The Salient AI glossary
AI, Website and
Marketing Glossary
Understand the terms. Put the ideas to work. Plain-language explanations for business owners connecting AI, websites and marketing.
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A/B testing
Measurement and responsible useA/B testing is a controlled comparison in which eligible people or other units are randomly assigned to different versions of an experience. The versions run over the same period, and a predefined measure is used to assess whether the change affected the outcome.
AEO
Search and discoveryAEO usually means answer engine optimisation. It is an industry term for improving information so answer-based systems can find, understand and potentially use it when responding to a question. The label is used inconsistently and can overlap with SEO and generative engine optimisation.
AI adoption
Integration, sales and administrationAI adoption is the process of bringing AI into practical use within an organisation. It includes choosing suitable work, preparing people and information, setting responsibilities, testing the system and incorporating useful results into the way the business operates.
AI agent
AI conceptsAn AI agent is a system that uses an AI model to choose actions and work through steps towards a goal, often using connected tools. The term is used differently across products; the important detail is what the system can decide and do in its actual environment.
AI assistant
AI conceptsAn AI assistant is an application that uses artificial intelligence to help a person complete tasks, often through conversational instructions. It may answer questions, draft material, analyse supplied information or use connected tools, depending on its design and permissions.
AI governance
Measurement and responsible useAI governance is the set of responsibilities, policies and working controls an organisation uses to direct and oversee its AI systems. It covers decisions about acceptable uses, information access, evaluation, accountability and what happens when a system or its circumstances change.
AI hallucination
AI conceptsAn AI hallucination is an output that presents invented, incorrect or unsupported information as though it were reliable. In generative AI, this can include a fabricated source, a false detail about a real organisation or a claim that does not follow from the supplied material.
AI inference
AI conceptsAI inference is the use of a trained AI model to produce an output from an input. That output might be a classification, prediction or generated response. Inference is the operational use of what the model has learned, rather than the training process that adjusts its learned parameters.
AI model
AI conceptsAn AI model is a computational system that maps inputs to outputs using a learned or specified representation of a task. In modern machine learning, training adjusts its parameters so it can recognise patterns, make predictions or generate material from new inputs.
AI orchestration
Integration, sales and administrationAI orchestration is the coordination of models, tools, data and other steps within an AI-enabled process. It determines how work moves between components, what information each receives and how the system handles dependencies, decisions and failures.
AI receptionist
Integration, sales and administrationAn AI receptionist is a system that uses AI to handle initial customer conversations, commonly through telephone calls. Within its configured scope, it can answer routine questions, collect details and route the enquiry, with booking or record updates available only when suitable connections are provided.
API
Integration, sales and administrationAn API, or application programming interface, defines how software can interact with another software component or service. A web API might let an authorised application request information, create a record or perform an available action using a documented format.
API key
Integration, sales and administrationAn API key is a value supplied with an API request to identify the calling application, project or account. A service may use it for usage tracking, quotas or access control; the authority attached to a key depends on the provider and configuration.
Artificial intelligence
AI conceptsArtificial intelligence, or AI, is a broad field of computing concerned with tasks such as recognising patterns, interpreting language, making predictions and producing useful responses. Different AI systems perform different jobs; a tool that writes text is one example.
Attribution
Measurement and responsible useAttribution is the method used to assign credit for a conversion or other important action to marketing interactions. The result depends on the attribution model, eligible channels, lookback window, reporting scope and the interactions the measurement system can observe.
Audience segmentation
Content and marketingAudience segmentation means grouping people or organisations by shared information, needs or behaviour so communication can be planned for a relevant group. A segment is defined by explicit conditions, such as a stated interest or customer status, rather than by a vague impression of the audience.
Backlink
Search and discoveryA backlink is a link from another website to a page on your website. It gives readers a route to that page and can help search engines discover it and understand its context.
