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When you're new to tech, it can seem like you've stumbled into a conversation where everyone knows what they're talking about except for you. Whenever you work with a new team or tackle a different type of project after you've broken in, the jargon and acronyms start shifting all over again. Well, enough with the frantic Googling every time someone says “CTR” “CTO” and “CMS.”

Getting your head around a new concept can be as simple as a short explanation. So here's what we've created: a jargon-free, plain-English tech dictionary of 99 terms you should know if you're thinking about switching careers. Trust us, we know—these are the terms the Skillcrush team uses all the time in our online tech courses (and our free 10-day coding bootcamp, too!).

There are bound to be a few terms you have already pondered during nerve-wracking meetings or interviews—so go ahead and scratch those off your “what the heck is that?that?that?“ list right away—then bookmark the rest, and come back whenever another pesky tech term pops up.

1. CONTENT CURATION

You're probably not new to social media, even if you're new to tech. Curation is the process of gathering and presenting content (articles, links, videos, images, etc.) that are relevant to a specific topic or a user's interests. Curated content can be selected manually by a curator, or it can be gathered through automated programs tracking things like upvoting, likes, hashtags, or analysis of a user's previous online behavior.

2. ENGAGEMENT

Engaged customers are those who like, share, and comment on the business' social media profiles. Social media performance is one metric companies use for measuring and evaluating their social media efforts. Social media engagement includes liking posts on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter, and viewing pins on Pinterest.

3. EMBEDDING

Embedding is the process of putting social media content on a website. If you see a YouTube video on a blog you're reading, or a tweet on a business' website you're visiting, that is an example of embedding. HTML code is used to embed, and most social media sites have an "Embed" option that provides you with the exact code you need.

4. IMPRESSIONS

An impression is the number of times an ad, video, article, or other piece of content has been "fetched" (or requested) from its source. You have just helped make an impression every time social media content appears in your web browser.

5. INFLUENCER

Social media influencers are individuals with a presence on social media who use their platform to influence group opinions and behavior. Influencers in social media include celebrities who use Twitter, YouTubers with millions of subscribers, and activists organizing on Facebook.

6. MENTIONS

Mentions are references to people or accounts on social media platforms (@yourTwitterhandle on Twitter or +YourName on Google+). A company's social media footprint can also be measured by measuring its mentions.

7. MICROBLOGGING

Microblogs are a subset of traditional blogs in which you post and share short messages containing several sentences, an image, a video, or a link. In addition to Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and Facebook, all of these platforms are considered microblogging platforms.

8. ORGANIC

Social media content that ranks highly organically is content that individuals like, repost, and view rather than content promoted by marketing companies. Content that goes viral organically includes articles, memes, and videos shared by online communities rather than paid advertisements.

9. REACH

You can measure reach on social media by looking at the size of your potential audience. The number of people who have access to your content without measuring whether it is actually viewed.

10. SOCIAL GRAPH

In a social network, a social graph shows how users are connected. Using Facebook, for example, you may discover other users you know, or online games such as Words With Friends may introduce you to your cousin who didn't even know he had a social media account.

11. USER-GENERATED CONTENT (UGC)

Users create content (posts, photos, videos) about a brand or product rather than companies or organizations. Local restaurants retweet customer reviews or Coca-Cola reposts a picture of an Instagram user drinking Coke as user-generated content.

12. AFFILIATE MARKETING

Using affiliate marketing, a company attracts new customers and visitors to its website by rewarding affiliates (people outside the company) with advertising and content. A commission or discount is earned by affiliates based on the number of people they refer. On a personal or lifestyle website, you may see that the product recommendation has a link with more information. The blog or site that referred you to the product will make money if you buy it.

13. BOUNCE RATE

Based on data from website sessions where visitors browse one page before leaving, bounce rates are calculated. Google Analytics calculates bounce rates based on visitors who browse one page before leaving a website. Sites aim to reduce this number by making sure their content is both engaging and relevant to you so you spend more time on their site.

14. CALL TO ACTION (CTA)

The call to action is a piece of text, a banner, a form, or an image on a web page or email that asks the visitor to take an action, such as reading more content, joining an email list, attending a webinar, or buying something. Call-to-actions help businesses generate leads.

15. CLICK THROUGH RATE (CTR)

User clicks on links on web pages or in marketing emails when the click-through rate is high. CTR measures how many users engage with a site's linked content.

