Glossary
Short definitions of web, SEO, and digital-operations terms, grouped into collections and linked to longer explanations.
Collections
404 Error
A 404 error is an HTTP response indicating that the requested page or resource could not be found at that URL.
A & AAAA Record
A and AAAA records connect a hostname directly to an IPv4 or IPv6 address.
Accessibility Audit
An accessibility audit is a structured evaluation used to identify and understand barriers that may prevent people with disabilities from using a website or digital product.
Accessible Name
An accessible name is the programmatic label that communicates the identity or purpose of an interface element to assistive technologies.
Administrative Access
Administrative access is a high-permission level that allows a user to make significant configuration, access, content, or operational changes to a website or service.
AI & Automation
AI and automation use software to interpret, generate, classify, retrieve, or act on information and to automate work across digital systems.
AI Agent
An AI agent is a system that uses an AI model to plan or decide how to complete multi-step work, often with access to tools or external systems.
AI Evaluation (Eval)
AI evaluation is the systematic testing of an AI system against defined examples and criteria to determine whether it performs its intended task reliably enough.
AI Model
An AI model is a trained computational system that transforms inputs into predictions, classifications, generated content, or other outputs.
Alt Text
Alt text is a text alternative that communicates the relevant meaning or purpose of an image when the image itself cannot be perceived.
Analytics & Measurement
Analytics and measurement are the systems and practices used to collect, organize, interpret, and evaluate data about how a website is being used.
API
An API is a defined interface that allows one software system to interact programmatically with another.
API Endpoint
An API endpoint is a specific address or operation exposed by an API for interacting with a particular resource or function.
API Key
An API key is a credential used by software to identify or authenticate an application making requests to an API.
API Request & Response
An API request asks an API to retrieve information or perform an action, while the response communicates the resulting data, status, or error.
API Versioning
API versioning maintains identifiable versions of an API so its behaviour can evolve without unexpectedly breaking integrations built against earlier contracts.
APIs & Integrations
APIs and integrations are the interfaces, rules, and connections that allow separate software systems to exchange information and coordinate actions.
ARIA
ARIA is a set of roles and attributes used to communicate additional interface meaning and state to assistive technologies.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence is a broad category of computer systems designed to perform tasks involving capabilities such as prediction, classification, perception, language processing, generation, or planning.
Attribution
Attribution is the process of assigning credit for an outcome to one or more interactions that occurred before it.
Authentication
Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user, application, or system attempting to access a service.
Authorization
Authorization determines which information and actions an authenticated user or application is permitted to access.
Automated Accessibility Testing
Automated accessibility testing uses software to identify machine-detectable accessibility problems but cannot determine complete accessibility or WCAG conformance on its own.
Availability, Rates & Inventory (ARI)
Availability, Rates & Inventory describes the core information hospitality systems exchange to determine what accommodation can be sold, when it is available, and at what price.
Average Daily Rate (ADR)
Average Daily Rate is the average room revenue earned for each occupied room during a specified period.
Backup & Restore
Backup and restore are the processes of creating recoverable copies of website data and using those copies to recover from loss, corruption, mistakes, or failure.
Benchmark
A benchmark is a reference point used to compare a measurement against historical, target, peer, or other relevant performance.
Block-Based Editing
Block-based editing is a CMS approach where pages and articles are assembled from individual reusable units of content or functionality.
Booking & Hospitality Technology
Booking and hospitality technology includes the systems used to manage reservations, availability, rates, distribution channels, direct bookings, guest information, and property operations.
Booking Engine
A booking engine is the customer-facing system that lets guests search live availability and complete a reservation directly with a hospitality property.
Booking Window
Booking window is the amount of time between when a reservation is made and the guest's arrival date.
Bottleneck
A performance bottleneck is the part of a system that most significantly limits how quickly the website can complete a task or present useful content.
Breadcrumb
A breadcrumb is a navigation trail showing where the current page sits within the broader hierarchy of a website.
Caching
Caching stores previously retrieved content or resources so they can be reused without repeating the complete request and delivery process.
Canonical URL
A canonical URL is the primary URL used to represent duplicate or very similar versions of the same content.
Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment occurs when a customer adds products to a shopping cart but leaves without completing the purchase.
Central Reservation System (CRS)
A central reservation system is software used to centrally manage reservations, availability, rates, and distribution across multiple properties or reservation channels.
Channel Manager
A channel manager distributes availability, rates, inventory, and reservation information between a hospitality property and multiple booking channels.
Checkout
Checkout is the process where a customer's selected products are finalized into an order through delivery, customer, pricing, and payment information.
CMS Integration
A CMS integration connects a content management system with another application or service so information or actions can move between them.
CMS Maintenance
CMS maintenance is the ongoing work required to keep a content management system stable, secure, current, understandable, and useful after launch.
CMS Migration
A CMS migration is the process of moving website content, structure, configuration, or functionality from one CMS or installation to another.
CNAME Record
A CNAME record maps one hostname to another hostname so the first can act as an alias for the second.
Code Splitting
Code splitting divides JavaScript into smaller pieces so the browser can load only the code needed for the current page or interaction.
Colour Contrast
Colour contrast is the measurable visual difference between foreground and background colours used to keep text and important interface elements distinguishable.
Component
A component is a reusable interface or content pattern that can be used within multiple pages or templates.
Compression
Compression reduces the amount of data transferred between a server and browser by encoding resources more efficiently during delivery.
Content API
A Content API is an interface that allows applications and services to retrieve content stored in a CMS programmatically.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A content delivery network is a distributed network of servers used to deliver website resources from infrastructure closer to the people requesting them.
Content Management System (CMS)
A content management system is software used to create, organize, manage, and publish website content.
