Glossary of terms — in plain words

How easy and clear the site feels to use. A well-planned supermarket — everything is where you expect it.

The look of the controls: buttons, fields, menus, colors, type. UX is whether it feels right; UI is how it looks.

A rough page blueprint of boxes and labels — what goes where, before colors and imagery. The floor plan before the renovation.

A detailed static picture of the future design — real colors, fonts and images, not yet clickable. The showroom photo of your site.

A clickable draft of the site used to test the flow before building. The cardboard model architects show before pouring concrete.

The site rearranging itself for any screen — phone, tablet, desktop. Water taking the shape of its vessel.

A library of ready interface elements: buttons, fields, cards in one style. A LEGO set for designers — fast and consistent.

A single rulebook of interface elements: colors, type, buttons, spacing. Every page looks like one product, and new ones assemble faster.

The way one program talks to another to exchange data. A service window: submit a request, get a ready answer — no need to enter the kitchen.

The panel where you edit texts, images and pages yourself, without a developer. The steering wheel of your website.

The system that keeps the full history of every customer: calls, emails, orders. A shared notebook for the sales team that never forgets.

The system that connects all departments — inventory, finance, orders — into one flow. A single control room instead of scattered spreadsheets.

Software you use by subscription in the browser instead of installing and maintaining it yourself. Renting an apartment instead of building a house.

The place where your site's files live so it is reachable around the clock. The rented space your store operates from.

Your site's address that people type in the browser. The street-and-number of your online store.

Connecting your site with other services so data flows automatically — payments, delivery, accounting. Pipes between systems instead of manual copy-paste.

The invisible side of the site: databases, calculations, order processing. The restaurant kitchen — guests never see it, but everything is cooked there.

Everything the visitor sees and clicks in the browser. The dining room of the restaurant: interior, menu, presentation.

A proven foundation of ready-made building blocks developers build on. Engineered panels instead of hand-making every brick.

Fast storage holding ready-made copies of pages and files. A thermos of brewed coffee — no need to brew again for every guest.

An automatic forward from an old address to a new one. A "We've moved" sign with an arrow — visitors and search engines don't get lost.

Moving a site to a new platform or server without losing data. Relocating a store to a better building with every product and the signage intact.

Publishing a new version of the site to the live server. Shipping the fresh edition to newsstands — prepared, checked, released.

An exact private copy of the site where changes are tested before going live. The dress-rehearsal stage.

Checking the product before it reaches users: tests, bug hunting, scenario checks. Factory quality control — defects must not reach the shelf.

A written commitment on service: how fast we respond and fix. A warranty card with deadlines, not a vague promise.

The share of time the site is up and running. 99.9% means less than nine hours of downtime in a whole year.

The site's ability to handle growth — more visitors, products, orders — without a rebuild. A building designed to take extra floors.

Encryption between the visitor and the site — the padlock in the address bar. A sealed envelope instead of a postcard.

A worldwide network of servers delivering your files from the one closest to each visitor. A chain of warehouses: the parcel ships from the next street over.

The internet's phone book: it turns a site name into the server address computers understand.

A website that behaves like a mobile app: icon on the home screen, offline mode, notifications — no app store needed.

An architecture where the storefront and the engine are separate and talk via API. Swap the facade without rebuilding the plant behind it.

Building a system as small independent services instead of one monolith. A food court instead of one giant kitchen: one stall down doesn't close the mall.

Google's three page-experience scores: how fast content appears, how quickly the page responds, how stable the layout is. They influence rankings.

The European data-protection law: ask consent, explain what you collect and why, delete on request.

The international guidelines for web accessibility — making the site usable for people with impaired vision, hearing or motor skills.

Stress-testing the site with simulated crowds before real ones arrive. A fire drill for Black Friday.

The first working version with just the essentials — built fast to test demand. A food truck before the restaurant.

A short work cycle of one to two weeks ending with a concrete result. Not "a house someday" — "the foundation by Friday".

