A Newbie Copywriting Website Glossary: Internet Acronyms

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

Updated 12.18.2023

Computer-speak can seem like an insider language to a newbie copywriting website content. You can make sense out of the niche lingo using these handy glossary pages. (See part 2 of this glossary here.)

Part 1 here lists acronyms – words formed from initials – which are among the most confusing in computer jargon. The list is arranged alphabetically.

Copywriting Terms: Internet Acronyms

404
A numerical standard response generated by a web server, usually indicating a broken link. A 404 Error message indicates that the connection was made, but that the specified address has been moved, deleted, or is temporarily not available.

HTML
An acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML is the code which creates web pages allowing web servers to translate commands into visual web pages. HTML code is not visible when a reader views a web page, but is the behind-the-scenes formatting that makes viewing a web page possible.

HTTP
An acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol – a set of formatting rules. The HTTP language tells a server how to locate and produce a web page for a viewer. In a browser, “http” often precedes a website address, thereby directing a server to the proper procedure to follow to format that page for the viewing eye: http://www.yourwebsiteaddress.com.

IP address
An acronym for Internet Protocol Address, a unique identifying number for every computer connected to the internet – much like a serial number.

ISP
An acronym for Internet Service Provider – a company that provides you with direct access to the internet.

SE (Search Engine)
A computer program or computer code that searches for specified terms across the web. The results of the search are returned in a list, also called search engine results pages (SERPs).  AOL Search, Ask, Bing, Dogpile, Google, and Yahoo! are examples of popular search engines.

SEO
An acronym for Search Engine Optimization, the process of increasing a website’s visibility on the internet. SEO considers search terms, web page content, and keywords among other variables in order to help a webpage appear more frequently and higher on search engine results pages. 

SERPs
An acronym for Search Engine Results Pages. SERPs most often grouped in pages of ten websites at a time, in the order of their ranking as determined by search engine algorithms.

URL
An acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, a detailed internet address for a specific web page. A URL can include protocol language, machine name, domain, folder name, specific page address, as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/beaches.

WWW
An acronym for the World Wide Web, the global system that allows you to navigate from one website to another all over the internet. 

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