Professional Web glossary

Definitions beginning with S

Search within this letter or use the alphabet to continue exploring the complete glossary.

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Definitions beginning with S

Search within this letter or use the alphabet to continue exploring the complete glossary.

37 terms displayed

Hosting and infrastructure #

SaaS

Software as a Service: software accessed online and operated by its provider, generally with recurring billing.

Also searched as : software as a service logiciel service
SEO, search and visibility #

Schema.org

Shared vocabulary for describing entities, content and relationships in a structured form understood by several search engines.

Also searched as : données structurées structured data
SEO, search and visibility #

Search engine

System that crawls, organizes and ranks resources to answer a query.

Also searched as : moteur recherche
SEO, search and visibility #

Search engine optimization

Actions sustainably improving a website’s understanding, crawling, indexing and organic visibility in search engines.

Also searched as : seo search engine optimization
SEO, search and visibility #

Search intent

Actual goal behind a query: learn, find a website, compare, locate or complete an action.

Also searched as : intention recherche
SEO, search and visibility #

Search operator

Special command added to a search to narrow or specify results, such as site:, filetype: or quotation marks.

Also searched as : opérateur recherche
SEO, search and visibility #

Search volume

Estimate of searches performed for a query during a period, to be interpreted according to source and seasonality.

Also searched as : volume recherche
Marketing and acquisition #

SEM

Search Engine Marketing: visibility actions in search engines, often used to group SEO and paid search.

Also searched as : search engine marketing
Development and code #

Semantic HTML

Use of HTML elements according to their actual meaning to improve structure, accessibility and document understanding.

Also searched as : html sémantique
SEO, search and visibility #

SEO

Search Engine Optimization: technical, editorial and relational improvement of a website to increase useful visibility in organic results.

Also searched as : référencement naturel optimisation moteurs
SEO, search and visibility #

SEO audit

Structured analysis of a website’s technical setup, content, internal links and visibility to prioritize improvements.

Also searched as : seo audit
SEO, search and visibility #

SEO ranking

Position held by a page in natural results for a given query, location, device and time.

Also searched as : ranking classement
SEO, search and visibility #

SERP

Search Engine Results Page produced by a search engine for a given query.

Also searched as : page résultats recherche
Hosting and infrastructure #

Server

Hardware or software system providing resources, data or functions to other devices called clients.

Also searched as : serveur
Development and code #

Server-side rendering

Generation of HTML on the server before sending it to the browser instead of building the whole page client-side.

Also searched as : ssr rendu serveur
Hosting and infrastructure #

Serverless

Cloud model in which the provider automatically manages servers and execution is billed or scaled according to use.

Also searched as : functions faas
Development and code #

Session

Interaction period or set of temporary data associated with a user while browsing.

Also searched as : session utilisateur
Data and measurement #

Session replay

Visual reconstruction of user interactions from recorded events, subject to strong privacy safeguards.

Also searched as : relecture session
Security and privacy #

SFTP

Secure file transfer protocol generally operating over an SSH connection.

Also searched as : secure file transfer
SEO, search and visibility #

Sitemap XML

File listing important website URLs and able to provide search engines with discovery or update information.

Also searched as : plan site xml
Project, product and business #

SLA

Service Level Agreement: contractual commitment defining a level of service, availability or response time.

Also searched as : accord niveau service
Web fundamentals #

Slug

Readable URL segment identifying a page, generally lowercase and separated by hyphens.

Also searched as : url path
Hosting and infrastructure #

SMTP

Protocol mainly used to transmit email between clients and servers or between servers.

Also searched as : simple mail transfer protocol
Marketing and acquisition #

Social media marketing

Editorial and advertising use of social networks to build awareness, relationships and acquisition.

Also searched as : marketing réseaux sociaux smm
SEO, search and visibility #

Soft 404

Page that appears missing or useless in its content while returning a successful HTTP status instead of a true 404 error.

Also searched as : fausse erreur 404
Development and code #

Source code

Set of readable instructions, files and configurations used to build or run software.

Also searched as : source code
Security and privacy #

Spam

Unsolicited, repetitive or deceptive content or message distributed at scale.

Also searched as : pourriel
Data and measurement #

SQL

Language used to define, query and modify data in many relational database systems.

Also searched as : structured query language
Security and privacy #

SSH

Encrypted protocol used to remotely administer a server and create secure tunnels or transfers.

Also searched as : secure shell
Security and privacy #

SSL/TLS

Communication security protocols; TLS is the current technology used to encrypt HTTPS, while SSL is obsolete.

Also searched as : tls https chiffrement
Security and privacy #

SSL/TLS certificate

Digital certificate used to authenticate a domain and establish an encrypted HTTPS connection.

Also searched as : ssl certificate tls https
Development and code #

Staging

Pre-production environment similar to the live website where changes are checked before release.

Also searched as : préproduction recette
Development and code #

Static site

Website whose pages are generally generated in advance and served as files without dynamic computation on every visit.

Also searched as : site statique
Hosting and infrastructure #

Streaming

Continuous delivery of media allowing playback to begin before the full download is complete.

Also searched as : diffusion flux
SEO, search and visibility #

Structured data

Data embedded in page code according to a defined vocabulary to make entities and properties explicit to machines.

Also searched as : données structurées json ld schema
Hosting and infrastructure #

Subdomain

Part placed before the main domain to distinguish an area or service, for example blog.example.com.

Also searched as : sous domaine
SEO, search and visibility #

SXO

Search Experience Optimization: approach connecting search visibility with the actual quality of the user journey.

Also searched as : search experience optimization seo ux
Editorial method

Definitions written for people, structured for machines.

The entries are editorially reformulated in plain language, connected to stable URLs and represented with DefinedTerm structured data. They provide orientation, not a substitute for official standards, legal advice or vendor documentation.