Common Terms for the Website Newbie

As a web developer, I use technical terms every day in my business that are now second nature to me.

Once I have collaborated with a client for a few months, I notice that some of those words become second nature to them as well. However, in the initial period of contact, some website newbies (a newcomer inexperienced in a particular activity) are completely bamboozled by the language of the internet and I find myself explaining what those words actually mean.

In this week’s blog,  I will try to explain some essential terms that every website owner needs to know in order to effectively market their sites.

What is a CMS?

If you have a website that you can log into and update yourself, chances are that you have a CMS enabled website. CMS stands for Content Management System. This is a piece of software installed on a web server that allows quick and easy changes to the site without the need to understand complicated code.

My CMS of choice is WordPress, and it is estimated the 22% of all new websites are created with a WordPress background. My clients can create new pages, add content, insert images, and change the navigation menus without any more knowledge than you need to create a Word document. Some of the buttons are even the same.

From a marketing viewpoint, a CMS allows the site owner to keep the content fresh (not stale – see the next question) and, if you are using WordPress, you can optimise each page for search engines as you create. Fresh content means return visitors and more interest from the search engines (such as Google –they love it!)

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This is quite complex field if you really want to delve into it. In general terms, it refers the way you set up your website in order for search engines such as Google and Bing to catalogue and prioritize it for results when people come looking via their portals.

There is a whole market out there of SEO specialists whose primary job is to look at a client’s website and optimise it. It can be quite expensive depending on the level you want to delve to but fortunately there a number of things that you as the website owner can do yourself.

Marketing View on SEO – It is obviously important to get your site ranked highly in Google so here are a few tips that you can try:

• If you are running WordPress as your CMS (all my CMS clients are), install the plug-in “All in One SEO.” This allows you to individually optimise each page on your site.
• Look at your competitor’s sites if they are higher ranked in Google. Look for keywords that you should be using on your site and scatter throughout your text (sensibly of course so that everything still is grammatically correct).
• Keep your content fresh (have I mentioned that before?)

What is Social Media?

You might be surprised but when I mention the term “social media” to some of my clients, they don’t know what I am talking about. However, if I use the words Facebook and Twitter, they automatically understand me. Social Media is defined in Wikipedia as “the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities.”

Put simply Social Media is a form of online interaction between people.

From a marketer’s viewpoint, Social Media is essential to any business that wants to grow. It allows interaction between the business and its clients including the passing of information, problem solving, product testing and all varieties of community-based communication. It has the ability to change a client from a customer to a fan. Social Media can also be a means of driving visitors to your official website through the release of various information.

What are Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a service from Google that automatically generates detailed stats about a particular website’s traffic. It measures conversions / sales via that site so that owners can determine the success of various campaigns that are running.

Just like SEO, Google Analytics has a variety of levels depending on how far you wish to “dive” into it. At its most basic level, marketers can use it to measure page visits and geographical location of visitors. Individual pages can also be analysed to check the effectiveness of the page and how long a visitor spends looking at content. Whilst not directly telling you how to fix the problem, Google Analytics can tell you where the problems lie.

Still need help cutting through the jargon? Give me a call on 0488 406 050 and we can have a chat about how these strange terms (and working with us) can get your business some well deserved attention on the internet.