Glossary of Terms

 

 

Below you will find full descriptions of what website terminology actually means:

 

 

ALT Tags

ALT Tags, or alternative text tags, are used to provide alternative text content for images used in a website. Users who can not see images in a website will make use of ALT tags to help them understand what an image represents. ALT tags are very important for images that convey important information such as phone numbers or contact details. ALT tags can also be used for search engine optimisation by placing keywords within the tags in order to increase the relevancy of the content on the website.

 

Browser

A browser is a piece of software used to view a website and surf the internet. Various browsers are available for free, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Opera. Some users may also make use of text browsers or screen readers to view websites which have been designed specifically for users with visual impairments.

 

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

CSS are used by web designers to control how documents are displayed in web browsers. CSS is really a basic programming language which allows a developer to alter how aspects of a webpage are displayed to a user. Elements such as fonts, colours, layout and links can all be controlled by CSS.

 

Dead Link/Dead End

Dead links on websites refer to when a user clicks a navigation link in a page which either takes them to a page which does not exist, which then results in an error page being presented, or does not perform any operation at all. A dead end in a website occurs when a user follows a link to a page, which when loaded, provides no way back to the previous page or to any other pages on the website, hence the user has reached a 'dead end'.

 

Doctype

Doctype stands for Document Type Declaration and defines what document type definition a web page complies to. In simple terms the Doctype specifies what version of HTML has been used to construct a particular web page. The code in this webpage should therefore meet the standards defined by this Doctype and contain no attributes or programming elements from other versions of HTML.

 

Flash

Flash is a design technique, developed by Macromedia, which is commonly used in the implementation of websites. It is a highly graphical technique and often makes use of animation to display objects on a screen. Websites designed entirely in flash can look very attractive but present compatibility issues with the search engine spiders, which find it difficult to examine the text content contained in a flash page.

 

Frames

Use of frames was, and still is, a common technique used in the design and layout of websites. Instead of a single page being displayed in a browser window multiple pages can be on display at once. When frames are used there are usually three separate pages, one for the page banner, one for the navigation and also a central frame which displays the main content.

 

JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language which is used frequently in web design to generate more complex effects which can not be achieved using HTML. JavaScript can be used for a variety of applications, but one of the most common uses is in the creation of navigation buttons which change colour or appearance when the user moves the cursor over the button.

 

<st1:place>Meta<st1:place> Tags

<st1:place>Meta<st1:place> tags are part of the HTML code which are used to provide useful information to both search engine spiders and also web developers. The tags are located within the first few lines of code but do not display on the webpage, as they are of no relevance to an ordinary user. The information they contain varies from a description of what is contained in a page to who created that page originally.

 

Noframes

Using frames in the design of a website can present problems to both users and the search engine spiders. Users who make use of older browsers or text only browsers can not view multiple frames at once, while search engine spiders can find it difficult to index the content contained in all the frames used. Therefore alternative content can be provided using a HTML function called Noframes. This function provides meaningful content for users who can not view the framed version of the website and also content for the search engine spiders to index.

 

Resolution

The term resolution is usually used in the context of screen resolution, which describes the amount of dots (pixels) which can be displayed on a screen at any one time. For example, a screen resolution of 800x600 indicates that the display device is capable of displaying 800 distinct pixels on 600 different lines (a total of 480,000 pixels). Generally, the higher the resolution, the sharper the image displayed and the more content that can be fitted on the screen.

 

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Search engine optimisation is a technique used to ensure a website is compatible with the search engines and provide it with the best possible chance of appearing at the higher positions in the search results. SEO ensures the content contained in a website is relevant to search terms entered by users by placing keywords within the content, meta tags and ALT tags. SEO does not guarantee top positions in search engines but gives the website the potential to achieve the best possible results.