FAQs

Are you overwhelmed with website lingo? Struggling to speak geek? Fear not! We’ve put together a handy glossary to define all the answers to frequently asked questions for website technical terms you might need to know when working with your site.

What is an .htaccess file?

A website server configuration file that tells the server how to respond in certain circumstances.

What does 301 Redirect mean?

A redirection from a website page that no longer exists to one that does. 301 redirects are used to preserve search engine rankings when a site is updated and its page structure is changed.

What is a 404 error?

An error message for a user trying to visit a page on a website that doesn’t exist.

What is an A Record?

An A Record (aka Address Record) is used to map a domain name to an IP address of the server that’s hosting a website.

What does A/B Testing (aka Split) mean?

A/B Testing (aka Split) is a method of improving a design to best achieve a desired outcome. Two versions of a design are created with a desired conversion on each and then website traffic is split to the two versions of the design. The design that converts best is selected, improved upon and the process is repeated, gradually getting to the best design.

What does Above the Fold mean?

Above the Fold is the part of a website that is seen before scrolling down the page – the fold is an imaginary line at the bottom of the screen and it changes depending on the browser size.

What does Accessibility mean?

Website accessibility describes the designing and developing of websites so that they are accessible by all users, regardless of disability or impairment.

What does Accordion mean?

Accordion content refers to vertically stacked headers or grouped content, which need to be clicked to be viewed in more detail – the content inside them opens up just like an accordion.

What does Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) mean?

Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to customise pages with flexible fields and content types.

What does Agile mean?

Agile is an approach to project management whereby a project is delivered in an incremental fashion with iterative releases.

What does AJAX mean?

AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML and it permits web pages to be updated with data without needing to refresh the whole page.

What is Alt Text?

Alt text is the name for a special tag on an image element that can be used to provide information about the content of an image; particularly important for Accessibility.

What does Anchor Text mean?

Anchor text is the visible and clickable text in a hyperlink on a website. It is often highlighted or underlined to denote that it links through to another page or website.

What does API mean and what does it do?

API stands for Application Programming Interface and it is a way for one application (e.g. a website or an app) to communicate with another, sharing data and functionality.

What does Back-end mean?

The technology behind a website that is updated and edited. Consists of a server, an application and a database.

What does Back-End Development mean?

Back-end development relates to the part of a website that interacts with the server, its files and the database. A back end developer is chiefly concerned on what a website does, as opposed to how it looks (i.e. front end development).

What does Bandwidth mean?

Bandwidth is the term for the transmission capacity over a network for sending and receiving data.

What does Below the Fold mean?

Below the Fold is the part of a website that is seen after scrolling down the page – the fold is an imaginary line at the bottom of the screen and it changes depending on the browser size.

What does Black hat SEO mean?

Black hat SEO is a term that describes any SEO practices that attempt to artificially improve results in a way that ‘games’ the system by creating content that is good for search engines but not useful for humans. If a search engine catches you using such practices they will likely penalise your website so it’s ultimately counterproductive and inadvisable.

What is a Bot?

A bot is an automated program that visits and scrapes websites to collect search data. Otherwise known as ‘crawlers’ or ‘spiders’.

What does Bounce Rate mean?

A bounce rate is a term used in website analytics and it relates to the number of visitors that enter a website without navigating to any other page before leaving again – i.e. they hit the site and ‘bounce’ off.

What does Breadcrumb mean?

A breadcrumb is a user experience technique used to make a trail of a user’s interaction with a website and track the path so that they can go backwards (e.g. Home > Women > Women’s Clothing > Tops).

What does Breakpoint mean?

A breakpoint is a concept in Responsive Web Design in whereby a site’s content is arranged differently according to the size of the browser – the breakpoint is the point at which the content changes, e.g. splitting four columns on a desktop computer into two to fit on a tablet.

What does Browser mean?

A browser is a special program used to view websites over the internet. Examples include Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.

What does Browser Cache/Caching mean?

A Browser Cache/Caching is the temporary storage of data from a website on the local computer when viewing content. The browser stores certain files from a website (e.g. fonts) so that the site loads more quickly the next time it’s requested.

What is a Bug in web development?

An error in a website, system or code that causes unexpected actions or behaviours.

What is a Call to Action (CTA)?

A Call to Action (CTA) is a prompt (image, button, piece of text) on a website that encourages a user to perform action (e.g. to make a call, purchase something, click a button).

What does Cart Abandonment mean?

Cart abandonment is the phenomenon where an ecommerce shopper adds products to their cart but leaves the website before following through with the purchase. There are tools available to recover abandoned carts and attempt to encourage follow through on the purchase.


