Website terms made easy

So many terms!  If you’re confused and overwhelmed by all the new words you keep regarding setting up a blog or website, this is the post for you.

It seems like a whole new language and can practically (or actually) make you cry.  Here are the words you’ll see most often that you might be confused by, and what they mean in simple English.  No more stressing out!

• Blog: A page on a website that is updated continually with (blog) posts. (Read this post for more explanation.)
• Domain name: The address that your website has, just like your house’s street address, only this one starts with www.  This is what people will type in to their browser in order to visit your website.  Unless you are using a free website service (such as Blogger or WordPress.com, in which case your address will be something like http://www.YOURBLOG.wordpress.com) you will have to purchase this.  Domains are purchased in one-year increments, generally, and can be purchased from a domain seller such as Name Cheap (affiliate link) or directly from your hosting company (slightly more expensive, but much simpler option).
• Graphic Designer: Often confused with web designer, but not the same (though one person can do both jobs).  A graphic designer designs your graphics.  Things like your logo, graphic elements of your website, and printed marketing like business cards and ads.
• Host: this is the company you pay to store your website for you. Your website needs a place to live, just like a house.  Your host is the person  you rent that piece of property from.  You upload your website files to them and they make it accessible to the public.  And that’s all there is to hosting! (Also known as self-hosting, for more info, read this post.)
• Page: A page on your website that has information that doesn’t change regularly, such as an about page, a contact page, or your home page (the first page your visitors see).  (Read this post for more explanation.)
• Post: A single entry/article on the blog page of your website.
• Platform: The software your website is built with.  (e.g. WordPress, Blogger, Squarespace, etc.)
• Responsive: That means a website will re-size and rearrange itself when viewed on different size screens (from smartphones to large desktop computers) 
• SEO: Essentially: doing your best to get Google to display your website when someone searches Google for what you do.  It stands for search engine optimization. There are lots of people who teach this out there!
• Web designer: The person who draws a digital picture of what your website will look like (sometimes a web designer is also a web developer) The designer only makes an image, like this, they don’t make a functioning website.
• Web developer: The person who takes the image the web designer created, and writes the code to turn it into a website.  

  

  Any other terms you’re curious about?  Let me know and I’ll add them to the list!