Sorry, I don’t speak jargon

Have you ever sat through a work meeting (or a dinner with friends for that matter) and felt at a loss when acronyms or phrases that mean absolutely nothing to you are flung around with abandon?

What about when the words sound familiar, but the context is way off – like when your IT expert talks about hosting something and clusters of clouds. Is she planning a party and worried about the weather?

Ok, that was a bit OTT or, over the top – just in case that’s one of those pesky acronyms that troubles you.

Most of us would follow a conversation that talked about web hosting and a cluster of servers, but could you explain the cloud, flesh our SEO or weigh up the pros and cons of server and hosted email if you were put on the spot?

Meet netspeak

That’s right we’re talking about jargon, or industry specific language. In particular, the jargon that relates to our online world and the marketing that goes along with it.

Netspeak is just one name for the words, phrases and acronyms we use when talking tech. You can also call it blargon, cyberslang, e-lingo or geekspeak.

These are often words you hear all the time – and quite possibly use with confidence – but would be hard pressed to define…well…definitively.

Your go to list of online jargon

Domain name: The name of your website. Usually the same as your business name. It’s important to have full control and ownership of your domain name. Learn more about domain names here

www: World Wide Web. Did you know that most times it’s not necessary to type www before a website name?

 URL: The unique address of a web page, for example: https://onlineinfluence.com.au/penrith-web-designer/

Did you notice? No www.

Web Hosting: A Web Hosting service provides the technologies and services needed for your website to be viewed on the Internet. Websites are hosted, or stored, on special computers called servers.

Cloud Web Hosting: When your website uses the resources of several servers to accommodate all the aspects of hosting your site. The load is balanced, security is taken care of, and hardware resources are available “virtually” so they can be accessed wherever you are, so long as you have internet access. The cluster of servers is “the cloud”. Learn more about the cloud here.

SSL Certificate: Secure Socket Layer certificate. A website that has an SSL certificate is one where website traffic between your web server and the user’s browser is secure and cannot be read. When your website has an active SSL certificate the prefix to your URL changes from HTTP to HTTPS. Learn more about SSL here.

Server Email:  Email that is hosted on your own website server. I don’t recommended this as it’s not particularly secure and can fill up your server. It can also be expensive or cause your website to fail. And, if your website goes down, so does your email.

Hosted Email: A service like GSuite (Google) or Office 365 (Microsoft). This option is more secure. It means your email is hosted separately to your website so, if for some reason your website goes down, your email won’t.

Browser: A web browser is a software application for accessing information on the World Wide Web.  The most popular browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Edge.

Apps: An app is a modern term for a software application. It is most often used when talking about mobile phones and tablets. On a website or a browser, an app is a small piece of software that allows different functions (sometimes called an add-on). App is often used to describe anything that isn’t a fully-fledged software program.

Marketing jargon

Marketing jargon (or should that be margon?) is a special subset of online jargon.

Here’s a few pieces of marketing e-lingo that I’m particularly guilty of trotting out and that are often met with blank stares.

SEM: Or Search Engine Marketing. This refers to paid marketing you may undertake with various providers. In Australia the most popular provider is Google, but elsewhere Bing and Yahoo are also popular. Learn more about Google advertising here.

SEO: Search Engine Optimisation. The practice of improving your chances of ranking well in search engines including Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. Learn more about SEO here

EDM & Email Marketing:  EDM is Electronic Direct Mail. EDM’s is much, much more than email marketing. Email marketing most usually means an electronic marketing campaign in which email send-outs are used to help build an email database or list.  An EDM, on the other hand, is a lengthy process and involves more than just email communication. It utilises multiple forms of communication to relay and reinforce a campaign message.

Content Marketing: A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote your brand, but is intended to stimulate interest in your products or services. Learn more about Content Marketing here.

Blogging: Blog is short for “web-log”. And blogging is the virtual equivalent of writing a regular column in your local paper. Blogging for business is an effective way to boost your online visibility and build relationships with your ideal audience. By consistently adding quality content on your blog, you are able to provide more value for potential customers, which can lead to more conversions, more sales, and better customer retention.  Learn more about blogging here (part one) and here (part two).

Are you confused by online or marketing jargon?

Of course, I’ve only just scratched the surface here. There’s a whole world of industry specific language out there to explore. At Online Influence we live and breathe this jargon and our team is more than happy to turn it into plain English for you and your team.

And, best of all, we don’t just know what it all means, we can harness the power behind the geekspeak to lift your business to another level. Contact us today to find out how our friendly team can help.