Reference

Web Design Glossary

Plain-English definitions for Bootstrap 5, HTML templates, CSS layout, and front-end development terms.

A

Above the Fold

Above the fold refers to the portion of a web page visible without scrolling. The term originates from newspaper printin…

A/B Testing

A/B testing (also called split testing) is a controlled experiment where two versions of a web page, email, or element (…

B

Bootstrap 5

Bootstrap 5 is a free, open-source CSS and JavaScript framework used to build responsive, mobile-first websites. Release…

Bootstrap Grid

The Bootstrap grid system is a responsive, 12-column layout framework built on CSS flexbox. It uses a series of containe…

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a secondary navigation element that shows users their current location within a website's hierarchy — ty…

C

CSS Flexbox

CSS Flexbox (Flexible Box Layout) is a CSS layout model that makes it easy to align and distribute space among items in …

CSS Grid

CSS Grid Layout is a two-dimensional layout system that lets you create complex web layouts by defining both rows and co…

Call to Action (CTA)

A call to action (CTA) is a design element — typically a button or link — that prompts users to take a specific, desired…

CSS Framework

A CSS framework is a pre-built library of CSS (and often JavaScript) that provides a foundation for web development — in…

Canvas Template

Canvas Template is a premium Bootstrap 5 HTML template created by SemiColonWeb, available on ThemeForest (Envato Market)…

Canonical URL

A canonical URL is the preferred version of a web page URL that you designate as the 'master' version when multiple URLs…

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of real-world performance metrics defined by Google that measure the user experience of a web …

Colour Contrast

Colour contrast in web design refers to the difference in luminance between a foreground colour (typically text) and its…

CSS Custom Properties (Variables)

CSS custom properties — commonly called CSS variables — are entities defined by CSS authors that contain specific values…

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a geographically distributed network of servers that caches and delivers web content…

Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action — signing up, purchasing, downloadin…

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers that cache content closer to e…

CSS Animation

CSS animation is a native browser feature that lets developers create smooth visual transitions and motion effects on HT…

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of search impressions that result in a click. CTR = clicks / impressions. A l…

CSS Media Query

A CSS media query is a conditional rule defined in the CSS3 Media Queries specification (W3C) that applies styles only w…

CSS Gradient Background

A CSS gradient background is a programmatically generated image created entirely in CSS using functions like linear-grad…

D

Dark Mode

Dark mode is a display setting that uses a dark (typically near-black) background with light-coloured text, replacing th…

Dwell Time

Dwell time is the duration a user spends on a webpage after clicking through from a search engine results page (SERP) be…

E

ETags

ETags (Entity Tags) are HTTP response headers used for web caching and conditional requests. An ETag is a unique identif…

Entity SEO

Entity SEO is the practice of optimizing web content around semantically defined entities — people, places, organization…

F

Front-End Development

Front-end development is the discipline of building the client-side (user-facing) portion of websites and web applicatio…

Favicon

A favicon (short for 'favourite icon') is the small icon associated with a website, displayed in browser tabs, bookmark …

F-Pattern Layout

The F-Pattern Layout is a web design approach modeled after eye-tracking research showing that users scan web pages in a…

G

Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) is a free web analytics service provided by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, user b…

Gzip Compression

Gzip is a file compression format that reduces the size of text-based resources (HTML, CSS, JS) sent from your server. E…

H

HTML Template

An HTML template is a pre-written HTML file (or collection of files) that provides a ready-made structure for a web page…

Hero Section

A hero section is the large, prominent area at the top of a web page — the first thing visitors see when they land on th…

HTTP/2 vs HTTP/3

HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 are modern web protocols that replace HTTP/1.1. HTTP/2 enables multiplexing (multiple requests over on…

Hreflang Tag

Hreflang Tag is a web development concept relevant to modern HTML, CSS, and JavaScript workflows. Understanding Hreflang…

I

Internal Linking

Internal linking is the practice of hyperlinking from one page of a website to another page on the same domain. Unlike e…

J

JavaScript

JavaScript (JS) is a lightweight, interpreted programming language that runs in web browsers (and, via Node.js, on serve…

K

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases people type into search engines when looking for in…

L

Landing Page

A landing page is a standalone web page designed with a single, focused objective — to convert visitors into leads, cust…

Lazy Loading

Lazy loading is a performance technique that defers the loading of non-critical resources (typically images and iframes)…

Local SEO

Local SEO optimises a website to appear in local search results when users search for products or services in a specific…

M

Meta Tags

Meta tags are snippets of HTML code placed in the `<head>` section of a web page that provide metadata — information abo…

Mobile-First Design

Mobile-first design is a strategy where web design and development begins with the smallest screen (mobile phones) and p…

O

Open Graph

Open Graph (OG) is a protocol developed by Facebook that enables web pages to become rich objects in social media. By ad…

P

Page Speed

Page speed refers to how quickly a web page loads and becomes usable for visitors. It's measured by multiple metrics — T…

R

Responsive Design

Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach to web development where a website's layout and content automatically adapt t…

Robots.txt

Robots.txt is a plain text file placed at the root of a website (e.g. https://example.com/robots.txt) that provides inst…

Render-Blocking Resources

Render-blocking resources are third-party files — primarily CSS stylesheets and synchronous JavaScript — that the browse…

REST API

REST (Representational State Transfer) API is an architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems, defined by Roy …

S

Semantic HTML

Semantic HTML is the practice of using HTML elements that convey meaning about the content they contain — not just visua…

Single-Page Application (SPA)

A single-page application (SPA) is a web application that loads a single HTML document and dynamically updates content u…

Schema Markup

Schema markup (also called structured data) is code added to your web pages — typically as JSON-LD in a `<script>` tag —…

Sass / SCSS

Sass (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) is a CSS preprocessor that extends standard CSS with programming features: var…

SSL / HTTPS

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) — now technically its successor TLS (Transport Layer Security) — is an encryption protocol th…

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the practice of improving a website's visibility in organic (unpaid) search engine r…

Structured Data & Schema Markup

Structured data (Schema markup) is formatted JSON-LD code added to web pages to help search engines understand the conte…

T

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that provides low-level, single-purpose CSS classes — called utilities — t…

U

UI/UX Design

UI (User Interface) design is the visual design of a digital product — the look of buttons, typography, colours, icons, …

V

Version Control (Git)

Version control is a system that records changes to files over time, allowing you to recall specific versions, see who c…

W

Website Builder

A website builder is a tool or platform that enables users to create websites without writing code from scratch. Website…

Wireframe

A wireframe is a low-fidelity, schematic representation of a web page or app screen that shows the structure and layout …

Web Design

Web design is the process of conceptualising, planning, and creating the visual layout, structure, and user experience o…

Web Accessibility (WCAG)

Web accessibility (often abbreviated a11y) is the practice of designing and building websites that can be used by everyo…

Web Typography

Web typography is the practice of selecting, sizing, and styling text on websites to ensure readability, visual hierarch…

Web Hosting

Web hosting is a service that stores your website's files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, databases) on servers connecte…

WordPress

WordPress is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) that powers approximately 43% of all websites on the in…

X

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a file (typically at /sitemap.xml) that lists the URLs on your website, helping search engines like Go…

Z

z-index

z-index is a CSS property that controls the vertical stacking order of overlapping HTML elements on a page. It only work…

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