Lexicon

The AdWords budget is the amount allocated for buying keywords.

Google is known for its role as an intermediary between advertisers and publishers. By being an affiliate, you allocate specific space on your website to Google, which takes care of placing ads there. In return, you receive a fee and Google earns a commission on the transaction.

The text that appears highlighted in a hypertext link.

The operating system developed by Google for smartphones and tablets.

An application programming interface (API) is a process that enables interaction between two programs. For example, some Google APIs enable integration of Google services and data within a separate program. A concrete example is an embedded Google map on a website.

Augmented reality refers to the technologies that enable the integration of digital information, such as a 3D or a 2D virtual model, with the user’s environment in real time. Augmented reality uses the existing environment and overlays new information on top of it whereas virtual reality creates a totally artificial environment.

Business activity between two companies. One company sells products or services to another company.

Business activity in which a company sells products or services to a customer.

A link pointing to your site from another site. This type of link is one of the most important factors taken into account by Google in ranking a website.

When used to describe a website, this term refers to the part of the site that is visible only to the webmaster. In other words, it is the interface used to manage the website.

The procedure for making extra copies of data in case the original is lost or damaged. The term is widely used in computer science when referring to dematerialized content. Backup is as important an element for your website as it is for your company files. Some hosting services offer backup solutions integrated into offers. In the case of defective hardware, hacking, or operating errors, not having a backup simply amounts to losing all your data.

The quantity of data that can pass through a channel. Its unit of measurement is the bit per second, which corresponds to the channel speed.

The area of a web interface containing advertising. The size of the area differs in length and width depending on where the banner ad is placed.

Behavioral targeting consists of tracking and analyzing the behavior of internet users in order to understand that behavior and thus offer them ads targeted to their interests.

A blog is a type of journal, more or less personal, available on the internet. “Blogging” is the action of maintaining a blog and a “blogger” is a person who maintains a blog. Bloggers regularly update their blogs using easy-to-use software. The simple interface of blogging software means that bloggers do not need advanced technical skills to maintain their websites.

Bot stands for robot. In computer science, bot designates a program that automates certain, usually repetitive, tasks. An example of a legitimate type of robot would be those used by search engines to browse the web and find new pages. Unfortunately, harmful robots also exist, such as those launched by hackers to retrieve email addresses, for instance.

Also known as a zombie army, a botnet is a group of computers under the control of hackers. The computers can belong to anyone, but their owners are unaware of the hackers’ control. Once interconnected, the computers can be used as resources for several purposes. The most common botnet is the denial of service (DDOS) attack, which requires a very high amount of bandwidth and therefore many computers.

A computer program that is used to explore the contents of the internet. There are several different internet browsers, the best known are Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.

A phrase or a word that is fashionable, often used more to impress rather than to clarify.

A transaction in which one individual sells a product or service to another individual. The internet has greatly facilitated this kind of transaction. It has thus directly contributed to the growth in this sector of the economy, notably thanks to specialized websites such as Ebay.

Essentially, a folder containing a local copy of online files. This copy is temporary and is intended to speed up the display of web pages on your next visit.

Web page layout makes it possible to store some data on your computer, for instance, when you visit a website for the first time. This means that the page will load much faster on your next visit. Caching is the process of storing data in a cache. Generally speaking, a cache is a temporary storage area for files.

A “call back” is the act of offering internet users the opportunity to be contacted by phone. Usually, this feature requires users to provide their telephone number by filling out an online form. Call back is widely used by online sales websites as a simple and easy way to generate leads.

An element on a web page, such as a clickable button, that prompts the user to perform an action.

A test used to weed out automated robots. The most frequently used challenge-response test is to require the user to type in the visible characters contained in an image. This is difficult for a robot to do.

Comparable to a company's graphic charter, a cascading style sheet is used to maintain consistency in the general layout of a particular website. For example, the font used across the website is defined in the style sheet. For a change of style, such as font size or color, using a CSS means only having to rework a single file rather than having to make changes on every single page.

Online discussion in real time.

Citation Flow (CF) is a metric of Majestic SEO that measures the popularity of a page in relation to the total number of inbound links from different IP addresses that point to the page. The greater the number of inbound links to a page, the higher its CF will be. CF is represented by a number from from 0 to 100, with 0 being the lowest value. Citation Flow refers to the quantity of backlinks, not their quality.

