Every term you'll meet, explained like a person would explain it.

An affiliate link is an ordinary link with your own tracking code attached, so the company on the other end knows the visitor came from you.

An API is a set of rules that lets two pieces of software talk to each other without either one needing to know how the other is built.

Astra is a lightweight WordPress theme built to stay out of the way of a page builder, and one of the most installed themes in the world.

A backup is a complete, restorable copy of your website, files and database together, stored somewhere your website isn't.

Blocksy is a fast, modern WordPress theme with a visual header and footer builder inside the Customizer, so those two areas are designed rather than configured.

A breakpoint is a screen width at which your layout is allowed to change, so the same page can look right on a phone and on a wide monitor.

Caching is keeping a ready made copy of your page so the server can hand it over immediately instead of building it again for every visitor.

A CDN is a worldwide network of servers that keeps copies of your site's files close to your visitors, so pages load fast no matter where someone is.

Code Snippets is a plugin that stores small pieces of PHP as separate, switchable entries, instead of you pasting them into your theme's functions file.

Divi is a WordPress theme and visual page builder from Elegant Themes, built around a single lifetime licence that covers every site you own.

A domain name is the human-readable address people type to reach your site, and the one asset in your setup you should never let expire.

A domain transfer moves the registration of your domain name from one registrar to another, without changing the name itself or who owns it.

Elementor is a visual page builder for WordPress that lets you design pages by dragging elements onto a live canvas and seeing the result immediately.

Email hosting is the service that runs mail at your own domain, so you can send and receive as you@yourbusiness.com rather than from a free gmail address.

An email list is the set of people who have given you permission to write to them directly, stored with an email service rather than on a platform you do not control.

FTP is a way to move files directly between your computer and your web server, outside of the WordPress dashboard.

Full Site Editing is WordPress's own way of building the header, footer and templates out of blocks, in the same editor you use for a page.

A funnel is the path a stranger takes from first hearing about you to becoming a customer, broken into steps you can look at one at a time.

Google AdSense places ads on your website or videos and pays you a share of what advertisers spend, without you ever dealing with an advertiser.

Google Analytics is a free tool that records what people do on your website, so you can see which pages they land on, how they got there and what they do next.

Gutenberg is the block editor built into WordPress, the default way you write and lay out content without installing a page builder.

A header builder is a visual tool for designing the bar at the top of every page, instead of picking from a theme's handful of preset layouts.

The hero section is the first block of a page, the part visible before anyone scrolls, where you say what this is and what to do about it.

Web hosting is the rented server space where your website's files and database actually live, plus the service that delivers them to visitors.

Image optimization is making your pictures as small as they can be in file size while still looking right, because images are usually most of what a page has to download.

IMAP is the way a mail app reads your email while leaving it on the server, so every device you own sees the same inbox.

Indexing is the moment a search engine decides to store your page in its database so that it can appear in search results at all.

JavaScript is the programming language that runs inside the browser and makes a web page respond to what visitors do.

JetEngine is a Crocoblock plugin that lets you create custom post types, custom fields and dynamic listings from the WordPress admin, without writing code.

JPEG is the compressed image format built for photographs, which throws away detail your eye is unlikely to miss in exchange for a much smaller file.

Kadence is a fast WordPress theme with its own header and footer builder and a library of starter templates you can import as a whole site.

Keyword research is finding out what your audience actually types into search, and how hard it would be for you to show up for it.

A kit is a packaged set of templates and global settings you can import into a site in one go, so a new project starts already looking like something.

A landing page is a page built to do exactly one thing, with the navigation and the distractions stripped out so the only real choice is the one you are asking for.

Lazy loading delays downloading images and videos until the visitor is about to scroll them into view.

An LMS, or learning management system, turns your website into a course platform: lessons in order, progress tracked, and access sold or granted per student.

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that lets an AI assistant connect to real tools and data instead of only generating text.

A membership site keeps some of its content behind a login, so only people who have signed up, and usually paid, can reach it.

A multilingual site serves the same content in more than one language, with a way for visitors and search engines to find the right version.