Brand voice
Content and marketingBrand voice is the relatively consistent character a business expresses through its words. It includes choices about clarity, formality, vocabulary and attitude, helping different people write in a recognisable way while still explaining the particular subject accurately.
Call to action
Content and marketingA call to action, often shortened to CTA, is wording that invites someone to take a particular next step. It may appear as a button, link or sentence in a webpage, email or other communication, and should make the intended action understandable.
Canonical URL
Search and discoveryA canonical URL is the URL treated as the representative address for a set of duplicate or very similar pages. A website can indicate its preferred version, while a search engine such as Google makes its own canonical selection when processing those pages.
Chatbot
AI conceptsA chatbot is software that interacts with people through a conversational interface, using text or voice. It may follow predefined questions and responses, generate replies with an AI model, or combine both approaches to provide information and help complete a task.
ChatGPT
Platforms and toolsChatGPT is OpenAI’s conversational AI assistant. People use it to ask questions, develop ideas and work with material such as text, files and images. Available tools depend on the account and settings; the application combines AI models with an interface and supporting capabilities.
Claude
Platforms and toolsClaude is Anthropic’s AI assistant and the name used for its family of AI models. Through Claude applications or developer integrations, people can work on tasks such as writing, analysing documents and coding. The available capabilities depend on the product, account and connected tools.
Click-through rate
Measurement and responsible useClick-through rate, or CTR, is the proportion of recorded impressions that produce clicks, usually expressed as a percentage. Calculate it by dividing clicks by impressions and multiplying by 100, using figures from the same report, scope and period.
Cloudflare
Platforms and toolsCloudflare is a company and cloud-services platform offering networking, security and performance tools. For websites, its services include DNS, content delivery and traffic protection. It also offers developer services for building and running applications.
Content brief
Content and marketingA content brief is a working document that explains what a piece of content needs to achieve and what its creator should know. It usually identifies the audience, purpose, scope, key questions, supporting evidence, format and review requirements before drafting starts.
Content delivery network
Websites and developmentA content delivery network, or CDN, is a distributed group of servers that delivers website content to visitors. It can serve stored copies of eligible files from locations nearer to visitors, reducing the work and distance involved in fetching everything from the website's main server.
Content management system
Websites and developmentA content management system, or CMS, is software for creating, organising and managing digital content. For websites, it commonly provides an editing interface so authorised people can update pages without directly editing every page’s underlying code.
Content repurposing
Content and marketingContent repurposing is adapting existing material into a different format, channel or use for a particular audience. It reuses the underlying knowledge while changing the presentation enough to suit the new context, rather than simply copying the same piece everywhere.
Content strategy
Content and marketingContent strategy is the set of choices that guides what an organisation creates, maintains and removes so its information serves an audience and a business purpose. It covers priorities, responsibilities, channels, standards and how the usefulness of that content will be assessed.
Context engineering
AI conceptsContext engineering is the practice of selecting, organising and maintaining the information available to an AI model while it performs a task. That context can include instructions, retrieved documents, conversation history, tool results and working state. The aim is useful, relevant context within the system’s practical limits.
Context window
AI conceptsA context window is the capacity of an AI model to work with information within a particular request or processing step, usually measured in tokens. Instructions, conversation history and supplied material use that capacity; output and other processing may also count, depending on the model.
Conversion
Measurement and responsible useA conversion is an action a business has chosen to count as a desired outcome, such as a completed purchase or a submitted enquiry. Its meaning depends on the action definition and measurement setup; the word does not automatically mean a sale or a new customer.
Conversion funnel
Content and marketingA conversion funnel is a simplified model of the steps people may take towards a desired action. It helps a team examine progression and drop-off between defined stages, such as viewing a service, starting an enquiry and completing the form.
Conversion rate
Measurement and responsible useConversion rate expresses how often a defined outcome occurs relative to a stated base, usually as a percentage. The denominator might be eligible ad interactions, sessions or users, so the report must explain both what counts as a conversion and what it is divided by.
