Web Podcast - Episode 22: Web Design Jargon Explained (Top 10)

Read the transcription of this podcast:

Hey everyone, episode 22 today, and I’m talking to you guys about common lingo, jargon you’ll hear from web designers and developers.

So, I’ve got the top ten ones here that I refer to or hear people refer to and ask me about often. Most people who come to me go, “I’ve got no clue about computers or websites or any of those … you need to do it” and that’s why we’re here.

My job wouldn’t be around if people knew everything about websites and computers. I’m gonna talk to you guys about the top ten.

Number 10: Is plugins. What are plugins?
Plugins are features that go into your website. So they’re basically plugging onto the base site itself. Now the base website is generally pages. With a menu. If you want a contact form that’s generally going to be a plugin. Do you want a shopping cart? It’s a plugin. If you want a booking form, it’s a plugin. If you want a credit card, it’s a plugin. You get the drift, they’re plugins. They’re plugging into the existing website and giving you that extra functionality. Plugins are mostly used in CMS systems like Wordpress. Our system, for example, we custom code plugins for our clients.

Number 9: Database.
A database is a collection of tables of data, to put it plainly, it’s a collection of spreadsheets. Each spreadsheet or database table has columns and they may be different things from; the name of the customer, their email, postal address, city, postcode. Those are columns. Then each customer is a row. Just like a spreadsheet, you have columns with all the different fields, then you have rows for each record. So the customers a record, the products are a record. Every record is stored in a database. To have a good dynamic site, especially if it’s ecommerce, you need a database, otherwise you’re not going to get far.

Number 8: Template. What is a template?
A template is a precoded, predesigned look and feel, that you then customise with your brand, your colors, your fonts, and make that template suit your brand. Now companies like mine and other web design companies that are high-end, they generally design their own templates for each customer. However, if you’re new to it and you’re doing it yourself, then you’re probably going to find a cheap, or affordable, or even free Wordpress template and pick the one that best suits you or your audience. Then go, “Okay, I can now buy that for $20, I can put my logo on it, make it look good”, we don’t tend to use templates. But, that’s what they are.
So if your web designer tells you that he’s giving you a template, you can tell that they’re using something that’s prebuilt by someone else.

Number 7: Wordpress.
Wordpress is a Content Management System (CMS). Just like BMW is a type of car, or Apple is a type of phone. Wordpress is a type of CMS.
So, Wordpress is an open source content management system. What it does is allows you to change your website yourself. You can add content to it, change pages, things like that.

My system that I built is also a CMS and it’s called ZULU. Wordpress Is obviously very well known, worldwide. It’s used by 20% of the internet. 20% of the websites, in the world, use Wordpress. I may be wrong, but it’s definitely a massive figure.
You’ll hear Wordpress more than any other CMS out there.
Other CMS names are; Joomla, Silver Stripe, Magento.
That’s what Wordpress is.

Number 6: Hosting.
So in a previous blog post I talked about hosting. You’ve got domain names and you have hosting. Your domain name is the letterbox, your hosting is the house. You need to have a letterbox for mail, or for traffic, to get to the house. For people to get to the house, they need the mailbox (address). That’s what the domain name is.
The hosting is the house.
You can’t have one or the other, you need to have both.
Hosting is a computer up in the cloud. And a data centre, its a computer, you have your website on it and you pay a subscription (either monthly or annually), it’s generally not free unless it’s very slow and unreliable.
That’s hosting.

Number 5: Analytics.
When I refer to analytics, I’m generally referring to Google analytics.
Analytics is basically statistics, if you’re building a new website, or your making your own, you want to have statistics. Analytics are a product from Google, that you can use for free and track users on your website.
It’s very important you do have a statistical software on your site so that you can track who is coming to it, where they’re from, what they’re searching and what pages they visit. That all helps you gauge what the best parts of your site are and what you need to improve on.

Number 4: Social Media.
I’m guessing that most of you probably know what social media is, but some people are still not fully aware of it. Social media is different platforms in which people can interact and share content. Individually, but also more commonly now, business to business and business to consumer.
I can have a Facebook profile (you’ve all heard of Facebook), a Twitter profile, an instagram profile, even a SnapChat profile. I can post multimedia or text content onto that page, and get attention from the public and get a following to build my business through that, and hopefully refer them back to my website or landing page.
Social media is a good compliment to your website.
If you’re in an industry such as oil, and you’re dealing with big oil companies. You probably don’t really need a social media page. Except for your public profile. Although, if you’re a massage service, or a restaurant, you should definitely have a Facebook and instagram page.