Click fraud occurs when a website owner clicks on their own ads in order to generate income from CPC advertising.

The number of clicks on an ad for every 1,000 impressions of that same ad during an online advertising campaign.

A software program used to contact a server program in order access data stored on another computer, sometimes geographically very far away. Each client program is designed to work with one or more specific types of server programs. Conversely, each server requires one or more specific client programs. For example, a browser is a client program.

A content management system consists of a platform that facilitates the creation and management of a website. The most common CMS is WordPress, which is open source and free.

A job in web marketing that consists of managing and moderating the community that forms around a brand or a company on social networking sites. For example, managing a Facebook page.

One conversion equals an action by an internet user as a result of a marketing strategy. Actions such as subscribing to a newsletter or filling out a form are examples of conversions.

The percentage of people who have completed the action defined by the web marketing strategy.

Information stored in the browser cache by an internet site in order to record the preferences and navigation habits of a given internet user.

For a specific ad, the cost per click indicates the amount an advertiser must pay every time an internet user clicks on that ad.

The amount an advertiser pays for an ad to be displayed one thousand times.

This technique analyzes the process of web crawling. Web crawling is the way in which search engines explore websites. This type of analysis is an important tool for webmasters because it helps them identify any shortcomings in a website’s structure or functioning.

A sales technique designed to encourage internet users to buy accessories, products, or services associated with the product they are in the process of purchasing. Some companies abuse this technique by adding products or services by default, such as some airlines do with insurance, for instance. An example of cross selling would be a website offering you a camera case or some memory cards when you are purchasing a camera.

Short for click-through rate, CTR  represents the ratio of users who click on a specific ad to the total number of users who saw the ad.

This represents the costs associated with acquiring a new customer.

The bad faith practice of claiming domains more or less related to known brands or names. The aim is to resell the domains at high prices or to monetize them by benefitting from the traffic generated by the public renown of the name.

A dashboard, on the internet, is a user interface that constitutes a place for executing administration tasks. Websites built with WordPress, for example, have dashboards to make it easier for users to manage their sites. Online tools, such as Google Analytics, also have dashboards that organize and present information in an easy-to-read way.

Google’s link disavow tool enables webmasters to ask Google not to count links identified as illegitimate pointing to their own site. This is an important tool to master because you can use it to avoid being punished by Google, who might think you are trying to manipulate search results by having links Google considers illegitimate pointing to your site. More information…

A unique name used to uniquely identify a website. The domain name is composed of two parts, separated by a period (also called a dot). Assigning a website a name humanizes it to a certain extent. Otherwise, a website could only be accessed using its IP address, a series of numbers difficult to memorize.

The Domain Name System is a service that translates between a domain name and its associated IP address. This service makes it possible, among other things, to facilitate internet browsing by users. Without DNS, it would be necessary to type the IP address of a website in full rather than its domain name. Example: 74.125.226.168 instead of Google.com

The transfer of data from one terminal to another (computers, phones, servers, etc.).

Technology that enables the user to upload files online by dragging them into a browser instead of having to open a file explorer panel.

A technology with which a user can control the online distribution of media that is subject to copyright. The purpose is, obviously, to prevent theft of copyrighted material.

Short for electronic mail, email is a communication technique that enables the sending of text messages and files (images, videos, etc.).

The act of sending promotional electronic mail to a specific list of contacts.

The extension of a file consists of a group of letters and is located after the dot in a file name. Two examples are “.doc” for a Word document and “.jpg” for an image file.

A document that provides answers to common questions often asked by visitors to a website.

A technology developed by Macromedia to enable greater interactivity on a website. However, newer technologies, notably HTML5, have made Flash obsolete, especially since Falsh consumes a large amount of memory.

A follower is a person who subscribes to receiving updates from other people on social media networking sites. Consequently, followers will see all content posted by the people they “follow.” When you follow a person on Twitter, for example, it is similar to being friends with someone on Facebook.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. It is a communication protocol established to facilitate the transfer of files. Despite having been established quite some time ago, it is still widely employed because it is easy to set up and very easy to use.

Google Analytics is an online web analytics tool created and updated by Google. The fact that it is free, together with its effectiveness, makes it the most popular analytical tool used by analysts working for both large and small companies.