Conversion rate optimisation
Measurement and responsible useConversion rate optimisation, or CRO, is the ongoing work of understanding and improving an experience so a greater share of suitable visitors completes a defined useful action. It combines investigation, proposed changes and evaluation rather than assuming that a visual redesign will improve results.
Cost per click
Measurement and responsible useCost per click, or CPC, is the amount paid for an advertising click. Average CPC divides the relevant click cost by the number of clicks in the same scope and period. It describes the cost of acquiring clicks, not the cost of obtaining a lead or customer.
Cost per lead
Measurement and responsible useCost per lead, or CPL, is the relevant marketing cost divided by the number of leads counted under a stated definition. It estimates the average cost of generating an enquiry or other lead action, but its meaning changes if the cost scope or lead qualification rule changes.
Crawling
Search and discoveryCrawling is the process in which an automated program visits URLs and retrieves their content. Search engines use crawlers to explore pages they have discovered, giving later systems material to process when deciding what belongs in a search index.
Customer acquisition cost
Measurement and responsible useCustomer acquisition cost, or CAC, is the relevant sales and marketing cost of acquiring new customers divided by the number of new customers acquired. A useful calculation states the cost categories, customer definition and time period or cohort used.
Customer lifetime value
Measurement and responsible useCustomer lifetime value, often shortened to CLV or LTV, is an estimate of the value a customer contributes over the business relationship. Some calculations measure revenue; others estimate profit or contribution after costs. Always name the model and time horizon before comparing the figure with acquisition spending.
Customer relationship management
Integration, sales and administrationCustomer relationship management, or CRM, is the practice of organising a business’s interactions with current and potential customers. A CRM system supports that work by keeping contact details, conversation history, opportunities and next actions in records that authorised staff can use.
Data extraction
Integration, sales and administrationData extraction is the process of retrieving or identifying information from a source for use elsewhere. It can involve copying records from a database or API, or selecting fields such as names, dates and reference numbers from documents and messages.
Data privacy
Measurement and responsible useData privacy concerns how personal information is collected, used, shared and retained, and the choices and protections people have in that process. For a business, it involves deciding what information is necessary, explaining its purpose and managing its use throughout the relationship.
Data retention
Measurement and responsible useData retention is the policy and practice of deciding how long information is kept, why it remains necessary and what happens when that period or purpose ends. It includes operational copies, archives and other locations where the information is held, not just the record visible in one application.
Data validation
Integration, sales and administrationData validation is the process of checking information against defined requirements before or during its use. Those checks may cover required fields, formats, permitted values, ranges, uniqueness and relationships between records, according to the needs of the receiving process.
Deployment
Websites and developmentDeployment is the process of putting a version of a website or application into an environment where it can run or be served. That destination might be a private test environment, a staging site or the production service used by customers.
DNS
Websites and developmentDNS stands for Domain Name System. It is the distributed system that associates domain names with resources such as the network addresses of servers. It helps a browser find the service behind a readable website name.
Domain name
Websites and developmentA domain name is a human-readable name used to identify an internet resource, such as example.com. For a business website, it is the familiar name people type or follow in a link. Domain registration gives you the right to use the name for a renewable period.
E-commerce
Websites and developmentE-commerce is the buying and selling of goods or services through electronic networks, usually the internet. It includes online stores and other digital ordering arrangements for physical products, services or digital goods. A working e-commerce operation connects the buying experience with payment, delivery or fulfilment and customer support.
Editorial calendar
Content and marketingAn editorial calendar is a schedule for planning and coordinating content work. It connects proposed publication dates with topics, formats, owners and review stages, helping a team see what is coming and what must be ready before an item can be published.
Email automation
Content and marketingEmail automation uses software rules to send or schedule messages when defined conditions are met. A trigger, timing rule and audience criteria determine what happens, allowing a business to manage repeated communications without manually sending every individual email.
