Acquire the traffic
to gain more online visitors

Acquisition
the process of acquiring more clients

Access Provider
Is the remote computer system that you connect your personal computer to and that provides you with an access to the Internet, usually via an online account on a companies computer system or a home account.

Ad banner
Is an advertisement on a Web page that is composed of text, animated graphics or sound as well. This is media bought by the advertiser and can provide a 'billboard' message, or can deliver visitors to the advertiser's site by clicking on it.

AdKnowledge
a powerful piece of software that tracks banner advert campaigns, provides pre and post click analysis and cost per acquisition

Ad request
This occurs when a user's browser requests information from an ad server. Everytime a Web page contains an ad the browser will request this from the ad server.

Ad view
This represents the number of times an ad is shown on a Web page (front end).
Technically, this can also be called an exposure and occurs everytime an ad is requested from an ad browser.

B2B
a company that trades with other companies rather than consumers

Backbone
Networks connect to these major access points that are served by the Internet's high-speed data highways that act as the major communications lines. The National Science Foundation's network (NSFNET) was, for many years, the backbone of the Internet.

Bandwidth
This measure of capacity is usually expressed in bits per second and explains the maximum amount of data you can send through a network connection. If you visualise the communications path as a pipe, then bandwidth represents the width of the pipe that determines how much data (i.e. audio, video, graphics and other digital content) can flow through all at once and at what speed.

Banners
an online ad designed specifically to accompany websites

Binary File
A file that contains more than plain text, i.e. photos, sounds, a spreadsheet or a formatted word document. Binary files contain additional code information, in contrast to ASCII files, which only contain characters (plain text). A binary file is made up of machine-readable symbols that represent 1s and 0s. Binary files include sound files, graphics files and software and are frequently called binaries.
This information becomes important when you wish to transmit a file over the Internet. If you want to download software, you may find yourself confronted with a choice of file formats. If the file is a piece of software, a sound file, or a picture file, you will choose the "binary" option.

Bit
An abbreviation for binary digit. This is the smallest unit of data a computer can handle. Bits are used in various combinations to represent different kinds of data and each bit has a value of 0 or 1.

BPS
Abbreviation of Bits per Second and a measurement of how fast data is transmitted. BPS is usually used to describe modem speeds or the speed of a digital connection.

Browser
A browser is commonly called a web browser. It is a software program that is used to view and interact with various kinds of Internet resources available on the world wide web.

Byte
A series of bits of a particular length, usually 8, used to measure computer storage space. A Kilobyte ( 1K) represents 1024 bytes and a Megabyte (1Mb) represents one thousand "K" bytes, or one million bytes.

Cache
When you download a web page, the data is stored temporarily on your computer, it is "cached". The next time you want to view that page, your web browser just accesses it from the cache, not from the web server. This is why the page loads quickly. However, if this web page is updated frequently ( i.e. as with news, sports or financial data) you won't get the most current information. By using the 'reload' or 'refresh' button on your browser, this timely data is updated by downloading fresh data from the server.

Cost per acquisition
a method of working out how much an online purchase costs an online trader.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
This is the interface program that enables an Internet server to run external programs to perform a specific function. These programs generally consist of a set of instructions written in a programming language like C or PERL that process requests from a browser, execute a program and formulate the results in HTML, so that the results can be displayed in the browser.
Gateway scripts are commonly used to add interactivity to a web page by allowing users to do things like fill out and submit forms for processing ( for example like an order form in a catalogue); query databases by submitting search requests; and register or gain access to password protected areas of a site. CGI scripts are also used to implement a variety of tracking and measurement systems on a web site.

Click-through
The number of times an ad banner is clicked on during a given period. Each time a user clicks on an ad banner and is taken to the advertiser's site, one click-through or click is represented.

Click-through-rate
This is the percentage of banner advertisement views that actually result in someone clicking on it. The current industry average ranges from 07%- 1.5%, dependant on the type of online campaign used.

Conversion rates
a figure used by advertisers to judge the effectiveness of an ad, tracking where and what a visitor does once they have arrived at a website via an ad i.e. did they make a purchase?

Cookies
A cookie is a file sent to a web browser by a web server that is used to record one's activities on a web site. For example, if you visit an ecommerce site and buy items that you place in your virtual shopping cart, that information is stored in a cookie. When the browser requests additional files, the cookie information is sent back to the server. Cookies can remember other kinds of personal information: your password, so you don't have to re-enter it each time you visit a site; your preferences, so the next time you return to a site, you can be presented with customised information. Some people regards cookies as an invasion of privacy, others think they are a harmless way to make a web site more personal.
Most cookies have an expiration date and either reside in your computer's memory until you close your browser or they are saved to your hard drive. Cookies cannot read information stored in your computer.
You can use a text editor to view cookie files. For Windows users of Navigator, the file is called cookies.txt and is located in the same folder as Netscape. Mac users can find it in the Netscape folder in Systems/Preferences folder. Explorer creates separate files for each cookie and stores them in folders called "Cookies" or "Temporary Internet Files."