16. SALES FUNNEL

The internet sales funnel guides prospects through a series of events or actions mapped out as a funnel. At the top of the funnel, users are drawn to your website. Then they move down the funnel, signing up for your email list in exchange for services or resources, until eventually they reach the bottom and become paying customers.

17. CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION (CRO)

In CRO, the goal is to increase the number of visitors to a website who become paying customers. CRO involves getting users to take specific actions on a website, such as filling out a web form, signing up for a trial, or joining an email list.

18. KEYWORDS

Keywords are used by search engines to find online content. Researching keywords is an important part of Internet marketing, since web advertising and website search engine placement can be tailored to match high-traffic keywords, making it more likely that Googlers will find your site.

19. MARKETING AUTOMATION

Marketing automation involves using software or online services (such as HubSpot, MailChimp, and Act-on) to automate repetitive marketing tasks, such as emails, customer relationship management, social media posts, and analytics. The marketing automation program allows marketers to enter specific criteria for the task in question, which is interpreted and executed by the program.

20. MULTICHANNEL MARKETING

Through multichannel marketing, advertisers can interact with potential customers via a variety of communication channels (website banner ads, Facebook ads, marketing emails, a blog). By allowing users to select their favorite channel to interact with your product, you increase the chances of converting impressions into customers.

21. SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)

In search engine marketing, paid advertisements (such as copy, product listings, and video clips) are used to drive traffic to your website from search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing).

22. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

In internet marketing, SEO involves optimizing a website so that it can appear in unpaid search results (for example, it's among the top sites when you Google a related topic). Utilization of search engine optimization is performed through using algorithms based on search engine behaviors, analyzing the specific keywords typed into search engines, and researching which search engines are popular with particular demographics. Secondly, you align the format of your content (including things like adding extra searchable terms to headings) so that you can move up in search engine rankings. Take care, however: going too far can backfire.ke producing authentic, excellent content.

23. TRAFFIC

A website's traffic is the number of users who visit it. Traffic is then broken down into specific types of visits, such as unique visitors and total clicks.

24. GROWTH HACKING

To increase a company's growth, growth hackers use technology (websites, marketing emails, apps) and analytics (data mining, A/B testing) in combination with product development. As a marketing technique, growth hacking focuses on finding lower cost alternatives to traditional television, newspaper, and radio advertising. Startup companies often use growth hacking for growth during their launch period.

25. A/B TESTING

In A/B testing, two versions of online content are compared-websites, apps, marketing emails, etc.-to see which version performs better. Users are presented with both versions (A and B) at random to gauge their reactions.

26. CONTENT MARKETING

Online content is used in content marketing to attract customers by leveraging e-books, videos, blog posts, podcasts, etc. The goal of content marketing is not to promote a brand explicitly, but to indirectly stimulate interest in products and services.

27. CONVERSION

Conversion is the end result of marketing efforts like A/B Testing and Content Marketing. It is the moment when a potential customer becomes a lead or an actual customer.

28. DATA MINING

In data mining, large datasets found in databases and websites are examined to uncover patterns, behaviors, and relationships that can be used to market goods and services online.

29. EMAIL MARKETING

Sending direct emails (directly from the company to the customer) is one of the ways businesses communicate with current and potential customers. Companies can use email marketing to establish a voice for their brand and convey a more personal message.

30. WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

Using growth hacks to optimize a website's conversion rate is called site optimization. Controlled experiments like A/B testing are conducted and the results are used to make changes to the website that will boost pageviews, product sales, etc. The site as a whole can be made more navigable by making it easier to get from one article to another, making sure pop-ups are most relevant to the user's interests, etc.

31. COLOR VALUE

Color value is a color’s shade. Value can be defined in HTML by name (black), hexadecimal color code (#000000), or RGB code (0, 0, 0).

32. COLOR THEORY

Color theory involves studying color mixing and the visual effects of specific color combinations (complimentary colors, color harmony, how to achieve specific tints and shades, etc.).

33. GRID SYSTEM

Content on a web page can be arranged using grids, which are a set of columns and rows. A grid system provides a solid foundation of uniformity and consistency in your design, making it more readable for your audience.

34. PIXELS PER INCH (PPI)

PPI (also known as “density”) is the number of pixels (small dots of light that combine to create an image) per inch on a device display. Images and text will appear sharper when the PPI is higher.

