics of interest.

Opt-Out
When a company states that it plans to market its products and services to an individual unless the individual asks to be removed from the companies mailing list.

Password
A secret code that you utilize along with your user ID in order to log on to a network.

Path
The hierarchical description of where a directory, folder, or file is located on your computer or on a network.

Really Simply Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary (RSS)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used for distributing frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news, podcasts, and videos.

Redirect
When used in reference to online advertising, one server assigning an ad-serving or ad-targeting function to another server, often operated by a third company.

Refresh
To clear the screen or part of the screen and redraw it again.

Responsive Web Design
A responsive website design is aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).

Search Engine
A program or web site that enables users to search for keywords on web pages throughout the World Wide Web. For example, Google or Yahoo

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
A form of internent marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPS). SEM methods include: search engine optimization (SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising, digital asset optimization, and paid inclusion.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Improving or maximizing volume of traffic to a website by use of algorithmic search results.

Search Engine Page Result (SERP)
The page delivered to a searcher that displays the results of a search query entered into the search field.

Smart Devices
A smart device is simply defined as an electronic device that is wireless, mobile, always connected, capable of voice and video communications, internet capable, GPS-enabled, and able to act autonomously to some extent. Also see Mobile Device.

Snail Mail
Regular postal mail, as opposed to email. Pejorative when implying postal mail’s slowness relative to email.

Social Media
Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among people. It most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, as well as the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

Social Networking
Social networking is the use of a dedicated web site(s) to communicate informally with other members of the site, by posting messages, photographs, etc.

Spam
To send a message (usually an advertisement) to many discussion groups (bulletin boards, mailing lists, and/or newsgroups), without regard for its topical relevance.

Traffic
The load of packets carried by a network or portion of a network. Heavy traffic slows down the response time of the individual packets.

Upload
To send a file to a network. See also download and crossload.

Unique VisitorA unique user who accesses the web site withing a specific time period.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
The unique identifying addresses of any particular page on the Web. It contains all the information required to locate a resource, including its protocol (usually HTTP), server domain name (or IP address), file path (directory and name) and format (usualy HTML or CGI).

Virtual
A commonly used adjective that means having all of the properties of x while not necessarily being x. For example, “virtual Friday” in a workplace is the last day of work before a break, that is to say it is like Friday but may or may not actually be Friday. A “virtual reality” is an artificial environment that appears to be its own reality. On a mainframe, a “virtual machine” gives the user all of the properties and “feel” of a separate personal computer.

Webmaster
The person in charge of administrating a World Wide Web site. By convention, the webmaster of Internet domain foo.com can be reached at the email address webmaster@foo.com.

PRODUCTION TERMS:

Stock
Refers to the type of paper used for a printed piece, including the weight, coating, and texture of the paper.

Bleed
Refers to an image that is printed on the full size of the piece, as to ‘run off’ the edges.

CMYK
Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black), the four process colors.

Desktop Publishing
Technique of using a personal computer to design images and pages, and assemble type and graphics, then using a laser printer or imagesetter to output the assembled pages onto paper, film or printing plate. Abbreviated DTP.

Die Cut
To cut irregular shapes in paper or paperboard using a die.

Digital Proofing
Page proofs produced through electronic memory transferred onto paper via laser or ink-jet.

Mock Up
A reproduction of the original printed matter and possibly containing instructions or direction.

Press Check
Stopping the press after running off a few copies of a printed piece, in order to examine the color, sharpness, and overall quality of the printing

Prepress Proof
Any color proof made using ink jet, toner, dyes or overlays, as compared to a press proof printed using ink. Also called dry proof and off-press proof.

Press Proof
Proof made on press using the plates, ink and paper specified for the job. Also called strike off and trial proof.

Proof
Test sheet made to reveal errors or flaws, predict results on press and record how a printing job is intended to appear when finished.

Self Mailer
A printed item independent of an envelope. A printed item capable of travel in the mailing arena independently.

Specifications
Complete and precise written description of features of a printing job such as type size and leading, paper grade and quantity, printing or binding method.Abbreviated specs.

Variable Printing
Allows for multiple uses of personal data on one printed piece, for example, each postcard that gets mailed contains references to the recipient’s name, business type, area of interest, and years in business – any individualized information you may have.