The words, in plain English.
139 terms from websites, search, social media, branding and advertising, each defined in a sentence or two and linked to the guide or service that explains it in full.
A
- Accessibility
Designing so people with different abilities can use the product.
- Ad group
A set of related keywords and the ads written for them.
- Analytics
Tools that show how many people visit a site and what they do there.
- App
An add-on that gives a store extra features, such as reviews or subscriptions.
- Aspect ratio
The proportion of an image's width to its height, such as square or portrait.
- Attribution
Working out which channel deserves credit for a result.
- Average order value
The average amount spent per order. It is often used to judge the effect of bundles and upsells.
B
- Backlink
A link to your site from another website, which search engines treat as a sign of trust.
- Backup
A saved copy of a website that can be restored if something goes wrong.
- Block editor
The visual editor, also called Gutenberg, where pages are built from blocks of content.
- Brand architecture
How a company's brands, products and services relate to one another.
- Brand identity
The name, logo, colours, type and voice that make a company recognisable.
- Brand kit
A collection of a brand's logos, colours and typefaces, ready to use.
- Brand positioning
How a business is different from its competitors, in the mind of its audience.
- Brand voice
The consistent way a brand sounds in its posts, replies and captions.
C
- CAC
Customer acquisition cost: what it costs, in total, to win one customer.
- Caching
Storing a ready-made copy of a page so it loads faster.
Website Maintenance & Optimization, How to Improve Website Speed: Find What Is Slow, Then Fix It
- Call to action
A clear prompt for the next step, such as contacting you.
- Campaign
The top level, where you set the budget, location, language and goal.
- Canonical tag
A line in a page that tells search engines which version is the main one when similar pages exist.
- Carousel
A post made of several images or slides that people swipe through.
- Cart abandonment
When a shopper adds items to the cart but leaves without paying.
- CDN
A content delivery network: servers around the world that deliver a site's files faster.
- Child theme
A theme that inherits from another, so changes survive when the parent is updated.
- Click
One visit from a search result to your page.
- Click-through rate
The share of recipients who clicked a link in the message.
- CMS
A content management system: the tool your team uses to edit pages without writing code. WordPress is one.
Website Design & Development, WordPress vs Next.js: Which Should Your Website Use?
- Collection
A group of related products, such as a category or a seasonal range.
- Colour palette
The set of colours a brand uses, with rules for where each goes.
Branding & Visual Identity, What Is Brand Identity? The Parts, and How They Fit Together
- Community management
Replying to comments and messages and keeping conversations going.
- Company page
The business's own page, separate from any person's profile.
- Connection and follower
A connection is a two-way link between people. A follower sees someone's updates without connecting.
- Content calendar
A schedule of what will be posted, where and when, planned ahead.
- Content delivery network (CDN)
A network of servers that delivers your files from a place close to each visitor.
How to Improve Website Speed: Find What Is Slow, Then Fix It
- Contrast
The difference in brightness between text and its background.
- Conversion
The action you want a visitor to take, such as an enquiry or a purchase.
Digital Marketing, Performance Marketing, How to Plan a Google Ads Campaign for Lead Generation
- Conversion rate
The share of visitors who complete a purchase.
E-commerce Website Development, Startups, D2C & E-commerce Brands
- Conversion rate optimization
Improving a page so more visitors take the action you want.
- Core Web Vitals
Google's measures of real-world page experience: loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability.
Website Design & Development, SEO, Website Maintenance & Optimization
- Cost per conversion
What you spend, on average, to win one conversion.
- CPA
Cost per acquisition: what it costs to win one conversion.
- CPC
Cost per click: what each click costs you.
- Crawling
When search engines follow links to discover pages.
- CTR
Click-through rate: the share of people who saw an ad and clicked it.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
How much the layout jumps around while the page loads.
How to Improve Website Speed: Find What Is Slow, Then Fix It
- Custom post type
A kind of content beyond pages and posts, such as portfolio items or events.
- Customer lifetime value
The total a customer is expected to spend with you over time.
D
- D2C
Direct-to-consumer: selling to customers directly, without a retailer in between.