35. RASTER IMAGES

With programs such as Painter and Photoshop, raster images can be edited pixel-by-pixel. Images stored in raster format include GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs.

36. RESOLUTION

On a device's display, resolution refers to the number of pixels that can be shown. As with PPI, the higher the resolution on a display, the more pixels can be displayed, making images and text appear sharper.

37. RETINA DISPLAY

Apple trademarked the term "Retina display" to describe a display so dense as to make it impossible to distinguish individual pixels on an electronic device display (usually over 300 pixels per inch). The Apple Watch, iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and iMacs use these high density displays.

38. VECTOR IMAGES

Vector images are composed of mathematically calculated lines. As vector images are composed of lines rather than individual pixels, they can't be styled as much as raster images, but they retain quality even when zoomed-in too closely (pixel-based raster images start to look like a collection of squares when zoomed-in too closely), whereas raster images can't be scaled indefinitely. To work with vectors, you can use programs like Adobe Photoshop.

39. MOOD BOARD

A mood board is a collection of images, materials, and text used to represent the visual style of a website (color palette, images, icons, and fonts) before the project is launched. Visual designers translate the mood board's style into digital form.

40. SITEMAPS

Maps or outlines of the pages that make up a website are known as sitemaps. These diagrams illustrate how the pages interact with links, apps, videos, and other components, and they can be viewed as a document or as a separate page on the website.

41. USER INTERFACE (UI)

All the parts of a website, app, computer, smartphone, etc. that the user can manipulate and interact with are considered user interfaces. A user interface includes display and touch screens, website menus, keyboards, your cursor, and so on.

42. USER EXPERIENCE (UX)

The user experience describes the emotions, attitudes, and ease-of-use a person experiences when using a product or service. UX Design is the practice of using design to enhance the user's experience by improving communication between a product and its users.

43. USER FLOW

User flow is the path typical users take when starting on a website and moving toward an action on the site. Creating a smooth path that is intuitive for users to follow is part of user experience (UX) design.

44. USER PERSONA

In UX and web design, personas are theoretical descriptions of the type of users a website is designed for and the needs of those users. User personas are created using demographic information, user research, and analysis of customer experience metrics.

45. USER RESEARCH

User research is an investigation of how users behave on a website and examining how that behavior can be used to improve the experience and design of the website.

46. WIREFRAME

The wireframe is a sketch of the key information that goes on each page of a website, essentially showing the structure of the site or page. The sketch then forms the basis for designing the website. You can make these in a program or write them on a napkin-we have seen it all.

47. FONT

Fonts determine the appearance of your text. Designers who specialize in this field design typefaces. Fonts within a style family (Arial) are organized by weight (regular, italic, or bold).

48. KERNING

Kerning refers to adjusting the space between characters (letters, numbers, punctuation) to avoid unsightly gaps and improve legibility.

49. LEADING (PRONOUNCED “LED-ING”)

Leading refers to the amount of space between lines of text on a website, a subtle (but crucial!) aspect of the design appearance.

50. TRACKING

As well as kerning and leading, tracking determines how much space is between words (as opposed to between individual characters).

51. TYPE HIERARCHY

Website hierarchies are used to organize and make a website more visually appealing by using different font sizes and styles. This article is an example of type hierarchy (like a web page with titles that are larger than its body text).

52. SERIF

Time New Roman and Lucida Bright are serif fonts, while Arial and Helvetica lack serifs.

53. FRONT END

A website's front end is whate.

54. HTML (HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE)

HTML is the language used to create web pages. Websites require HTML. Myspace pages can be customized with HTML tags.

55. HTML5

(As of this writing, HTML5 is the latest version.) Among its features are support for low-powered devices, multimedia support, and semantic web elements (which allow us to structure pages and documents).

56. ELEMENTS

HTML elements are components of a webpage or document. Examples include HTML paragraphs. Documents contain an opening tag, a closing tag, and information between them:

This is my paragraph!

57. META ELEMENTS

A meta element contains non-visible information that can be accessed by the web browser, such as keywords, author, and last modified.

58. SEMANTIC ELEMENTS

A semantic element provides information about a web page to web browsers and developers. The semantic elements , , and define their contents in their names, unlike non-semantic elements.

59. STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

A web page's structural elements organize its content. While containing the header and footer content of a page, elements like group block level and inline content together.