What does Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) mean?

CSS (short for Cascading Style Sheets) is a front end development coding language that controls how a website's elements look.


What does Category (WordPress) mean?

Used to sort content into different sections or categories (E.g on a news site, there is National, Business, Entertainment categories).

What does a Chat bot do?

A chat bot is a tool that allows visitors to a website to communicate through a chat text interface and receive automated responses to create a ‘chat’.

What does Child theme mean?

A Child Theme is a WordPress theme that inherits functionality from a Parent theme. It’s a way of customising the Parent theme without needing to re-do those customisations whenever the Parent theme is updated (updates overwrite customisations).

What does Click Through Rate (CTR) mean?

Click Through Rate (CTR) is a calculation of how many times an ad was clicked on a proportion of how many times it was seen. The CTR relates to how well the ad converts is viewers.

What does Client-Side mean?

Client-side refers to anything on a website that happens in the user’s browser as opposed to on the server. The user is the ‘client’ and it’s on their ‘side’.

What does Colour Scheme mean?

Colour Schemes are a selection of main colours on a website or design.

What is a Colour Wheel?

A colour wheel is a grouping of colours layed out in a circle, showing the relationship between primary, secondary and tertiary colours.

What are Complementary Colours?

Complementary Colours are colours opposite each other on the colour wheel.

What does Compression mean?

Compression is the process of reducing a file’s size by removing extraneous data. For example a piece of code can be compressed by removing all the redundant spaces in it (servers ignore spaces).

What does Contact Form 7 (CF7) mean?

Contact Form 7 (CF7) is a popular plugin to create contact forms in WordPress.


What does Content Delivery Network (CDN) mean?

A Content Delivery Network is a connected system of servers around that world that contain duplicates of a website’s content. When a user visits a website hosted on a CDN they get served the data from the nearest server (or node) to them and this means that the site will load faster; geographical distance makes a difference in load times. The distributed nature of the network also means a site can handle large amounts of traffic as the load is shared.


What does Content Management System (CMS) mean?

A Content Management System (CMS) is an administrative tool that allows website content (pages, text and imagery) to be edited or organised through one system and interface, usually without requiring any coding knowledge of the editor.


What does Contrast mean?

Contrast refers to elements of a web design (e.g. colours, textures, shapes, spacing etc) that accentuate difference.


What does Conversion mean?

A conversion is when a visitor to a site completes a predetermined goal (e.g. purchases a product).


What does Conversion Path mean?

A conversion path denotes the steps taken by a visitor to complete a predetermined goal. If a lot of users stop using the site at a particular point of the path (a drop off) then that suggests there are improvements to be made there.


What does Conversion Rate mean?

Conversion Rate is the rate at which a predetermined goal is completed proportional to users.


What does Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) mean?

Conversion Rate Optimisation is the process by which the conversion rate of a website is improved. It is carried out through testing, analytics, optimization principles and design.


What is a Cookie?

A Cookie is a file containing a small amount of data that a website creates when a user visits it. They are stored on the user’s computer and are used by the website to retain information about the user. An example of this is that if you’ve ever cleared your cookies you’ll notice that a lot of sites have ‘forgotten’ about you and you have to login again.


What does Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) mean?

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is a measurement of the marketing/advertising spend per lead generated. E.g. if you spend $100 on ads and get 10 leads, your Cost Per Acquisition is $10.


What does CPanel mean?

cPanel is short for Control Panel and it’s a piece of software used for running servers.


What does Crawl (search engines) mean?

Crawling is the process by which a Search Engine uses a bot to read your website and understand its content.


What does Cron mean?

A Cron is a task or process on a server that is scheduled to syncronise data or run specific tasks (e.g update dates/times, remove data etc).


What does Crop mean?

Cropping refers to removing unwanted areas from the edge of an image.


What does Custom post type mean?

A Custom post type is a type of page in WordPress that is separate from the regular post types for the purpose of changing its contents or functionality.


What does Customer Relationship Management (CRM) mean?

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a software tool that companies use to store information about their customers.


What does Debugging mean?

Debugging is the process of detecting and removing errors from code and software.


What does Demographics mean?

User demographics refers to details about visitors to your website that can be segmented at a granular level. E.g. age, location, gender etc.


What does Deprecated mean?

Website optimisation is a blanket term covering any changes made to a website to improve it. It’s often used synonymously with Search Engine Optimisation but can also cover things like improving website load times or user experience optimisation.


What does Development Language mean?

