FTP
(File Transfer Protocol): A resource for transferring files between a server and a client across an Internet connection.

DNS
Domain Name Service (DNS) is the system by which hosts on the Internet have both domain name addresses (such as netmagik.com) and IP addresses (such as 66.150.0.50). DNS is the means by which you are able to type in an easily remembered name in order to go to a URL, instead of using an IP address.

Hit
In the context of visitors to web pages, a hit (or site hit) is a single access request made to the server for either a text file or a graphic. If, for example, a web page contains ten buttons constructed from separate images, a single visit from someone using a web browser with graphics switched on (a "page view") will involve eleven hits on the server. (Often the accesses will not get as far as your server because the page will have been cached by a local internet service provider).

In the context of a search engine query, a hit is a measure of the number of web pages matching a query returned by a search engine or directory.

Image Map
A set of hyperlinks attached to areas of an image. This may be defined within a web page, or as an external file.

Index
A database of web pages maintained by a search engine or directory.

Keyword
A word which forms (part of) a search engine query.

Log File
A file maintained on a server in which details of all website accesses are stored. Analysing log files can be a powerful way to find out about a web site's visitors, where they come from and which queries are used to access a site. We use log files to provide site statistics reports for your website.

META tag
A construct placed in the HTML header of a web page, providing information which is not visible to browsers. The most common meta tags (and those most relevant to search engines) are KEYWORDS and DESCRIPTION.

The KEYWORDS tag allows the author to emphasise the importance of certain words and phrases used within the page. Some search engines will respond to this information - others will ignore it.

The DESCRIPTION tag allows the author to control the text of the summary displayed when the page appears in the results of a search. Again, some search engines will ignore this information.

Mirror sites
Multiple copies of web sites or web pages, often on different servers. The process of registering these multiple copies with search engines is often treated as spamdexing, because it artificially increases the relevancy of the pages. Filters such as the Infoseek Sniffer now remove multiple mirrors from the indexes.

Optimization
Changes made to a web page to improve the positioning of that page with one or more search engines. A means of helping potential customers or visitors to find a web site. Optimization may involve design/layout changes, new text for the title-tags, meta-tags, alt- attributes, headings, and changes to the first 200-250 words of the main text.

Spider
Part of a search engine which surfs the web, storing the URLs and indexing the keywords and text of each page it finds. After your website is submitted to search engines, their spiders will crawl the web and index your website.

Unique Visitor
A real visitor to a web site. Web servers record the IP addresses of each visitor, and this is used to determine the number of real people who have visited a web site. If for example, someone visits twenty pages within a web site, the server will count only one unique visitor (because the page accesses are all associated with the same IP address) but twenty page accesses.