If you’re trying to understand web design terms a little bit better, so that you’ll have an easier time making sense out of what web designers are talking about, then you need to know the meanings of typical web design jargon.
When skilled, talented web designers discuss the nuts and bolts of making websites that are fast-loading, interactive, and designed to work with the latest mobile devices (such as iPads and smart phones), they use a variety of terms and words that may seem completely unfamiliar to you.
If web design terminology is “all Greek to you”, then you really need to get a handle on what it all means.
The terminology used by Web designers is specific to their art form (science?), and, sometimes, these phrases may be a little too technical for laymen to understand. To assist you in learning the ins and outs of Web Design jargon, we’ve compiled a helpful quick guide to some of the most common Web design terminology that you will find online, in books, in videos or in podcasts about Website creation:
Website and Seo Terminology
Understanding SEO
Usually, Web design gurus will throw around a lot of technical terms that are related to programming websites and designing custom templates for their clients (such as WordPress blog templates); however, they’ll also mention SEO-related (search engine optimization-related) phrases that are considered the foundation of effective website marketing.
Websites are often optimized for SEO right from the start. SEO comprises a series of web design and web content strategies that are used to boost the rankings of websites, so they’ll get noticed by the biggest search engines in the world.
The goal of SEO is to get a website on the first page of Google search results and other search engine result pages, so customers or visitors will know exactly where to find the website. Without the right SEO, a website will fade into the vast ocean of other urls that are out there, and it will likely never reach its full potential by attracting a large audience.
Here are some popular SEO terms used by Web designers…
- Backlinks – Backlinks may also be called inbound links or incoming links, and they are inward links to websites or web pages. Every link that web nodes receive is classified as a backlink. Mostly, these days, backlinks are used to boost search engine optimization by improving Google or other search engine rankings.
- Anchor Tag – This type of tag is created in HTML (HyperText Markup Language), a popular programming language for web design. An anchor text will let you make a link to another piece of web content, such as a web page, or bookmarks within web pages.
- Bots – Bots “crawl” the Internet, searching for reasons to rank web pages or to classify them as spam; these bots may also be called spiderbots.
Understanding Web Design Jargon
The “techie” terms used by web designers are a form of verbal or written shorthand that may challenge any “newbie”. Here are some common Web design terms that you should know about:
- Web App – A Web app, or application, is a special program made for use on a web site via a browser. For example, services offered at web sites, such as games or online banking, are Web apps.
- Submission Forms – Also known as submission fields, submission forms allow website visitors to connect with a website by filling in data. A Web designer will use these forms to get vital data from people who come to the site. Generally, these useful little fields are created through HTML. Examples of submission forms include e-mail contact forms or website registration forms.
- Encryption – This is a coding style that protects sensitive information, such as email communications, from falling into the wrong hands. Only senders and receivers of encrypted content may use a special key that opens up the encrypted data so that it may be read as typical text.
Now that you know a bit more about web design jargon, you’ll feel more comfortable discussing your plans for your website (or website optimization) with a web designer. Over time, you may even feel inspired to learn other terms and phrases related to the exciting world of modern website design.
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