Web projects come with a lot of vocabulary. This glossary explains the terms you are most likely to hear from developers, agencies and platforms, in plain language. If a word in a proposal or a conversation is not here, ask us.

Terms

Accessibility
Making a site usable by everyone, including people using screen readers, keyboards or larger text. The common standard is WCAG.
API
A defined way for one piece of software to talk to another, for example your store asking a shipping company for rates.
Backup
A copy of your site and its data you can restore if something goes wrong. Only useful if you have tested restoring it.
CDN (content delivery network)
A network of servers around the world that keeps copies of your site's files close to visitors, so they load faster.
CI/CD
Automated checks and deployment: every change is tested automatically before it goes live.
CMS (content management system)
Software for editing a site's text and images without touching code. WordPress is the best-known example.
Core Web Vitals
Google's measurements of real visitors' experience: how fast the main content appears (LCP), how quickly the page responds (INP) and how stable it stays (CLS).
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
How much a page jumps around while loading. Google calls below 0.1 good.
DNS
The internet's address book. It points your domain name at the servers that host your site and email.
Domain name
Your site's address, such as yourbusiness.com. Always register it in your own name.
Headless
A setup where the content or store system is separate from the website visitors see, connected by an API.
Hosting
The servers your site runs on. It ranges from shared plans to cloud platforms that scale with traffic.
HTTPS / SSL certificate
Encryption between your site and its visitors, shown by the padlock in the browser. Essential for every site.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)
How quickly a page responds when someone taps or clicks. Google calls under 200 milliseconds good.
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
When the largest piece of content, usually a headline or main image, appears. Google calls within 2.5 seconds good.
Migration / re-platforming
Moving a site or store from one platform to another, including its content, data and search rankings.
PageSpeed Insights
Google's free tool that scores how fast and stable a page is, from 0 to 100, for mobile and desktop.
Plugin / app
An add-on that gives a platform extra features. Useful, but each one adds code, updates and potential conflicts.
301 redirect
A permanent forward from an old web address to a new one, so visitors and search engines end up in the right place.
SEO (search engine optimization)
Making your site easy for search engines to understand and worth showing to people searching for what you offer.
Staging site
A private copy of your site for testing changes before they go live.
Structured data (schema)
Extra information in a page's code that tells search engines exactly what it describes, such as a product's price and availability.
Uptime
The share of time your site is available. Monitoring alerts you when it goes down.
Vibe coding
Building software by describing what you want to an AI tool, which writes the code. Great for prototypes; needs review before real customers rely on it.