Glossary of Terms
Don't know the difference between HTTP and TCP/IP? Have no fear - our handy glossary of terms is here to shed light on even the most obscure of Web-related acronyms.
If there's something you'd like explained that you can't find in here then please let us know about it. The glossary is expanding all the time so we welcome suggestions.
P
- Page Rank
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Page Rank was one of Google's main methods to determine a page's relevance and importance through the quality of sites linking to it. The Page Rank of each page depends on the Page Rank of the pages pointing to it.
- Page Views
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Page Views refers to the number of times a Web page has been viewed by users. Recorded by Web Stats as a measure of how popular individual Web pages are.
See also: Unique Visit, Hit.
- Paid Inclusion
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Paid Inclusion is a component of Search Engine Marketing.
Advertisers pay Search Engines to include their Web site or advert in natural search result listings, rather than next to the search result listings as in Pay Per Click advertising.
See also: SEM, Pay Per Click.
- Paid listings
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The search results list in which advertisers pay to be featured according the PPC model. This list often appears in a separate section to the natural/organic search results. See also Pay Per Click.
- Paid Search
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See Pay Per Click.
- Pantone Colour
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The Pantone system defines mixes of Spot Colors used in the printing process. A Pantone guide is used to select colours with a Pantone reference. A printer then mixes the Spot Colors necessary to produce that colour based on Pantone instructions.
In theory, a Pantone colour should look the same wherever it is printed, unlike Process Colour, where colours can vary between printers.
See also: Spot Colour, Process Colour, CMYK, RGB.
- Pay Per Click
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Pay Per Click advertising is a component of Search Engine Marketing.
Adverts are placed on Search Engines, usually next to search result listings, and the advertiser pays the Search Engine a small fee each time a user clicks on the advert.
Pay-Per-Click advertising allows companies to place 'bids' on keywords they are interested in. The higher the company bids, the higher it will appear in the returned "sponsored links" result for those keywords in Search Engine.
See also: AdWords, SEM, Paid Inclusion.
- PDF (Portable Document Format)
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PDF is a device and resolution independant document format developed by Adobe Systems. Being device and resolution independant means PDF documents will render exactly the same regardless of origin or destination.
PDF documents are commonly used in the Print industry and to transfer documents over a network.
- PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor)
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PHP is an Open-Source Server-Side language. PHP runs on a Web Server and produces an output, normally in the form of a Web page that is interpreted by a Client
- Pixel
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A Pixel (shortened from Picture Element) is one of many tiny dots that make up the representation of an image.
The Resolution of a computer display is determined by the number of Pixels the display is comprised of, measured width by height. A display with a Resolution of 800 by 600, would be made up of 480,000 Pixels (800x600).
Pixels are not only used to describe elements on a computer display. Other devices, including Printers and Digital Cameras have their Resolution measured in Pixels.
See also: DPI.
- Podcasting
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The distribution of multimedia files, usually audio, over the Internet for playback on mobile devices. The word Podcasting is a combination of iPod, Apple's seminal MP3 player, and Broadcasting.
Podcasting enables independent producers to create self-published, syndicated "radio shows". Listeners may subscribe to feeds using "podcatching" software, which periodically checks for and downloads new content automatically.
- POP3
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POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is a protocol used to retrieve Email from a Server over a TCP/IP connection.
See also: SMTP
- PPC (Pay Per Click)
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See Pay Per Click.
- PR
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Public Relations - the process of maintaining and controlling your relationship with the public and your target audience.
- Precision
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The degree to which a search engine lists documents with terms matching those searched for. The more matches listed, the higher the precision rate.
- Proximity search
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A search where users specify that documents returned should have keywords near each other.
- Process Colour
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Process Colour, shortened from Four-Colour Printing Process, refers to the method of printing with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) inks. With Process Colour printing, different colours are reproduced by combining these four inks during the printing process.
See also: Spot Colour, Pantone Colour, CMYK, RGB.
Q
- Query
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A request for specific information from a Database or Search Engine.
- Qwerty
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Qwerty is the most common character layout on English-language computer and typewriter keyboards.
Qwerty takes its name from the first 6 characters found on the top row of letters on the keyboard.
R
- Rank
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The position attained on the Search Engines, Directories and Searchable Portals
- Raster Graphics
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Raster Graphics, or Bitmaps, use a rectangular grid made up of Pixels to represent an image. Raster Graphics cannot be scaled up in size without loss of apparent quality, unlike Vector Graphics. However, Raster Graphics are more practical for describing photographic or photo-realistic images.
- Reciprocal Link
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Is where two sites exchange links by placing a link to each other on each site. This is a proven way to build link popularity which is now an important component of achieving high search engine ranking.
- Resolution
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Refers to the amount of data an image or display can hold and is usually measured in Pixels. Higher Resolution means more image detail.
- RGB (Red Green Blue)
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RGB is a colour model in which Red, Green and Blue are combined to reproduce other colours.
The RGB colour model is used in televisions and other displays, including computer displays.
See also: Spot Colour, Process Colour, CMYK, Pantone Colour.
- Robot
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A software program used by Search Engines to visit every URL on the Web. Robots follow every link and catalog the textual content of each page they reach for the Search Engine's index.
Also known as Spiders or Crawlers.
- Robot tag
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Meta information tag used to tell visiting search engine robots how to behave.
- ROI
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Return on investment. A key measure on how well your site is doing.
- Router
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A piece of computer hardware that forwards data across a network to its destination.
- RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
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RSS is a popular Feed file format based on XML.
It allows users to receive information without being required to constantly open new pages in their web browser.
See also: Atom, Syndication.
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