The term development language (aka programming language) is another name for a coding language and it describes a set of instructions or that humans can write for computers to interpret and perform.


What is a Development site/server?

A development site or server is used specifically to act as a test environment and is not intended for public consumption.


What does Discovery mean?

Discovery refers to the information gathering phase of a project, where details are discovered such as goals and target audiences to support the delivery of the website.


What does Document Object Model (Dom, The) mean?

The Document Object Model (or DOM) is an application programming interface (API) that’s used for programming HTML and XML documents in a specific structure.


What does Documentation mean?

Documentation is the process at the outset of a project during which the informational foundations are laid, defining the project requirements. Documentation is then referred to during the project to track the progress against the stated targets.


What is a Domain?

A domain is the main name or part of a web address and follow the @ symbol in an email address.


What does Domain Name System (DNS) mean?

A server that translates web addresses into IP addresses (changing letters into numbers so that people can remember the name of a website or search).


What does DoS/DDoS Attack mean?

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack or “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attack is when a site or network is targeted specifically to stop it working. In a DoS attack, the service is hit with so many fake hits from bots that its server essentially becomes clogged trying to respond to those requests and it won’t have enough capacity to load the website for real users.


What does Dots per Inch (DPI) mean?

Dots per Inch (DPI) is measurement for resolution of printed images or text, literally the number of printed dots in a square inch.


What does Drag and drop mean?

Drag and drop is the practice of clicking or selecting an object, moving it to a new position, releasing your click to drop it.


What does Drop down menu mean?

A drop down menu is a kind of menu on a website that displays ‘child’ menu items under a ‘parent’ item; a user hovering on the top item will cause the sub items to ‘drop down’.


What does Drop Shadow mean?

Drop Shadows are a visual effect of creating a shadow as a design feature to make the object appear to be in front of others.


What is a Dynamic website?

A dynamic website is a website that is updated or maintained in real time with content generated by server side code.


What does E-commerce mean?

E-commerce aka electronic commerce refers to business transactions and shopping that is completed online. For example an online retailer selling products directly to a customer over the internet. Popular e-commerce platforms include WooCommerce and Shopify.


What does EPS stand for?

EPS stands for Electronic Post Script and it is a file format used for vector images that contain text and images.


What is an Error log?

An error log is a file containing information about errors that a server or website has. It is useful for diagnosing and fixing bugs as it gives clues as to why a bug has occurred.


What is a Favicon?

A favicon is an icon (often based on the brand’s logo) that identifies a website in a browser tab or bookmark. On some browsers this is on each tab, in others it’s in the address bar


What does File Transfer Protocol (FTP) mean?

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and it’s a system to transfer files over the internet. It is most often used for uploading or downloading files to websites.


What does Focal Point mean?

A focal point is an area of a web design that is intended to be dominant over other elements; intended to focus the user and catch the eye.


What does Fold mean in web design?

The Fold is an imaginary line that separates the content above and below the bottom of the browser when the page loads – hence above the fold and below the fold.


What is a Font?

Fonts are a designed set of characters that make up a typeface.


What does Font Family mean?

A Font Family is a collection of fonts, that have similar designed characteristics but differences like being bold or italicised.


What does Font Style mean?

Font Style is the specific style of the font enhancements (e.g. italics, spacing, etc).


What does Font Weight mean?

Font Weight is the thickness of the website’s font characters.


What is a Footer in a website?

The Footer is the space at the bottom of a page or document, often used to hold information like contact details, addresses, page links, copyright notices.


What is a Form in a website?

A Form is an area on a website where customers or visitors can provide information.


What does Front End Development mean?

Front End Development covers the coding of the part of a website that users can directly interact with – think the visual and interactive/clickable elements. The main coding languages used by Front End Developers are HTML, CSS and JavaScript.


What does GIF mean?

GIF stands for Graphic Interchange Format and it is a file format used for both animated and static images on a website.


What does Google Analytics mean?

Google Analytics is a tool provided by Google that collects data and statistics from website usage in order to help you analyse traffic. In simple terms, it helps you find out who’s coming to your site, where they came from and what they did whilst they were there.


What does Google Search Console mean?

Google Search Console is a tool from Google that gives information on how a website is performing in Google. It measures metrics such as click through rates, number of indexed pages etc.


What does Google Tag Manager mean?

Google Tag Manager is a tool that facilitates adding 3rd party tracking and code to a website without having to edit the site’s code each time.


What does Graceful Degradation mean?

