[A - C][D - G][H - L][M - Q][R - V][W - Z]

Hit
A ‘hit’ means a single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server. This is different to page impressions because, for example, in order for a web browser to display a page that contains 3 graphics, 4 ‘hits’ would be registered: 1 for the HTML page, and one for each of the 3 graphics. Therefore, hits do not really indicate the popularity of a web page because of the number of items that it represents.

Home Page (or Homepage)
The common internet meaning now refers to the main page of the website that the browser opens when no other page is specified. From a programmer’s point of view, the homepage is the "index.htm" page that the browser automatically searches for on a website if no other page is specified. Originally, it refers to the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up, a page which is changeable within the ‘internet options’ tab of Internet Explorer, for example.

Host
Generally, this refers to the place where a website is stored and made accessible to people using the Internet. It also therefore refers to the company which looks after these computers; therefore the host of this website would refer to the organisation which allows this website to be published such as Claranet, Host Europe etc. Initially, it referred to any computer on a network where services available to other computers on the network were kept.

Hosting
Your site has to be on a server somewhere if it is to be "published" on the internet and the hosting refers to the renting of the space to allow this to happen. This is because a website must physically reside on a computer that is connected continuously to the internet. Web hosting companies provide the equipment, a high-speed connection to the internet and monitor your site to make sure it is always available and generally charge a monthly hosting fee to allow this.

HTML
Acronynm for HyperText Markup Language. This is the coding language which is used to write the pages (in reality, hypertext documents) which make up the World Wide Web. The browser on your PC then re-interprets the documents into something that we can view and understand.

HTTP
Acronym for HyperText Transport Protocol. This is the most important protocol (set of rules) for moving the hypertext (HTML) files around the Internet - to do so, it requires an HTTP client program (such as a browser) at one end and an HTTP server program at the other. This is the reason that all URLs begin with http.

Hypertext
This refers to text which contains links to other documents so that when a reader clicks on those words or phrases, they will be shown the document to which they linked. In HTML, hypertext links are indicated by the words being underlined and, normally, in a different colour.

Index
In internet terms, the index is the structured set of information that you can query when you use a Search engine or Directory. The index is constructed by crawlers which have been searching the web in the case of Search Engines and in the case of Directories it contains the summaries of the website which have been categorised.

Inbound Link
[See Backlink]

Internet Service Provider
A commercial organisation which provides access to the Internet for individuals and companies.

Intranet
Although an intranet uses the same types of software and formats as on the Internet, it is not open to the general public but rather is a secure private network within an organisation or company. It is generally used to share information and services across an organisation and is perfect for companies with many locations, particularly across multiple countries.

IP Address
All computers which are connected to the Internet have a unique address known as an IP (Internet Protocol) address which is the equivalent to the address and postcode of a house. The IP address is a numeric address written as a set of four numbers separated by dots, for example 170.93.84.14, and it provides a unique identification of a computer together with the network it belongs to. The Domain Name, which is recognisable to users, is attached to the IP Address of the server/computer where it is hosted but being made up of words (and numbers) is something that we can more easily relate to and remember.

ISDN
Acronym for Integrated Services Digital Network. An international communications standard that allows ordinary phone lines to transmit digital instead of analogue signals, thus allowing data to be transmitted at a much faster rate than with a traditional modem.

ISP
Acronym for Internet Service Provider

.jpg or jpeg
Acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. The second type of graphics format (the other is GIF) which is widely used on the Internet. This format is best used for photographic images as the gradations in tone are preserved much better than in a GIF format. Uses a suffix .jpg

Keywords
Keywords (or Key Terms or Key Phrases) are at the very heart of a Search Engine Marketing programme, particularly with regard to Search Engine Optimisation and PPC.

Landing Page
A landing page is simply a special web page on the website which the visitor reaches by clicking on the link in a piece of electronic advertising. When employing marketing techniques such as email marketing or PPC campaigns, landing pages are created on the website to reinforce the message in those campaigns and guide the visitor towards the desired next action.

Link Popularity
An estimation of how ‘important’ or ‘popular’ a web page is, based purely on the number of other pages are linked into it, ie. the number of backlinks that it has. In this estimation, no account is taken of any other factors or indeed the relevance of the web pages linking to it.

Link Text
[see Anchor Text]

Listings
The information that appears on a Search Engine’s results page when a search is carried out.