A feature of the Google search engine that enables you to associate an author with their web content using the Google+ social media network. As a result, the author’s photograph and name will appear in search results alongside the content.

A tagging technique that brings different content from various sources together under the same hashtag. Widely used on Twitter and Instagram, the hashtag was integrated into Facebook long after users had begun using it, which was essentially useless.

Online, a hoax is often about spreading a false rumor about a person or a company.

There are two major kinds of homepages. For a browser, the homepage is the page that opens when you launch your browser. For a website, the homepage is the page you arrive at when you enter the website’s address.

The programming language used to create web pages. HTML is a basic, scalable language. It is now complemented by newer languages, such as PHP, designed to overcome or compensate for the functional limitations of HTML.

An update of HTML that improves multimedia content management ability. This technology is available on the major up-to-date browsers.

A hypertext link, or hyperlink, is a link inside a web page that redirects a visitor to another page, or to a document or a multimedia file, for example. This link is represented by a word or phrase, which is often underlined and of a different color from the rest of the text on the page.

In online advertising, an impression takes place when an ad is posted on a page of a website.

Content that internet bots can understand. For example, textual content is easily indexable by search engines. On the other hand, media content – such as images, sounds, videos, or animations – is more difficult for search engines to index.

A combination of the words “information graphic,” an infographic is a visual representation of data relating to a specific subject. Usually created by a graphic designer, this format is particularly popular on the internet and is designed to make information easily understandable at a glance. Example: “How to Save Battery Power.”

A company that provides internet access to clients on a subscription basis. ISPs are often asked to supply information to be used as evidence by the courts in their efforts to combat hacking and other forms of computer crime.

An internet user is anyone who browses the internet.

An IP address is an address that identifies you on the internet. Each Internet subscription is associated with an IP address, which means that all workstations connected to the same local area network (LAN) will have the same IP address. The same principle applies to servers. In fact, servers are also identified by their IP address. The Domain Name System (DNS) translates the IP address of the server into a domain name to make it easier for users to navigate the internet. Example: The Google.com domain name is associated with the IP address 74.125.226.168.

The cornerstone of search engine results, a keyword is a word that is representative of the content of a web page. Search engines sort results according, in part, to keywords. For example, in the case of an airline’s website, related keywords would be “flight,” “tourism,” “travel,” and so on.

The web page that the hypertext link of an ad campaign leads to. Usually, it is the page internet users arrive at (or, land on) when they click on an online ad (banner, pop-up, and so on).

Link baiting (or linkbaiting) is a way to take advantage of organic search by creating content that encourages other websites to create backlinks to your site (polemic articles, the latest buzz, and so on).

The ability to purchase products or services via a smartphone or GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications, originally Groupe SpécialMobile).

These lines of code, part of every web page, are there to inform internet bots of the content of the page.

Microblogging platforms are social media networks that enable users to share content that does not exceed a certain number of characters. For example, on Twitter, a maximum of 140 characters.

The advertising you see when using your smartphone. It can be found either on the mobile sites themselves or in mobile applications, which is the case for free apps that rely on ads to finance their infrastructure.

A mobile application is a program that works on cell phones and tablets. There are two categories of applications. The first category includes apps that add functionalities or games. The second category of apps are generally developed by large groups. It includes such apps as e-commerce platforms for mobile devices and news and magazine applications.

A website designed for mobile phones. If the server detects that the user is on a mobile phone, the best practice would be for the user to be automatically redirected to the mobile site. The characteristics of a mobile site can be quite different from a regular website. Often, a mobile site contains only essential information and is very light. These characteristics enable the site to adapt easily to mobile format, because mobile internet bandwidth costs more and is slower. Additionally, the website’s menu may also be displayed differently in the mobile version.

A letter in digital format that websites send via email. The aim is to inform internet users, keeping them updated on promotions and special offers or other company news.

A tag used to tell internet bots not to index the tagged part of a website.

Online reputation is the public perception of a person or organization shaped by information found on the internet. Companies have come to understand the importance of managing online reputation in order to favorably influence public perception. This has led to the creation of new positions, such as “community manager,” that focus on social media networks.

An outbound link is a hypertext link that points from one website to another, different website.