Email marketing
Content and marketingEmail marketing is the use of email to communicate with an audience about a business, its products, services or useful related information. It can include newsletters, educational messages and offers. A sustainable programme combines relevant content with appropriate permission, clear sender information and a workable way to stop receiving marketing.
Embeddings
AI conceptsEmbeddings are numerical representations of items such as text, images or products. They encode learned features in a form software can compare, helping a system identify items that are similar according to its model.
Fine-tuning
AI conceptsFine-tuning is additional training that adapts an existing machine-learning model using selected data. It changes learned model parameters to improve suitability for a task or behaviour, rather than starting training from scratch.
Generative AI
AI conceptsGenerative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that produces content, such as text, images, audio or code, in response to instructions and other input. Its output is generated from patterns learned during training and the context available in the task.
GEO
Search and discoveryGEO, or generative engine optimisation, is work intended to improve how content is represented or referenced in answers produced by generative search systems. It involves making useful information understandable and supportable, then assessing whether and how those systems use it.
Git
Websites and developmentGit is a distributed version-control system for tracking changes to files. It records saved snapshots, called commits, in a repository. A working copy can include the project’s history, allowing many operations to happen locally rather than depending on a central server.
GitHub
Websites and developmentGitHub is a software development platform that hosts Git repositories and provides tools for collaboration. Teams can store project files, inspect change history, discuss proposed updates and coordinate work. Its other services support additional parts of the development process.
Google Ads
Content and marketingGoogle Ads is Google’s advertising platform for creating and managing paid campaigns across its available advertising surfaces. A business configures campaign goals, audiences or other targeting inputs, creative material, budgets and measurement; the available choices depend on the campaign type.
Google Analytics
Measurement and responsible useGoogle Analytics is a measurement platform that collects configured data from websites and apps and organises it into reports. Its current generation, commonly called GA4, uses events to describe activity, with reporting shaped by the collection, identity, consent and processing settings in use.
Google Business Profile
Search and discoveryGoogle Business Profile is Google's tool for eligible businesses to manage information about their presence in Google Search and Maps. A profile can show details such as the business name, category, opening hours, contact information and customer reviews.
Google Gemini
Platforms and toolsGoogle Gemini refers to Google’s family of AI models and the assistant experiences built around them. The Gemini app lets people interact with generative AI using supported inputs such as text and images. Capabilities and connections vary across products, accounts and settings.
Google Search Console
Measurement and responsible useGoogle Search Console is a Google service that helps site owners monitor and investigate their website’s presence in Google Search. It provides search performance information and tools for examining indexing, page discovery and other search-related issues for a verified property.
HTTPS
Websites and developmentHTTPS is the protected version of HTTP, the protocol used to exchange website information. It uses TLS to encrypt communication between a browser and a server and support verification of the server's identity.
Human in the loop
Integration, sales and administrationHuman-in-the-loop AI is an arrangement in which a person actively participates at a defined point in an AI process. Their role may involve reviewing an output, correcting a label, approving an action or resolving an exception before the work continues.
Impressions
Measurement and responsible useImpressions count appearances of content, an advertisement or a result according to a platform’s measurement rules. They describe recorded opportunities for visibility, not necessarily unique people, attentive viewing or completed actions. The precise rule depends on the report and placement.
Indexing
Search and discoveryIndexing is the process through which a search engine analyses content and stores information about selected pages in its searchable collection. An indexed page can be considered for relevant results, although inclusion does not promise that it will appear for a particular query.
Integration
Integration, sales and administrationIntegration is the work of connecting separate systems so that they can exchange information or coordinate actions. In a business workflow, it includes deciding how records correspond, which fields move, when updates occur and how failures or conflicting changes are handled.
Intelligent document processing
Integration, sales and administrationIntelligent document processing, or IDP, combines document-handling workflows with AI and other techniques to turn documents into usable information. It can include recognising text, identifying document types, extracting fields, checking results and routing uncertain cases for review.
Internal link
Search and discoveryAn internal link connects one page on a website to another page on the same website. It helps visitors find related information and gives search engines a route to discover pages and understand their relationships.
