WordPress terminologies

Getting started with web design and blogging can be a daunting task. With a number of terminologies to quickly familiarize oneself with. Included below are common words and phrases web designers and bloggers routinely use in reference to their work.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U| V | W | X | Y | Z

A

1. AdSense: Google program for bloggers to earn money by having Google Ads displayed on their respective blogs to their readers.
2. A/B Testing: involves testing two versions of content simultaneously to identify which performs before.
3. Above-the-Fold: the content of a blog displayed up top before you need to scroll down.
4. Affiliate: a blogger that advertised a product or service for a commission of the sales.
5. Auto casting: an automated process that generates audio versions of blog posts.
6. Avatar: a picture used to represent a blogger online.
7. Analytics: data collected to evaluate the performance of your blog, to understand how your readers are interacting with your content.
8. Anonoblog: a blog that’s managed by an anonymous person.
9. Alexa Rank: this is a measure of a blog’s popularity on the Internet. Unlike other scoring systems, having a lower rank is better.
10. Anchor Text: the text of a link on your blog (e.g. “to get more information, please contact us“  anchor text here is contact us).
11. Alt Text: alt/alternative text gives more details about an image on your blog, useful for search engines.
12. Automate: the process of making a machine or software do a task instead of being done by a person.

B

1. Biblioblogosphere – humorous reference that is given to the niche, librarian blogging.
2. Blaudience – a blog’s audience—regular readers of a blog.
3. Blath – a mathematics-related blog.
4. Blawg – a law-related blog.
5. Blogversary – the birthday of a blog.
6. Blog feed – an XML-based file of a blog’s posts in either an RSS or Atom-structured XML format for distribution throughout the Internet.
7. Blog Hopping – following links within a blog post leading to other blogs.
8. Blog Site – the web location/URL of a blog.
9. Blog Header – the topmost section of a blog, usually displaying the blog’s logo and menu/navigation.
10. Blog Footer – the bottom of a blog, usually displaying important links like contact details, post categories, etc.
11. Blog Sidebar – a vertical section or column that’s on one side of posts, usually containing advertisements, email forms, etc.
12. Bloglet – a short blog post.
13. Blogosphere – a blogging community.
14. Blogoneer – a word to describe a blogger who blogs with a pioneering/expert attitude.
15. Blogorrhea – a word for being excessively talkative within a blog post.
16. Blogroll – a list of recommended blogs.
17. Blogsite (not Blog Site) – a website that showcases various blog feeds from a variety of different blogs.
18. Blogsnob – a blogger who doesn’t reply to comments on their posts.
19. Blogstipation – a state of mind which makes it difficult to think about new blog posts to write about.
20. Blogstorm – having a high amount of activity or engagement on a post, e.g. posting on a controversial subject.
21. Bloll – troll who specializes in trolling bloggers.
22. Bots – these are automated accounts used on blogs to leave spam comments.
23. Bounce Rate – a bounce is a single-page session on your website, the percentage of users that left your blog without visiting another page(s).
24. Backlink – a link from another website that points to content on your blog.
25. Beta Reader – early test reader of a blog.
26. Black Hat SEO – discouraged SEO tactics used to Increase a blog’s rankings in organic search.
27. Blogging Category – grouping blog posts based on their relation to a topic.
28. Blogging Schedule – the frequency of publishing blog posts.

C

1. Call to Action (CTA) –  a button/link/form etc. put in place to prompt readers into taking a specific action e.g. subscribing to a newsletter.
2. Category – a label used to publish posts on a particular topic.
3. Click Bait – headlines that are designed to trick readers into thinking the content contains information that it doesn’t. Usually done to make the content highly shareable.
4. Click-Through Rate (CTR) – this measures the percentage of people who clicked on content, either an ad or promotion, to arrive at a blog, usually employed in measuring the success of an online advertisement.
5. CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) – a challenge-response test to determine if a user on a blog/website is a human and not a bot.
6. Content Marketing – publishing high-quality content designed to attract readers who could potentially become a customer of a business.
7. Content Syndication – publishing blog content on another site after it’s been first published on the owner’s blog, with a link back to the original post.
8. Conversion Rate – a percentage of visitors on a blog who completed a particular success metric e.g. making a purchase, joining an email list etc.
9. Creative Commons – permission that’s given by photo-sharing sites like Unsplash, Pexels and Shutterstock for the use of their photos.
10. Curated Content – hand-picked content from, usually, several sources.
11. cPanel – an intuitive tool offered by common hosting providers that makes it easier for users to configure the technical settings of their hosting accounts without requiring the help of a technical expert.
12. Celeblog – a blog that details the lives of celebrities.
13. Clix – blogger’s personal circle of online communities.
14. Collaborative blog – a group blog where multiple bloggers post their thoughts on a particular issue.
15. Comment spam – when spambots flood a blog post with fake comments.
16. Cost Per Click (CPC) – this is a measurement of how much is spent for each click on an advertisement campaign.
17. Cost Per Mille (CPM) – this is the amount of money spent for each block of 1,000 impressions of an advertisement.

