Jargon Buster
The terms nobody bothers explaining
— until now.
Updated August 2026
Your tech dictionary
'No jargon, ever' is one of the promises I make on this site. Here you'll find a plain-English rundown of the words and phrases that come up most often when you're getting a website built, without needing a design or tech background to follow along.
Getting Online
Domain name
Your website's address (e.g. www.yourbusiness.com) — the bit people type in, or find via search, to get to your site. You own this outright, in your own name, not mine.
Hosting
The online "storage space" that keeps your website live and accessible, day and night. Think of it as rent for the space your website lives in, paid to a hosting provider rather than to me.
DNS (Domain Name System)
The system that connects your domain name to your actual website — a bit like a phone directory, matching a name to the right address. You'll rarely need to think about this; I handle it when your site is set up.
SSL / HTTPS
The padlock icon next to a website address in your browser. It means the connection is encrypted and secure. Every website I build has this as standard, at no extra cost.
The Build Itself
Design vs. development
Design is how your website looks and feels — layout, colours, images, the overall experience. Development is the coding that makes it actually work — buttons that click, forms that submit, pages that load properly. Some agencies split these across two different people, or even two different companies; I do both myself, so nothing gets lost in translation between how something should look and how it actually needs to work.
CMS (Content Management System)
The behind-the-scenes system, such as Squarespace, that lets you log in and update your own website's text and photos, without needing to know how to code.
Template vs. custom build
A template is a ready-made design you adapt; a custom build is designed from scratch around your business. Either way, the same design process and care goes in — the difference is how much is built specifically for you versus started from an existing framework.
Plugin
An add-on tool that gives a website extra functionality, such as a booking calendar, without that feature needing to be built from nothing.
Responsive design
A website that automatically adjusts to look right on any screen, from a phone to a desktop monitor. Every site I build is responsive as standard.
Being Found
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Setting up your website so it appears higher up in Google's results for the things your customers actually search for.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
Setting up your website so that AI tools like Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Copilot can find it and trust it enough to use it when answering someone's question directly, rather than the person clicking through to a list of websites themselves. The same honest, clearly-written content that helps your SEO tends to help your AEO too.
Meta Description
The short line of text that appears underneath your page title in Google's search results. It doesn't affect your ranking directly, but a well-written one is often the difference between someone clicking your result or a competitor's.
Google Business Profile
Your free listing on Google Maps and search — the box showing your opening hours, reviews, and phone number. I set this up and look after it as part of your package.
Keyword
A word or phrase your customers might type into Google when looking for a business like yours (e.g. "web designer Lichfield"). Good SEO means using these naturally throughout your site, never stuffing them in.
Backlink
A link from another website pointing to yours. Google treats these a bit like a recommendation — the more genuine, relevant ones you have, the more trustworthy your site looks.
Keeping It Running
Uptime
The percentage of time your website is actually live, as opposed to down or inaccessible. Good hosting keeps this close to 100% — I monitor this as part of every Care Plan.
Backup
A saved copy of your website from a point in time, kept in case something ever needs restoring. This runs automatically in the background; you'll never need to think about it.
Security Update
A software fix that closes a gap before it can be exploited. Like a car's MOT, this needs doing regularly whether or not anything currently seems wrong — one of the main things a Care Plan actually covers.
Care Plan
My name for ongoing website maintenance — monitoring, small updates, and someone to call if anything needs changing. Full details on the Care Plan page
AI and Automation
A newer category of jargon, but one worth understanding — a small amount of set-up in this area can quietly save a business owner a genuine amount of time.
Automation
A process set up once so a repetitive task happens by itself afterwards — for example, a new website enquiry automatically landing in a spreadsheet or triggering a follow-up email, without you lifting a finger.
Integration
A connection between two separate pieces of software so they can pass information between each other automatically — for example, linking your contact form to your booking calendar or accounting software.
Chatbot
Automated software that can answer simple, common questions on a website instantly, day or night, before handing anything more complex over to a real person.
AI-generated content
Text, images, or other material created with the help of artificial intelligence tools rather than written or made entirely by hand. Increasingly common — worth knowing what you're looking at, on your own site or a competitor's.
Could automation be right for you? A surprising number of small businesses could save several hours a month with a little automation working quietly in the background, often without anything visible on the site itself changing at all. If that sounds like it could be useful for your business, it's worth mentioning next time we speak.