60. ATTRIBUTES

Attributes provide additional information about HTML elements. HTML elements such as paragraphs can use the alignment attribute (left, center, or right). In the opening tag, attributes include a name, an equal sign, and a value enclosed in double quotes.

Example: This is my paragraph!

61. OPENING TAG AND CLOSING TAGS

These tags are sets of angle brackets containing a piece of content or part of the structure of a web page

Example of opening tag: 

Example of closing tag: 

62. SELF-CLOSING TAG

An opening tag with a self-closing tag does not have a closing tag, but instead closes itself with a forward slash before the right angle bracket. The / symbol indicates closing a tag within an opening tag.

63. CSS (CASCADING STYLE SHEETS)

CSS can be used to style HTML documents. HTML creates the framework for a page, and CSS creates the layout, colors, fonts, etc.

64. CSS3

CSS3 introduces features such as rounded corners, gradients, animations, and multiple columns as well as flexible box or grid layouts.

65. SELECTOR

Selectors define which HTML elements the CSS styling effects will be applied to in CSS code. As an example, if element "p" (say, a specific paragraph) is a selector, then:

will change the font size of the selected element.

66. PROPERTY

A CSS property refers to the part of the HTML code that changes a web page's appearance (font size, color, margin, etc.).

67. VALUE

Values are CSS codes that describe a property's settings. If you want to change the font size and color of a block of text using CSS, the value describes what those changes will be. This will result in an indentation of 1.5 of the font size, a red color for the text, and a 20 point font size for the property (the block of text).

68. DECLARATIONS

In CSS declarations, a selector's property and value are displayed inside a pair of curly brackets.

69. BACK END

An application, web server, or database can be considered a back end, but usually is invisible to the user interacting with the website or service.

70. APPLICATION

A mobile application is a type of software (also known as an app) designed to provide a function for a user or another application. A wide range of apps are available, including web browsers, word processors, photo editing programs, and chat programs such as Skype and Google Hangouts.

71. API (APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE)

APIs provide a way to build web applications. Developers use APIs as building blocks, and then coders combine those blocks to build the program they are trying to build. Examples of APIs are Google Maps API (which allows developers to embed Google maps on web pages), Twitter APIs (Twitter offers two APIs: REST, which allows developers to access Twitter data, and Search, which allows developers to access Twitter's search and trends data), and Amazon Product Advertising API (which allows developers to advertise Amazon products on websites).

72. BUGS

Bugs are coding mistakes or unwanted pieces of code that keep a website or program from working properly.

73. DEVOPS (DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS)

Devops is a software development process that focuses on helping development, operations, and quality teams understand each other and collaborate better. By unifying these three separate departments, Devops teams aim for shorter development cycles and more dependable software releases.

74. FRAMEWORKS

Frameworks are collection of programs and components commonly used in software development. Rather than spending time seeking out each of these components separately, developers can take advantage of frameworks where they are collected in one place. Examples of frameworks include Ruby on Rails, Bootstrap, AngularJS, and Joomla.

75. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING (OOP)

An object-oriented program is a type of computer programming that creates objects with specific and unique characteristics and abilities. Object-oriented programming (OOP) involves creating objects and interacting with them. By contrast, earlier programming languages focused more on the process of converting input data into output data than the data (objects) themselves. Examples of OOP languages include Ruby, PHP, and Python.

76. SOFTWARE

A program is a set of instructions that tells a computer, phone, or tablet what to do. Individual applications (web browsers, word processors) as well as operating systems (Microsoft Windows), drivers (software that connects operating systems to hardware, such as printers) and utilities (such as anti-virus programs or hard drive defragmenters) constitute software.

77. TEXT EDITOR

The term text editor refers to a type of software used to write plain text (without formatting), which is often used for coding. In order to make code computer-readable, code is formatted in another program called a compiler (specific to the programming language you're using), but code usually begins its life in a plain text editor. SublimeText, TextEdit, TextWrangler, and Notepad++ are some examples of text editors.

78. VERSION CONTROL

As a result of version control, the user can go back and restore earlier versions of the code and files on a website or app in case of bugs. Many source code editors (programs used to write and edit code) like Visual Code Studio, or even web hosting services, include version control tools like Git.

79. WEB SERVERS

Web servers are computers that store websites, online apps, documents, pictures, and other data. They can be accessed via the internet through programs such as web browsers or file transfer protocol clients (FTP). You request a website from a web server when you visit a website with the browser on your computer or smartphone.