Content Model
A content model defines the types of content in a system, the information each type contains, and the relationships between those types.
Content Type
A content type is a defined category of content whose items share a consistent purpose and structural model.
Context Window
A context window is the amount of information an AI model can consider within its active input and output context, commonly measured in tokens.
Conversion
A conversion is the completion of an action that an organization has defined as a meaningful or valuable outcome.
Core Web Vitals (CWV)
A set of metrics used to measure how users experience a website’s performance.
Crawl Budget
Crawl budget describes the amount of crawling a search engine can and wants to perform on a website and is mainly a concern for large or rapidly changing sites.
Crawlability
Crawlability describes whether a search engine crawler can access and retrieve a page or resource on a website.
Critical CSS
Critical CSS is the minimum set of styles required to render the important content visible during the initial page load.
Critical Rendering Path
The critical rendering path is the sequence of work a browser performs to turn the resources needed for a page into visible content.
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
Cross-Origin Resource Sharing is a browser security mechanism that controls whether scripts from one web origin can access resources provided by another.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Measures how much visible content moves unexpectedly while a page loads or updates.
Custom Field
A custom field is a defined CMS field used to store a specific piece of structured information not already represented by the platform's default fields.
Data Layer
A data layer is a structured collection of website or application information made available to analytics, tag-management, and other systems.
Data Synchronization
Data synchronization is the process of keeping related information consistent between two or more software systems.
Dependency
A dependency is software, infrastructure, or an external service that another part of a website relies on to function.
Deployment
Deployment is the process of moving an approved technical change into an environment where it can run, including releasing changes to the live production website.
Dimension
A dimension is a descriptive attribute used to organize, group, or segment quantitative analytics data.
Direct Booking
A direct booking is a reservation completed directly with the hospitality provider rather than through an external booking intermediary.
DNS Propagation
DNS propagation describes the period during which cached DNS answers expire and different resolvers begin returning newly updated DNS information.
DNS Zone
A DNS zone is the administratively managed collection of DNS records for a domain or other portion of the DNS namespace.
DNSSEC
DNSSEC adds cryptographic authentication to DNS so resolvers can verify that DNS responses are authentic and have not been altered.
Domain Name
A domain name is a human-readable internet name used to identify resources such as websites, email services, and applications.
Domain Name System (DNS)
The Domain Name System is the distributed naming system that connects domain names with internet resources such as servers, email systems, and other services.
Domain Registrant
A domain registrant is the individual or organization that registers and holds the rights associated with a domain-name registration.
Domain Registrar
A domain registrar is a provider through which domain registrations are purchased, renewed, transferred, and administratively managed.
Domain Registry
A domain registry is the organization responsible for maintaining the authoritative registration database and infrastructure for a top-level domain.
Domain Transfer
A domain transfer moves management of a domain registration from one registrar to another without inherently moving the website, DNS, email, or hosting.
Domains, DNS & Hosting
Domains, DNS, and hosting are the systems that connect a human-readable web address to the infrastructure responsible for locating, securing, and serving a website.
Draft & Preview
Draft and preview features allow content to be created and reviewed in its expected published form before it becomes publicly available.
E-commerce
E-commerce is the system of selling products or services through digital channels, including the catalogue, inventory, checkout, payments, orders, and fulfilment processes supporting the sale.
E-commerce Platform
An e-commerce platform is software used to manage the products, payments, orders, inventory, and other systems required to sell online.
Editorial Workflow
An editorial workflow is the process content follows through creation, review, approval, publication, and ongoing maintenance.
Embedding
An embedding is a numerical representation of information that allows semantic similarity and relatedness to be compared mathematically.
Engaged Session
An engaged session is a Google Analytics classification for a session that meets the platform's defined engagement criteria.
Event
An event is a recorded interaction or occurrence used to measure behaviour within a website, application, or analytics system.
Fine-Tuning
Fine-tuning further trains an existing AI model on additional examples to adapt its behaviour to a particular task or pattern.
First-Party Data
First-party data is information an organization collects directly through its own interactions and relationships with users, customers, members, or audiences.
Focus State
A focus state identifies the interface element currently receiving keyboard input and should provide a clear visible indicator of that position.
Fulfilment
Fulfilment is the process of preparing and delivering an order after purchase, including activities such as picking, packing, shipping, delivery, or pickup.
Funnel
A funnel is a sequence of defined steps used to analyze how users progress toward an outcome and where they leave the process.
Generative AI
Generative AI is artificial intelligence designed to create new content such as text, images, audio, video, code, or structured information.
Global Distribution System (GDS)
A global distribution system is a travel-industry network used to distribute hotel and other travel inventory to travel agencies and booking intermediaries.
Hallucination
A hallucination is AI-generated content that presents false, unsupported, invented, or internally inconsistent information as though it were valid.
Headless CMS
A headless CMS separates content management from the presentation layer and delivers content to independent frontends through APIs.
Hotel Metasearch
Hotel metasearch is a travel-discovery channel that compares accommodation prices and booking options from multiple providers and directs travellers toward a booking source.
HTTP Method
An HTTP method communicates the intended action of a request, such as retrieving, creating, updating, or deleting information.
HTTP Status Code
An HTTP status code is a numeric server response that communicates whether a requested URL succeeded, moved, failed, or encountered another condition.
HTTPS
HTTPS is HTTP delivered over an encrypted TLS connection to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of communication between a client and web server.
Human-in-the-Loop (HITL)
Human-in-the-loop is a system design where a person intentionally reviews, approves, corrects, or supervises part of an AI or automated workflow.
Idempotency
Idempotency allows an operation to be safely repeated without creating additional unintended effects after the first successful application.