The practice of giving visitors on other sites the option of signing up for your newsletter.

This HTML tag is used to insert comments that won't be viewed by users into your pages. Some search engines read comment tags, which can include keyword text and descriptions. Comment tags are also used to hide JavaScript code from non-compliant browsers.

Any email message "the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service." Source: Commerce Committee Report, CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

The standard to define the consistent and predictable presentation of a web site's design, structure and content. It can include such areas as accessibility, layout, color schemes and language.

A Confirmed Opt In (also referred to as Double Opt In) is a two-step process that allows a user to join your mailing list. The user must initially sign up, and then respond to a follow-up email prior to receiving any further email.

The Senate Commerce Committee Report for the CAN-SPAM Act indicates that "affirmative consent" requires some active choice or selection by the recipient. Remaining passive, such as not unchecking a prechecked box or other default Web form, is not sufficient. Source: Commerce Committee Report, CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

The process of moving content from one Web site to another or of moving content due to a site redesign or implementation of a new content-management system. The process usually involves assessing which content to migrate, coding it properly, moving the content and managing the process to eliminate broken links.

A framework classifying and organizing all of a company's stored knowledge.

"Taxonomies represent agreed-upon terms and relationships between ideas or things and serve as a glossary or knowledge map helping to define how the business thinks about itself and represents itself, its products and services to the outside world." (Source: Forrester Research, Inc.)

A site visitor or email recipient who completes a targeted action.

A method for assessing how effectively paid-search/pay-per-click ecommerce campaigns increase conversions and generates sales.

A small file placed on a site visitor's computer to collect information about the user and customize the site experience based on the user's information, and site visits.

A component of a search engine that roams the Web, storing the URLs and indexing the keywords and text of each page encountered. Also referred to as a robot or spider.

A business strategy to optimize revenue through improved management of interactions between a company and its customers, from lead generation through the sales cycle, support and service.

The act of moving information from one location to another within a Web site, or to or from a server. Transfers can include sending profile information, downloading content or doing an FTP transfer.

The process by which data is moved from an outside source into a computer source, whether by manual entry, optical character recognition, imaging, scanning, recording or other means.

A collection of files serving different purposes, used in analyzing Web site data. Datasets keep data separated by site, make imported log files part of the dataset so old logs never need to be imported, retain a complete historical record for the Web site and save settings and analysis parameters.

To process an encoded message into its original format so that it once again can be viewed. Your email client will automatically decode attachments.

A demographic is a statistical characteristic of a human population (such as name, age, zip code or income) that can be used to segment mailings for specific targets.

Descriptive text summarizing a Web page and displayed with the page title and URL when the page appears as the result of a user query on a search engine or directory. Some search engines use the description in the description meta tag, others generate their own description from text on the page. Directories often use text provided at registration.

A meta tag that allows the author to control the text of the summary displayed when the page appears in search engine results. Some search engines respond to this information, others ignore it.

A server or a collection of servers dedicated to indexing Internet Web pages, returning lists of pages matching user queries. Directories use human editors to review and categorize sites for acceptance and are compiled manually by user submission (examples: Yahoo!, LookSmart).

A site within a Web site open to communication among site visitors, using a system of threaded discussion topics. The forum can be moderated, with comments appearing only after approval by an authorized site user, or unmoderated.

A computer used to look up domain names to find their IP addresses.

An item of information that users want to retrieve. It could be a text file, a Web page, a newsgroup posting, a picture, etc.

A sub-set of Internet addresses. Domains are hierarchical, lower-level domains often refer to specific Web sites within a top-level domain. The distinguishing part of the address appears at the end. Example of top-level domains: .com, .edu, .gov, .org (subdividing addresses into areas of use). There are also numerous geographic top-level domains: .ar, .ca, .fr, .ro (referring to specific countries).