- Deliverability
Whether your messages reach the inbox instead of the spam folder.
- Design system
A set of reusable styles and components that keeps a product consistent.
- Domain name
Your website's address, such as yourbusiness.com.
- Double opt-in
A sign-up method where a new subscriber confirms their address from a first email.
E
- Engagement
Likes, comments, shares and clicks on your content.
Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, LinkedIn Marketing
F
- Framework
A set of tools developers build on, such as Next.js, instead of starting from nothing.
- Funnel
The path people take from first hearing about you to becoming a customer.
G
- Google Search Console
A free tool that shows how your site appears in Google search and flags problems.
- Guidelines
The document that records all of the above and how to apply it.
What Is Brand Identity? The Parts, and How They Fit Together
H
- Hashtag
A tagged topic that helps people find related posts.
- Headless
A setup where the content is stored in one place and shown by a separate front end.
- Hosting
The service that stores your website and delivers it to visitors.
- HTTPS
The secure connection that protects data between a visitor and your site. Browsers warn visitors when it is missing.
I
- Imagery
The style of photographs, illustrations and icons that fit the brand.
What Is Brand Identity? The Parts, and How They Fit Together
- Impression
One showing of a post or ad to one person.
Digital Marketing, Performance Marketing, How to Set Up Google Search Console and Google Analytics
- Impressions
How many times a post was shown.
- Indexed
Stored by Google, so the page can appear in results.
- Indexing
When a search engine stores a page so it can appear in results.
- Information architecture
How content is organised and labelled so people can find it.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
How quickly the page responds when someone taps or clicks.
How to Improve Website Speed: Find What Is Slow, Then Fix It
- Inventory sync
Keeping stock numbers accurate across the store and any other place you sell.
K
- Key event
An action you have marked as a result, such as an enquiry.
- Keyword
A word or phrase people type into a search engine. Keyword research finds the ones that matter to your business.
- Keyword match type
A setting that controls how closely a search must resemble your keyword for the ad to appear.
- KPI
A key performance indicator: a number you track to judge progress towards a goal.
L
- Landing page
The page a person arrives on after clicking an ad.
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
How long the biggest visible element, often a photograph or a headline, takes to appear.
How to Improve Website Speed: Find What Is Slow, Then Fix It
- Layouts and templates
Ready-made formats for documents, posts and presentations.
What Is Brand Identity? The Parts, and How They Fit Together
- Liquid
The template language Shopify themes are written in, used to customise how pages are built.
- Local search
Searches that include a place name or phrases such as near me.
- Logo
The mark and wordmark, with versions for light and dark backgrounds and for small sizes.
What Is Brand Identity? The Parts, and How They Fit Together
- Logo lockup
A fixed arrangement of the logo mark and the name.
M
- Marketplace
An online platform where many sellers list products, such as a large retail site.
- Metafield
A place to store extra information about a product or page, beyond the standard fields.
- MVP
A minimum viable product: the simplest version of a product that real users can try.
N
- Name
What the business is called. It should be easy to say, spell and remember.
What Is Brand Identity? The Parts, and How They Fit Together
- Negative keyword
A word you exclude so the ad does not appear for unrelated searches.
O
- Open rate
The share of recipients who opened a message. It is an estimate, and often overstated.
- Organic
Visits and engagement you earn without paying for ads.
- Organic traffic
Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results.
P
- Page builder
A plugin that lets editors design page layouts visually, beyond the block editor.
- Paid
Visits you buy through advertising.
- Payment gateway
The service that securely takes and processes a card or wallet payment.
- Permalink
The permanent address of a page or post, which should be short and readable.
- Personal profile
An individual's page. Founders and team members often post from theirs as well as from the company page.
- Plugin
An add-on that gives the site a feature, such as forms, SEO tools or bookings.
WordPress Development, Website Maintenance & Optimization, WordPress vs Next.js: Which Should Your Website Use?
- PPC
Pay-per-click: advertising where you pay when someone clicks your ad.
- Product feed
A structured file of your products that other services, such as ad platforms, can read.
- Product-market fit
When a product clearly meets a need that enough customers have.