A payment method that charges by the number of clicks made by internet users on a particular banner ad (and not depending on the page). This payment model is very widespread because advertisers only pay in the event of an action on the part of an internet user, which is reassuring to advertisers.

Phishing is a scam that makes use of social engineering techniques, in which a fraudster falsely takes on an identity that appears legitimate, pretending to represent a bank, for example, in order to extort personal information, such as bank information, from their victims.

A pop-up is a window that opens when an internet user is visiting a website. The content of a pop-up window varies according to its purpose: advertising, announcements, invitations to sign up for a service, etc.

A term used to describe websites that function as directories of other sites, generally synonymous with gateway. Since the web does not have a centralized database listing all existing websites, portals are useful for categorizing content. A portal serves as a single point of access to information, making it easier for internet users to find sites. At the very beginnings of the internet, directories were widely used. Since technologies and performance have evolved, the web is now based on search engines. Search engines use advanced internet bots to explore the web, classifying and indexing existing websites.

For smartphones, a technique for notifying the user of specific events such as new messages from communication apps or Flash info from media apps. Applications do not need to be open for the user to receive notifications. Because users no longer need to synchronize the information themselves, push notification creates a sense of spontaneity and immediacy.

A QR (quick response) code is a type of 3D barcode that stores much more information than a regular barcode. It can also be easily read using a smartphone, making it practical to use in the context of marketing, especially marketing with a playful aspect. Often, QR codes are used to launch a new URL or video, but also for tickets to specific events, especially electronic tickets that can be printed at home.

A responsive website is a site that has the ability to adapt to the size of the screen being used to view it. It is a relatively new technology, linked to the massive upsurge in the use of tablets and smartphones for browsing the web. This technology also makes it possible to automatically redirect users using smartphones to a mobile website. Mobile sites are lighter and usually contain less information than a regular website.

Retargeting essentially means using targeted advertising. Targeted advertising consists of choosing which advertising content to serve to an internet user according to the user’s browsing history and interests. Retargeting makes it possible to track and analyze the behavior of internet users and, ultimately, to offer each user targeted ads differentiated according to their interests. For example, if a user visits your website once, Google will then serve your ad to that user when they visit sites that have sold advertising space to Google.

Return on investment. ROI measures the amount of return on an investment relative to its cost. ROI is calculated by dividing the gain from the investment by the investment’s cost. The result is shown as a percentage or a ratio. ROI makes it possible to measure the impact of a marketing action.

Online fraud. There are many online scams, phishing is one of them. Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card details, and other banking information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. The objective may be identity theft or simply monetary theft.

Search engines are sites responsible for indexing other websites and classifying them according to the keywords included in their pages. This means that internet users can then easily find websites related to the keywords they searched for. Examples of search engines: Google, Yahoo, Bing.

The term used to describe a picture taken of oneself in self-portrait mode for the purpose of sharing on social media networks.

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It consists of a set of techniques aimed at optimizing the pages of a website in order to facilitate the ability of search engines to understand the content of those pages and to index the pages accordingly.

SERP is the name of the search engine results page.

Short codes (also known as short numbers) are shortened telephone numbers that are significantly shorter than regular phone numbers. They are often seen in television commercials for clairvoyants. Short codes are also used in chat applications via SMS.

A sort of map of your website intended for search engines. It is a file listing the resources and the information on your website in a way that is understandable to internet bots.

Cellular phones capable of providing a computer-like functionality (internet browsing, sending and receiving e-mail) in addition to the basic functions of a telephone.

SMO stands for social media optimization. Comparable to SEO, SMO is a set of techniques used to improve the visibility and reputation of company, brand, or public figure on social media networks.

Social media networks are an integral part of Web 2.0 because they put the internet user at the heart of the action. Liking, sharing, commenting, social media is created by the internet user. The most well known general purpose network is Facebook. There are other social media networks, however, and they are often oriented around a specific theme, such as music or professional networking. They can also be developed around very different concepts, such as Snapchat or Twitter.

Statistics used to differentiate between different subgroups of a given population in the process of market segmentation. Different customer segments are created using such characteristics as age, gender, income, occupation, and so on.

The web page we see in a browser is a translated version. In effect, browsers make it possible to transform the code of the page into visual elements. The source code of a web page is the code that the browser will translate. On most browsers, it can be displayed by pressing CTRL + U.

