Your Comprehensive Guide to Web Terminology

“I have a blog post for that!” is my new favourite thing to be able to say when someone wants to learn more about the great wide world of making websites.

In this case, I thought it would be handy to have a guide to web terminology readily available whenever I find myself in those moments where someone stops me to ask, “what does that mean?”

And if it’s handy for me, it’s likely to help someone else too!

Here are the most common terms that I am asked about by clients when working on websites, optimization, or marketing projects.

Read on for my guide to web terminology. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Let me know.

What does ‘above the fold’ mean?

When a web designer or marketer refers to ‘above the fold’ they are talking about the onscreen space that displays initial web page content prior to the user having to scroll down to view any additional content.

There is an argument that you want to ensure you have a strong CTA above the fold so that visitors can make a preferred action, like contacting you, or find what they’re looking for without having to scroll.

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility is an inclusive practice to ensure a website is accessible to as many people as possible. This includes making adjustments to content scaling, color contrast, and orientation settings for those who have visual impairments.

💡 Did you know? A custom font has been created to help readers with dyslexia. Learn more about the Dyslexie typeface.

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence is the technology that allows computers to simulate human intelligence and problem-solving skills. AI is being used across many industries including healthcare, finance, robotics, agriculture, and marketing.

Companies have started integrating AI with things like chat software, copywriting, and user content data collection for training purposes.

What is CDN?

A content delivery network is a group of geographically distributed servers that work in tandem to deliver content faster to website visitors all over the world. Cloudflare is a popular CDN. To use Cloudflare and other CDNs, you set-up your DNS records here instead of at your domain provider.

Without a CDN, your website may be hosted by a singular server in one location in the world, which could make loading resources slower for those residing far away.

What is web content?

When I discuss web content, I’m referring to the written and visual elements that are applied to web pages. Copy refers to the text on-page, while graphics may refer to logos, icons, photos, or other illustrations on the website. 

What is CSS?

CSS stands for cascading style sheets. CSS is code developers use to apply presentation and styling to their webpages. If you imagine HTML as the frame of your house, consider CSS the paint, tile, and wallpaper in your home.

.orangeText {
font-color:#F26419;
font-size: 24px;
text-decoration:underline;
font-weight:700;
}

When you want to apply a color, font, or spacing to your copy, you (or your website’s framework) use CSS.

What is a CTA?

A call-to-action (CTA) is a term used in marketing to refer to an action that we want a customer to make. An example of a CTA on your website may include a buy or contact now button, or may be a sales line added to the end of a blog post. 

Your CTA will be different depending on your needs or lead generation goals. You may want customers to contact you by phone or email. Or, you may want them to sign up for a mailing list or follow you on social media.

What is a domain name?

If a website was a house, think of a domain like the number on the exterior of the home. It’s a simple address that when applied to a browser allows a user to visit a website. My domain name is be3designs.ca

What is a domain extension?

An extension is the suffix applied to the end of your domain name. The most popular domain name extensions are .com, .org, .net, or .ca. These are also known as a top-level domain (TLD).

💡 Tip: Learn more about how to choose the best domain name for your business.

What is DPI?

Dots per inch (DPI) is used in print to measure the physical ink dots that are printed where more dpi would create a sharper more detailed print result. The standard for print is 300dpi.

What is PPI?

Pixels per inch (PPI) is used in web to measure screen resolution by way of the number of pixels per inch of an image file. The standard for web is 72.

What is DNS?

DNS stands for domain name system and is where your domain hosts records that tell various points of interest where and how your domain works. Your DNS records tell your domain what server to point to so that your website is displayed in a browser when a visitor enters your domain name.

DNS records also maintain emails that are created using your domain. These are called MX records. TXT records are also managed via DNS which third-parties like Meta, Pinterest, or Google may have you upload to show that you have ownership and access to the domain you want to track.

🚨 Note: DNS records are some of the most important facets of your domain, email, and server. These should not be edited unless you know exactly what you’re doing! Changing to incorrect records could affect your website, emails, and any third-party connections you’ve made on a DNS level.

What is web hosting?

Web hosting refers to the service that allows you to store and publish your website online. Thinking back to that home analogy, web hosting is your plot of land.

Some providers allow you to host your domain, website, and emails all within the same account while other specialized providers, like WP Engine, only allow for WordPress hosting. When using these specialized providers, you would then host your domain and emails at an alternate provider, using DNS records to point your domain to the external server. 

Why wouldn’t you consolidate all of your services into one place? For many, this is the more efficient way to go, if your site and emails are quite basic you simply may not have need for extended services. 

Consider the phrase ‘jack of all trades, master of none’: hosts that purely manage WordPress websites are typically better equipped to host and troubleshoot these sites. Without worrying about other services, they can put all their focus and resources to one thing – making it stronger. This can be said about each individual service.