CPM
CPM is the term used for Cost per Thousand page impressions and most sites use this method to publish advertising rates. For example, a web site that charges £5,000 per banner and guarantees 500,000 impressions has a CPM of £10 (5,000 divided by 500).

Customer relationship management
a policy and process of dealing with your customers

Dial-up-account
A type of account available for connecting to the Internet. Having an account on a computer system means you have a login name and a password that lets you access some parts of that system. A dial-up-account through an ISP (Internet Service Provider) allows you to use your modem to make a connection to your providers system. Once you have dialed your provider's local number and are connected, the provider then connects you directly to the Internet, where you can run any Internet navigation software (like a web browser), just as you would if you had a direct connection to the Internet.

Directory
A system that your computer uses to organise files on the basis of specific information. Directories can be organised hierarchically so that files appear in a number of different way, such as the order in which they were created: alphabetically by name or by type, etc.

Dithering
If you have a computer with a display system that supports 8-bit colour, the video card can display only 256 different colours at one time. Dithering is a technique used to stimulate the display of colours that are not in the current colour palette of a particular image. It accomplishes this by arranging adjacent pixels of different colours into a pattern which stimulates colours that are not available to that computer.

Domain name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. The Internet is made up of hundred of thousands of computers and networks, all with their own domain name or unique address. Domain names always have two or more parts separated by dots. A given server may have more than one domain name, but a given domain name points to only one server.
Once a system administrator registers a unique domain name ( for example www.choclolate.com) , subaddresses can be assigned to the machines and people on the local network ( for example charlie@chocolate.com). Each email address corresponds to a unique IP address.
Domain names typically consist of some form of the organisation's name and a suffix that describes the type of organisation. For example:

.com corporations
.edu educational institutions
.org not for profit organisation
.mil military organisation
.net network provider
.gov government institution

Non-U.S and non-corporate sites have an additional extension that indicates the country where the domain is located. For example:

.uk United Kingdom
.au Australia
.dk Denmark
.ge Germany
.hu Hungary

Registration has been on a first come, first serve basis, although many desired domain names are now available via online auctions. There is much information available about domain names at the InterNIC home page. To learn the IP address and contact names for a particular domain name use the InterNIC WHOIS search form. You can also use this form to see if anyone has registered a domain name you may be considering.

Dot.com
a company that trades on the Internet

E-business strategy
a business strategy for companies using the Internet to trade

Extranet
is an internal communications network that allows external users to enter.

Hits
A very poor guide to traffic measurement because each time a server sends a file to a browser it is recorded in the server log file as a 'hit'. Hits are generated for EVERY element of a requested page, including any graphics, interactive element or text. If a page contains two graphics and text - three hits will be recorded.

Impressions
The number of times a banner advertisement is downloaded and presumably viewed. However, if the same banner advertisement appears on multiple pages simultaneously this statistic may understate the actual number of impressions, due to browser caching.

Interface
the design of a website that dictates how the visitor views information.

Intermercials
Also known as Interstitials, these are 5-10 second animated messages that play before you whilst your requested web page loads. They do not slow down the speed of your computer. At present these are limited to 'push' platforms.

Newsgroups
an online community that have a shared interest which you can join

Opt-in lists
these are e-mail lists that the recipients have directly agreed to be part of.

One-to-one
direct marketing to a unique person from the trader.

Page Views
The number of times a user requests a page that contains a particular Banner advertisement and is indicative of the number of times it is potentially seen. However, if a user chooses to turn off graphics to speed up browsing, page views may overstate the actual figure.

Pay- per-visitor
payment is according to how many visitors the campaign achieves

Permission based email campaigns
targeted email lists that have been created with the permission of the recipients.

Post click
analysis of conversion and acquisition statistics

Post-view
a viewing of a banner ad equals brand awareness raising

Promotional Server
A server dedicated to running promotional campaigns.

Return on investment
quantifiable profits set against investment

Search engine
an Internet site where you can do online searches to find specific web sites.

SSL
Short for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL works by using a private key to encrypt data that's transferred over the SSL connection. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Web sites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, Web pages that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http:

Spam mail
unsolicited mail - an internet no-no

Traditional bricks and mortar business
this is a business that exists other than wholly online

Threaded discussions
a way of representing online discussions so that a discussion can be easily followed

Unique users
The number of different individuals who visit a site within a specific time. To identify Unique Users, web sites rely on some form of user registration or identification system.

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