Spam consists of sending the same message (often a commercial proposal) via email to the greatest possible number of people on an email list. As such, it is an inappropriate way to make use of contact lists. Many messaging systems now incorporate anti-spam filters.

Advertisers pay for certain websites to display their sponsored links on those same websites. The most widely known type of sponsored links are those from Google, which is the world’s largest advertiser on the internet.

Software created by hackers and installed on the computers of their targets in order to spy on them without their knowledge or agreement. Spyware is a fairly general term that can be used to describe keyloggers or even software designed to record the browsing habits of internet users, which is then used to send them targeted advertising.

A one time only fee, payable at the beginning of a project.

The practice of following the trail of an internet user by placing a cookie on the user’s browser. Tracking is used to analyze the browsing habits of users and to offer them ads targeted to their interests.

A Trojan horse is a type of computer virus. The reference to the Odyssey by Homer comes from the fact that a Trojan horse virus appears to be legitimate software, thereby deceiving the user. Once installed, it will likely open secret accesses giving the attacker access to the target machine.

To troll (verb) means to state an opinion with the dubious purpose of deliberately provoking controversy. A troll (noun) is a person who exhibits this behavior online.

Trust Flow (TF) is a metric of Majestic SEO that refers to the quality of inbound links to your page. It indicates the ability of one page to transfer its trustworthiness to another page. TF is represented by a number from 0 to 100, with 0 being the lowest value.

Unique visitors refers to the number of distinct individuals requesting pages from the website during a given period, regardless of how often they visit that website. This avoids inflating statistics with users who regularly visit the site.

Bits - Byte - Megabyte - Gigabyte The unit of data called bits is often confused with the unit called bytes because they sound almost the same. However, these two units do not mean the same thing at all. Bit (symbol “b”): One bit is the smallest unit of data in computer science. Bit is short for binary digit, which means this unit operates on base 2 and not base 10 (decimal). Therefore, a bit can only be set to 0 or to 1. Because it is not easy to convert a binary digit into a decimal digit, it is simpler to use a converter. Byte (symbol “B”): One byte equals 8 bits. (Sometimes confused with the bit because of its similar pronunciation.) To summarize: 1 byte = 8 bits. This unit of data is still used for text files that are not very heavy. For example, a Word file = 40 KB, an HTML page = 20 KB, a .jpg image with a low resolution = 150 KB. Megabyte (symbol “KB”): One megabyte (or meg) is 1,000 bytes. This unit of data is used for heavier files. For example, a photo = 2 MB, a sound file = 5 MB. Gigabyte (symbol “GB”): One gigabyte (or gig) equals 1,000 megabytes. This unit of data is used for large storage capacities (1 GB = 1,000 MB = 1,000,000 KB). For example, a DVD = 4 GB, a USB key = 8 GB, a hard drive = 100 GB.

The address you enter in the browser to access the site you want. If you do not know the URL of the website, you can search for the site via a search engine.

A service that shortens a long URL. The service works by going through a third-party website that then redirects to the long URL. URL shorteners are often used in cases where there is a limitation on the number of characters (Twitter, for example). Google’s URL shortener service is here: http://goo.gl/.

Also called visitor experience, the user experience represents the feelings experienced by an internet user as a result of visiting a website or a web page. The visitor experience is determined by the quality of the content, the types of services offered, and the general ergonomics of the website.

A username is the name you use to connect to a computer system. It identifies you as a specific user and, for security reasons, is associated with a password. It is essential for the username and password combination to be correct in order to access the secure space of the computer system.

Content becomes viral when it has all the characteristics that make it frequently talked about by a large number of people. Viral content usually plays on the emotions of internet users, generating controversy, humor, fear, anger, or sadness. Companies use viral content to gain greater visibility or to spread their reputation. Viralization is double-edged because it can create good buzz or it can create bad buzz.

Web page optimization consists of being very careful to respect the rules established by search engines so that your website can be among the top search results. An example of optimization that is easy to implement would be to avoid using Flash technology to display content (simply because search engine bots can’t read Flash).

A website is a structured set of linked web pages, accessible via a single address. A website is stored or hosted on a server which is itself connected to the Internet.

The flow of internet users visiting a specific website.