D

1. Direct traffic – the number of people who typed in the address to a blog directly into the search bar, navigating to the blog not from another site nor a search engine.
2. Domain Name – the web address of a blog.
3. Domain Authority/Rating – A metric used by SEO tools to measure the authoritativeness of a blog on a scale of 0 to 100.
4. Dark Blog – a blog that is not publicly accessible.
5. Desktop blogging client – an offline blog management tool to edit and publish blog content.
6. Dashboard – the home base area behind-the-scenes of your blog within your CMS (like WordPress or another similar platform) where you can navigate around to doing tasks like uploading blog content, installing plugins, making visual changes to your pages and otherwise.
7. Deep Linking – links to various other relevant content on a blog or website, with the intention of encouraging readers to spend more time on the blog.

E

1. eBook – a book that can be consumed in a digital format e.g. a downloadable PDF.
2. Engagement – the number of comments, likes or shares on a post.
3. Editorial Calendar – a blogging tool used by many bloggers to sketch a blog post outline, it helps to organize my writing process and track the performance of content over time.
4. Evergreen Content – blog posts or other digital content, written with the intention of remaining relevant for years to come.

F

1. Followers – those who subscribe to your blog or follow your accounts on social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram.
2. Fisking – a point-by-point refutation of a blog entry that’s often witty and sarcastic.
3. Favicon – the image displayed for a website within your browser tab.
4. Flame War – personal arguments that are made in the comment section of a blog post.
5. Farticle – slang to describe a fake news article.
6. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) – a client-server protocol used for the transfer of files, a popular way of downloading or uploading files from or onto a server.

G

1. Gravatar – a user’s custom image that appears beside the user name on a WordPress blog usually when the user posts a comment or publishes a guest blog post. You can signup and edit yours here.
2. Guest Post – when a blogger writes a post or article for another blog with the goal of attracting some of the readers back to their own blog.
3. GBCW (good Bye Cruel World) – the term used by a blogger who decides to discontinue their blog.
4. Gulog – a combination of the words “gulag” and “blog” used to describe a depressing blog post.

H

1. Heading tags (H1, H2, H3 Tags) – these denote different sizes of headings in a blog post or on a particular page. The H1 tag should contain your main keyword phrase and should only be used once on a page. The H2 tag is a subheading and should contain similar keywords to the H1 tag, but can be used to break up major sections of your content.
2. Hosting provider – the company that hosts blog/website files online making them visible on the Internet.
3. HEX Code (hexadecimal) – This term is used to denote a specific colour code in programming.
4. Hyperlink – a link from one blog that directs readers to another website.
5. Help A Reporter Out (HARO) – a service used to connect publishers and journalists with experts who can contribute to their articles.
6. Hits – the number of users that visit a blog within a given period.
7. HT (an acronym for “heard through/hat tip”) – an acknowledgement of a source by a blogger.
8. Hyper-local – content that relates to a small audience or community

I

1. Influencer – someone with a large following who can be partnered with by marketers and brands to promote their businesses.
2. IRL (In Real Life) – a term used by bloggers to talk about their lives when they’re not blogging.
3. Internal Link – a link that connects a snippet of text within one blog post to other blog posts on the same site, used to send readers to other relevant posts and to connect other posts on the same blog.
4. Infographic – a visual representation of information, used to break down complex information into easy-to-digest visual content.
5. Internet Water Army – a group of anonymous writers who are paid to post comments on particular content with the purpose to spread misinformation.
6. Internet activism – the use of social media, email, blogs and podcasts etc for various forms of activism.