Working in short cycles with constant check-ins instead of one big plan set in stone. Tailoring with fittings, not a single measurement.

A program that answers routine questions in chat around the clock. A receptionist who never sleeps.

Programs that learn from examples and handle tasks that used to need a person: writing, recognizing images, answering questions.

The service that securely moves money from the customer's card to your account. The cash register of an online store.

Filters that narrow a catalog by several attributes at once — size, color, price. Shelves that rearrange themselves to your request.

A structured check of the site against a list of criteria to find weak spots. A medical check-up for your website.

One master base for all product data: descriptions, photos, specs. A single source of truth feeding the site and marketplaces alike.

One "bus" through which company systems exchange data. A mail sorting hub: every parcel goes through one node instead of a hundred private arrangements.

Describing and automating business processes: approvals, requests, tasks flow along defined routes. An assembly line instead of "ask Mary how we usually do it".

The warehouse control system: receiving, storage, order picking. A navigator for warehouse staff — it knows where everything is and what to pick first.

A unique code for each product variant. A red T-shirt in M and the same in L are two different SKUs. Each item's passport in the warehouse.

Systems that turn a company's raw data into readable reports and charts. A translator from numbers into decisions.

Technology where software learns from examples instead of fixed rules. Show it a thousand orders — it predicts the thousand-and-first.

Building software from ready-made blocks with little to no coding. A construction kit instead of building from scratch — faster and cheaper for routine tasks.

A rented virtual server: dedicated capacity at a sensible price. Your own apartment instead of a bunk in shared hosting's dormitory.

A shield that filters malicious requests before they reach your code. A doorman who knows the burglars' tricks.

An attack flooding a site with millions of fake requests until it collapses. A crowd of fake "shoppers" blocking the entrance. Protection is a filter at the door.

A modern way to request exactly the data you need from a server — no more, no less. Ordering à la carte instead of the fixed menu.

Machine-format document exchange between companies: orders, invoices and waybills flow system-to-system without manual entry.

Devices connected to the internet: sensors, cameras, meters. Things report on themselves — the warehouse knows its stock without a stocktake.

Digital objects laid over the live camera view. Try a sofa in your own room through the phone — before buying.

Short messages from a site or app straight to the phone screen. Like SMS, but free and with an "open" button.

The international security standard for card data. If a site takes cards, data is stored and transmitted under strict banking rules.

Dependence on one provider that makes leaving costly or impossible. An apartment you can't move out of without abandoning the furniture. Good architecture keeps the door open.

The set of technologies a project is built from: languages, platforms, tools. The dish's ingredient list — it defines speed, cost and lifespan.

A pipeline that automatically tests and ships every code change. Updates travel to users on rails, not by wheelbarrow.

A second developer checking code before it reaches the product. The four-eyes rule: bugs get caught before users ever see them.

One codebase running as an app on both iPhone and Android. One master key instead of two separate builds — faster and cheaper.

An app built specifically for one platform — iPhone or Android — squeezing the most out of it. A tailored suit versus one-size-fits-all.

Search across all text at once, tolerant of typos and word forms. Finds "sneekers" even when the catalog says "sneakers".

Small notes a site keeps in your browser: language, cart, "friend or stranger". A cloakroom ticket — the site recognizes you on the next visit.

A ready product sold under your brand. Like a retail chain's own-label goods: someone else makes it, your name is on the box.

Tuning your site so search engines rank it higher. Like a well-placed storefront at the mall entrance — easier to notice, easier to walk in.

The share of visitors who did what you wanted — bought, signed up, sent a request. A hundred people walk in, five buy: that is your conversion.

How many people visit your site over a period. Like foot traffic past a shop window — the raw stream everything else depends on.

The button or phrase that tells a visitor exactly what to do next: "Get a quote", "Start free". A signpost at a fork in the road.

A single page with a single goal — nudging the visitor toward one action. A bright flyer: no clutter, just the point and a button.

The path from first visit to purchase, broken into steps. Wide at the top, narrow at the bottom — you see exactly where people drop off.