Number 3: AdWords.
AdWords refers to search engine marketing, so Google Ads, Google AdWords. They're at the top of every page, you'll see a green symbol reading ad. Those are Google ads, you pay per click (PPC) for those ads. In a competitive industry you pay more per click, whereas in a less competitive industry, you’ll pay a lot less.
You also pay per click dependant on how relevant your ad is too the user. Also how people are using your ad. If your ad is well written, and your landing page is well written with relevant keywords, then you’ll pay less. The goal with Google Ads is to get people to click on the ad, go to the website and enquire. If you can get 10% of people that click on the ad to enquire, that’s a good return. Although you need to ensure that 10% you also get those people to convert into a job.
With AdWords and other paid advertising, if you spend $100 in a month and you get one job that nets you $200, then you’ve spent $100 to get the job and only gained $200 (of which $100 is actually cost), then it’s not really worth it.
If you pay $100 and you’re a builder who gains a $20,000 renovation, then I’m fairly sure you’ll be happy with spending $100.
That’s the key things to consider with Google Ads. I’ve written a whole post about it so go check that out guys.

Number 2: Mobile responsiveness or mobile friendly.
Back in the day we would have two websites, a website for desktops and a separate mobile website.
That has gone now, now what we have is a responsive website, the site responds to the device you’re on. If you’re on an iPad, a desktop, a Samsung Galaxy, you’re going to have the site respond well to it. What this means is that the site will fit to the screen size, you don’t have to pinch and squeeze and fiddle around trying to find the information. It fits nicely on the device, just like an app would.
A responsive website is a good website, if you’re making a website nowadays that isn’t responsive, then you’re a little bit crazy.
It needs to be responsive, so many people now use their phones. Just because you don’t use your phone because your using your computer, sorry, but a lot of people use their phones. I like to use my computer, I hate to mess around on my phone. But, if you look at the analytics (point 5), you’ll see around half of your users are on a mobile. You have to make sure your site is mobile friendly.

Coming in at number 1: SEO.
You probably would of guessed that.
SEO, you’ve probably heard it before and know what it is, but if you don’t, it’s search engine optimisation. There’s two of them genrally. Search engine optimisation and search engine marketing. SEM is similar to Google AdWords and other forms of advertising.
SEO is search engine optimisation, you’re optimising your website to work and come up better on a search engine, in terms of your ranking on a search.

There are so many factors behind what gets you up on Google, what ranks you higher.

If you pay you’ll get higher up, but most people want to get up there without paying anything.

SEO is broken into two sections. On page SEO and off page SEO.
On page is optimising your website itself, adding content and enhancing the code and layout, adding different bits of technology that can improve the sites readability and access from Google. Off site SEO which is created to making backlinks and directory listings. Even things like blog articles on other sites. That’s all off page, so it’s off the website, done externally.

People get the misconception that SEO can be attained by doing a month of SEO on the site. Their site will be number one on Google, then they won’t have to spend a dollar. That’s not correct. It can be to a degree, if you’re not in a competitive industry. But if you’re a builder, or you’re a lawyer, then everyone is competitive, they’ll all be doing SEO too. If you’re hammering your SEO, and you do manage to get to the top of Google, and you believe that you don’t need to spend anymore on SEO … You’re wrong. Unfortunately. You’ll find yourself falling back down to where you were before, if not worse.

SEO is an ongoing thing, you won’t generally see results for a few months. If not six months down the line.

Please keep that in mind. Figure out the ongoing cost. It could be $300 a month, that’s a lot of money, it could even be $500. Some people charge a lot for this service. Six months times 600 … that’s $3,600. You realise that’s a lot of money to pay over six months to get some decent results. You’ll maybe be better off spending that money on following up with your existing client list, or sending your clients gifts. Doing some of the old fashioned stuff that goes against what we are speaking about here.

It’s finding the best way to go.
You could even throw the £3,600 in Google Ads and maybe do a little SEO once a month, little bits and pieces.

Thats ten lingo terms for you guys to work through, if you're building a website, look them up and get more understand of them, alternatively read some of my other blog posts where I’ve covered some of these terms.

If you’re dealing with a web designer you will now know what they’re talking about. Hope you found it helpful. I’ll get some more posts done soon on more bits of lingo and terms and other things to consider when building and marketing a website.