Ever been researching web design or chatting to a developer and leave just as confused as you were before? We get it – we use all of this website jargon so often and sometimes we forget that people outside of our profession don’t know what we’re harping on about!
Welcome to our glossary of commonly used web terms, created to help you get to grips with website lingo designers and developers love to use! Whether you’re building a brand new website or just curious about what goes on behind the scenes, this glossary of website jargon will break everything down and make web design and development simple. Take a read through and you’ll be a website whizz in no time.
A
Analytics: This is the collection, measurement, and analysis of data about how users interact with a website. This data provides insights into visitor behaviour, such as page views, the amount of time spent on a website, and conversion rates.
Accessibility: Accessibility refers to the practice of designing and developing websites in a way that ensures everyone, including people with disabilities, can easily access and use them. This includes considerations for visual, auditory, cognitive and motor impairments to create an inclusive experience for every user.
Above the Fold: Above the fold is sometimes used to refer to the portions of a webpage that are visible without further scrolling or clicking. The fold of a website is considered to be at the bottom of the screen. Anything above the fold is immediately visible to the user as soon as the webpage loads up.
B
Backend: A website’s backend is essentially everything the user doesn’t see. It’s responsible for storing and organising all data within the website, including databases, server management, and application logic. The backend ensures everything in the front end functions smoothly.
Breadcrumbs: A breadcrumb is a secondary navigation aid that is often located at the top of a webpage. Typically displayed as a horizontal trail of links, breadcrumbs help users understand where they are on a website and how they got to the page they’re on. For example, a breadcrumb can look like this: ‘Home > Blog > Digital Marketing > SEO Tips’.
Below the fold: Now you know the definition of above the fold, below the fold should be pretty self explanatory, but let’s break it down. Below the fold refers to the portion of the webpage that a user must scroll down to see – it’s not immediately visible to the user on the initial load of the website.
C
Cache: A cache is a temporary storage location for copies of files or data for later use. It is often usernames, recent searches and websites in your cache memory, allowing faster loading times, enhancing user experience.
CMS: A CMS (content management system) is a software that helps users of a website create, publish, manage, and modify any content on the website, instead of doing it from scratch.
CSS: CSS (cascading style sheets) is a language used to define the visual presentation of a website. It allows developers to style elements such as colors, fonts, layouts, and spacing to create a consistent look. By separating content (HTML) from design (CSS), websites become easier to manage and more adaptable.
D
Domain Name: A domain name – such as www.milkandtweed.com – is a unique internet address where users can find your website or landing page. It’s what users type into their browser to visit a site, acting as a memorable way to find a website instead of using its IP address.
DNS: DNS (domain name system), is basically like the internet’s phonebook. It translates human friendly domain names into numerical IP addresses which computers use to locate and connect to websites.
DPI: DPI (dots per inch), is a measurement of the individual dots in an image e.g. the resolution of an image. The higher the DPI, the sharper and more detailed an image will appear.
E
E-Commerce: E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods online through websites. It is the exchange of physical goods and services using websites, mobile apps and online marketplaces. It can involve individuals, businesses and governments.
Error 404: This is an HTTP status code that indicates that the server did not find the requested page. You’ve most likely seen it before displayed as “404 error – page not found” – one of the most common errors users encounter when browsing the web.
Event Tracking: This is the process of capturing visitor interactions with specific elements on a website. This includes clicks, form submissions, downloads, video plays and other website actions. This data is usually tracked using analytics tools such as Google analytics.
F
FTP: FTP (file transfer protocol) is a method of transferring digital information from one computer to another. It is often used to upload files to a website.The developer will code the website on their computer, then use FTP to transfer their code onto the website server (the computer where the website is stored).
Footer: The footer is the section at the bottom of a webpage. It normally contains information such as contact information, social media links, privacy policies, copyright details, terms of service and various navigation buttons.
Favicon: Favicons are shrunken logos of a business. They normally appear in the corner of a website and include a link that redirects you back to the homepage of a website. It helps with brand recognition and enhances user experience.
G
GUI: A GUI (graphic user interface), is a visual interface that allows users to interact with websites through elements such as buttons, icons and menus. In a GUI, the visuals displayed convey relevant information to the user, and actions they can take.
Global Navigation: A consistent set of links or menus that appear across every page of a website. This helps users easily access sections such as the homepage, about us page, services page or contact page. They are normally found in the header or footer.
Grid System: The grid system is a framework made up of horizontal and vertical lines that is used for organising layout in design. This ensures that there is consistency and balance across a webpage.
H
Header: The header is a section at the top of a webpage. It’s presented as a visual typographic menu and contains navigation buttons such as a logo, navigational tags, login buttons, and various others.
HTML: HTML (hyper text markup language) is the standard language to create and structure content on web pages. It’s normally included in headings, paragraphs, links, images and more, essentially being the backbone of most websites.
Heatmap: A heatmap is a tool that provides insights into user behaviour on a website e.g. where the user has clicked, scrolled to or ignored. Similar to a weather forecast heatmap, heatmaps for websites show the intensity of user interaction with different elements of your site.
I
Interactive Design: This refers to the design process that focuses on creating engaging and user-friendly interfaces where users can actively interact with content on the website. It’s about making sure that the design elements respond to user actions. Some examples include: dropdown menus, buttons that change colour when clicked, and hover effects.