K

1. Keyword – a word that’s used to best describe the contents of a blog post or website.
2. Keyword Research – the process of finding untapped, high-volume keywords that readers search for on Google.
3. Keyword Stuffing – the wrong act of placing too many of the same keywords within a single post or page, in an attempt to rank higher in search engines.
4. K-log – knowledge base documentation for a company, posted on the company’s intranet.

L

1. Link Bait – content that’s created in order to gain attention so that other blogs want to link to it.
2. Listicle – a term used to describe a list-based blog post.
3. Link Love – linking to a blog because the blogger regularly posts useful information.
4. Linkroll – a list of relevant links with their descriptions in the sidebar of a blog.
5. LBloggers – a hashtag for Lifestyle Bloggers.
6. Lead magnet – an incentive offered to encourage readers to subscribe to an email list.
7. Link building – artificially increasing blog SEO authority by getting other bloggers to link to the blog posts.
8. Link party – an online forum where bloggers go to display their blog posts by leaving links to the content.
9. Long-form content – a blog post that has more than a 1,000-word count.
10. Long-Tail Keywords – phrases that are usually comprised of three to four or more words and are very specific to a narrow topic.
11. Litblog – a blog post that focuses on literature.

M

1. Media Kit – relevant statistics about a blog & reader base, used to pitch potential sponsors on why they should pay to reach the audience.
2. Meta Description – the text used to describe the content of a blog post or page to search engines, which appears just below the blog title, on a search engine.
3. Microblog – a blog where the blogger makes frequent short posts.
4. Monetization – the different ways in which bloggers make money from their blogs, including affiliate marketing, advertisements, the sale of digital/physical products, etc.
5. Milblog – blogs written by members of any branch of the military.
6. Moblog – blog posts that are sent mainly by mobile phone via text messages.
7. Momosphere – blogs written by mothers.
8. Multi-blog – maintaining multiple blogs simultaneously.
9. Multi-blogger – a blogger that runs multiple blogs simultaneously.
10. Mobile-Optimized – a blog that has been designed to be viewed on handheld devices with a great user experience.

N

1. Niche – the specific topic a blog is about within a particular industry.
2. Newsletter – email-based delivery of content sent out periodically to the subscribers of a blog.

O

1. Organic Growth – an overall increase of blog traffic that occurs over time, not by paid promotions.
2. Organic Search Results (OSR) – posts on a blog that reach rankings for their respective keyword phrases search engine result pages.
3. On-page SEO – optimization of posts and pages to appear friendly to search engines.
4. Off-page SEO – blog content promotion through activities like social media shares.
5. Opt-in – a nudge to do something on a blog e.g. to subscribe to a newsletter.

P

1. Page – a static page of content on a blog or website, unlike posts, that are not added to the RSS feed when a new one is published.
2. Page Rank – the authority of a blog page/post/entire website.
3. Page Views – the number of people who view a particular blog post in a given timeframe.
4. Pain point –  problems faced by readers that can be solved by the blogger.
5. Parent theme – The overarching independent WordPress theme of a blog, unlike the Child theme which is dependent on the parent.
6. PPC (Pay Per Click) – a form of advertising where bloggers pay for each click their advertisement receives.
7. Permalink – the unique URL of a published blog post.
8. Plugin – software that adds more functionalities or features to a blog.
9. Photoblog – a blog that contains majorly photos and images, usually run by a photographer.
10. Placeblog – a blog that focuses on local people and events.
11. Plog – a blog that regularly posts about politics.
12. Pillar Content – content that’s created to be extremely informative, usually long-form and has long-term appeal to readers.

R

1. Reciprocal Link –  links between two different blogs, owned by a blogger.
2. Referral traffic – readers who visit a blog by following a link from another blog or website.
3. ROI (Return on Investment) – based on money spent on an ad campaign within a period of time.
4. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feed – a service used to subscribe to a blog.
5. RSS Aggregator – software that’s used by a blogger to read their RSS feeds.
6. Re-Blog – the reposting of a previous post, usually with updated information to make it more relevant.
7. Reverse Blogging – when a blogger pitches an influencer to create content for his blog, which is then published under the influencer’s name as a guest post.

