Cached files are those that are saved or copied (downloaded) by a web browser so that the next time that user visits the site, the page loads faster.

A specific action or request that you hope a person will take, such as “”Call For a Free Consultation

A call to action or CTA is a prompt on a website that tells the user to take some specified action.

The CAN-SPAM Act establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

Also referred to simply as CSS, Cascading Style Sheets are used to define the look and feel of a website outside of the actual HTML of the site. In recent years, CSS has replaced tables and other HTML-based methods for formatting and laying out websites. The benefits of using CSS are many, but some of the most important are the simplification of a site’s HTML files, which can actually increase search engine rankings and the ability to completely change the style of a site by changing just one file without having to make changes to content. The latest version is CSS3.

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server, commonly a web server. CGI usually comes in the form of a script, which is called to perform a particular function on a website. CGI scripts are usually written in a programming language called PERL

The annual percentage rate at which customers stop subscribing to a service, crucial for understanding customer retention and product satisfaction in SaaS businesses.

An umbrella term describing media technologies that create a strong sense of engagement among residents through news and information. It is often used as a contrast to “citizen journalism” because it also encompasses mapping, wikis, and databases. MIT has a Center for Future Civic Media.

The percentage of people that click on an element that they have been exposed to.

Clicks per Delivered is the percentage measure of the number of clicks divided by the number of emails delivered to the intended inbox.

Clicks-per-open refers to the percentage measure of the number of clicks divided by the number of opens.

Client-side refers to scripts that are run in a visitor’s browser, instead of on a web server – as in server-side scripts. Client-side scripts are generally faster to interact with, though they can take longer to load initially.

An increasingly popular computing model in which information and software are provided on demand from over the Internet rather than staying on local computers. Cloud computing is

In web design terms, a comment is a bit of information contained in the HTML or XHTML of a web page, which is ignored by the browser. Comments are used to identify different parts of the file and as reference notes. Good commenting makes it much easier for a web designer to make changes to the site, as it clearly defines which parts of the code perform what functions. There are different comment formats for different programming and markup languages.

Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue is the value of recurring portion of subscription revenue. For term-based subscription businesses, this is the portion of subscription revenue that is recognized each month. It excludes revenues that are not recurring even if such revenues are on a revenue recognition schedule.

See Online Community

Responsible for building, growing and managing online communities around a brand, cause or topic.

An application that allows multiple contributors to create, edit and publish web content.

Also known as a CMS, the Content Management System is a backend tool for managing the content of a website. The CMS separates the core content (text, images, video) from the design and functionality of the site. Using a CMS generally, makes it easier to change the design or function of a site independently of the website content. It will often make it easier for administrators who aren’t web developers, to add content to a website.

A marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable online content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined target audience.

The planning and development for the creation, delivery, and governance of online, shareable content. A content strategy should outline what social channels to use, what types of content are to be shared via what channels, and a schedule of content production.

A software development process for getting code changes into production quickly and safely.

When a user completes some predetermined action on your site.

The number of conversions on a webpage or app divided by the total number of visitors.

The process of increasing the percentage of conversions from a website or mobile app.

Cookies are small files which are stored on a user's computer. They are designed to hold a modest amount of data specific to a particular client and website, and can be accessed either by the web server or the client computer. This allows the server to deliver a page tailored to a particular user, or the page itself can contain some script which is aware of the data in the cookie, making it possible to carry information from one visit to the website (or related site) to the next.

A pricing model in which the advertiser is charged for an ad based on how many users take a specific, pre-defined action–such as buying a product from an online store–based on viewing an ad. This is the “gold standard” for advertisers because it most directly matches the cost of an ad to its effectiveness. However, it’s not commonly used since it’s extremely difficult to measure: it is often unclear when or how to attribute an action to a specific ad. (Also sometimes referred to as Cost Per Acquisition.)

A pricing model in which the advertiser is charged for an ad based on how many users click it. This is a common model for “search advertising” (the all-text ads associated with search results) and with text ads in general. CPC is well-suited for “directed” advertising, intended to prompt an immediate response because a user’s clicking on an ad shows engagement with it. Google AdWords is generally priced on a CPC basis.

CPM (Cost Per Mille) also called cost per thousand (CPT) denotes the price of 1,000 advertisement impressions on one webpage.

A flexible set of copyright licenses that allow content creators to specify which rights they reserve and which they waive regarding their work that is supposed to codify collaborative spirit of the Internet. There are six main Creative Commons licenses based on four conditions that creators can choose to apply: Attribution, Share Alike, Non-Commercial, and No Derivative Works. The least restrictive of the licenses is Attribution, which grants anyone, from an individual to a large company, the right to distribute, display, or otherwise make use of the work so long as the creator is credited. The most restrictive is Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives, which grants only redistribution. First released in December 2002 by the nonprofit Creative Commons organization, which was inspired by the open source GNU GPL license, the licenses are now used on an estimated 130 million works worldwide. The glossary you are reading is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license in an effort to encourage wide distribution and contribution. (Also see open source)

Cross-channel analytics is a business analytics process wherein multiple sets of data from different channels or sources are linked or housed together and then analyzed in order to provide customer and marketing intelligence that the business can use.

Cross-Platform Marketing Automation is defined as the capability for email messages to display correctly across all platforms including Desktop, Tablets and Mobile devices.

See Cascading Style Sheets.

A CSS framework is a collection of CSS files used as the starting point to make XHTML and CSS websites quickly and painlessly. They usually contain CSS styles for typography and layout.

An extremely simple data format which stores information in a text file. CSV is popular precisely because it can be easily read by many different applications, including spreadsheets, word processors, programming text editors and web browsers. Thus it is a common way for people, including governments, to make their data available. Each row of data is represented by a line of text. Each column is delimited/separated by a comma (,). To prevent confusion about commas in the data, the terms are often surrounded by double quotes (“). Many applications support the use of alternative column delimiters (the pipe character, |, is popular). Example below: “Name”,”Address”,”email” “Olivier”,”Barcelona, Spain”,”olivier@digitalgrowth.me”

Customer Acquisition Cost is the cost associated in convincing a customer to buy a product/service. It refers to the resources that a business must allocate (financial or otherwise) in order to acquire an additional customer.

Customer Buying Lifecycle is defined as the process or stages that a customer undergoes to purchase a product or service.

Customer Retention Cost, is the cost of keeping an existing customer purchasing. Retention figures can be calculated using total purchases over a period mitigated by retention expenditures, churn, acquisition costs and general overhead. Customer retention directly affects lifetime values (LTV).

Customer Retention Rate is used to count customers and track customer activity irrespective of the number of transactions made by each customer. Simply put retention rate is the ratio of number of retained customers to the number of customers at risk.

A business methodology ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes while using your product, which helps improve customer retention and increase lifetime value.