Some people prefer using separate accounts to host domains and websites so that if one system goes offline for any reason, they still have access to the other. For example, if something happened to my website host and all failsafes failed, I could use my external DNS settings to point my domain somewhere else temporarily.

What is HTML?

A programming language, HTML is popular code that developers use to build webpages. HTML stands for hypertext markup language, and could be thought of like the foundation, walls and overall structure of your home.

If you used the old Visual Editor in WordPress to format your blog posts and switched to the Text Editor, you would see the HTML that was applied to create paragraphs, lists, or hyperlinks.

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="what-is-html">What is HTML?</h2>

In WordPress’ newer Block Editor you automatically type in a visual editor with buttons appearing to create your various elements without using HTML. However, you can click more options on your block and choose to edit in HTML, which is useful if you need to make some custom changes.

What is responsive web design?

When speaking about responsive web design, I’m discussing the ability for a website to appear effectively in both traditional desktop monitors and on smaller mobile devices.

Before responsive web, viewing desktop sites on mobile meant that the user needed to scroll left to right to see the whole page, or, needed to zoom in to read content on the page. Now, responsive sites have what are known as breakpoints which alter the layouts of pages depending on the size of the viewing device.

The easiest example is to look at column content on a website. On desktop monitors, a website may reflect a row of content that is broken down into three columns that display side by side on the page.

However, when you view the same page on a mobile phone or tablet, these three columns cascade down the page so that only one column is viewed at a time. Here, the left-most column would display first, then the middle, followed by the right-most column.

What is SERP?

SERP stands for search engine results page. You’re familiar with seeing this page anytime you enter a search query through Google and it returns a list of websites.

There are various features on a SERP. Using Google as an example, we have things like:

• Knowledge panels
• Featured snippets
• Local packs
• Sitelinks
• People Also Ask
• Related Searches
• Paid Ads

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is the process of improving a website’s visibility in search engine results.

There are various types of SEO, including organic, on-page, paid, local, and social. Keyword planning is a major component of the optimization process and there are A LOT of resources out there. If you’re a beginner, you may want to review these 7 resources to get you started!

I also discuss topics like SEO in my monthly newsletter, like where blogging with keyword-rich content can improve your incoming, organic website traffic.

What is SSL?

A secure sockets layer, SSL applies a level of encryption to servers and web browsers to ensure that the data passed between is secure. 

If you visit a website without SSL, you may see a security warning in your browser requesting verification that you’d like to proceed. Websites with SSL, use https:// in the web address. That additional s, stands for secure!

Years ago it was common practice for only e-commerce sites and those who transferred customer information to have SSL, but now it is a necessity for every website and is included in optimization and ranking reports.

What is a touchpoint?

A touchpoint is a term used in digital marketing to refer to any moment a customer interacts with your brand before making a purchase. These could look like ad clicks or impressions, website visits, email opens, social media engagement, or in-person visits to a brick and mortar location.

What is a URL?

*puts on robot voice* URL stands for uniform resource locator *resumes human* which basically equates to having a unique identifier that locates a resource online. 

Also referred to as a web address, a URL can point to a specific webpage, downloadable file, or social media post.

While your domain name resides in your website URL, a URL is more specific in regards to determining the exact location of a page or file within your domain.

What is UI design?

UI stands for user interface and applies to the visual appearance of a product in terms of its overall feel and behavior. UI design can be considered part of the UX design process.

What is UX design?

UX stands for user experience. When designing a website with UX in mind, usability, enjoyment, and accessibility are some of the top things to keep in mind.

UX researchers will determine how users interact with products like websites or applications and make choices that affect design, layout, and functionality in an effort to make the user experience as pleasant as possible.

What is WYSIWYG?

I don’t know that I’ve actually heard this term used in the last decade, but because I apparently like to age myself, let me tell you what WYSIWYG stands for: What You See is What You Get.

We used to refer to them as WYSIWYG editors, (and no we don’t pronounce each letter, we say Wissywig.) This used to refer to the visual editors on websites that allowed you create content using tools that were similar to a word document, so that you didn’t need to know HTML to format your text.

Basically, what you input in a WYSIWYG editor is meant to display as-is online or when printed.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a website building framework that is open-source.

Non-open-source frameworks include proprietary systems like Squarespace, Wix, or Webflow.

It’s important to note that WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two completely different things. The .org version allows you to download the WordPress framework and host it on your own server, from there you can create or download themes and plugins and customize your site as you wish.

The .com version is similar in that yes, you are utilizing the WordPress CMS, but you are hosting with WordPress and unless you pay for a higher subscription tier, you don’t get access to the ability to install your own plugins and are restricted to some of the things you can do.