Nameservers are the servers that answer the question 'where does this domain actually point?', the switchboard between your domain and your hosting.

A navigation menu is the editable list of links WordPress lets you build and then place in your header, your footer or anywhere the theme provides a slot.

A newsletter is the email you send to your list on a regular rhythm, and the reason people stay subscribed rather than quietly forgetting who you are.

A one page website puts everything on a single scrolling page, with the menu jumping to sections instead of loading new pages.

Open Graph tags are small pieces of code that tell social platforms and chat apps exactly how your link should look when someone shares it.

An opt-in is the moment someone actively agrees to hear from you, and the small form on your site where that agreement is given.

Padding is the space inside an element, between its edge and its content. Margin is the space outside it, between it and whatever comes next.

A page builder is a plugin that lets you design WordPress pages by dragging elements around on a canvas, instead of writing HTML and CSS.

A plugin is a package of code that adds a feature to WordPress without you having to modify WordPress itself.

A query loop is a block that asks the database for a set of posts and then repeats one design for each result, so a hundred entries share a single layout.

A query string is the part of a URL after the question mark, used to pass extra information to the page.

Quick Edit is the small inline form in a WordPress list screen that lets you change a title, slug, date, status or categories without opening the post.

Rank Math is a WordPress SEO plugin that manages your titles, descriptions, sitemaps and structured data, and scores each page as you write it.

A redirect automatically sends anyone who visits one URL to a different URL, and tells search engines whether the move is permanent.

Responsive design means one website that rearranges itself to suit whatever screen it lands on, rather than separate versions for desktop and mobile.

A shortcode is a small tag in square brackets that WordPress replaces with real content when the page is displayed.

An SSL certificate encrypts the connection between a visitor's browser and your site, making the address secure and switching the padlock on.

A sticky header stays visible at the top of the screen as the visitor scrolls, so the menu and the main button are always within reach.

A taxonomy is a way of grouping content in WordPress. Categories and tags are the two built in, and you can create your own for any post type.

A template is a layout designed once and applied to many pieces of content, so every entry of a given kind looks the same without being built the same.

A theme controls how your WordPress site looks and how its templates are structured, the design layer wrapped around your content.

Uptime monitoring is a service that checks your site every few minutes from outside and tells you the moment it stops answering.

A user role is a named bundle of permissions in WordPress that decides what each person who logs in is allowed to do.

UTM parameters are tags you add to the end of a link so your analytics can tell you exactly where a visitor came from.

A variable product in WooCommerce is one product sold in several versions, such as sizes or colours, each with its own price and stock.

A video embed places a video hosted somewhere else, usually YouTube or Vimeo, inside your page, so it plays on your site without living on your server.

The viewport is the visible area of a web page inside the device's screen, the frame your layout has to work within.

A widget is a single self contained element you place into a layout, such as a heading, a button, a search box or a list of recent posts.

WooCommerce is the free plugin that turns a WordPress site into a full online store, products, cart, checkout, orders, tax and shipping.

WP-Admin is the WordPress dashboard, reached at yoursite.com/wp-admin, and because that address is the same on every WordPress site it is the most attacked page you have.

An XML import moves posts, pages and their metadata from one WordPress site into another using WordPress's own export file.

An XML sitemap is a machine-readable list of the pages on your site that you want search engines to find and index.

XML-RPC is an old WordPress interface that lets outside software post to and manage your site, and it is one of the most commonly attacked doors on a WordPress install.

Yoast is a WordPress plugin that handles the technical search groundwork and guides you while you write.

YouTube monetization is the set of ways a channel earns: ad revenue through the Partner Programme, plus sponsorships, affiliate links and whatever you sell yourself.

YouTube SEO is the work of helping the right people find your video, through the title, the thumbnail, the description and what the video itself does for the viewer.

Z-index controls which overlapping element appears in front, the stacking order of a page along its invisible depth axis.

Zapier is a service that connects apps to each other, so something happening in one can automatically make something happen in another, without any code.

A zip file is a folder compressed into one file, and it is the format WordPress expects when you upload a theme or a plugin by hand.