Plain Speak Tech Dictionary — Tech Jargon, Translated | PSOS

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Plain Speak Tech Dictionary

Tech jargon, translated.

You shouldn't need a computer science degree to understand your own website, email, or business systems. These are the terms Australian small business owners actually run into, explained the way I would over a coffee — or a beer at the barbecue. No textbook definitions. No jargon without explanation. Just plain-English answers so you can make confident decisions for your business.

Currently 39 terms — new ones added regularly.

Domains, Hosting & Websites

Your address, the building it points at, and what your site is actually built with.

  • A Record — The DNS record that connects your domain name to your web hosting
  • CNAME Record — A DNS record that makes one name point to another
  • DNS — The internet's phone book
  • Domain Extensions — The ending of a web address
  • Domain Name — Your domain name is your website's address
  • MX Record — The DNS record that tells the internet where to deliver email sent to your domain
  • Registrar — The company you register your domain through and pay the yearly renewal to
  • Responsive Design — A website that automatically rearranges itself to fit whatever screen it's on
  • TXT Record — A DNS record that stores text
  • Web Hosting — Web hosting is the space where your website's files live
  • Website Builder — An all-in-one platform like Wix, Squarespace, or Shopify
  • WHOIS — A public lookup that shows where a domain is registered
  • WordPress — The world's most-used website software

Email & Deliverability

Professional email, and the records that keep it out of the spam folder.

  • DKIM — DKIM adds a digital signature to every email you send, proving it wasn't altered on the way
  • DMARC — DMARC tells receiving email servers what to do when a message fails your SPF or DKIM checks
  • Email Deliverability — How reliably your emails reach inboxes instead of spam folders
  • Email Spoofing — Scammers sending emails that appear to come from your domain
  • Google Workspace — Google's business suite
  • Microsoft 365 — Microsoft's business suite
  • SPF — SPF is a DNS record listing every server allowed to send email from your domain

CRM, Automation & Marketing

The systems that remember your leads and follow up while you're on the tools.

  • CRM — One place to track everyone who might give you money, has given you money, or could give you money again
  • Follow-Up Sequence — A pre-written series of check-in messages that sends automatically after an enquiry or quote
  • GoHighLevel — An all-in-one sales and marketing platform
  • Landing Page — A standalone web page with one job: get the visitor to take a single action
  • Marketing Automation — Setting up your systems so routine messages

Search & Visibility

Getting found on Google — and knowing whether any of it is working.

  • Google Analytics (GA4) — Google's free tool showing what people do on your website
  • Google Business Profile — The free Google listing that puts your business on Maps and in local search results
  • Google Search Console — Google's free tool showing how people find your site in search
  • Local Pack — The map with three business listings at the top of local Google results
  • Local SEO — SEO for businesses serving a physical area
  • NAP — Name, Address, Phone
  • Quality Score — Google Ads' 1–10 rating of how relevant your ad and landing page are to the search
  • Review Gating — Screening customers with a survey first, then only sending the review link to happy ones
  • SEO — Search Engine Optimisation
  • Sitemap — A file listing every page on your website so Google can find and index them all

Security & Privacy

Locks, logins, and the Australian rules that apply to your business.

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