Glossary: website terms in plain language
The words you come across when you have a website made, briefly explained. Where an article goes deeper into a term, the link is included.
- AIO
- AI optimisation: setting up your site so that AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google's AI answers understand it and can cite it as a source. Read What is AIO?
- Alt text
- A short description of an image in the page's code. A screen reader reads it aloud, and a search engine knows what is in the photo.
- Canonical
- A line in the code that says what the real address of a page is. That way a search engine doesn't count two addresses with the same content as two pages.
- CMS
- Content management system: the admin area where you change texts, blogs or products yourself, without code. Read What is a CMS, and do you need one?
- Core Web Vitals
- Three Google measurements of how a page feels: how quickly the largest content appears (LCP), how quickly the page responds to a tap (INP) and whether content shifts while loading (CLS). Read How fast should a website load on a phone?
- DNS
- The address book of the internet. The DNS settings of your domain name say where your website is and which server your email arrives at.
- Domain name
- The address of your site, such as yourbusiness.nl. Make sure it is in the name of your own business. Read Is your domain name in your own name?
- Structured data
- Extra lines in the code that tell search engines in a fixed format who you are: name, town, opening hours, prices. The conventions for this are on schema.org.
- Google Business Profile
- Your free listing in Google Search and Google Maps, with address, opening hours, photos and reviews. Read Setting up your Google Business Profile properly
- Hosting
- The place where your website lives and from where it is sent to visitors. With us, hosting is included in the monthly fee. Read Hosting more expensive or down?
- HTTPS and SSL certificate
- The padlock in the address bar: the connection between visitor and site is encrypted. Without HTTPS the browser shows a warning.
- iDEAL
- The Dutch way of paying online through your own bank. In an online shop a payment provider such as Mollie handles this. Read more under online shops.
- IMAP
- The way your email program fetches your mail from the server, so your phone and computer show the same thing. Read Setting up your email
- Indexing
- Adding a page to a search engine. A page that is not indexed cannot be found. In Google Search Console you can see which pages are included.
- IndexNow
- A way to tell search engines straight away that a page is new or has changed. Bing uses it; for Google you request indexing in Search Console.
- llms.txt
- A text file on your site with an overview for AI assistants: what is where, in plain text. The proposal is on llmstxt.org; ours is at /llms.txt.
- MX record
- The line in the DNS that says which mail server receives the email for your domain. Set it up wrongly and your email arrives nowhere.
- One-pager
- A website of one page with everything below each other. Enough for many freelancers and small businesses; with us that is the Start package, from €249 (excl. VAT).
- Plugin
- An extension for WordPress or another system, often made by another party. Every plugin needs updating. Read WordPress or a website without plugins?
- Responsive
- A site that adapts to the screen: large and readable on the phone, not a shrunken desktop page. In our research among 2,490 business websites, 7.5% was not made for this (September 2026).
- SEO
- Search engine optimisation: setting up your site so that Google understands it and can show it for the right searches. Read SEO and AIO
- Sitemap
- A list of all the pages on your site for search engines, usually at /sitemap.xml. Ours is at /sitemap.xml.
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC
- Three DNS settings that show that email sent on behalf of your domain really comes from you. Without them your email ends up in spam more quickly. Read Moving your website without email downtime
- Theme
- The ready-made design of a WordPress site. Like a plugin, a theme needs updates.
- Accessibility
- A site that also works for people who see poorly, use a screen reader or only use the keyboard. Read Is your website accessible?
- Transfer code
- The code you use to move a domain name to another provider. You request it from your current provider; it is also called an authorisation code.
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