Image Optimisation: This is the process of modifying an images’ dimension, format, and resolution so that they become higher quality. This helps a webpage load quicker as a large file size of an image can slow down a page.
Information Architecture: This is the practice of organising and arranging information to make it understandable. Simply, it is how the pages are organised, making it easy for users to find what they are looking for. It is usually shown in a chart broken down into levels, used in websites, apps and software.
J
JavaScript: A programming language that’s used to create dynamic and interactive effects within web browsers. It’s often used for adding interactivity like animations, form validation, or updates without reloading a page.
JAMstack: A modern web development architecture focusing on decoupling the front end and back end using JavaScript, APIs and markup, helping to enhance performance, security, and scalability.
JPEG: This is a type of image format especially used for images with lots of colours, as it allows for compression that reduces file size.
K
Keyword: A specific phrase that users type into a search engine to find relevant webpages. In web development and SEO, keywords are used to optimise content so that it ranks higher in search results.
Kilobyte: This is a unit of measurement for computer memory or data storage that is equal to 1,024 bytes. It’s commonly used to measure small file sizes in web design, such as images.
KPI: In web design and development, KPIs are often used to track website performance, such as conversion rates, bounce rates, and user engagement.
L
Landing Page: A standalone webpage that a user “lands” on after clicking it from a webpage, email, ad, or another digital location. This helps convert more traffic and increase conversions.
Latency: This is the delay or lag between a user’s action – such as clicking a link – and the response from the website server. Lower latency means faster load times and a better user experience.
Load Balancing: The method of distributing incoming traffic equally across multiple servers to ensure one single server isn’t overwhelmed. This improves the speed and reliability of a website.
M
Metatags: HTML tags that provide metadata about a webpage. Common metatags include the title tag, description tag, and keywords tag, which help search engines understand the page’s content.
Metadata: This is a type of data that describes and provides information on other data. It’s used to describe the content of a webpage for search engines and users, typically including title tags, meta descriptions and keywords.
Multivariate Testing: A type of A/B testing where more than two versions of a webpage or element are tested at the same time to determine which combination of variations perform the best.
N
Navigation Menu: The navigation menu allows customers to move around the website. It contains a list of links you are able to browse through which can sometimes be shown using images or clickable buttons.
Noindex: A noindex tag tells search engines not to include a certain page in their search results. A common method of nonindexing a page is to add a tag in the head section of the HTML e.g.:
Node.js: An open source, cross-platform environment that allows developers to run JavaScript on the server side. It’s popular for building fast, scalable web applications.
R
Responsive Design: A responsive design website is a website that automatically sizes to fit all devices. Most common devices are mobiles, tablets, laptops and desktops. A responsive site will switch layouts for each of these devices, to provide the best possible experience for the user.
Redirect: A redirect automatically makes a browser go from one URL to another. A redirect can point to any URL, even if it’s on a different website.
S
SEO: SEO (short for search engine optimisation), is the process of improving a website’s visibility on search engines, helping users find your site easier. This can be done by adding high ranking keywords to website content.
SSL: SSL (secure sockets layer) is standard technology for securing an internet connection. It does this by encrypting data sent between a website and a browser, preventing hackers from seeing or stealing information transferred.
Sitemap: A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos and other files on your website and the relationship between them. Search engines read this file to efficiently crawl a site.
T
Tag: A piece of HTML code that defines elements on a webpage e.g. < h1 >, < p >.
Title tag: A HTML code tag that allows you to give a webpage a title. This can be found in the browser title bar, and in search engine results.
U
UI: UI (user interface), refers to the aesthetic and visual elements of a website. UI involves paying heed to colors, fonts, patterns and imagery, all to make a website look put together.
UX: UX (user experience), focuses on the user journey and encounters that a website visitor makes. It takes into account the steps they will take and ensures that their journey from point A to B is seamless.
URL: The web address that specifies the location of a web page.
W
Wireframe: A wireframe maps out the main features and navigation of a page, depicting the page arrangement of the content on it. This is typically used in the early stages of design to structure content and design elements. This includes interface elements and navigational systems.
WordPress: WordPress is an easy to use, free open source content management system, that allows users to build and host websites that are easily customisable. It is able to make blogs, websites, landing pages, online stores, portfolios and many other types of web pages.
X
XSS: A type of security vulnerability where attackers inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. XSS attacks can be used to steal information, manipulate content, or redirect users to harmful sites.
XML Sitemap: A file that lists all the pages of a website to help search engines crawl and index the site more efficiently. XML sitemaps help ensure that all relevant pages are discovered by search engines.
Z
Z-Index: A CSS property that determines the stack order of elements on a webpage. Elements with a higher z-index are displayed in front of those with a lower one. It is particularly useful for layering elements like modals, pop-ups, or dropdown menus.
And there you have it! We hope this guide has shed some light on the key website jargon, leaving you feeling more confident and equipped with knowledge. Feel free to bookmark this page for future reference whenever you need a quick refresher on the essential website lingo.
If you’re ready to take your website to the next level or need expert guidance on creating a stunning digital presence, we’re here to help. Get in touch today. We’d love to collaborate and bring your vision to life!
