As of:
Translated from German. In case of discrepancies, the German version applies.
Glossary
Technical terms crop up everywhere – in hosting contracts, in agency quotes, in error messages. We summarise the most common ones here concisely and without marketing speak. Where an explanation is based on a standard, a law or a manufacturer’s information, the source is given with the term.
The glossary is arranged by topic. Each topic has its own page; you can link directly to a term via its anchor.
| Topic | What it covers | Matching task |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | types of hosting, servers, operations, backups | Choosing hosting |
| Domains and DNS | domain names, registries, transfers, name resolution | Moving a domain |
| Web technology and security | HTTP, encryption, redirects, security | Choosing hosting |
| SEO | crawling, indexing, content, loading speed | Basic SEO check |
| GEO and AI search | generative search systems, AI crawlers, controls | GEO |
| Online and field marketing | channels, key figures, campaigns, on-site marketing | Online marketing · Field marketing |
| newsletters, consent, SPF, DKIM, DMARC | Newsletter marketing | |
| Law and data protection | GDPR, data processing agreement, legal notice, consent – mostly German and EU law | Hosting checklist: data protection |
All terms from A to Z
A
- A and AAAA records Domains and DNS
- Accessibility (WCAG) Web technology and security
- ACME Web technology and security
- Affiliate marketing Online and field marketing
- AI crawler GEO and AI search
- AI Overviews and AI Mode GEO and AI search
- Alt text SEO
- Anchor text SEO
- Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) GEO and AI search
- Anycast Domains and DNS
- AuthInfo Domains and DNS
- Availability Hosting
B
- Backlink SEO
- Backup Hosting
- Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG) Law and data protection
- BSI C5 Hosting
C
- CAA record Domains and DNS
- Cache Hosting
- Canonical SEO
- CCBot (Common Crawl) GEO and AI search
- Certificate authority (CA) Web technology and security
- Chrome UX Report (CrUX) SEO
- Cloud hosting Hosting
- CNAME record Domains and DNS
- Consent Law and data protection
- Content delivery network (CDN) Hosting
- Content management system (CMS) Hosting
- Content marketing Online and field marketing
- Content Security Policy (CSP) Web technology and security
- Control panel Hosting
- Conversion Online and field marketing
- Conversion rate Online and field marketing
- Cookie Web technology and security
- Cookie consent Law and data protection
- Core Web Vitals SEO
- Country-code ending (ccTLD) Domains and DNS
- Crawl budget SEO
- Crawling SEO
- Cron job Hosting
- Cross-site scripting (XSS) Web technology and security
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) SEO
D
- Data processing agreement (DPA) Law and data protection
- Database Hosting
- DDoS attack Web technology and security
- Dedicated server Hosting
- DENIC Domains and DNS
- Deployment Hosting
- DKIM Email
- DMARC Email
- DNS Domains and DNS
- DNS over HTTPS and DNS over TLS Domains and DNS
- DNS propagation Domains and DNS
- DNS zone Domains and DNS
- DNSSEC Domains and DNS
- Domain Domains and DNS
- Domain status Domains and DNS
- Domain transfer Domains and DNS
- Double opt-in Email
- Duplicate content SEO
E
- E-E-A-T SEO
- End of life (EOL) Hosting
- EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) Domains and DNS
F
- Field marketing Online and field marketing
G
- GDPR Law and data protection
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) GEO and AI search
- Generic ending (gTLD) Domains and DNS
- Glue record Domains and DNS
- Google-Extended GEO and AI search
- Googlebot SEO
- Grounding (relying on sources) GEO and AI search
H
- Hallucination GEO and AI search
- hreflang SEO
- HSTS Web technology and security
- HTTP and HTTPS Web technology and security
- HTTP status code Web technology and security
- HTTP/2 Web technology and security
- HTTP/3 Web technology and security
I
- ICANN Domains and DNS
- Impressum (legal notice) Law and data protection
- Indexing SEO
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP) SEO
- Internationalised domain name (IDN) Domains and DNS
- IP address Web technology and security
K
- Key figure (KPI) Online and field marketing
- Keyword SEO
L
- Landing page Online and field marketing
- Large language model (LLM) GEO and AI search
- Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO) GEO and AI search
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) SEO
- Lead Online and field marketing
- Let's Encrypt Web technology and security
- llms.txt GEO and AI search
M
- Managed hosting Hosting
- Meta description SEO
- Mixed content Web technology and security
- Mobile-first indexing SEO
- Monitoring Hosting
- MX record Domains and DNS
N
- Name server Domains and DNS
- Newsletter Email
- nofollow, sponsored and ugc SEO
- noindex SEO
- nosnippet GEO and AI search
O
- Online marketing Online and field marketing
- OPcache Hosting
- OWASP Top 10 Web technology and security
P
- Passkey Web technology and security
- PHP Hosting
- PHP-FPM Hosting
- Point of sale (POS) Online and field marketing
- PTR record Domains and DNS
Q
R
- RDAP and WHOIS Domains and DNS
- Redemption Grace Period (RGP) Domains and DNS
- Redirect (301/302) Web technology and security
- Registrar Domains and DNS
- Registry Domains and DNS
- Resolver Domains and DNS
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) GEO and AI search
- Reverse proxy Hosting
- Rich result SEO
- robots.txt SEO
- Root server Domains and DNS
S
- Search Console SEO
- Search engine advertising (SEA) Online and field marketing
- Search engine optimisation (SEO) SEO
- Search engine results page (SERP) SEO
- security.txt Web technology and security
- Service level agreement (SLA) Hosting
- SFTP Hosting
- Shared hosting Hosting
- SNI (Server Name Indication) Web technology and security
- SOA record Domains and DNS
- Social media marketing Online and field marketing
- Soft 404 SEO
- SPF Email
- SQL injection Web technology and security
- SSH Hosting
- Staging Hosting
- Static website Hosting
- Structured data SEO
- Subdomain Domains and DNS
T
- Technical and organisational measures (TOMs) Law and data protection
- Time to First Byte (TTFB) SEO
- Title (page title) SEO
- TLS (Transport Layer Security) Web technology and security
- TLS certificate Web technology and security
- Top-level domain (TLD) Domains and DNS
- Transfer to third countries Law and data protection
- TTL (time to live) Domains and DNS
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) Web technology and security
- TXT record Domains and DNS
U
- User agent Web technology and security
- UTM parameters Online and field marketing
V
- Version control Hosting
- Virtual server Hosting
W
- Web analytics Online and field marketing
- Web application firewall (WAF) Web technology and security
- Web hosting Hosting
- Web server Hosting
X
- XML sitemap SEO
Notes
- The explanations are deliberately brief. Where there is more to say, we refer you to the relevant guide page.
- We explain legal terms in general terms; this is not legal advice. Several of them (legal notice, UWG, TDDDG, BFSG) relate specifically to German law.
- Is a term missing, or is an explanation not quite right? Please send notes to redaktion@hosting-stammtisch.de.