Half of what makes websites feel complicated is vocabulary. Your developer says “I’ll push it from staging once the cache is cleared” and you nod, and nobody’s any wiser. Most of these terms describe simple things.
This glossary is grouped by topic rather than alphabetically, because the terms make more sense next to their neighbours. Skim the headings and read the group you need.
The basics
WordPress. Free, open-source software for building and managing websites. It runs a large share of the web. When people say “WordPress” they usually mean the self-hosted version from WordPress.org, which you install on your own hosting and fully control.
WordPress.com. A commercial hosting service built on the same software. Easier to start with, but more restricted on cheaper plans. Not the same thing as a WordPress.org site, despite the name.
CMS (content management system). Software that lets you edit a website’s content without editing code. WordPress is a CMS. So are Shopify, Squarespace and Wix.
Dashboard (or wp-admin). The back end of your site where you log in to edit pages, add posts and change settings. Usually found at yoursite.com.au/wp-admin.
Front end. The site as visitors see it. The opposite of the dashboard.
Page. Standalone content that doesn’t change often: Home, About, Services, Contact. Pages can have parent and child pages, which is how you build a menu structure.
Post. Dated content that’s listed in order, newest first. Blog articles and news are posts. Posts have categories and tags; pages don’t.
Custom post type. A third kind of content set up for a specific purpose, such as Projects, Team Members, Locations or Listings. Useful when you have lots of items with the same structure.
Media Library. Where every image, PDF and video uploaded to the site is stored.
How the site looks
Theme. The package that controls a site’s overall design and layout. On our WordPress web design builds, the theme is a lightweight base and the real design work happens in Elementor.
Child theme. A theme that inherits everything from a parent theme but lets a developer make changes without those changes being wiped out when the parent theme updates.
Page builder. A plugin that lets you design pages visually by dragging in elements. Elementor is a page builder. So are Divi and Beaver Builder.
Block editor (Gutenberg). WordPress’s own built-in editor, which builds pages from blocks such as paragraphs, images and buttons. It’s improved a lot, but a page builder still gives more design control for most business sites.
Template. A saved layout that can be reused. In Elementor, templates control things like the header, footer, blog post layout and 404 page across the whole site.
Widget. A building block you drop onto a page, like a heading, image, button or form. The word also means the older sidebar and footer elements in classic WordPress themes, which causes some confusion.
Global colours and fonts. Settings that define your brand colours and type styles once and apply them across the site, so a change in one place updates everywhere.
Responsive. A site that adjusts its layout to fit phones, tablets and desktops. Every site should be. “Mobile view” in a builder is where you check and adjust it.
Adding features
Plugin. An add-on that gives WordPress extra features: forms, SEO tools, online shops, backups, security. There are tens of thousands. The number matters less than the quality and whether each one is still maintained.
Premium plugin. A paid plugin, usually with a yearly licence that covers updates and support. If the licence lapses, the plugin often keeps working but stops getting updates, which becomes a security problem.
Shortcode. A small piece of text in square brackets, like [contact-form], that a plugin turns into something on the page. An older approach, still common.
WooCommerce. A free plugin that turns WordPress into an online shop, with paid extensions for things like shipping rules and subscriptions.
Addresses and structure
Domain. Your website’s address, like thedesignspace.com.au. You lease it yearly from a registrar. It should be registered in your business’s name, not your developer’s.
DNS. The system that points your domain to your hosting and your email provider. Changing DNS is how a site gets moved to new hosting, and getting it wrong is how email stops working, which is why we treat it as part of business email and IT setup.
URL. The full address of a specific page, like thedesignspace.com.au/web-design/.
Slug. The last part of a URL that identifies a page. In /resources/wordpress-terms-explained/, the slug is wordpress-terms-explained. Short, readable slugs are better for people and search engines.
Permalink. The permanent URL of a page or post. In WordPress, the permalink settings decide the pattern, for example whether a post’s URL includes the date.
301 redirect. An instruction that permanently sends visitors and Google from an old URL to a new one. Essential when you rebuild a site or rename pages, or your rankings and bookmarks break.
Sitemap. A file listing all the pages you want search engines to find. SEO plugins generate one automatically.
Hosting and performance
Hosting. The server where your website’s files and database live. Cheap shared hosting is the most common cause of slow sites we see.
Server. A computer that stores your site and sends it to visitors. “The server’s down” means the site can’t be reached.
Database. Where WordPress stores your content, settings and users. The design files live separately; the words live here.
PHP. The programming language WordPress runs on. Each PHP version eventually stops receiving security fixes, so your host or developer needs to keep it current. When they say “we need to update PHP”, they mean this.
Cache. A saved copy of a page so it can be shown to the next visitor quickly, without WordPress rebuilding it from scratch. “Clear the cache” means throwing away those copies so visitors see your latest changes.
CDN (content delivery network). A network of servers around the world that store copies of your site’s files, so they load from somewhere close to the visitor. Cloudflare is a common example.
SSL certificate. What makes your site load over https with the padlock. Free certificates are standard now. If one expires, browsers show visitors a scary warning.
Uptime. The percentage of time your site is reachable. Monitoring tools check it every few minutes and alert someone when it goes down.
Looking after it
Update. A new version of WordPress, a plugin or a theme. Updates fix bugs and security holes. Skipping them is risky; applying them without checking the site afterwards is also risky.
Core. WordPress itself, as opposed to plugins and themes. “A core update” means a new version of WordPress.
Staging site. A private copy of your site where changes and big updates can be tested before they go live. Pushing from staging means copying the tested version to the live site.
Backup. A copy of your site’s files and database that can be restored if something goes wrong. A good backup is stored somewhere other than your server.
Restore. Putting a backup back in place. The real test of any backup system.
Malware. Malicious code inserted into a site by a hacker, often to send spam or redirect visitors. Usually gets in through an outdated plugin or a weak password.
User roles. Permission levels in WordPress, such as Administrator, Editor and Author. Give people the lowest role that lets them do their job.
SMTP. A proper way of sending email from your website through a mail service, rather than straight from the web server. Without it, form notifications often end up in spam or go missing.
Maintenance plan. An ongoing service where someone keeps the site updated, backed up, secure and monitored. Our guide to what a WordPress maintenance plan should include has a checklist to compare them.
Search and tracking
SEO plugin. A plugin, such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math, that helps you set page titles, meta descriptions and sitemaps.
Meta description. The short summary under your page title in Google results. It doesn’t directly affect rankings, but it does affect whether people click.
Alt text. A written description of an image for people using screen readers. Search engines also use it to understand images.
Schema (structured data). Hidden code that tells search engines specific facts about a page, like your business address, opening hours or the price of a product.
Google Analytics and Search Console. Free Google tools. Analytics shows how people use your site; Search Console shows how Google sees it and what searches you appear for.
Who owns what
Admin access. Full control of the WordPress dashboard. You should always have your own administrator login, even if someone else manages the site.
Licence keys. The codes that activate premium plugins and themes. Ask who they’re registered to. If your developer’s agency licence covers your site and you part ways, you may need your own.
Knowing the words is a start. Knowing what the site is meant to achieve is more useful, and our piece on what a small business website should actually do covers that.
If reading the ownership section made you realise you’re not sure who holds your domain or logins, our website ownership service is built for exactly that situation. You can also ask us anything here, including what your developer meant in that last email.