A number that shows whether things are moving in the right direction. A compass needle for the business.

How much every invested dollar brings back. Spent a hundred, earned three hundred — the investment paid off threefold.

The share of people who saw your link or ad and clicked. The percentage of passers-by who stepped inside after glancing at the window.

How much revenue one customer brings over the whole relationship. A café regular is not one coffee — it is hundreds over the years.

Selling to companies rather than individual shoppers. A wholesale depot: your client is a store that reorders monthly, not a passer-by.

The work of collecting inquiries from potential customers: ads, forms and content that bring in people ready to talk.

Showing two versions of a page to real visitors — half see one, half the other — and letting the numbers pick the winner. A taste test for your website.

Visitors who found you in search results for free, not through ads. Guests who came on a friend's recommendation, not a billboard.

A phrase people type into search when looking for what you offer. Your pages need to speak the same words your customers use.

The search engine results page — the list you see after a query. The battlefield where sites compete for the top spots.

A link to your site from another site. A recommendation: the more respected the referrer, the more trust it builds with search engines.

A file listing all pages of your site for search engines. A building directory in the lobby — nothing gets missed.

Invisible labels in the page code that tell search engines what things are: price, rating, event. They can earn richer, more eye-catching search listings.

The share of visitors who left after seeing just one page. Customers who peeked in the door and walked away.

A visual overlay showing where people click and how far they scroll. Warm zones get attention; cold zones get ignored.

Working out which channel actually earned each sale — the ad, the email, the search visit. Giving credit to the touch that did the work.

How well you keep customers coming back. Filling the bathtub matters little while the drain is open.

The share of customers who stop buying or cancel over a period. The leak you measure before you fix it.

Splitting your audience into groups by behavior and needs so each gets a relevant message. Books sorted by genre, not piled in a heap.

The site adapting to each visitor — showing what is relevant to them. A waiter who remembers your usual order.

Ads that follow people who visited but did not buy. A polite nudge: "You were looking at this yesterday."

A screen where key business numbers live as visual charts. The car's instrument panel: speed, fuel, temperature at a glance.

Promoting a business on social networks: content, followers, ads, conversations. Your storefront where people scroll.

Advertising where you pay per click, not per view. Like a taxi meter: you pay for the distance actually driven.

Revenue earned per advertising dollar. Spent $100 on ads, sold $500 worth — ROAS of five to one.

Small tags in links that reveal where a visitor came from — an email, a social post, an ad. A stamp on the ticket saying "entrance #3".

Google's counter: who came to the site, from where, what they did and where they stopped. A behavior camera — no faces, just numbers.

Google's quality bar for content: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trust. Search rewards those who prove they know their field.

Optimizing an app's store page so more people find and install it. SEO, but for the app stores.

A business snapshot across four fields: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. An honest "where we stand" map before choosing a route.

An ad audience of people who resemble your existing customers. The algorithm finds "twins" of your best buyers.

Decisions based on data, not gut feeling. Not "I think red is better" but "red brought 12% more sign-ups".

Crafting a company's image: name, logo, style, voice. What makes people recognize you at a glance and remember you after.

Winning customers with genuinely useful content: articles, guides, videos. Not "buy from us" but "here's how to solve your problem — we know this field".

A publishing schedule: what goes out, where and when — posts, articles, videos. A broadcast timetable instead of random posting.

Links between pages of your own site. Signposts inside a store: visitors and search engines easily find related sections.

Service descriptions of a page for search engines: the title and snippet shown in results. The door sign people read before walking in.

The share of followers who react to posts: likes, comments, shares. Shows whether the audience is alive or just a number.

Selling to individual consumers. A retail shop, not a wholesale depot.

All sales channels acting as one: site, app, social, physical store. A customer starts on the phone, finishes on the laptop — nothing is lost.

Delivered ready to use: built, configured, launched — you get the keys. Move-in ready, not a construction site.

What one new customer costs you: ad and sales spend divided by customers gained. LTV's counterpart: a customer should bring in more than they cost.