The web, no-code, SEO & AI glossary

Typography is the art of arranging type. Typeface classes, web fonts, hierarchy, readability and accessibility explained clearly with examples.

Open source is software with public, modifiable source code. Licences, permissive vs copyleft, benefits and limits explained clearly with examples.

DNS translates domain names into IP addresses. Record types, propagation, TTL and common pitfalls explained clearly, with practical examples.

Fluid typography scales text smoothly with the screen using CSS clamp(), instead of jumping at breakpoints. The formula, accessibility, and a fluid scale.

A container query applies CSS based on a parent's size, not the screen. How it works, container versus media query, and container query units.

Viewport units (vw, vh, vmin, vmax, dvh) size elements relative to the screen. The units, the mobile 100vh problem, and best practices.

The rem is a CSS unit relative to the root font size, so 1rem is usually 16px. rem versus em versus px, and why rem improves accessibility.

The aspect-ratio CSS property sets an element's width-to-height proportion. How it works, why it reduces layout shift (CLS), and the old padding hack.

CSS variables (custom properties) store a value once and reuse it across a stylesheet. How to declare them with var(), scope, and versus Sass variables.

The CSS box model describes every element as content, padding, border and margin. The four layers, content-box versus border-box, and margin collapsing.

A breakpoint is the screen width at which a layout changes. Common breakpoints, content-first versus device-first, and the mobile-first approach.

A CSS transition animates a property from one value to another over a duration. The four transition properties, transition versus animation, best practices.

The z-index is a CSS property that sets the stacking order of overlapping elements. How stacking contexts work and why z-index sometimes fails.

A CSS animation changes an element's styles over time with keyframes. How it works, animation versus transition, and performance best practices.

A media query applies CSS styles only when conditions like screen width are met. How it works, common breakpoints and the mobile-first approach.

What ROI (return on investment) means, the formula to calculate it, why it matters and its limits for marketing and web projects.

What Git is, how distributed version control works, key concepts (commit, branch, merge) and how Git differs from GitHub.

What a KPI (key performance indicator) is, how it differs from a metric, examples by function and how to choose the right ones.

What machine learning is, how it works, its main types (supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement) and how it powers AI features and automation.

What internal linking is, why it matters for SEO, and best practices to structure links between your pages so Google crawls and ranks them better.

What a brand style guide is, what it contains (logo, colours, type, tone) and why it keeps your design system consistent across every touchpoint.

A typography scale is a set of font sizes related by a consistent ratio, creating clear hierarchy and harmony across all text on a site.

A grid system is an invisible framework of columns and spacing that aligns content, giving a layout structure, rhythm, and consistency across screens.

A color palette is the defined set of colors a brand or interface uses, chosen to work together, express identity, and stay accessible and consistent.

A moodboard is a curated set of images, colors, and type that captures a project's intended look and feel, aligning everyone on direction before design.

A prototype is an interactive preview of a product that simulates how it looks and behaves, used to test ideas and gather feedback before any code is written.

Design tokens are named variables storing visual decisions such as color, spacing, and font size, so a design stays consistent and updates in one place.

A featured snippet is a highlighted answer box at the top of Google results that extracts a concise answer from a ranking page, often called position zero.

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust, the quality signals Google uses to assess content, especially on sensitive topics.

Noindex is a robots meta directive that tells search engines to keep a page out of their index, so it never appears in search results.

Crawl budget is the number of URLs a search engine will crawl on your site in a given period, driven by crawl rate limit and crawl demand.

A 301 redirect permanently points one URL to another, passing users and most ranking signals to the new address. It is the standard way to move or merge pages.

A canonical tag (rel=canonical) tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of duplicate pages, so ranking signals consolidate on one URL.

Open Graph is a set of meta tags that control how a page looks when shared on social media: its title, description and preview image.

Structured data is standardised code (often Schema.org) added to a page so search and AI engines understand its meaning and can show rich results.

Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines which language and region a page targets, so they serve the right version to each user.

AI Overviews are Google's AI-generated summaries at the top of search results that answer a query directly and cite the sources they draw from.

Robots.txt is a text file at a site's root that tells search engine crawlers which pages or sections they may or may not access.

A hero section is the large, prominent block at the top of a web page, combining a headline, supporting text and a call to action.

llms.txt is a proposed Markdown file at a site's root that gives AI models a clean, curated guide to its most important content.

Schema markup is structured data added to a web page's code that helps search engines understand its content and can enable rich results.

Glassmorphism is a UI design style using frosted, semi-transparent panels with background blur, soft borders and layering to create a sense of depth.

CSS Grid is a two-dimensional CSS layout system that positions elements into rows and columns, giving precise control over page structure.

Flexbox is a CSS layout model that arranges elements in a single row or column, distributing space and aligning them flexibly and responsively.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the practice of increasing the share of visitors who take a desired action, using data, testing and design.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) makes an AI fetch relevant documents first, then generate an answer grounded in that source content.