Graceful degradation is the concept of building a website in a way that maintains as much functionality as possible on browsers that are less capable than others. An example of this is not relying so heavily on Javascript that a website doesn’t work at all on a browser that has Javascript disabled.


What does Graphical User Interface mean?

Graphical User Interface is also known as a GUI, a graphical user interface is a type of interface made up of interactive images or graphics that a user can use to interact with a website or application (e.g. opening a drop down menu).


What does Grid mean?

A Grid is horizontal and vertical lines that help align elements of design on a website.


What does Gutenberg mean?

Gutenberg is WordPress’ native content editing tool and page builder.


What is the Header in a website?

The Header is the section at the very top of the web site, often containing the logo and menu.


What does Headless Content Management System mean?

A Headless Content Management System is a version of a CMS that uses WordPress to control the back-end site but a different engine for generating the front end. The ‘head’ is the interface that the audience or users see.


What does Heatmap mean?

A heatmap is a form of analytics tool that shows data on website visitor activity in a graphical way. It overlays colours zones over a screenshot of the website the more people interact with a certain part, the more ‘heat’ there is and the brighter the colours are. It is used to understand how people are using a website and helps confirm hypotheses, like whether a certain Call To Action is actually attractive.


What does HEX Code mean?

HEX Code is a hexadecimal code used to represent colours on a website from a combination of red, green and blue values.


What does Hit mean?

A hit is a request for a file from a web server or a request for a web page.


What is a website’s Homepage for?

The Homepage is the main entry point for a website – it is usually the first page you reach when go to a website and contains the most important information.


What does Hook mean?

A hook is a function that is applied to an action or a filter in WordPress.


What does Hosting mean?

Hosting refers to a service that allows companies to have their website available on the internet. Essentially the website’s files and database are ‘hosted’ by a server that ‘serves’ the data when a user views a website – the data is transferred between the server and the users computer to then be interpreted and displayed by their browser.


What is HTML and what does it do?

Standing for Hypertext Markup Language, HTML is a type of coding language, used to create the structure of a website (e.g. containers, text, images, vidoes, links etc).


What is an HTML Tag?

An HTML tag is a piece of code that’s used to build the structure and contents of a website. Examples include <div>, <p>, <img> etc.


What does HTTP mean?

Short for HyperText Transfer Protocol, HTTP is a foundational concept in the way the Internet works and it’s essentially a method of transferring data via the internet.


What does HTTPS mean?

The addition of ‘S’ to HTTP stands for Secure and it’s a technology used to securely transfer data on websites using encryption. HTTPS is the standard nowadays and is related to SSL Certificates.


What does Hyperlink mean?

A hyperlink is a link on a webpage that allows you to move onto another webpage. They can be made out of text, images or buttons.


What does iFrame mean?

An iFrame is a tool that allows one HTML document to be embedded in another HTML document, bringing across data from another web page. It’s like a window into another website.


What does Inbound Marketing mean?

Inbound marketing is a term to describe the activities and strategies (e.g. EDMs, social media marketing, Google Adwords etc) used to attract and bring customers to a website.


What does Index (SEO) mean?

When a search engine ‘indexes’ a website, it crawls the site’s information and organises it in a way that helps it deliver relevant search results.


What does Infinite scrolling mean?

Infinite scrolling is a design feature on a web site whereby content or data is continually loaded as a user scrolls down the page.


What does Information Architecture mean?

Information Architecture is the structure and organisation of content on a website. Good information architecture ensure that a user can navigate the site and find information they want easily.


What does Inline Styling mean?

Inline styling is a form of CSS coding in which the styling is coded directly into the element. Generally speaking it is ill advised as it breaks the fundamental concept of CSS which is that the rules are reusable.


What does Inspector mean?

An Inspector is a suite of tools that most browsers provide (e.g. Chrome DevTools) that allow you to inspect and change a website’s (front end) code, record events and test conditions. It’s a vital tool in a web developer’s arsenal.


What is an IP Address?

An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique series of numbers assigned to to each device that connects to the internet to permit identification and location of said device.


What does Iterative Testing mean?

Iterative testing is the process basing subsequent tests on the results of previous tests. This is a core concept of conversion optimisation and agile development.


What does iThemes Security mean?

iThemes Security is very popular and robust security plugin for WordPress. It improves the security of WordPress and helps stop automated attacks and hacking.


What is JavaScript?

JavaScript (aka JS) is a programming language mostly used in front end development but increasingly back end development as well. It’s the most used language for ‘client side’ scripting and is often used to change the elements of a page in real time, i.e. to create interactive elements or effects (such as a game, calculations etc.).


What is a JPEG file?