80. CACHING

Caching refers to what happens when a web browser stores recurring website assets - such as images and font styles - so the website will load faster when the user returns. Using caching, your browser won't have to re-create the wheel every time you visit the site.

81. CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing involves dispersing data across a number of remote servers accessible via the internet, rather than storing it locally on your own computer. The cloud is the external storage of data on your home computer. For example, Google Docs, Facebook, and Gmail are examples of cloud computing.

82. FIREWALLS

Firewalls are designed to protect and secure a computer network from external security threats, whether it is a commercial web service or your home WiFi network. A firewall monitors inbound and outbound network traffic and determines whether or not to allow the traffic through based on a user-defined set of security standards.

83. ROUTERS

Routers connect computers to the internet via a service provider, such as cable or DSL. It is a device that is directly connected to your computer via an ethernet cable or that is used to access your home WiFi network.

84. UPTIME & DOWNTIME

Uptime and downtime describe how long a website, computer, or other system is up and running (uptime) or not (downtime).

85. VIRTUAL MACHINE (VM)

Virtual machines enable computers running different operating systems (such as Mac OS X) to run one operating system on another (such as Windows 10). Among the most popular virtual machines are Virtual Box, Parallels, and VMWare.

86. VPN (VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK)

VPNs are networks that allow users to use public internet connections as private networks in order to enhance security. A public WiFi network, for instance, allows everyone on the network to see your device and data. VPNs allow you to access the internet via the public network, but they shield you from prying eyes. Some web browsers (such as Opera) allow you to set up a VPN, or a paid service can be accessed monthly.

87. BIG DATA

Big data describes collections of data that are too large for traditional data processing systems to handle. Collections are collected from sources such as mobile devices, emails, search keywords, user databases, applications, and servers. Companies can identify consumer patterns and use them to predict and optimize their business by comb through this data.

88. DATA ARCHITECTURE

Companies and organizations collect, store, access, and use data

89. DATABASE

In companies and organizations, data architecture describes how data is collected, stored, accessed, and used. Essentially, it describes how data flows across an organization's IT systems and applications.

90. DATA MODELING

Finding out what type of data is needed and how it will be arranged and structured

91. DATA VISUALIZATION

Data visualization refers to the use of graphs, charts, tables, infographics, etc. as a way to communicate the data being analyzed and the conclusions drawn from it.

92. RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (RDMS)

A relational database management system organizes data into tables so that it can be accessed or reassembled without reorganizing the database tables. SAP and MySQL are examples of RDMS.

93. HYBRID APP

The term hybrid app refers to applications that will run on a variety of platforms (computers, mobile devices, tablets) and are a combination of both native apps and web apps (i.e., apps that are accessed from a browser on the web). Examples of hybrid apps include the Amazon and Apple App Stores, Twitter, Yelp, and Gmail.

94. IDE (INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT)

In an IDE, you can use tools like source code editors (text editors designed specifically for writing code), debuggers (tools for testing code), and build automation tools (tools for compiling code into machine-readable format and running automated tests). Visual Studio, Eclipse, and VIM are some examples of IDEs.

95. NATIVE APPS

Native apps are designed specifically for a particular platform. All apps run on the platforms they were built for, and are stored locally on those devices. Examples of native apps include Mail on iOS and Ingress on Android.

96. NFC (NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION)

The NFC technology allows mobile devices to communicate using radio waves when they are very close to each other (about four inches or less). It can be used to share files, pair accessories, and make wireless payments. NFC can be used by companies in order to make products interactive with consumers' mobile devices, such as adding NFC tags to products that allow users to register products, get discounts, or place new orders.

97. RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN

Creating websites that adapt gracefully to different-sized devices, such as smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, etc., is what responsive web design is all about. An example of responsive web design is a website that looks just as proportional and seamless on your phone as it does on your computer.

98. SDK (SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KIT)

Software development kits (SDKs) are sets of tools for developing specific types of software. SDKs are released by companies that control the platform on which the software is being developed. A Java app requires the Java Development Kit, while an iOS app needs the iOS SDK, and Windows apps need the .NET Framework SDK.

99. WEB APPS

A web app is a website that looks and feels like an app (as opposed to a series of linked pages). Websites like Facebook, Pandora, and Google Docs are examples of web apps.