- Prototype
An interactive mock-up people can click through before it is built.
Q
- Quality Score
A Google Ads rating of how relevant your ad, keywords and landing page are.
Performance Marketing, How to Plan a Google Ads Campaign for Lead Generation
- Query
The words a person typed into the search box.
R
- Rebrand
A significant change to a brand's identity or position.
- Reels and short video
Short, vertical videos that platforms such as Instagram promote to people beyond your followers.
- Referral
A visit that came from another website.
- Render-blocking resource
A file the browser must load before it can show the page.
How to Improve Website Speed: Find What Is Slow, Then Fix It
- Responsive design
A design that adjusts its layout to the screen it is shown on, from phone to widescreen.
- Retargeting
Showing ads to people who have already visited your website.
- Retention
Keeping existing customers buying.
- ROAS
Return on ad spend: the revenue earned for every unit spent on advertising.
- ROI
Return on investment: what you earn compared with what you spent.
S
- Safe area
The part of a design kept clear of edges, so nothing important is cropped.
- Search intent
What a person actually wants when they search: to learn, compare, find a place or buy.
- Security patch
An update that fixes a known vulnerability.
- Segment
A smaller group within the list, such as past customers, who get a more relevant message.
- Self-hosted WordPress
WordPress.org software that you or your developer install on hosting you control.
- SEO
Search engine optimization: making a website easier for search engines to understand and for people to find.
- SERP
The search engine results page: what a person sees after they search.
- Session
One visit to your site, made up of one or more page views.
- Sitemap
A file that lists the pages of a site so search engines can find them.
SEO, How to Set Up Google Search Console and Google Analytics
- SKU
A stock keeping unit: the unique code for each product or variant you sell.
- Staging site
A private copy of the website used to test changes before they go live.
- Storefront
The part of the store that customers see and use, as opposed to the admin.
- Structured data
Code that describes a page's content in a standard way so search engines can understand it.
- Style guide
A document that sets out how the identity is to be used.
T
- Template
A reusable layout that keeps new posts consistent.
- Theme
The design template that controls how the storefront looks and is laid out.
- Thought leadership
Content that shows what a person or company knows, not just what it sells.
- Time to first byte
How long the server takes to start sending the page.
How to Improve Website Speed: Find What Is Slow, Then Fix It
- Typography
The typefaces a brand uses and how they are set.
Branding & Visual Identity, Graphic Design, What Is Brand Identity? The Parts, and How They Fit Together
U
- Unsubscribe
A recipient's choice to leave the list. Every marketing email should make it easy.
- Uptime
The share of time a website is available to visitors.
- Usability testing
Watching real people use a design to find where they struggle.
- User journey
The steps a person takes to reach a goal on your site or product.
- UX and UI
UX is how a website feels to use. UI is how it looks. [UI/UX Design](/services/ui-ux-design) covers both.
V
- Variant
A version of a product, such as a size or colour, with its own price and stock.
- Vector and raster
Vector graphics scale without losing quality. Raster images are made of pixels.
- Voice
How the brand sounds in words: formal or friendly, brief or detailed.
What Is Brand Identity? The Parts, and How They Fit Together
W
- Wireframe
A simple page layout, without colour or images, used to agree the structure before design begins.
#
- 404 error
The message shown when a page cannot be found.
Keep reading.
Definitions help, but a worked example helps more. The guides walk through each subject step by step, and the free tools let you try it.
Read the guidesSee the servicesTry the free toolsSee how we work
Questions, answered.
Where do the glossary definitions come from?
Each definition is written once, on the Domeq service page or guide that uses the term, and gathered here automatically. The entry names every page where the term is explained, so you can read more in context.
Are these definitions specific to Domeq?
No. They explain how each term is generally used in web design, search, social media, branding and advertising. Where Domeq does something in a particular way, the linked service page says so.
How often is the glossary updated?
It grows whenever a service page or guide adds a term. Because it is built from those pages, it cannot fall out of step with them.
Can I suggest a term to add?
Yes. Send the term through the contact page or by email, and say where you met it. If a good explanation is missing from the site, we will add one to the page that fits best.