JavaScript
Websites and developmentJavaScript is a programming language widely used to add behaviour to websites. It can respond to input, update page content and communicate with services. It also runs outside browsers in suitable software environments.
Key performance indicator
Measurement and responsible useA key performance indicator, or KPI, is a measure selected to show progress towards an important objective. It is useful when the team understands its definition, source, desired direction and the decisions it should inform, rather than treating every available metric as equally important.
Keyword
Search and discoveryA keyword is a word or phrase used to describe a topic in search research or targeting. In SEO, it helps a team understand the language people use to find information. In search advertising, a keyword can also be an advertiser's input for matching ads to searches.
Knowledge base
Integration, sales and administrationA knowledge base is an organised collection of information intended to help people or systems answer questions. It may contain instructions, policies, product explanations and troubleshooting guides, with a way to find the relevant material.
Landing page
Content and marketingA landing page is the page someone arrives on after following a link, such as an advertisement or campaign email. In marketing projects, the term often describes a page designed around a particular audience, offer and next action.
Large language model
AI conceptsA large language model, or LLM, is a machine-learning model trained on extensive language data to recognise patterns and produce or analyse text. Generative LLMs typically create a response by predicting successive tokens in the context of the supplied information.
Lead generation
Content and marketingLead generation is the work of attracting or identifying potential customers and creating a way to begin a relevant business conversation. It can involve content, referrals, campaigns, events and enquiry paths. A lead is a potential opportunity to assess, rather than a confirmed sale or proof that the person is ready to buy.
Lead magnet
Content and marketingA lead magnet is a resource or offer provided in exchange for a person’s contact information or another defined sign-up action. Examples include a useful checklist, template or educational session. Its purpose is to begin a relevant relationship by solving a specific audience problem.
Lead qualification
Integration, sales and administrationLead qualification is the process of assessing whether an enquiry is a suitable opportunity for a business and what should happen next. It gathers relevant information about the prospect’s need, fit and circumstances against criteria appropriate to the offered product or service.
Local SEO
Search and discoveryLocal SEO is work that helps a business be discovered in unpaid search results with a geographic purpose. It connects accurate business information and useful website content to people looking for services, products or places in a relevant area.
Low-code
Websites and developmentLow-code is a software development approach that combines visual tools and reusable components with a smaller amount of custom code. Teams configure common parts of an application and write code where more specific behaviour or integration is needed. The resulting system still requires testing, ownership and maintenance.
Machine learning
AI conceptsMachine learning is an area of artificial intelligence in which models learn patterns from data to make predictions or produce other outputs. The model's behaviour is learned through training rather than specified entirely as individual rules.
Marketing automation
Content and marketingMarketing automation uses software to carry out defined marketing actions based on schedules, events or conditions. It can coordinate messages, audience updates and follow-up tasks across a customer journey. People still decide the purpose, content, eligibility rules and circumstances in which an action should stop or move to human review.
Microsoft Copilot
Platforms and toolsMicrosoft Copilot is Microsoft’s branding for AI assistant experiences that help people work with information and complete tasks. Microsoft 365 experiences can bring assistance into workplace applications and organisational content, depending on licensing, permissions and configuration. The specific Copilot product matters when comparing capabilities.
Model Context Protocol
Integration, sales and administrationModel Context Protocol, or MCP, is an open protocol for connecting AI applications with external tools and information. It provides a common way for an application’s client component to communicate with a server that exposes capabilities such as tools, resources or reusable prompts.
Model evaluation
AI conceptsModel evaluation is the systematic assessment of an AI model against defined tasks and criteria. It uses suitable examples and measurements to investigate how well the model performs, where it fails and whether those results support its intended use.
Multimodal AI
AI conceptsMultimodal AI is AI that works across more than one kind of data, such as text, images, audio or video. It can combine information from different inputs or produce a different form of output, according to the capabilities of the particular model or system.