JPEG is a file type used for images or photos – similar to a PNG or GIF. Depending on the level of image optimisation, they can be lighter in file size but lower in image quality.


What does Landing Page mean?

A landing page is a website page that a visitor lands on from clicking through a link.


What does Landing Page Optimization mean?

Landing Page Optimization is the process of changing elements on a web page, so that when a user lands on the landing page from a link, the conversion rate is increased.


What does Launch/go-live mean?

Launch or go-live denotes the moment that a site is published to the web and made available for use. It is another term for moving from the ‘development environment’ to ‘production environment’.


What does Lead generation mean?

Website lead generation is the process of generating customer interest in a product or service with the intention of turning this into a sale.


What does List segmentation mean?

List segmentation refers to grouping subsets an existing list into smaller groups of people or contacts that share interest areas to target specific demographics.


What does Live/production mean?

Live/production means a website that is published to the Internet. It can also refer to a designation of server that hosts websites or web applications during production or development, known as a “live server” or “production server”.


What does Local mean?

Local is a development term meaning “on my computer”, as opposed to on the Internet. Developers often code locally before pushing to a server because it’s quicker as it negates data transfer times and less risky as they aren’t working on a public facing website.


What does Maintenance mean?

Website maintenance covers the practice of updating a website’s code to patch bugs, improve security and release new functionality or improvements. WordPress websites benefit from regular maintenance as it keeps them performing optimally.


What does Markup mean?

Markup is a type of code (e.g. HTML) used in website development that forms the instructions for how a website is structured and what content is within that structure.


What does Media query mean?

A media query is a piece of CSS code that applies CSS rules based on the proportions of a website or the type of device viewing the website. It is a core concept to responsive website design that allows the web page to work on different devices.


What does Media section mean?

The media section is the area of WordPress that handles user uploaded files like images, PDFs and videos.


What does Metadata mean?

Meta Data is part of a website’s code that provides certain types of data for search engines. It is used by search engines to provide context on a website and to inform search results.


What does Meta Tag mean?

A Meta Tag is a piece of HTML that makes up Metadata and is often found in the header of a website. It is visible to search engines but not users and is used for SEO to share additional information about a site like the site descriptions and keywords.


What does Microsite mean?

A microsite is separate page or small number of pages off a main website, that has its own URL designed to provide specific information and usually in relation to a specific activity offline.


What does Minification mean?

Minification is the process by which extraneous characters (like spaces and line breaks) are removed from code to reduce the file size and ultimately improve site loading times. It renders code all but illegible to humans but computers can still read it without problem.


What does Mobile Optimization mean?

Mobile optimisation is the practice of designing and developing websites so that they work well on mobile devices. This includes formatting the content so that it’s legible and sensible on mobile sizes as well as changing the way the site loads content to cater to reduced internet speeds on mobiles.


What does Mobile-first mean?

The concept of Mobile first refers to designing and coding website to be optimised for mobile dimensions first and then building up from there to a full desktop site.


What does Multisite mean?

Multisite is a form of WordPress that facilitates the creation of a network of sites from a single WordPress installation.


What is a Multivariate Test?

Multivariate testing is a tool in website conversion optimisation that’s similar to A/B Testing except that the testing process is applied to multiple elements of a website at one time rather than just a split. Traffic to the design variations is split and the results are monitored and then the site is optimised from the results.


What does MX Record mean?

An MX Record (Mail exchange record) is a specific DNS record responsible for routing email traffic on a domain.


What does MySQL mean?

MySQL stands for “My Structured Query Language” and it is an open source database management systme. WordPress uses MySQL for its database.


What does Nameserver mean?

A Nameserver is a server that handles queries about the locations of the various elements of a domain name (e.g. where the website is hosted, where the emails are hosted). When you look up a domain in a browser, the nameserver tells the browser where to find the website’s server.


What does Navigation (Nav) mean?

Navigation (Nav) is a piece of functionality that allows a user to move from page to page within a website by following links. Also known as a menu.


What does Negative Space mean?

Negative Space is the space around a design element on a website, used to give an element room or draw the users attention.


What does Nesting mean?

Nesting is a coding term and it describes the quality of pieces of code being contained within others – ie. a child statement is ‘nested’ within a parent statement.


What does Non-Breaking Space mean?

A non-breaking space is an element of HTML that allows the developer to add white space between text that’s longer than one traditional space.


What does Open Graph (OG) mean?

Open Graph is Facebook’s tool for integrating data between Facebook and a website. For example, OG meta tags on a website can provide content to show when someone shares a web page on Facebook.


