Small business website glossary
Plain-English definitions of the website terms small business owners run into, with an example for each and no jargon left unexplained.
A
- Alt text
- A short written description of an image, stored with the image, so a screen reader or a failed download still tells the visitor what the picture was for.
B
- Backup
- A stored copy of your website that can be restored if a page is deleted, an update breaks the layout, or the host has a bad day.
- Breadcrumb
- A short row of links, usually near the top of a page, that shows the path from the home page to where you are, so you can step back up.
- Business email
- An email address on your own domain, such as a name at your business, instead of a free inbox that does not match the website.
C
- Call to action
- The part of a page that asks the visitor to do one next thing, such as request a visit, book a time, or read the service that fits them.
- Canonical tag
- A hint in a page's code that names the preferred address when the same content can be reached at more than one URL. Visitors may still be on the other address.
- Citation
- A mention of your business name, and usually your phone or website, on some other site. Directories, chambers, and map apps are common places citations live.
- CMS
- Software for editing the words and pictures on a website without rebuilding the whole thing from scratch each time something changes.
- Contact form
- A set of fields on a page that emails you, or another tool you chose, when a visitor asks for something. It is only useful if you see the messages and reply.
D
- DNS
- The phone book of the internet: records that tell the world which server should answer for your domain, including the website and, separately, your email.
- Domain name
- The readable name of your site, such as your business name plus .com, which browsers use to find the server where the pages actually live.
- Domain registrar
- The company where you register and renew a domain name. It is the account that can point the name at a host, and it may not be the company that designed the site.
F
- Favicon
- The tiny icon in a browser tab, a bookmark, and sometimes a phone's home-screen shortcut, so your site is recognizable when the title is cut off.
G
- Google Analytics
- A free Google tool that counts visits to your website, which pages they opened, and roughly where the visits came from. It is not the same as your Google Business Profile.
- Google Business Profile
- A free listing from Google that shows your business name, services, hours, reviews, and photos in Google Search and Google Maps when people look for what you offer nearby.
- Google Search Console
- A free Google tool that shows how your site appears in Google Search: queries, indexing problems, and the sitemap Google has seen. It does not show visits the way Analytics does.
H
- Heading
- The visible titles on a page that break it into sections. The main heading says what the page is. Smaller headings mark the parts underneath.
I
- Indexing
- The step where a search engine stores a page so it can appear in results. A live page is not automatically an indexed page, and indexed is not the same as highly ranked.
K
- Keyword
- The words a person types or speaks when they look for something. On a website, a keyword is a topic you choose to answer clearly on a page, not a spell you repeat.
L
- Landing page
- A page built for one visit and one next step, often reached from an ad, a profile, or a specific search, rather than by browsing the whole site.
- Local SEO
- The work of showing up when someone nearby looks for a business like yours, mostly through your Google Business Profile and a website that agrees with it.
M
- Meta description
- A short summary of one page, often shown under the title in search results. It does not change your rank by itself. It helps a person decide whether to click.
N
- Nameserver
- The server that publishes your DNS records to the rest of the internet. Changing nameservers hands that whole list to a different company.
P
- Page speed
- How quickly a page becomes usable after someone opens it. Slow pages lose impatient visitors and make the business feel less careful than it is.
- Privacy policy
- A page that says what information the site collects, why, and who it is shared with. It is a disclosure, not a substitute for careful habits.
R
- Redirect
- An instruction that sends a visitor, and a search engine, from an old address to a new one so a renamed or moved page does not dead-end.
- Responsive design
- A single website layout that rearranges itself to fit a phone, a tablet, or a laptop, instead of a separate mobile site with a different address.
- Robots.txt
- A small public file that tells well-behaved crawlers which parts of a site they should not request. It is not a lock, and it does not remove a page already in search.
S
- Schema markup
- A hidden label on a page that tells search engines what the page is about, such as a local business, a service, or a list of questions, using a shared vocabulary.
- SEO
- The work of making a page clear to search engines and to the person searching: the right topic, a readable page, and a site that loads without tricks.
- Service area
- The towns, counties, or neighborhoods where you will actually take work. On Google and on your site, it should match the trips you are willing to make.
- SSL certificate
- A small digital file on your web server that proves your site is really yours and lets browsers load it over a private, encrypted HTTPS connection instead of plain HTTP.
T
- Template
- A pre-built page layout you fill with your logo and your words. It speeds up a do-it-yourself site, and it is why many businesses in one town end up looking related.
- Title tag
- The title of one page, shown in the browser tab and often as the blue link in Google. It should say what that page is, in words a customer would use.
U
- URL
- The full address of one page, including the domain and the path after it, which is what a browser opens and what a search engine stores.
W
- Web hosting
- The service that stores your website and answers when a browser asks for it. Without hosting, a domain name has nowhere to go.
- Website builder
- An online tool that lets you assemble pages from templates and widgets in a browser. You operate it. The subscription usually includes hosting while you keep paying.
- Website migration
- Moving a website from one host, builder, or address to another without losing the pages people already use, the mail, or the links you cannot edit.
- WordPress
- A widely used content management system. You can host it yourself with themes and plugins, or pay WordPress.com for a hosted version. The two are not the same product.
X
- XML sitemap
- A file that lists the public pages of a website so a search engine can find them, separate from the visual menu visitors click.
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