Friday 3 October 2014

the biggest list of blogging terms ever

There are a lot of terms that come with this blogging gig that can be confusing if you're not technically savvy yet. So I crowd-sourced, and asked my blogging facebook groups what terms confused them. In no particular order, I give you the biggest list of blogging terms ever - some of them even I had to look up definitions for!

  • permalink a permalink is the direct link to a blog post that you share with others, for example, pinterest. You can read how to create a permalink here
  • Google Analytics the industry standard for tracking visitors to your site. I'll go deeper into using analytics later in the month.
  • unique views the number of new visitors to your blog. Google analytics recently changed the title of this statistic to users.
  • meta data wikipedia describes meta data as the card catalogue of libraries. Here is an article from the Sydney Morning Herald, with the Government definitions.
  • meta tags also called meta elements. Part of the HTML coding of a site's meta data.
  • tags called "labels" in Blogger. Used to aggregate content under the one identifier eg things I'd tell my daughter, cookie exchange.
  • categories the over-arching themes or topics of a blog can be identified as categories. For example kids and recipes are two of the categories I use. Here is an excellent article from Tonya at The Crafty Mummy on how to use labels in blogger.
  • HTML HyperText Markup Language, the standard for creating websites
  • CSS Cascading Style Sheets, the standard for separating content from presentation
  • coding the process of writing the program "the back end"
  • bounce rates the percentage of visitors that leave your site after only visiting one page. Data can be found in Google analytics. More details provided later in the month.
  • short URL a technique used to create a permalink to a post in a shorter number of characters. Well-known to be used when sharing links on twitter.
  • SEO friendly URLs URLs should be straightforward and meaningful. Here is an article from Search Engine Land for more information. This article from Moz also gives clear examples of best practices.
  • widget a small application or interface that allows users to perform a limited function
  • link up a host blogger provides space for other bloggers to add their blog posts.
  • plugin a software component that adds to an existing software program. Commonly used when refering to the self-hosted wordpress platform
  • carnival a round up of links, usually submitted by bloggers to a central host blogger.
  • blog hop used to move traffic from one blog to another. Bloggers post at the same time, and readers move from the main host blog, through a list of other bloggers (usually provided at each "stop")
  • hyperlink the name given to a link on a web page. Here's how to create a hyperlink.
  • kill fee the fee paid to a freelance writer if the story is "killed"
  • stickiness anything on a website that encourages visitors to stay longer. Measured by ad views and bounce rates.
  • private blogging networks a group of blogs connected to one another, usually owned by the same company, with the goal of building links within the network to help particular content rank better.
  • social influence how one person's behaviour affects anothers. In marketing terms, it's the how you are affected when reading a blogger's post. Here is a post from Mashable with deeper explanations.
  • self-hosted the act of having your website totally under your control
  • engagement scores measuring the quality of interactions between readers and your website
  • image types blogging and the internet has always been a visual medium for me - you won't find many posts within this space that don't contain an image of some sort. Photos you have taken yourself (or quotes like the one above) are the best sort to use, but sometimes that isn't possible. Here's an interesting article from QuickSprout about different images and the shares they recieve.
  • image sizes I have always believed bigger is better, the full width of your text column is best.
  • alt tags used on images, and read out to visually impaired visitors
  • page views the number of visitors to your site in any one period. Data is found in Google analytics
  • image hot linking direct linking to a websites files, mostly used with images, where the image isn't hosted on the site the link is from
  • CTR click-through rate. The way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. Calculated as the number of clicks on an ad, divided by the number of times an ad is shown, expressed as a percentage
  • click bait headlines of a sensational or provocative manner, used to entice people to click through to a website
  • like-gating the practise of forcing people to like a facebook page, in return for something, usually an entry in a giveaway, but also used for downloadable printables, etc. Banned from November 4th, 2014.
  • trolling the act of sowing discord by deliberately provoking an emotional response from other commenters
  • hex codes hexadecimal codes for colours, read this article for an explanation
  • pages refers to static pages on your site that don't change, eg about page
  • posts refers to each entry in a blog
  • canonical URLs directs google to look at one listing, when you may have multiple URLs directed to the same spot. Read Google's explanation here
  • 301 redirect a permanent redirection of one URL to another
  • 404 error indicates that the server was unable to find the item as requested
  • SEO Search Engine Optimisation. The process of naturally making a website more visible to a search engine. More information later in the month
  • keywords related to SEO, they are the words that you use in a search engine.
  • hosting to store a website or blog on another computer.
  • FTP File Transfer Protocol. Standard network protocol used to transfer computer files from one host to another via a network such as the internet.
  • theme related to self-hosted websites. The framework that contains the files that work together to provide the interface of your website.
  • RSS Rich Site Summary (also called Really Simple Syndication) a standard of web feed formats, that include meta-data, allowing frequently updated sites such as blogs to be read in an aggregator such as bloglovin.
  • no-follow links a snippet of code that tells google not to transfer your authority to the website you are linking to. Used in accordance to google requirements if money or products are exchanged for review when linking to the item on another website.
  • domain a unique name that identifies an internet resource such as a website. For example, lifebehindthepurpledoor.com is my domain name.
  • image hosting a third-party service that allows users to upload an image, then share that image on their website via an HTML code. For example, Flickr and photobucket.
  • affiliate usually used in reference to a link to an external third party where the poster recieves a percentage of the sale price of an item for directing the person to the sale. Amazon is a popular affiliate marketer. For more information, read this article from wikipedia
  • review usually refers to a blog post about a product, either given to the blogger, or purchased by the blogger.
  • sponsored post a post written in exchange for payment, either cash or product.
Have I left anything out? What terms didn't you understand when you started blogging?

 
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5 comments

  1. This is a really incredible resource. Quite a few on here that I wasn't sure of and I am still confuddled about no-follow links, why you would use them etc What does "transfer authority" mean in that context?

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  2. Great list, Cate! There really are so many things about blogging to learn and this is such a helpful resource to create. Loving this series

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  3. You really know your stuff girl....just had a catch up on this series...well done you!
    Alison xx

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