What does Open Source mean?

Open Source is a type of software where the code is shared freely and openly. It can also refer to projects that are collaborative and open. There are various licences that govern the extent to which a project is open sourced. WordPress is an example of an open source project.


What does Orphan (re content) mean?

Borrowing from typesetting terminology, an orphan is a piece of text that’s left hanging separately from its paragraph or sentence. They are undesirable aesthetically and should be avoided where possible.


What does Page mean?

Pages are a static part of the WordPress design of a website – for example a home page.


What does Page Speed mean?

The term Page Speed refers to quite literally, the speed at which the web page loads in a browser. It’s measured in milliseconds and the shorter the page speed time the better.


What does Pageview mean?

A pageview is literally a view of a page – the record of a visit to a page of a website.


What does Parallax mean?

Parallax is a design feature of a website whereby objects in the foreground move slower than those in the background as a user scrolls, thereby providing a more immersive experience.


What does Pay per click (PPC) mean?

Pay Per Click is a form of advertising charge where a defined amount is charged for every time ad ad is clicked on.


What does PDF mean?

A PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file type used to save digital documents with text and graphics. Often used when loading documents online as the text can be identified through search engines.


What does Permalink mean?

A permalink is literally a “permanent link” – it’s a link that’s intended to never change or expire.


What does Persona mean?

A persona is a fictional character or set of characters, used to define groups of people and it is used to understand or predict how audience groups may interact and behave with designed elements.


What does PHP mean?

PHP is a programming language, used for website development. WordPress is written in PHP. Amusingly, PHP is a recursive acronym, standing for “PHP Hypertext Preprocessor”


What does PHPMyAdmin mean?

PHPMyAdmin is a software tool that’s used for MySQL database management.


What does Ping mean?

Ping is a utility that’s used check what IP address a URL resolves to and whether a site is ‘up’.


What does Pingback mean?

A pingback is a type of notification in WordPress (usually found under the Comments section in WP Admin), that is used when other bloggers cite an article that you have posted. You can allow or disallow these settings.


What is a Pixel?

Pixel is a combination of ‘picture’ and ‘element’, a pixel is the name for the tiny coloured dots that make up your screen and enable it create images.


What does Plugin mean?

A plugin is a self contained piece of code that can be added to WordPress to extend the functionality or capabilities of the site.


What is a PNG file?

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphic and it’s a file type used for images. It is similar to JPEGs and GIFs, except that unlike JPEGs it can contain transparent areas.


What does Post mean?

Posts are entries in WordPress that relate to date based content, e.g. blog posts.


What does Propagation mean?

Propagation is the process by which a change to a Domain Name Server record spreads through the Internet (e.g. when a domain is pointed to a different server). There are many DNS around the world and when one has a record changed it needs to update the rest of them around the world. This process can take a bit of time as not all servers update themselves on the same frequency. It normally takes between 1 and 8 hours for a change to be observed around the world.


What does Prototype mean?

A prototype (AKA wireframe) is a draft version of a website that contains the functionality and content elements but often not the final design and aesthetics.


What does Quality Assurance (QA) mean?

Quality Assurance (QA) is the set process of measuring and assuring the quality of a website project.


What does Quality Control (QC) mean?

Quality Control (QC) is the process of ensuring the quality matches the expectation of the client or customer.


What does Quality Score mean?

Quality Score is a grading system used by Google to determine the relevance of an ad to the search term that generated it (through copy, expected click through rates, landing page quality and relevance).


What does Registrar mean?

A registrar is a company that registers domain names on behalf of their customers.


What does Remarketing mean?

Remarketing is the process of showing ads repeatedly to an audience. E.g. cookies can be used to show ads on additional sites, with the aim to bring a user back to the original site.


What does Resolution mean?

Screen Resolution is the total number of pixels on a screen as a multiple of the horizontal and vertical axes. It is denoted as width by height, e.g. 1600×1400.


What is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive design is a technique for designing and developing a website so that it works well on any size of browser and device, gracefully changing the shape of the site and content to fit the browser’s resolution and dimensions.


What does Retina mean?

The term Retina is a trademarked concept invented by Apple to define the display of the pixel density on a screen.


What does Return on ad spend (ROAS) mean?

Return On Ad Spend is the ratio of ad cost to revenue generated. E.g. if you spend $100 on an ad campaign that generates $3000 of revenue, your ROAS is 3000%.


What does RGB/CMYK Colour Model mean?

