common website terms explained.
Confused by CMS, SSL, SEO, CMS and other website TLAs and lingo? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with this handy guide to some of the website terminology you’ll come across when working on website projects.
What is a URL?
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator (which is a handy fact to file away for trivia night!) URL is the name of the address of a webpage on the internet.
What is a Domain?
A domain is a unique name that identifies a website, such as google.com or katewilson.au. While domains were once quite limited to .com or .org - there are now many, many domain options. In Australia, popular options for businesses include: .com (particularly if you have an international audience), com.au, net.au, and the new shorter .au domain.
Under rules introduced in 2021, org.au domains are only to be used by Australian based not for profit organisations that fit specific categories of eligibility. Once registered, org.au domains cannot be leased or sold.
What is Hosting?
Hosting is a service that allows a website to be stored and accessed on the internet. If you have a Squarespace website, you won’t need to worry about separate hosting, as Squarespace hosts all websites securely on its platform.
What is a CMS?
CMS stands for Content Management System, which means software used to create, manage, and publish digital content. Squarespace is a CMS. Other popular CMS options include Wordpress, Shopify, and Wix.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This is the practice of improving the visibility and ranking of a website on search engine results pages. Most SEO practices are targeted towards improving your ranking on Google - due to it’s overwhelming popularity as a search engine. Squarespace websites have inbuilt fields for implementing a strong SEO strategy.
What are Analytics?
Website analytics is the process of collecting and analysing data generated by people visiting and interacting with a website. You can use analytics to track how many people are visiting your website and how long they are staying on pages. You can also view what pages are the most popular or successful at converting visits into action. Squarespace has inbuilt analytics but can also be connected to Google’s Analytics for a more indepth picture of your audience’s behaviour.
What is Responsive Design?
Responsive Design is creating a website to adapt and display properly on different devices, such as desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Squarespace websites have responsive design built into its templates, with Fluid Engine on Squarespace 7.1 allowing users to further customise the mobile view of the site.
What is SSL?
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer (another trivia night factoid). It is a security protocol that encrypts data transmitted between a website and its visitors. If your website does not have a valid SSL certificate, users are likely to receive a warning that your website is not safe and will find it hard to access your website. Squarespace offers free SSL certificates for all Squarespace domains and third-party domains connected to Squarespace hosted websites.
What is a CTA?
CTA is an acronym for Call to Action. This is a prompt that encourages a user to take a specific action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form or engaging with a social media post.
What does Above the Fold mean?
Pinched from the newspaper industry, the term above the fold refers to the portion of a webpage that is visible without scrolling down. As newspapers were traditionally folded in half, the top half of the page was all that was visible when sitting on a stand or in a pile. Newspaper editors would try to grab potential readers attention by ensuring the juiciest headlines or images were prominent above the fold. The same principle applies to website design.
What does Backend mean in relation to websites?
The term backend refers to the part of a website that is not visible to visitors. This is where you can go to manage or update the website settings, add new content or change the design. To access the backend of a Squarespace website, you login to Squarespace and navigate to your website. From here you can access all the website pages, design settings, commerce, marketing and scheduling tools as well as analytics and website settings.
What does Frontend mean?
If the backend of a website is the part not visible to visitors, it makes sense that the frontend is the part that is visible to users. That’s the where your pages content can be viewed and interacted with.
What is a Breadcrumb on a website?
Breadcrumb revers to a navigational aid that shows the user the path they have taken to reach the current page. On a Squarespace product page, you may see nested product categories listed as breadcrumbs. This is a little trail that makes it easier for customers to navigate the site and understand the products position in the store. An example could be chocolates > dark chocolate > dark chocolate coated raspberries.
What is a cache?
A cache is temporary storage of website data on a user's device. This is done to improve page loading speed.
What is a 404 error?
A 404 error is an error message displayed when a website page cannot be found. This could be due to a typo, or a broken link if a page is moved. You can set up custom 404 pages in Squarespace which can be used to have a bit of fun, and direct people back to the content they may be looking for.
What is a 301 redirect
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect set up from one URL to another. These are often used when a webpage is moved or deleted and can prevent users using old links from landing on the 404 error page.
What is Alt text?
Alt text is descriptive text that is displayed when an image cannot be loaded or read by a screen reader.
What is a Navigation Menu or Nav Menu?
This is the menu you’ll generally find at the top of a website. It’s best kept to fewer than six item to help your audience easily navigate your website - and no, you don’t need to include the Home Page. Your website logo will always link back to your Home Page.