A workflow is the defined sequence of steps that takes a task from start to finish, showing who does what, in which order, and under which conditions.

A project brief (in French, cahier des charges) is the document that defines a project before it is built: its goals, scope, functional and technical

A favicon is the small icon a browser shows beside a page title in tabs, bookmarks and history, a tiny but vital branding cue for any website you build.

A REST API is a widely used way for software to talk to software over the web, using standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) on addressable resources

Responsive design is the practice of building a website so its layout adapts smoothly to any screen size, from phone to desktop.

A chatbot is software that holds a conversation with people in natural language, by text or voice, to answer questions or complete tasks.

The front end is the part of a website or app that runs in the user's browser and that people see and interact with: layout, text, images, buttons and

The back end is the part of a website or app that runs on the server and stays invisible to users: the database, business logic, authentication and APIs.

WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get: an editor or builder where the content you edit on screen looks exactly like the final published result.

A website mockup is a static, high-fidelity visual of a page that shows its final look: layout, colours, typography, images and content, before it is built.

Low-code is a way to build software mostly visually with minimal hand-written code, using drag-and-drop tools while keeping the option to add custom code.

A headless CMS stores and manages content but has no built-in front end, delivering it through an API to any website, app or device for maximum flexibility.

A progressive web app (PWA) is a website built to behave like a native mobile app: it can be installed on a home screen, work offline and send

SEA (Search Engine Advertising) is paid advertising on search engines: buying ads that appear at the top of results for chosen keywords, usually paying per

Web accessibility means designing and building websites so that everyone, including people with disabilities, can perceive, understand and use them.

Web hosting is the service that stores a website's files on a server and makes them available on the internet, so anyone can reach the site through its

Brand guidelines are a reference document defining how a brand looks and speaks: logo, colours, typography, imagery, tone and rules for consistent use.

A breadcrumb is a small navigation trail (Home > Category > Page) showing where a page sits in a site, helping both users and search engines.

A meta description is the short HTML summary of a page shown under its title in search results, written to earn clicks (ideally 120 to 155 characters).

Prompt engineering is the craft of writing clear, structured instructions so an AI model returns accurate, useful and repeatable results.

The SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is the page a search engine returns for a query, mixing organic links, ads and rich features.

An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the simplest version of a product that delivers real value to early users, built to test a core assumption with the least

Automation uses software to run business tasks and workflows with little human effort: a trigger fires, then actions move data between your apps for you.

A webhook is an automated HTTP request that one system sends to another the moment an event happens, delivering event data to a preset URL.

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a system that centralizes a company contacts and interactions so teams can track leads, manage a sales pipeline,

A web application is software that runs inside a browser instead of being installed, letting users log in, enter data and interact with a system in real time.

A database is a structured store of data that lets an application save, find, and update information reliably.

SaaS, or Software as a Service, delivers software over the cloud: users access it through a browser for a recurring subscription instead of installing and

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a defined contract that lets one software system request data or actions from another.

A sitemap is a file listing a website's important URLs to help search engines discover and crawl them, improving how efficiently your pages get indexed.

Netlinking, called link building in English, is the strategy of acquiring quality backlinks to your site to build authority and improve your SEO rankings.

A backlink is an inbound link from another website pointing to yours; search engines read them as votes of confidence that raise your authority and rankings.

A design system is a single source of truth that pairs reusable UI components with design tokens, guidelines, and documentation.

UI design is the craft of shaping the visual and interactive surface of a product: colors, typography, buttons, icons, spacing and states.

UX design is the practice of shaping how people experience a product so it is useful, usable and satisfying, through research, user flows and testing.

A wireframe is a low-fidelity structural blueprint of a page or screen that maps layout, hierarchy and function using simple boxes and placeholder text.

A domain name is the human-readable address of a website, such as example.com, that maps to a server's IP through DNS so people reach a site by name.

A landing page is a standalone web page built for a single conversion goal, such as a signup, demo request or purchase.

Core Web Vitals are three metrics defined by Google to measure the real experience of a page: LCP for how fast the main content shows, CLS for visual

SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is the set of practices that improve a site's visibility in the organic results of search engines like Google.

GEO, Generative Engine Optimization, is the set of techniques for getting cited by generative engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews.

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard from Anthropic that lets AI agents connect to external tools and data like a CMS, database or APIs.

Client-First is a naming and structure system for Webflow by Finsweet that sets clear rules for class names and elements to keep projects clean and scalable.

In Webflow, a CMS Collection is a data structure that groups content of the same type: articles, team members, projects.

Webflow is a no-code website building platform combining a visual editor, CMS and hosting, letting you design in the browser and export clean HTML and CSS.

No-code is an approach that lets you build sites, apps and automations through visual interfaces, without writing code line by line.

A CMS, or content management system, is a tool that separates content (text, images, articles) from how it looks.