The RGB/CMYK Colour Model is the name for groups of colours that are used for different design outputs – RGB is used in web design as screens transmit light in these colours, whilst CMYK is used in print due to the way paper absorbs and reflects light.


What does Roadmap mean?

A roadmap is a high level overview of a project’s goals and delivery.


What does Robot (re search engines) mean?

A Robot is a colloquial term for the tool used by search engines to discover what websites exist, what they’re about and what they link to.


What does Sandbox mean?

A sandbox is a test environment used to experiment or test a website or software. Using a sandbox is safe as it it isolates code and data from causing damage in a live environment.


What does Sans-Serif/Serif mean?

A piece of detailing on a font – serif is a small line, stroke or ‘tick’ attached to the letter, while sans-serif does not have this feature. An example of a serif font is Times New Roman and an example of a sans-serif font is Arial.


What does Script mean?

A script is a specific piece of code that governs some functionality on a website. It is often used interchangeably as a shorthand for JavaScript and is generally self contained as a piece of stand alone code that’s inserted into the broader code base.


What does Search engine optimization (SEO) mean?

Search engine optimization is the practice of improving a website’s performance and position in search engines.


What does Search Engine Results Page (SERP) mean?

A Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is a page showing the results of a keyword in a search engine. People pay attention to their website’s ‘ranking’ on a SERP – the higher it is up the page, the more likely it’s going to convert traffic.


What does Selector mean?

Selectors code statements that are used to target elements on a web page that the developers want to style with CSS.


What does Semantic Markup mean?

Semantic Markup refers to the process of structuring a website’s HTML so that it infers meaning rather than just appearance. For example a <p> tag denotes that it is specifically a Paragraph, rather than another form of text.


What does Server-Side mean?

The term Server-side relates to any processes that are run on the server side of the website, as opposed to the client side (the browser).


What does Server/web server mean?

A (web) server is a computer that acts as a storage facility for the files and data that make up a website. When a browser loads a website the data is ‘served’ to the browser by the server over the internet.


What does Session mean?

A session is a metric used by Google Analytics to define a visit or use of a website within a set period of time (30 minutes).


What does Shortcode mean?

A shortcode is a WordPress specific shortcut code that allows you enable features with small pieces of code.


What does Site Map mean?

A site migration is the process of moving a website from one server to another.


What does Site migration mean?

A site migration is the process of moving a website from one server to another.


What does is a slider or carousel?

A slider or carousel is a feature used in web design to move between images in a set position in the layout of the page.


What does Slug mean?

A slug in WordPress is the nickname for the text added to a URL after the suffix (.com etc) that identifies the specific page (e.g. co.nz/contact-us would be for the contact us page).


What does Software as a Service (SAAS) mean?

The term Server-side relates to any processes that are run on the server side of the website, as opposed to the client side (the browser).


What does Source code mean?

Source code is the code that’s compiled into the ultimate website, app or programme.


What does SSH mean?

SSH is short for ‘Secure shell’ and it is a network protocol used in website development that encrypts traffic, giving administrator a secure way to access a server over an otherwise unsecured network.


What does SSL mean?

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layers and it’s a security technology that encrypts traffic between a web browser and a web server. You can tell a website is using SSL if it has HTTPS in front of the domain (as opposed to just HTTP) and if the browser displays a green padlock next to the URL. You should be wary of using a site without an SSL certificate as the traffic isn’t encrypted and it’s possible to fall victim to a ‘man in the middle’ hack.


What does Staging environment mean?

A staging environment describes a website on a server that’s used for testing and demonstration, usually before the website has gone live. It’s a safe place to test and edit a website before it launches as they are generally not accessible by the public.


What does Static site mean?

A static site is one that doesn’t have any dynamic database driven content. They are less common these days as the web and the technology that runs it has become more sophisticated.


What does String mean?

A string is a coding term that refers to a piece of data that is stored in a sequence of numbers or text.


What does Subdomain mean?

Subdomains are add-ons to a domain name that extend them and provide space to put other websites under the one domain. They come before the main domain name and are separated by a dot. For example, the ‘sub’ in the URL https://sub.domain.com denotes that it is a subdomain.


What does Tag mean?

A tag is a marker or identifier used to group or isolate website pages or content by specific topics or keywords. They are often used in e-commerce websites to relate groups of similar products.


What does Tag (WordPress) mean?

A tag in WordPress is an identifier or marker that classes different posts or pages by keywords or topics.


What does Template mean?

A template is a predesigned webpage or website that can be used to avoid reinventing wheels and improve the pace of the development cycle. One of WordPress’ many benefits is the vast array of templates and themes it has on offer.


