Web Terminology 101: What You Need to Know

To potential or new clients, it might often sound like I'm speaking a completely different language whilst discussing their brief or quoting their new website, so I thought I would put together some common design lingo and web terms that may come in handy for those working with myself at Lore Design Co, and also those who are putting together a website themselves.

ALT TEXT

A textual description that informs search engines about the content of an image on a website. It is extremely important to enter an alt text for every picture, as it helps your website rank better on Google. APPLICATIONS / APPS OR FEATURES

Applications and features can include e-commerce, online bookings, Events, Restaurants, Plans and Pricing Membership Pricing Gateway, Instant Chat, Members area, Forum, Blog and much more. Generally these apps or features are added to the website, can sometimes take a while to prepare as there is a lot of time put into the backend set up.

BLOG A regularly updated website where an individual, a professional or a small company shares their experiences, tips and observations, along with related images and links. For small business owners, blogging is essential for both branding purposes and for improving their website’s ranking in search engines, who adore freshly updated websites.  BRANDING The process involving creating a unique name and image for a product or a service-based business, using a consistent theme throughout all marketing and sales materials. Branding aims to differentiate your business from competitors in order to attract loyal customers. Make sure both your offline and online presence have the same tone and style, including your website, business cards, logo and social media channels.  CAPTCHA

True to its name, a ‘captcha’ catches all the baddies coming through to your email inbox from your website form! By having a code that requires user input, it is an effective method to stop spam bots sending you ‘fake’ enquiries. We recommend that all website forms have a captcha. CONTACT FORM An element on a website that allows users to communicate with the site owner. It has fields for filling in your name, address and type of comment. For small business owners like photographers, it’s an absolute must. Make sure to connect your contact form with a current email address to receive messages from potential clients. 

CTA (CALL TO ACTION)

The element of a marketing message that persuades a person to perform a desired action, as in “Buy now”. For example, a CTA on a photographer’s homepage would lead to their Contact page or any other option to book their services. 

DOMAIN NAME A friendly and memorable name that is given to a certain IP address on the web. Simply put, it’s a website’s address on the world wide web. In “www.wix.com”, “Wix” is the domain name. For a truly professional online presence, consider connecting your website to a personalised domain with your name or your business name (for example, loredesignco.com). In addition to branding, it will improve your website’s SEO.  ECOMMERCE

The buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the Internet. 

FOOTER Much like the ‘header’, the footer is placed at the foot or bottom of your site and contains much of the same information with the addition of: • License numbers • ABN numbers • Accreditations • Copyright declaration • Terms & Conditions • Any other links or relevant information The footer is great for a long scrolling website as users can easily get around the site using the nav at the bottom saving them from scrolling back to the top. FRESH CONTENT Updating your website regularly with new content will improve its SEO ranking and will encourage your website visitors to come more often. For photographers: update your online portfolio with new photos, add customer feedback from time to time, and try to squeeze in a weekly blog post.  FACEBOOK

There’s a 99.9% chance you know what it is, but here’s the definition: Facebook is an extremely popular social networking website that allows users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. For small companies: an irresistible tool for online marketing. Having a dedicated Facebook page for your business makes it easier for potential clients to find and contact you, as well as to admire and share your work.  GOOGLE

A popular search engine, as well as a verb that refers to searching the Internet using the Google search engine. See SEO for more details.  GOOGLE MY BUSINESS A free tool for businesses to manage their presence across Google. By verifying and editing your business information, you can help customers find you and tell them the story of your business. If you have a physical location (photography studio, hotel, store, etc.) it is extremely important to make sure your business’ name, address and contact details are all up-to-date. This is critical for your local SEO efforts.  GOOGLE ANALYTICS A powerful web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. Check your website traffic regularly, be it after sharing an image on social media, running a paid campaign, or simply on a weekly basis. Check out the “Audience” section to learn about your visitors, “Behaviour” to understand what type of content engages them the most, and “Acquisition” to evaluate your paid campaigns and general traffic sources.  HASHTAG

A word or phrase preceded by a pound sign (#), used to identify messages on a specific topic. They are extremely useful for promoting content on social networks, especially Instagram and Twitter.

HEADER The header is the very top of your website & contains all the important things like: • Navigation • Contact numbers • Company slogan • Social media links • Shopping cart & Items • Anything else your designer feels is super important

HOMEPAGE A homepage is essentially the cover to your website. It’s usually the most unique page on your site, giving visitors an immediate sense of who you are as an organization. A homepage also guides them to other important information throughout the internal pages of your website.

