Digital Jargon Buster

National Coding Week started just a few years ago in September 2014 but the event has since gone global, with digital organisations like us sharing their expertise and passion with others to address the current digital skills shortage. 

The Government Digital Inclusion Strategy disclosed that 21% of the British population do not recognise the benefits of the digital world because they are lacking basic digital skills. This is equivalent to 11 million people. 

Even more of surprise, up to 50% of SME’s do not even have a website and those that do have minimal functionality. However SME’s who are connected online report cost-savings, time-savings and an increased turnover. Plus, there is a greater opportunity for business growth.

We are committed to the belief that digital skills improve innovation and profitability but we also recognise that many people do not have access or knowledge to tech so we have been busting some jargon for you, so that you can understand some of the most commonly used digital acronyms out there and why the technology might be great for your business.

URL – Universal Resource Locator

Let’s start simple! Think of an URL as an address which points to a website on the World Wide Web. 

For example, this is an URL http://theloft.agency and it takes you to our website.  Every website on the internet and every page within a website has a Universal Resource Locator.

Try and keep your URL’s short and sensible. There’s nothing worse than a long URL which makes no sense:

http://www.exampleofabadurl.co.uk/notaagoodurlexample/badurl/badurls/badurl-badurl-badurl-1-3-3dr-edenbridge-fpa-201609268136282?logcode=p

CMS – Content Management System

A CMS allows people to independently manage, update and publish the content that users see when they view a website.

This can be a great tool for SME’s and is perfect for those who are less comfortable with technology because all you need is internet access and some typing skills.

Some of the most popular content management systems out there include Wordpress, Dupal and Joomla.

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

Okay, we’re starting to get a little more technical now …

Search Engine Optimisation is the process of improving a website’s positioning in search engine results so that it can be found easily by customers. It’s a combination of coding and marketing.

It involves incorporating keywords, which relate to the product or service that the website is trying to sell, into the content of the site. This is an unpaid search activity.

SEM – Search Engine Marketing

In contrast to SEO, which uses unpaid methods to drive visitors to a website, SEM describes the paid activities which improve search engine performance, for instance placing advertisements in Google Search Engine results. 

Want to understand this a little better? Read about PPC below.

PPC – Pay-Per-Click Advertising

1. Pay-Per-Click is a type of SEM because it is a form of paid advertising. It allows businesses to purchase and place an advert right at the top of Google search engine results and most importantly, above its competitors. 
2.  

When a user clicks on this advert, the business is charged a fee but these advertisements can generate more visits to a website in a shorter space of time. It may also be seen by more people.

CTR – Click Through Rate

A CTR measures how many people who see your advert online are actually clicking it. This metric can be used to understand how well your advertisements are performing. If your click rate is low, then something needs to change. It’s a bit of a trial and error process!

UX – User Experience

User experience design is all about providing web customers with a positive experience; generating loyalty and user satisfaction. It incorporates accessibility, usability, interactivity, and anything else that will make your customers happy. 

UI – User Interface

1. The user interface is the part of the website that a customer interacts with. A user interface designer creates the look and feel of a website using graphic design; colour, typography, image.
2.  

First impressions count and how your website looks is considerably important. You have just milliseconds to convince your customers that your business is what they are looking for. 

Our advice: consider investing in a strong website design!

HTML – HyperText Markup Language 

HTML is a special language used to create and construct web pages on the internet. In particular, it is used to build page structure. For example, HTML is used to define pages, headings, paragraphs and hyperlinks. 

Furthermore, HTML is often used to create those marketing emails and newsletters which arrive in your inbox each day. It’s a fairly simple language to learn and did you know that you can learn for free at CodeAcademy? 

SMM  – Social Media Marketing

We think this one is fairly self-explanatory. It’s all about gaining visits to your website using social media. Social media is an integral part of today’s society and everyone is using it so you’re missing a trick if you don’t have a Facebook or Twitter page.

References:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-digital-inclusion-strategy/government-digital-inclusion-strategy

http://www.tinderfoundation.org/sites/default/files/research-publications/supporting_small_businesses_with_digital.pdf

https://www.awarenessdays.co.uk/awareness-days-calendar/coding-for-adults/