The technology sector has created some pretty unique products, techniques and processes in the last quarter century. In the world of website technology, this has meant the invention of new words and phrases to describe our work. Well that’s great for us Techies… but perhaps not so great for discussing technology with our clients! Web developers may be nerdy, and buzzwords don’t quite help our geeky image, but trust me the quirky words have simple meanings. The words are quirkier than they are difficult conceptually.
If you ever don’t understand some of the technology buzzwords your web developer is using, don’t be afraid to ask! They probably don’t even realize their mistake; it becomes a second nature vocabulary when you live in the tech space every day. For those of us who aren’t super familiar, here are some popular buzz words demystified.
Content Marketing. This simply means making sure that the pictures, videos, blog articles and other information caters to the audience you desire to reach. Search Engines, like Google, pay close attention to the collection of this type of information on your website in order to decide which people to send your way. Content Marketing is the process of adding targeted information in order to direct the right type of audience to your website.
The Cloud. Hint… it’s not really an imaginary space that is absent of a physical existence. Think of the cloud as an actual collection of computers that store your information. When you save something to the cloud, it is saved to a giant infrastructure of computers with memory to save and allow you to access your photos, music, documents or whatever else you might have saved.
SERP. Search Engine Results Page. This just means the page the comes up when you search something on Google, Yahoo or Bing. The actual page or results and various links is just called the Search Engine Results Page or SERP.
Responsive Design. This is just a new way to build websites in order to make sure that your website looks good on any device including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. In other words, the website it responds to your device. Thus, responsive design.
Mobile-Friendly. This means that your website is created in a way where it works well on a smartphone. This can be accomplished through Responsive Design (see above) or by building a mobile website. If you are unsure whether or not your website is mobile friendly just check here
Impression. If you’ve ever run an online ad you are familiar with people telling you how many impressions your ad received. But what is an impression? It is simply the number of people that saw your ad on their screen. So 1 impression means that 1 person saw your ad on their screen. It does not mean that the person clicked or interacted with your ad in any way. It just means that it appeared on the website they were visiting.
Server. This is a physical storage device that is dedicated to storing files. That’s it, just think of it like a computer filing cabinet. Now there are all different types of servers but mostly they are a piece of computer hardware that store electronic files. Just the electronic version of a filing cabinet.