It’s time. You’ve decided to get a website for your small business. You reach out to a website developer like me and the discussion begins…what’s next.
Just like any other industry, website design and internet marketing have their language. I may not understand every term you would say when we discuss your work. It’s the same when it comes to our work on your website.
So here I plan to bridge the gap with terms you’ll likely hear from me as we communicate. So that we can start on the same page here is a list of website terms.
Common Website Terminology
- Above the fold – the viewable area on a screen before you begin to scroll down the webpage
- Domain name – The domain name, also referred to as the URL, is the address of your website, ie: LeeCloer.com. Look at it as a street address of your home. Domain names are not case sensitive so spelling them with capitalization like ILiveSouthern.com is the same as ilivesouthern.com. The capitalization just makes it easier to read in marketing materials.
- Hosting – if the domain name is the address to your house then the hosting would be like your house. The hosting is the space on a private or shared hosting space where your website files are stored.
- CMS – Content Management System is a software application that can be used to manage the creation and modification of digital content. Examples of a CMS are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
- Call To Action – Could be a button or even text on a website that tells the user to take some specified action. Often we use the “call to action” as a command or action phrase, such as ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Buy Now’ on the homepage banner.
- CSS – Cascading style sheets (CSS) are used to format the layout of Web pages. They can be used to define text styles, table sizes, and other aspects of Web pages that previously could only be defined in a page’s HTML.
- WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get refers to software that allows you to edit the website content and see it as it will be displayed to the end-user.
- SEO – Search Engine Optimization is the work performed on a website that helps the site move upward in the search results.
- Landing Page – These are website pages that are optimized for specific keyword phrases to best highlight a product or service. When you are running an ad or promotion its best to direct traffic from that ad directly to a page associated with it. This page should have a call to action toward the top to encourage the visitor to act.
- E-commerce – This is just another word for an online store
- Responsive Mobile – Meaning mobile-friendly content. What a visitor sees of a website on their mobile phone is different than how they see your content on a desktop computer. Since many of your potential leads will find you using their phone your website should display properly on a mobile device.
- Cookies – one or more pieces of information stored as text strings on your machine. A Web server sends you a cookie and the browser stores it. The browser then returns the cookie to the server the next time the page is referenced.
- Lead form – is a form on your website or landing page that allows you to collect leads. It is a good form of a call to action for a landing page.
Are you ready to talk about a website build for your small business? Contact me today and let’s get the conversation started. Call me at (828) 342-9405 [Leave a voicemail] or complete our contact form.
