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Glossary of Web Design Terms for Beginners
Published on April 5, 2022
If you’re new to web design, or if you just have trouble keeping up with the latest terms and jargon, you’ll find this resource helpful. The Web Design Glossary eBook defines over 150 common web terms so you can understand and speak confidently about industry-related terms and services. It’s available free of charge for all active SiteSwan Resellers in the Resources section of the Dashboard, so download it today!
What is it and how to use it?
Sometimes a client will ask about a specific service, feature or use a phrase you're unfamiliar with. Don't panic! Everybody needs a little help sometimes. With the Web Design Glossary, there's no need to be intimidated by all the tech mumbo-jumbo floating around the web. This glossary is your go-to guide and contains over 150 industry-specific terms, services and acronyms, with simple, easy-to-understand definitions so you can quickly get familiarized. Listed alphabetically, you can easily browse or look up a specific word or term. Available in the Resources section of the SiteSwan Dashboard, we recommend downloading or even printing it out, so you can easily reference it anytime. We’ve also included additional information on what each term means in practice, along with links to more detailed resources where applicable. Whether you're a newcomer to web design or someone who just has trouble keeping up with the latest web design jargon, our Web Design Glossary eBook can be a useful resource for you!
Check out some examples below:
AdSense - Google runs this ad serving programs that allows website owners to gain revenue by displaying ads on their websites. Google provides text, image
and video advertisements that appear on participating websites. These ads
appear based on the keywords and content present on the website.
Backlink - Any incoming link to a website from another website. Having other reputable
websites link back to your website is a common practice in search engine optimization
(SEO).
Cookie - A text file that a browser stores on a user’s device to track the user’s activity online. Most web analytics programs (such as Google Analytics) and e-commerce platforms (such as Amazon) use cookies for tracking purposes.
Domain name - This is the address or URL of a particular website. For example, www.Google.com is the domain name for the Google search engine. The domain name is the text name that covers up the numeric IP address of a computer that is hooked up
to the Internet.
Favicon - Short for “favorite icon,” this is the tiny icon that you see in the tab section just
to the left of the web page title. For instance, SiteSwan’s favicon is the part of our logo
that is a swan-shaped “S”.
GIF or .gif - A compressed graphics file that is used to display images online. Gif’s are different than JPG or .jpg files in that they support transparency and can have multiple frames, which, when stitched together well, can appear to be a video. Gif’s aren’t
always the right choice for image file type, because they sometimes don’t display colors as vividly as other file formats, and can also sometimes be larger in size.
Hero Image - This is a web design term that refers to an oversized full width banner at the top of a website (typically on the home page) that gives the visitor a first glimpse of what the website is about. Most of the time, there will be a tagline and call to action
overlaying the hero image.
IP Address - Short for Internet Protocol address, this is a unique numerical address that identifies a device on the Internet or a local network. Computers and other devices use IP addresses to communicate with each other over the Internet and also other
networks.
Keyword - A term that you type into a search engine to begin an online search. Keywords are also used in HTML to help search engines identify and index a website.
Landing page - This refers to a web page where the main goal is to convert a visitor into a lead by collecting information from them or getting them to take an action.
Navigation - Also known as website navigation, this refers to the section of a website that lets users easily go from one page of the site to another. A typical small business website might have things like “Home, About Us, Our Services, Testimonials, Contact Us” listed on its navigation, each element linking to the respective page on that site.
Pixel - The smallest unit of a digital image or graphic that can be displayed and represented on a device. Pixels are combined to form a complete image, video, text, or anything else visible on a computer display.
Responsive - A term that means a site can be easily viewed on any device and screen size. If your website is not responsive, then it will not display well on mobile devices.
SEO - Short for Search Engine Optimization, SEO is the process of using targeted keywords in the content, tags and meta tags of a website in order to gain traffic through search engines. SEO techniques also include testing the search engine results to make sure that the site is well placed in the keyword results.
Traffic - Internet traffic is the term used to refer to user activity on a web site. Each time someone visits a web page, an entry is automatically registered on the web page server’s log file. The log file records the number of times that a piece of information has
been requested from the server. This request is commonly referred to as a “hit.”
Download your free copy today!
The Web Design Glossary is free for all active SiteSwan Website Resellers. To view all the entries and download a copy for yourself, login to your SiteSwan Dashboard and visit the Resources section today.
