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Glossary

Decode the Language of Web Hosting

The web hosting industry thrives on technical jargon that obscures simple concepts and inflates mediocre features into must-have upgrades. Behind every acronym and buzzword lies a decision that affects your site’s speed, security, or budget—often in ways sales pages won’t explain. Our glossary articles strip away marketing language to reveal what terms like VPS, SSL, CDN, and DNS actually mean for your infrastructure, when they genuinely matter, and when they’re just upselling tactics. Understanding the vocabulary isn’t about sounding technical—it’s about making informed choices that protect your investment and performance.

What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and How Does it Work?

Updated on June 16, 2025 by Guest Contributor

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is something of a ‘cure-all’ for solving various issues on your website. CDNs are said to improve everything from site speed and security to account bandwidth usage. How is it that one upgrade can affect so much of a site’s performance? It all comes down to what CDNs actually do: get your site’s

What is High Availability (HA)?

Updated on July 9, 2024 by Guest Contributor

In recent years, virtual private server (VPS) hosting has been a sweet spot between the affordability of shared hosting and the power of a dedicated server. The introduction of cloud infrastructures has taken that concept and extended it even further. The

Canonical URLs: What are They and When to Use Them

Updated on April 2, 2026 by InMotion Hosting

If you’re looking for a free and easy way to improve your website’s SEO, it’s time to become familiar with canonicalization and canonical URLs.

What is a Canonical URL?

A canonical URL is the URL of a page that Google and other search engines think is the best representative from a set of duplicate or similar pages on a website.

What is a Permalink?

Updated on January 23, 2024 by InMotion Hosting

A permalink is the URL of a webpage. It is called a permanent link because the link is not expected to change as long as it is on the web.

A permalink is the full web address (URL) for a webpage. It has earned that name because it is a permanent link and is not expected to change as long as that web page is published on the internet.

What is Platform as a Service (PaaS)?

Updated on January 23, 2024 by InMotion Hosting

Platform as a Service, also known as PaaS, provides its users with a “pay-as-you-go” software interface for developing and deploying applications.

PaaS is most useful in automating repetitive or extraneous setup tasks (like installing and configuring software libraries) so developers can save time and resources. Distributing your development tools in this fashion can have a significant effect on your whole development team workflow.

What is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

Updated on January 23, 2024 by InMotion Hosting

Customer relationship management (CRM) gives you an interface for connecting with customers (old and new) to properly nurture a mutually beneficial relationship.

What Does a CRM System Do?

First and foremost, contacts. CRM is all about managing a list of customer contacts. These contacts may be names, email addresses, phone numbers, and more. The more information you have about your customers the better. Would you like to reach out to a customer on their birthday and send a nice message? CRM helps you do that.

What is a Blog?

Updated on January 23, 2024 by InMotion Hosting

A blog is technically an index of web pages (usually referred as “posts”) typically displayed in reverse chronological order (newest first).

Originally, blogs were a way for people around the world to share a digital log of activities, interests, and various media (like image galleries). In many ways, smaller blogs have remained a form of digital diary. However, most high-profile blogs in recent years have been incorporated into larger marketing strategies.

What is Linux?

Updated on January 23, 2024 by InMotion Hosting

Linux (or, the Linux kernel) is an open source software project that powers a wide variety of computing applications. Many of the world’s most popular websites run on Linux-powered software. The Android phone operating system runs on a modified version of the Linux kernel.

What is a Virtual Machine (VM)?

Updated on March 5, 2024 by InMotion Hosting

The easiest way to think of a virtual machine (VM) would be as a computer within a computer. Current technology and processing power now allow for easy creation of virtual computing environments within a “host” computer. Read on to learn what this means and how you can take advantage of this technology.

What is an API?

Updated on January 23, 2024 by InMotion Hosting

In order to better understand what an API is, it’s easier to first ask: What is not an API? An API can be many things, but these are a few things it cannot be:

A singular computer program that runs and executes a defined set of functions and nothing else.

What is Colocation?

Updated on March 19, 2025 by Jennifer Fan

Colocation is a hosting service where businesses place their servers in data centers operated and managed by third-party experts. It’s a great option for businesses that want to control their servers without worrying about running a data center.

What Exactly Is Managed Hosting?

Updated on February 2, 2026 by InMotion Hosting

Managed hosting means your provider takes care of server updates, security, and performance so you don’t have to. It’s ideal for agencies, marketing teams, and business owners who value time, reliability, and growth. With expert support and proactive management, you get fast, secure hosting that scales with your needs without the technical headaches of running servers yourself.

What is a Brute Force Attack?

Updated on January 23, 2024 by InMotion Hosting

Every day, it seems that there are frightening new announcements about how easy it is to be hacked and how much of your data may already be in the hands of cyber-criminals. Malware, ransomware, data breaches, Trojan viruses — all these terms have now become part of our vernacular; indeed, these are the kinds of computer problems that make IT experts start to sweat.

What is a CTA? Call to Action Definition and Examples

Updated on June 12, 2025 by Guest Contributor

CTA stands for “call to action,” which is a prompt or statement designed to get an immediate response from the audience. It is, literally, a call to take an action.

If you have a website, you have a call to action (CTA), whether you realize it or not. At the most basic level, a CTA is a design element that entices the visitor to take a certain action, whether it’s signing up for an email list or purchasing a product.

Common Web Hosting Definitions and What They Mean

Updated on May 3, 2024 by Carrie Smaha

If you’re trying to get a web-based business off the ground, you’re going to have to understand some basic technical terms used when discussing the Internet, web hosting, types of servers, content management systems, and more. Unfortunately for newbies out there, this information can be hard to understand and many web hosting information sites can seem like they are written in a foreign language.