S

1. Split testing – a synonym for A/B testing, done to determine which version of a headline, page or other specific page element does a better job at converting more readers.
2. SERP (Search Engine Result Page) – a reference of how a blog is performing in organic search results.
3. Sponsored post – a blog post, paid for by advertisers or brands to promote their product or service.
4. Subscriber – a person who signed up for an email newsletter and wants to be updated when a new blog post is published.
5. Scribosphere – a word used to describe all blogs that are written by professional and aspiring screenwriters.
6. SHART (Stubborn, Hostile and Resentful Troll) – receiving many negative comments from a specific troll.
7. Shocklog – a blog that posts shocking content to encourage heated discussions on a particular subject.
8. Splog – a term used to describe a spam blog.
9. Spam blog post – a blog post that’s made up of spam content or used solely to promote shady products.
10. Slashdotted – when a larger website links to content on a smaller site, sending a lot of traffic to the smaller site in the process.
11. Storyblog – a blog primarily as a destination to publish short stories.
12. Svithe – a spiritually-themed blog.
13. Self-hosted blog – when a blogger owns both their blog content and their domain name.
14. Semantic search– search terms used to understand user intent.
15. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – a process to improve a blog’s rankings in search engine result pages.
16. Sitemap – a list of the pages on your entire blog, used by Google bots to crawl a blog and determine what should be included in search results.
17. Skyscraper technique – a tactic used by bloggers to analyze all the existing content for a particular keyword phrase—and then come up with more creative & useful content that’s more valuable.
18. Stop words – words used in a permalink slug that can harm the effectiveness of a post’s SEO. Examples to avoid include: a, the, at, as, of, and, etc.
19. Slug – the portion of a permalink (URL) starting after the TLD ( e.g. .com/).
20. Social media engagement – interactions with followers and target readers on social media platforms.
21. Social proof – a psychological phenomenon where readers assume that a blog post is more popular/accurate based on the number of social shares, comments or other engagement the article appears to have.
22. Social search – searching for information on social platforms e.g. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, etc.
23. Spam – commonly in reference to emails promoting scam offers.
24. Sockpuppet – an online identity created for deception.

T

1. Tag – Tags are words that are used to categorize & classify a blog post based on the overarching themes it covers, behind the scenes in your CMS.
2. Tagline – a slogan used by bloggers to describe the purpose of their blogs.
3. Tag Cloud – a list of all the tags used on a blog.
4. Text Link Ads – an advertisement consisting of text information linked to a landing page determined by the advertiser.
5. Traffic – the number of visitors a blog receives within a given time period.
6. Troll – someone who leaves a negative comment on a blog post, for fun or to incite a negative reaction.
7. Template – a page template is a framework that’s used to organize and publish information on a page of your blog.
8. Theme – a software that comprises CSS code that controls the visual appearance of a blog.
9. Trackback – a blog feature that notifies bloggers when someone links to their post on another blog/website.
10. Target Reader – aka target audiences, describes the demographic of who a blogger wants to attract with the content they create.
11. Tailwind – a tool that’s used to schedule Pinterest and Instagram posts.
12. Thin Content – a blog post or page that offers no real value in terms of information and relevancy.

U

1. Unique visitor – a single visitor of a blog.
2. User Intent – the end goal of an online user, for typing in a particular search query.210. User-generated data (UGC) – content created by visitors of a blog, e.g comments, forum posts, etc

V

1. Viral – content that gets extremely popular in a very short timeframe, the popularity is however often short-lived.
2. Vlog – a blog that publishes content primarily in video format.
3. Vlogger – somebody who manages a video blog.
4. Virtual Assistance (VA) – someone who gets paid by helping bloggers remotely with administrative tasks.

W

1. Webinar – typically a live seminar conducted online.
2. White hat SEO – legal and correct strategies for optimizing content for search engines, not penalized by Google.
3. Widgets – blog features that can add functionality to the sidebar, header or footer of a blog.
4. Web keynoting – the text in a blog post being dictated by a voice.
5. WordPress – a free blogging application that allows users to create customized blogs and websites.
6. Weblog – the long-form name that preceded the term blog.
7. Web server – a program that houses website and blog files and makes them available online.

X

1. XML (Extensible Markup Language) – a file format for sharing and transmitting technical data across the Internet.
2. XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) – the successor to HTML on which many web pages are created today.

Y

1. Yoast – a WordPress plugin used by bloggers to improve their SEO.

Z

1. Zombie blog – a blog that’s considered spammy.