No-code
Websites and developmentNo-code is an approach to building applications or automations through visual tools, configured rules and ready-made components without writing conventional code for the supported task. The platform supplies the underlying software. The builder still decides how information, permissions and business processes should work.
Noindex
Search and discoveryNoindex is an instruction that asks supporting search engines to exclude a page or resource from their search index. It can be delivered through a page's metadata or an HTTP response header.
On-page SEO
Search and discoveryOn-page SEO means improving a page's content and descriptive elements so its purpose is clear to readers and search engines. It includes work on titles, headings, explanations and relevant links within the page.
Optical character recognition
Integration, sales and administrationOptical character recognition, or OCR, converts images of written or printed text into text that software can search, copy or process. It is commonly used on scanned pages and photographs so their contents can enter a digital workflow.
Organic traffic
Content and marketingOrganic traffic usually means visits attributed to unpaid search results, although some people use the phrase more broadly for unpaid channels. A useful report states the channel definition, source rules and unit being counted, such as sessions or users.
Page template
Websites and developmentA page template is a reusable structure that determines how a type of page presents its content. It combines layout rules and shared elements with page-specific information, so multiple pages can follow a consistent design without each being assembled from scratch.
Pay-per-click advertising
Content and marketingPay-per-click advertising, or PPC, is an advertising pricing approach in which the advertiser pays for clicks on an advert. It is often associated with search advertising, but the pricing concept is distinct from the platform, placement and campaign objective.
Personalisation
Content and marketingPersonalisation is adapting information or an experience using relevant knowledge about a person, organisation or audience group. It can change wording, recommendations or what is shown, based on information such as a stated preference or a recorded relationship with the business.
Pillar page
Content and marketingA pillar page is a broad, organised guide to a topic that introduces its main questions and links to more detailed supporting pages. It serves as an entry point for readers who need an overview before deciding which part of the subject to explore.
Prompt
AI conceptsA prompt is the instruction, question or other input you give an AI system to guide its response. It can include the task, relevant context, examples, constraints and the format you want the answer to take.
Prompt engineering
AI conceptsPrompt engineering is the practice of designing, testing and refining instructions and examples given to an AI model so its responses better serve a defined task. It includes specifying the purpose, relevant information, constraints and desired output, then checking performance on representative examples.
Prompt injection
AI conceptsPrompt injection is an attempt to make an AI system follow instructions that conflict with its intended task or governing rules. Those instructions can appear directly in input or inside external material the system reads, such as a document or webpage. The risk arises when untrusted content is treated as authority rather than task data.
Query
Search and discoveryA query is a request for information. In website search and SEO, it usually means the words or question a person submits to a search engine to find an answer, business or resource.
Redirect
Search and discoveryA redirect is an instruction that sends a request for one URL to a different URL. Websites use redirects when an address moves, when several addresses should lead to one destination, or when visitors need to be sent to a temporary alternative.
Remarketing
Content and marketingRemarketing is advertising or follow-up aimed at people who have previously interacted with a business, such as visiting its website or becoming customers. In advertising contexts it is often called retargeting; eligibility depends on the platform, available audience data and applicable permissions.
Repository
Websites and developmentA repository is a place for storing and managing a project's files. In software development, a version-controlled repository also records changes over time, allowing a team to inspect earlier versions, coordinate edits and identify the source used for a particular release.
Responsive web design
Websites and developmentResponsive web design is an approach that adapts a website's layout and content presentation to different screen sizes and viewing conditions. It helps the same website remain usable on phones, tablets, laptops and other displays.
Retrieval-augmented generation
AI conceptsRetrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, is an approach that retrieves relevant information from a source and supplies it to a generative model when producing an answer. It lets an application use selected external material without retraining the model for each document update.
Return on investment
Measurement and responsible useReturn on investment, or ROI, compares a net return with the investment required to obtain it, usually expressed as a percentage. The calculation must state what counts as benefit and cost, the period covered and whether the figures are observed results or forecasts.
