6 Web Definitions You Should Know

Listening to your mechanic telling you what’s wrong with your car can sound like you’re listening to a foreign language being spoken if you’re not familiar with the terminology of mechanics. By the same token, many terms and phrases in the world of web design can be just as confusing.

Here are 6 terms within the realm of web design that you should know.

Above the Fold

This phrase refers to the part of the web page that you can visibly see before having to scroll down. As soon as you land on a page, all the things that are visible before scrolling are considered “above the fold.” This term was initially used in the newspaper world, where the newspaper would be folded and stacked on a news stand. The newspaper company obviously would want to attract customers, so they would intentionally place a captivating title and image on the part that was seen, and considered “above the fold.”

Backlinks

Any links that come from another website into yours is considered a backlink. The more quality level backlinks your site has, the better it will be favoured by big search engines like Google. The quality and number of backlinks you have that point to your website has a dramatic impact on your search engine rankings. Many web designers and developers will offer their clients a link building service to build the number of quality backlinks pointing to your website.

Domain

The domain name is the actual name that identifies the website. For instance, uvdesigns.ca is an example of a domain name, which can include numbers, letters, and symbols – but no spaces.

CMS

CMS – which stands for Content Management System – allows developers and designers to create and edit content on a website. Among the more popular platforms is WordPress, which is very user-friendly and easy for even the novice web designer to get the hang of.

Cookies

A ‘cookie’ is the name for a file that a site saves on a computer that keeps certain pieces of information about you. That way, the next time you visit the same site, you won’t have to enter the same pieces of data over and over again. The goal with cookies is to improve your experience when visiting that same website.

Dedicated Server

A dedicated server is used to your website without having to share the server with any other sites. All of the resources on the dedicated server are available only to that website that’s being hosted in that particular server. This is the opposite of shared hosting, where multiple websites must share the resources of the server.

The are dozens of other terms and phrases used in the world of website development that you may want to learn if you’re planning on building a website on your own. Or else, you can always use the services of a professional web developer and designer instead to tackle this job for you, which will take the guesswork out of all the terms that you may not be familiar with.