Due to the articulate nature of the Internet, the language associated with ecommerce website design continues to grow at a fast pace. Many visitors whether they possess Internet savvy or not, may find themselves confused the first time they talk to a professional web design company or ecommerce web designer. The following are terms, acronyms and Internet slang that are used in relation to ecommerce website design.

Applet - Applet refers to short programs, usually written in the Java language, especially for Internet. Ecommerce website design may use Java applets for multiple functions including the look and feel, but also for feedback forms or questionnaires.

B2B – This refers to business-to-business ecommerce website design. B2B specifically focuses on site design that is appealing on a corporate level.

B2C – Business to consumer ecommerce website design. The obvious distinctions from B2B can be made here.

Bandwidth – This refers to the amount of data a network connection can handle. For complicated, heavy ‘bandwidth’ sites – a high speed connection is necessary for the ecommerce website design to be fully appreciated and utilized.

Click-Through – Refers to the visitor’s clicking of an advertiser’s link on the ecommerce website design. Click-throughs are a source of revenue for some websites.

CGI – Common Gateway Interface is a program that takes information gathered from users in a web page form and then funnels it to databases for processing. Ecommerce website design may use this feature for building customer databases on ecommerce sites.

Demographics – Visitor information gathered for the sole purpose of optimizing a website. This information may include gender, age group, profession, income levels, computer systems and connection speed. This information should only be gathered for optimizing purposes and should never be made available to anyone else.

Doorway – Web pages that are search engine optimized, but provide links or redirection to other pages that contain the actual content. Doorways were a popular SEO technique for ecommerce website design and others.

E-Commerce – Business conducted on the Internet. The commerce transactions take place over the Internet with products, if any, being shipped to the buyer’s home.

Image Map – An image that contains multiple links. By moving the mouse pointer to different parts of the image and clicking, information may be obtained.

Opt-In Mailing List – A mailing list that allows subscribers to sign up by just entering their email address into a form. A confirmation email is usually sent and must be responded to before user is added to the list.

Professional Web Design – An individual or company that specializes in building web pages and web sites for optimum performance. From the mechanics to content providers, a professional web design takes into account a variety of factors and features to deliver a professional, easy to use and visually pleasing website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – The process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.

Shopping Cart – Program that allows visitors to keep track of items for purchase. The program allows users to both add and remove items prior to ‘checking out.