Web Vocabulary 2016: 10 bits of vocab you’ll need this year

Published February 22, 2016
Last Updated July 9, 2018
Jask Creative

As the world moves along and new technologies develop, it’s inevitable that new words will be created or words that have always had a traditional meaning will suddenly inherit new ones. Enter Web Vocabulary 2016: 10 terms that you’ll hear and might need to use to communicate the New School marketing.

The assumption would be that behind every piece of web vocabulary in the list below there’s a hidden meaning or something designed to trip you up, punishing those who are stuck way back in 2015 Q4. New vocab can be helpful, as long as you’re open to new concepts.

Some of the following isn’t new, much of it has been in use for years, but now we’re reaching a point where it’s not possible to brush it off as something ‘the social team will understand’. This digital vocab is essential for ensuring everybody from board level to social media publisher understands the process on broad terms.

Web Vocabulary 2016

  1. Mobile-friendly

    Mobile-friendly describes a website that, when viewed on a mobile device such as an iPhone, the user is able to navigate and view the website without hindrance and enjoy the website as much as they would if they were viewing it on a desktop screen. This has become even more important since Google introduced algorithm updates relating to mobile-friendly websites.

    Used in a sentence: “Our new website is mobile-friendly”

  2. Responsive

    Responsive refers to a style of web design in which the website is built around a fluid grid that allows it to resize and reformat itself based on the device being used to view it and the screen size and orientation. It links into mobile-friendly design but is not the same thing. A mobile-friendly website can be achieved through using a responsive design.

    Used in a sentence: “Our responsive website knows whether you’re on an iPad or a laptop and changes to fit”

  3. User experience

    This is a vague and subjective concept to work with. The user experience of a website or app talks about how easily and efficiently the user can enter a website and accomplish their goals. A website with poor navigation, little consideration for page load times and flashing 90’s-esque banners would be described as presenting a poor user experience.

    Used in a sentence: “How could we improve our user experience?”

  4. Sharable

    The idea of sharing online comes directly from social media. ‘Sharable’ is an adjective that describes whether something is ideal for sharing with one’s social network and often relates to content. If a blog post is well-written, actionable, useful and targeted, it could be described as sharable.

    Used in a sentence: “That e-book is very sharable, so many people have read it”

  5. Above the fold

    This term was inherited from the newspaper industry as it used to describe the top section of a newspaper that could be seen whilst the newspaper was folded.

    On the web, we don’t fold our screens in half so the term refers to part of a website that is presented to the user before they have scroll down. In terms of engaging your audience, knowing what the first thing they’re going to see can be instrumental in convincing them to scroll down.

    Used in a sentence: “Can we make sure the voucher code is above the fold on this page?”

  6. Big players

    Big players is an informal term relating to social media accounts that enjoy a large following of users. Particularly those who have followers you want to have too.

    If you run a clothing brand, a big player may be an account that enjoys a large following of people who love fashion. The trick is, how do you get those people to follow/like your account too?

    Used in a sentence: “Are there any big players out there we could look at before launching this new product?”

  7. Cross-device

    Tablets, mobiles and desktops. People are routinely switching between devices to complete different tasks, or indeed in the completion of the same task. It’s not uncommon for somebody to search for holiday deals on their mobile but then wait until they’re on their laptop to book.

    Cross-device is a term used to describe technologies, software, networks, platforms, etc that go some way in tying together devices, whether that be synchronization of data, or tracking the same user regardless of the devices they use and switch between. For example, if you are downloading a piece of media like a film, or music with the use of a Proxybay, then you will want to make sure it can be used on any device platform just in case of a change-over.

    Used in a sentence: “The new web app statistics show very strong cross-device compatibility”

  8. Trending

    When something is trending, it’s very popular on the web at this point in time. This can relate to an event, a celebrity, a political crisis or just something the social media world has latched onto. When David Bowie passed away, this news was trending on social media. The term can also be linked to search as Google’s instant results often reflect what is trending in real-time.

    Used in a sentence: “Since the Apple launch, the new iPhone has been trending on Twitter”

  9. Landing page

    A page on a website specifically designed to engage (see below) a particular audience and/or to tie into what the visitor clicked on to reach the landing page. For example, a shoe company may typically present an advert somewhere on the web advertising ‘10% off mens’ shoes’. Once people click on the ad, it would be better to send people to a page that has been set up to display the shoes included in the offer, rather than sending visitors to the home page which would force people to have to find their own way through.

    Landing pages have many specific uses, and is now common standard practice in online marketing.

    Used in a sentence: “We created a new landing page for the winter offer”

  10. Engagement

    Getting traffic to a website or encouraging app downloads rely on the presence of traffic. Engagement refers to what can be done to keep that traffic interested in your offering. On a website, engagement can be through the use of compelling copy, surprise offers, encouraging the user to ‘like’ the company on Facebook to name but a few. Engagement is also used in social media channels to describe the situation when somebody does more than just glance at your post.

    Used in a sentence: “Our engagement increased significantly after we moved the offer banner”

We hope this post helped you, let us know if it has by tweeting us, following us on Facebook or contacting us directly.

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