Deciding to get a website for the first time means a flurry of decision making.
Are you going to have a blog? How do you get that “yourname-dot-com” web address? Are you going to sell stuff on the site? If so, how will you accept payments? Will there be newsletter integration? What about SEO?
What even is SEO?
If you’re new to the world of website building, you will be inundated with a ton of new terms and concepts. Even if you are familiar with things like domain name and hosting, the difference between a static and dynamic website, and whether you need analytics, it helps to brush up on a few basics before reaching out to a designer.
Here is a list of common website-related terminology for a ready reference.
Blog
Technically, a blog is a type of website—or part of a website—that contains individual posts published in chronological order. Blogs tend to be focused on a single subject or theme, though this isn’t always true. In reality, there are many kinds of blogs—from personal journals, to documenting a project, journey or event, to theme-based blogs, to highly specialized ones.
If you’re thinking about posting your writings on your website, or plan to write updates and other stuff for your visitors, a blog would be a good idea.
Domain name
The domain name is a simplified version of a website’s address. It’s what you type into the browser to load a website, like “shwetavachani.com”. (The actual web address is a series of numbers, which would be impossible for most people to remember.)
Domain names are unique, so if someone else owns “yourname.com”, you won’t be able to use it (though you could use “yourname.net”, “yourname.author” and so on). To get a domain name, you’d have to sign up with a domain name registrar, and pay an annual fee.
Web hosting
If the domain name is the website’s address, then hosting is the plot of land or the building where it lives. When you buy web hosting, you rent or buy space and services on a server for your website. Hosting service providers give you space to store your files and other data (images, videos, databases, etc.) required to run your website. They also provide services like security, backups, and additional software.
Examples of popular hosting providers include Namecheap, Bluehost, Hostinger, GoDaddy and SiteGround.
Note: Hosting providers usually provide domain registration services as well, so you could get both things in one place.
CMS
If you’re worrying about how to add or edit content on your website, a content management system or CMS is your answer. This is a software application that allows one to create, edit, publish and manage websites. A CMS could also include features to run a web store, blog, user sign-ups, and more.
In other words, a CMS is a user-friendly way to manage your website without having to deal with code. There are dozens of CMSes available, but one of the most popular ones—and my favourite is WordPress. If you want to know why I love it, check out my blog post about it.
SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, can be a complicated topic, but its essence is this: when people search for your name or your books on the web, your website should be listed prominently in the search results.
Good SEO is essential for increasing traffic and for effective online presence. There are many technical aspects to SEO that make it confounding for a new website owner. It’s likely that your web designer will also provide SEO services, but there are also SEO specialists available.
The good news is, there are a few simple things you can do to make your website more discoverable. These include using an SEO plugin (more on plugins below), making sure to have good content, and having keywords and terms that readers might be searching for in your text.
Analytics
If you have a website, sooner or later you’re probably going to want to know how effective it is, how many visitors you get, which pages they go to, how many times they click here or there, how many come back again and again, how many click away immediately, and so on. This is what web analytics tells you.
Analytics tools, like Google Analytics, analyse the behaviour of site visitors by tracking their interactions with a site’s pages, videos, images and interactive elements. It gives you an idea of what’s working and what isn’t.
Home page vs landing page
People often use these terms interchangeably, but they are not necessarily the same. A home page is the first page of a website. It is what loads when you type in a web address in your browser. For example, this is my home page.
A landing page, on the other hand, is a standalone web page that offers something specific. It usually directs a user to take some action. This is a landing page for my author website audit guide giveaway. You might have a landing page for a contest, a special event, or a book giveaway.
Of course, sometimes a landing page and home page can be the same thing.
Navigation
Website navigation, also known as the menu, refers to an organized list of links to the pages or sections on a website. This is a crucial part of website design because it helps users get around. A website’s main navigation or menu is usually found at or near the top of a webpage.
Providing visitors with accessible and well-organized navigation increases the likelihood of them staying on your website. For example, it’s likely that readers coming to your website will be interested in your other books—so making it easy for them to find that info makes sense.
Good navigation not just tells visitors what’s where, it helps direct them where you want them to go—such as a buy page or a sign-up page.
E-commerce and payment gateway
E-commerce is simply conducting business transactions electronically, that is, over the internet. This could mean selling either goods or services through a website. As an author, for example, you could be selling books or tickets to events.
There are numerous web-based applications that allow e-commerce functions on a website, such as Shopify or WooCommerce.
A payment gateway goes hand-in-hand with an e-commerce set-up. It refers to a web-based interface that collects payments—such as credit or debit cards, internet banking, wallets and so on. It is the internet version of a checkout counter.
Apart from processing transactions, payment gateways also have features that safeguard a user’s information. Examples include Paypal, Wise, TrustCommerce and Stripe.
Plugin, theme and template
If you’re using WordPress, plugin is a term you’ll have to get very familiar with. In the context of a website, a plugin is something that brings additional features. For example, a calendar plugin can be used to add a call-booking functionality, an anti-spam plugin could filter spam comments and accounts, and an e-commerce plugin can integrate a shopfront to your website.
Theme and template, often used interchangeably, relate to the appearance of a website. They refer to additional software that adds a brand new layout, colours and sometimes even features to a website.
Summing it up
This is a short list of the most common website-related concepts you’re likely to encounter if you’re thinking of making your first website—or even looking to get hands-on with your existing one. Even otherwise, it helps to know some basic terminology about how your website functions.
This is nowhere near a comprehensive list, of course. If there’s any other website jargon that has you scratching your head, drop me a comment here, and I’ll add it to the list.