ULTIMATE BLOGGING GLOSSARY Ultimate Blogging Glossary Like many industries, blogging has its own terminology. Here is a list of many of our blogging terms. Leave me a comment with the ones I've missed. 301 Redirect A 301 Redirect is a permanent redirect to another URL. A 301 redirect forwards visitors to a new or updated URL. 404 Page A 404 Page appears when a link is broken and a page can’t be found within an active website. A/B Testing A/B Testing is when you try two different things to see which gets the best results. For example, you may A/B test your email subject line. 25% of your audience will get an email with the subject, “Blogging Terminology,” and 25% will have the subject line, “Blogging Glossary.” Let's say you want to see which subject line gets the most opens within the first day after you send the email. At the end of the day, your email provider EasyBlogSchool.com will send an email to the other 50% of your subscribers with the winning subject line. Above the Fold Any content a reader can see without having to scroll is called above the fold. Affiliate Marketing Affiliate Marketing is a marketing arrangement between a blogger and a retailer. The retailer pays the blogger based on sales generated from ads on the blogger’s website. In this situation, the blogger is called an affiliate. Alignment Alignment is the placement of text and images on your webpage. Alternative Text (also called Alt Text) Alternative Text is a word or phrase that describes an image on the web. Alt text will load even if the image doesn’t load, letting your audience know what the image is supposed to be. Analytics Analytics tracks the traffic on your webpage. It also tells you the demographics of your audience, along with which posts they are interested in. There are several analytics tools, but the standard is Google Analytics. Anchor Text Anchor Text is the text that is used for a link. For example, Painless Blog Analytics is my other blog. The words “Painless Blog Analytics” is the anchor text. EasyBlogSchool.com Archives Archives are all of your older posts. Avatar An Avatar is a photo or image that represents you across your blog and social media. Backend The Backend of your site is your dashboard. Backlink A backlink is a link on another website that links back to your site. In the anchor text description, I put a link back to one of my other sites. That is a backlink to that site. Backup Backup is a copy of your blog files. Just like we need to back up the files on our computer in case it crashes, we need to back up our blog too. Blacklist If your blog is blacklisted, it means that it will no longer show up in search engine results. This can happen if there is some kind of suspicious activity on your site. Blogosphere The Blogosphere is the community of blogs on the Internet. Branding Branding is a consistent collection of fonts, images, color schemes, and designs you use on your blog. It helps your audience recognize your posts on social media. Caching Caching is used to make loading web pages more effective. EasyBlogSchool.com Call to Action A call to action (or CTA) is asking your reader to do something. “Sign up here to get weekly updates” and “click here to purchase this course” are both calls to action. Category A Category is a grouping of blog posts that are about a similar topic. CAPTCHA CAPTCHA is short for “Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart.” A CAPTCHA is a security feature for your blog, typically used to prevent SPAM. It's that thing where you have to click the “I am not a robot” box. Click Bait Clickbait is a sensational or misleading headline that doesn't match the content you're blogging about. It's done just to get people to click over to your site. It's bad. Don't do it. Comments Comments are thoughts, responses, and opinions that blog readers leave after reading a blog post. Comment Moderation Comment moderation is when a blogger approves all comments on their post before that comment is published. This is a way of reducing the number of spam comments you get. Content Content is the collection of blog posts on your blog. EasyBlogSchool.com Content Marketing Content marketing is the process of creating quality content designed to bring potential customers to your blog. Content Management System (CMS) This is the software that allows you to add and manage content on your site. WordPress is considered a content management system. Content Upgrade A content upgrade is an incentive that you give a reader in exchange for signing up for your email list. Typically, the content upgrade is some type of printable. A content upgrade is also known as a lead magnet or an opt-in. Cookies Cookies are text files with small pieces of data. They're used to identify your computer. They also track, personalize, and save information about each user’s session. Copyright Copyright is the legal ownership of written works, images, and other original material. If you create original content for your site, you have the copyright to that content. Some people believe that if they find it (images or text) on the internet, they can just copy it and use it on their own sites. Unless the work has a creative commons license, don't use it. It's bad and could cost you a lot of money if you get caught. Don't do it. Creative Commons Creative Commons is a type of copyright license that allows you to use images or text you find on the internet. EasyBlogSchool.com Read the license carefully for the work you want to use. Often, the copyright owner will want you to link back to their site. Child Themes Child Themes allow you to customize your blog without making changes to your primary or parent theme. If you are customizing anything on your blog, you need to have a child theme and make those changes in the child theme. When a parent theme is updated, it will wipe out all of your customizations unless you have it in a child theme. c-Panel c-Panel is the tool that most hosting companies provide to allow you to make technical changes to your site. If you aren't very techy, you probably won't ever use your c-Panel. CSS CSS stands for cascading style sheet. It is code that is used to style the layout, colors, and fonts on your blog. Dashboard Your dashboard is where you access all the tools you need to create and manage your blog. Default Theme The default theme is the theme that your WordPress site has “out of the box.” You can change themes. DNS Domain Name System is a database that changes your domain name into the IP address of your web server and allows it to be found. EasyBlogSchool.com If your hosting company is different from your domain registrar, you'll add a record to the DNS to tell it where your site now lives. Do-follow Links A do-follow link is a link that can be crawled by search engines. It indicates that the site being linked to is credible. Domain Name A Domain Name is your web address. It is the text you type into the address bar of your browser. Draft A draft is a version of a post before it is published. Embed Embedding is placing content from another website into your own post or page. Often, bloggers will embed a YouTube video in their posts. Editorial Calendar An editorial calendar is a way to plan and schedule the content you want to create for your site. You can use an editorial calendar for blog posts, social media posts, and YouTube videos–basically, any type of content you're creating can be planned and scheduled. Evergreen Content Evergreen content is content that will remain relevant over time. A post about how to tie a square knot is evergreen. A post about a holiday or an event is not evergreen. Excerpt An excerpt is a few sentences that explain what your blog post is about. EasyBlogSchool.com External links External links are hyperlinks (usually in bold or a different color than the rest of the body) that send your audience to another domain. Favicon Favicon is an icon you see next to a website name in the address bar at the top of your browser. Featured Image A Featured Image is the primary image for your blog posts. It typically appears next to the heading on your home page and on social media posts. Footer The Footer is the bottom of your blog. Typically, you'll see copyright notice in the footer. Genesis Framework Genesis Framework is a framework that allows you to easily build a blog with WordPress. Group Board Group boards are Pinterest boards that allow you to collaborate with other bloggers that have niches similar to your own. Guest Posting Guest posting is writing a post for another blog. This is a great way to get backlinks to your site. Header The header is the top portion of a blog. It typically has a tag line and your navigation menu. EasyBlogSchool.com Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.) Heading tags are basically an outline of your post or page.