Robotic process automation
Integration, sales and administrationRobotic process automation, or RPA, uses software to perform repeatable actions in business applications according to defined rules. It can work through user interfaces, APIs or both to move information, fill forms and carry out routine steps across systems.
Robots.txt
Search and discoveryRobots.txt is a text file at a website's root that gives participating crawlers instructions about which URL paths they may request. It is a way to manage crawling behaviour, including restrictions for particular crawlers or parts of a site.
Rollback
Websites and developmentA rollback is an action that returns a system or part of it to an earlier state after a change. For a website, it often means restoring a previously working deployment when a new version causes a problem.
SaaS
Integration, sales and administrationSoftware as a service, or SaaS, is a way of delivering software in which a provider hosts and operates an application that customers access over the internet, usually through a browser or app. Subscription pricing is common. The provider manages the service while customers configure and use it for their own work.
Search engine results page
Search and discoveryA search engine results page, often shortened to SERP, is the page or view a search engine presents in response to a query. Depending on the search, it may combine website links with advertisements, maps, images, videos, answer features or other result formats.
Search intent
Search and discoverySearch intent is the purpose behind a search: what the person is trying to learn, find, compare or do. It helps explain why two queries about the same subject may need different kinds of pages or answers.
SEO
Search and discoverySEO means search engine optimisation. It is the work of making a website accessible and understandable to search engines while helping people find content relevant to their questions. It includes technical foundations, useful content and clear relationships between pages.
Shopify
Platforms and toolsShopify is a commerce platform that helps businesses create online stores and manage selling activities such as products, orders and payments. It also offers tools for selling in person and through other channels, depending on the setup.
Social proof
Content and marketingSocial proof is the influence that other people’s experiences or actions can have on someone’s judgement. In marketing, it often appears through reviews, testimonials, references or case studies that help a prospective customer assess a business and its offer.
Speech recognition
Integration, sales and administrationSpeech recognition is technology that identifies spoken language in audio and represents it as text or recognised words. Often called speech-to-text, it can process recorded audio or work with speech as it arrives, depending on the system.
Staging environment
Websites and developmentA staging environment is a separate website or application environment used to review changes before customers receive them in production. It aims to reproduce the relevant live conditions closely enough to test the proposed release and find problems before launch.
Structured data
Search and discoveryStructured data is information organised into defined fields and relationships so that software can interpret it consistently. On websites, the term often refers to markup that describes a page's content using a shared vocabulary, such as Schema.org, in a format such as JSON-LD.
System prompt
AI conceptsA system prompt is a set of instructions supplied by an AI application to guide a model’s behaviour across a conversation or task. It can describe the assistant’s role, response style, boundaries and operating expectations, separately from the user’s immediate request.
Technical SEO
Search and discoveryTechnical SEO is work on a website's underlying setup that helps search engines access, process and interpret its pages. It includes checking availability, crawling, indexing controls and other technical conditions that affect search discovery.
Text-to-speech
Integration, sales and administrationText-to-speech, or TTS, is technology that converts written text into synthetic spoken audio. An application supplies the words and selects supported voice or delivery settings, and the system produces audio for playback.
TLS certificate
Websites and developmentA TLS certificate is a digitally signed record that associates a public key with an identity, commonly a website's domain name. A browser uses it during connection setup to help authenticate the server as part of establishing an encrypted HTTPS connection.
Token
AI conceptsA token is a unit that an AI model uses to represent and process information. For a language model, text is divided into tokens that may correspond to words, parts of words, punctuation or other character sequences, then represented internally by identifiers.
Topic cluster
Content and marketingA topic cluster is a group of related pages organised around a shared subject, often with a broad pillar page and more focused supporting explanations. Relevant internal links connect the pages so readers can move between an overview and the detail they need.