Not a SiteSwan Reseller? Choose one of our plans to get started today.
If you’re new to web design, or if you just have trouble keeping up with the latest terms and jargon, you’ll find this resource helpful. The Web Design Glossary eBook defines over 150 common web terms so you can understand and speak confidently about industry-related terms and services. It’s available free of charge for all active SiteSwan Resellers in the Resources section of the Dashboard, so download it today!
What is it and how to use it?
Sometimes a client will ask about a specific service, feature or use a phrase you're unfamiliar with. Don't panic! Everybody needs a little help sometimes. With the Web Design Glossary, there's no need to be intimidated by all the tech mumbo-jumbo floating around the web. This glossary is your go-to guide and contains over 150 industry-specific terms, services and acronyms, with simple, easy-to-understand definitions so you can quickly get familiarized. Listed alphabetically, you can easily browse or look up a specific word or term. Available in the Resources section of the SiteSwan Dashboard, we recommend downloading or even printing it out, so you can easily reference it anytime. We’ve also included additional information on what each term means in practice, along with links to more detailed resources where applicable. Whether you're a newcomer to web design or someone who just has trouble keeping up with the latest web design jargon, our Web Design Glossary eBook can be a useful resource for you!
Check out some examples below:
AdSense - Google runs this ad serving programs that allows website owners to gain revenue by displaying ads on their websites. Google provides text, image
and video advertisements that appear on participating websites. These ads
appear based on the keywords and content present on the website.
Backlink - Any incoming link to a website from another website. Having other reputable
websites link back to your website is a common practice in search engine optimization
(SEO).
Cookie - A text file that a browser stores on a user’s device to track the user’s activity online. Most web analytics programs (such as Google Analytics) and e-commerce platforms (such as Amazon) use cookies for tracking purposes.
Domain name - This is the address or URL of a particular website. For example, www.Google.com is the domain name for the Google search engine. The domain name is the text name that covers up the numeric IP address of a computer that is hooked up
to the Internet.
Favicon - Short for “favorite icon,” this is the tiny icon that you see in the tab section just
to the left of the web page title. For instance, SiteSwan’s favicon is the part of our logo
that is a swan-shaped “S”.
GIF or .gif - A compressed graphics file that is used to display images online. Gif’s are different than JPG or .jpg files in that they support transparency and can have multiple frames, which, when stitched together well, can appear to be a video. Gif’s aren’t
always the right choice for image file type, because they sometimes don’t display colors as vividly as other file formats, and can also sometimes be larger in size.
Hero Image - This is a web design term that refers to an oversized full width banner at the top of a website (typically on the home page) that gives the visitor a first glimpse of what the website is about. Most of the time, there will be a tagline and call to action
overlaying the hero image.
IP Address - Short for Internet Protocol address, this is a unique numerical address that identifies a device on the Internet or a local network. Computers and other devices use IP addresses to communicate with each other over the Internet and also other
networks.
Keyword - A term that you type into a search engine to begin an online search. Keywords are also used in HTML to help search engines identify and index a website.
Landing page - This refers to a web page where the main goal is to convert a visitor into a lead by collecting information from them or getting them to take an action.
Navigation - Also known as website navigation, this refers to the section of a website that lets users easily go from one page of the site to another. A typical small business website might have things like “Home, About Us, Our Services, Testimonials, Contact Us” listed on its navigation, each element linking to the respective page on that site.
Pixel - The smallest unit of a digital image or graphic that can be displayed and represented on a device. Pixels are combined to form a complete image, video, text, or anything else visible on a computer display.
Responsive - A term that means a site can be easily viewed on any device and screen size. If your website is not responsive, then it will not display well on mobile devices.
SEO - Short for Search Engine Optimization, SEO is the process of using targeted keywords in the content, tags and meta tags of a website in order to gain traffic through search engines. SEO techniques also include testing the search engine results to make sure that the site is well placed in the keyword results.
Traffic - Internet traffic is the term used to refer to user activity on a web site. Each time someone visits a web page, an entry is automatically registered on the web page server’s log file. The log file records the number of times that a piece of information has
been requested from the server. This request is commonly referred to as a “hit.”
Download your free copy today!
The Web Design Glossary is free for all active SiteSwan Website Resellers. To view all the entries and download a copy for yourself, login to your SiteSwan Dashboard and visit the Resources section today.
Not a SiteSwan Reseller? Choose one of our plans to get started today.