HTML

A Hypertext Markup Language used to create webpages, HTML5 being the latest and most sophisticated version. Luckily, you don’t need to know a single line of code to create a HTML5 photography website, or any website for that matter – the Wix Editor has got you covered. 

INSTAGRAM

A popular online photo sharing and social networking platform. For photographers: your ultimate go-to online marketing channel. 

KEYWORDS In SEO: a two to five word sentence that describes what your business or website is about. Keywords make it possible for people to find your web content (site or social media accounts) via search engines. 

LANDING PAGE A standalone web page distinct from your main website that has been designed for a single focused objective (promote a product, invite to an event, etc.).

LINK Links allow website users to get from one web page to the next. They can be in the form of text or an image. Text links are typically highlighted in some way, using color to make the words stand out from static copy or making the text look like it’s in a button. Images can be highlighted with some sort of color overlay, words or symbols to make it obvious that it’s clickable. All links, regardless of how they are visually represented, should have some sort of hover state to indicate its clickability.

LINKEDIN

A social networking site designed specifically for the business community.

LOGO

A graphic representation or a symbol of a business name, often uniquely designed for quick recognition.

MOBILE FRIENDLY/ MOBILE RESPONSIVE Smartphones may be man’s new best friend, but the actual meaning of this term relates to the ease of use of a website from a mobile device, especially the small screens of iPhones, Samsungs and their counterparts.

MAIN NAVIGATION / MENU The navigational elements that appear on a website (header and footer). While it primarily refers to the “menu bar” located at the top of a website or along either side, it can also include textual links at the bottom of the page, Menus/Navigation may include Pages, Account Logins, Shopping Cart links, etc. NEWSLETTER A regularly distributed email publication that is generally about one main topic of interest to its subscribers. You can offer your website visitors the option to subscribe to a newsletter, where you’ll share news, special offers, stunning photos, or anything that might interest your target audience and grow their loyalty. It’s called  email marketing, and you can do it directly from your website dashboard with Wix ShoutOut! 

ORGANIC TRAFFIC Traffic that comes to your website as a result of unpaid search results. The main purpose of optimizing a website for search engines (SEO) is to drive as much free traffic to a website as possible.

PINTEREST

A social media platform that allows users to organise and share images and videos from around the Web. Users create pinboards in different categories and save their respective content.

RANKING

In SEO, ranking refers to a website’s position in the search engine results page. Ranking depends on more than 200 factors like content relevance to the search term, or the quality of links pointing to the page.

SECTIONS + PAGES There are two key elements to creating the structure of your site, sections and pages. Sections on your site are the main areas that your customers will look for the information they need.  Pages are the individual areas within each of those sections. By combining sections and pages, you wind up with the primary elements of your Web site. SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION) An area of website development that seeks to improve the site’s visibility in search engine results. SEO methods include improving a website’s content, navigation, User Experience, external and internal links, and more.

STYLE GUIDE A style guide is a document of code standards that details the various elements and patterns of a site or application. It is a one-stop place to see all visual styles of the site such as headers, links, buttons, color pallets and any visual language that is used on the site.

TARGET AUDIENCE

A particular group of people, identified as the intended recipient of an advertisement or message. Your website content, social media activity and any other form of marketing should be addressed to your target audience. 

TESTIMONIALS

A written or spoken recommendation of a product or service from a previously satisfied customer.

TWITTER An online news and social networking website, which allows users to publish short messages up to 140 characters (aka tweets). It is a useful marketing tool if your work is relevant in real time

URL (UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR) Simply put, it’s the address at which a website is found. The URL is composed of your domain name (see Domain Name) and your extension (.com, .net, .photo, .org, etc.). 

WEBSITE

A connected group of pages on the World Wide Web regarded as a single entity, usually maintained by one person or an organization and devoted to a single topic or several closely related topics. For photographers: see Online Portfolio.  WIX

A cloud-based web development platform that allows users to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites through the use of online ‘drag and drop’ tools. In other words, it’s a user-friendly website builder which allows you to create a stunning website without writing a single line of code. 

WIX HOSTING

Web-hosting allows you to create and store content on your website.   Wix is a hosted website builder. What that means is that by signing up they will provide everything you need for a complete website: the editor, the web space and a domain name. For a proper .com or . net domain you will have to purchase one of their premium plans. Purchasing their plans also provides with you with better use of their features - like online booking systems, ecommerce etc. Purchasing their hosting package will also make your website look more professional as the banners and Wix advertising will be removed from the site when purchased. Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to get in touch if you’re wanting an enthralling online presence. lore@loredesignco.com #websiteterminology #webdesignterminology #webdesign #websiteterms