What does Terminal mean?

The Terminal is a tool used in website development that provides a text based interface (as opposed to Graphical User Interface) for website developers to perform many tasks and interact with servers and software on the Internet.


What does Theme mean?

A theme in WordPress is a suite of code and settings that control the appearance and content of the website. They consist of page templates, stylesheets, scripts and other files which define the specific components of the design and functionality. They can be edited or updated from the admin area.


What does Tracking pixel mean?

A tracking pixel is a piece of code that tracks behaviour and conversions through emails or website visits. The resultant data can be used for online marketing, retargeting and analysis.


What does TXT Record mean?

A TXT Record is a plain text record in the Domain Name System used to provide information about a hostname or zone outside of a website’s domain, often in a human readable way.


What is a Typeface?

Also called a font family, a typeface is a set of characters used in website design to create text, particular to a font family (e.g. letters, numbers and punctuation).


What does URL mean?

Short for Uniform Resource Locator and otherwise known as a domain or web address, a URL used to a specify the address of a web page or any web-connected resource being viewed by a web browser.


What does Usability mean?

Usability is a key tenet of user-centered design and it relates to the ease of access and use a product provides to its users.


What does User Acceptance Testing (UAT) mean?

User Acceptance Testing is the testing of a website conducted by the client or intended audience.


What does User Experience (UX) mean?

The User Experience is the experience that a person has when interacting with a company, their brand and products.


What does User Interface (UI) mean?

A User Interface (AKA UI) is the set of controls and information through which a person interacts with a digital platform or product.


What does User Research mean?

Research focused on the end user of a website or product to understand their needs and behaviours. This research can be completed in a number of ways from observation, task analysis, tracking etc.


What does User Role (WordPress) mean?

WordPress has different user roles that denote differing levels of authority to change things within the site. The most powerful role is the Administrator Role, which has the ability to perform all actions on a WordPress website. Other roles include Author and Subscriber which are more limited in their scope.


What does Vector Graphic/Image mean?

A vector graphic is an image that is made up of lines and shapes rather than a grid of pixels. Because they are calculated using maths, vector images or graphics maintain their quality and clarity at any size.


What does Version (re code/software) mean?

To keep track of changes as software changes over time, the changes are often grouped into Versions. The versions are usually numbered and follow a convention of using Integers for major version changes and decimal points for minor releases.


What does Visual Composer (VC) mean?

Visual Composer is a WordPress plugin that allows you to drag and drop visual elements in the design when building a website or making edits. It is equivalent to WordPress’ own Gutenberg system.


What does Visual Hierarchy mean?

Visual hierarchy is the practice of using the arrangement and position of elements on a web site to denote their importance and direct users attention in a desired way.


What does Waterfall mean?

Waterfall refers to the breakdown of project deliverables and activities in a linear sequence over time.


What are Web Standards?

Web Standards are formal specifications and standards that define how the Internet is built, to promote consistency in the approach across the myriad stakeholders involved (web browsers, web designers, web developers, device manufacturers etc).


What does Website Optimisation mean?

Website optimisation is a blanket term covering any changes made to a website to improve it. It’s often used synonymously with Search Engine Optimisation but can also cover things like improving website load times or user experience optimisation.


What does What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) mean?

In relation to websites, WYSIWYG refers to the structure and appearance of the content in a Content Management system looking similar to the results it generates. It’s much easier to edit content if the fields in the back end are easily relatable to the outputs in the front end.


What does White Space mean?

White space is the empty space surrounding an element in a website and is often used to give elements room to stand out and draw attention.


What does Widget mean?

A widget is a small block of content/settings in WordPress that performs a specific function. For example on a sidebar, there may be a calendar, categories, tag area, search etc.


What does Widow mean?

In website typography a widow is the name for a small section of text or one word that overflows from its paragraph onto a column or section.


What does Wireframe mean?

A wireframe is part of the web design process in which a visual guide is created that lays out the structure of a website as well as it’s functionality. It’s usually created with dummy content and limited aesthetics.


What does WooCommerce mean?

WooCommerce is an e-commerce plugin designed for WordPress. It is very powerful, easy to use and customise for the specific products.


What does XML mean?

Standing for Extensible Markup Language, XML is a markup language used to categorise data on a website in a format that is both readable by humans and computers.


What does Yoast mean?

Yoast is a very popular and powerful SEO plugin for WordPress.


What is a ZIP file?

A ZIP file is a type of archive format that compresses data into a single folder without any data loss. It’s useful for transferring large amounts of data or large numbers of files at once.