User experience
Websites and developmentUser experience, or UX, is the overall experience a person has when interacting with a product, service or organisation. It includes whether the experience is useful, understandable and workable in the person’s circumstances. UX work examines that wider journey and improves the obstacles people encounter along it.
User interface
Websites and developmentA user interface, or UI, is the part of a system through which a person interacts with it. On a website or app, this includes controls such as buttons, links, menus and fields, together with their labels, visual presentation and feedback. Interfaces can also include voice or other forms of interaction.
UTM parameters
Measurement and responsible useUTM parameters are labels added to a URL to identify campaign information such as source, medium and campaign name. Compatible analytics tools can read them when someone follows the link to a website.
Vector database
AI conceptsA vector database is a system designed to store and search numerical vectors, often embeddings of text, images or other items. It supports finding items whose vector representations are close under a chosen similarity or distance measure, usually alongside associated records and metadata.
Version control
Websites and developmentVersion control records changes to tracked files over time so you can compare versions and recover earlier work. Software teams use it to understand what changed, collaborate and investigate problems. Git is one widely used version-control system.
Vibe coding
Websites and developmentVibe coding is a loosely used term for creating software by describing what you want to an AI coding tool and iterating through conversation. The tool generates much of the code. Usage ranges from quick experiments with little code inspection to broader AI-assisted development, so the review process should always be made explicit.
Web accessibility
Websites and developmentWeb accessibility means designing and developing websites so that people with disabilities can obtain information, use controls and complete tasks. It considers a range of abilities and ways of using the web, including keyboards, screen readers, magnification and captions.
Web analytics
Measurement and responsible useWeb analytics is the collection, organisation and analysis of website activity data to understand how a site is used and inform decisions about it. It includes defining useful measures, checking the data and interpreting results in the context of business and visitor needs.
Web design
Websites and developmentWeb design is the planning and shaping of a website’s presentation and interactions, including layout, navigation, typography and the way content supports visitor tasks. It brings visual decisions together with usability and accessibility, so people can understand the site and take an appropriate next step.
Web hosting
Websites and developmentWeb hosting is a service that makes a website available to visitors over the internet. The underlying infrastructure stores and delivers website resources and, where needed, runs software that generates pages or handles requests.
Webhook
Integration, sales and administrationA webhook is a way for one application to notify another when an event occurs, usually by sending an HTTP request to a registered receiving address. The notification carries information that the receiving application can use to start further processing.
Website component
Websites and developmentA website component is a reusable piece of a page or interface, such as a navigation menu, service card or enquiry form. It combines a defined structure with the content and behaviour it needs. The exact implementation depends on the website’s technology.
Website maintenance
Websites and developmentWebsite maintenance is the ongoing work that keeps a website accurate, functional and supportable after launch. Depending on the platform, it can include software updates, backups, access reviews, content changes, monitoring and checks of important journeys such as enquiries or purchases. Responsibilities vary between the business and its providers.
Wix
Platforms and toolsWix is a hosted website-building platform with tools for designing pages, managing content and running business functions such as online selling or bookings. Its services combine website creation with hosting and other features that depend on the chosen setup.
WordPress
Platforms and toolsWordPress is open-source website publishing and content management software. It lets people create and edit content, use themes to shape presentation and add functionality through plugins. It can support many kinds of websites, depending on the configuration.
Workflow automation
Integration, sales and administrationWorkflow automation uses software to carry out steps in a process when defined conditions or events occur. It may move information between tools, assign tasks or trigger a response. It can use fixed rules, AI capabilities or a combination.
XML sitemap
Search and discoveryAn XML sitemap is a file that lists website URLs in a structured format for search engines. It can include information such as when a page changed, helping crawlers discover content the website wants them to consider.
YAML
Websites and developmentYAML is a text format for representing structured data in a form people can read and edit. It is often used for configuration, including settings that other software reads to run a process.
Zero-click search
Search and discoveryZero-click search describes a search that does not result in a click through to an external website. A person may find enough information in the results, change the query, use another search feature or stop searching.
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