WEBSITE & MARKETING GLOSSARY
Making sense of website & marketing jargon
Wondering what on earth a meta description is, why your website needs hosting, or what SEO actually means? You’ll find the common marketing jargon translated into normal human language here.
You’re not supposed to know all this stuff
Websites and marketing come with a ridiculous number of terms that professionals often seem to assume others already understand. This is a plain-English guide to some of the ones you’re most likely to come across when setting up and marketing your private practice.
You don’t need to become an expert in any of them – but knowing what they mean can make it much easier to understand what’s happening with your website and what you’re actually paying someone to do.
Website basics
Your website’s address on the internet — for example, saltypebblescreative.co.uk. You usually pay to renew your domain each year.
The service that stores your website and makes it available online. Your domain is the address; hosting is essentially where your website lives.
A website platform used to build and manage websites. WordPress itself is free, although you’ll usually pay separately for hosting and may also pay for themes, plugins or other tools.
A tool that lets you create and edit the layout of website pages without having to code everything yourself. Elementor and Spectra are examples.
An add-on that gives a WordPress website extra features or functionality, such as contact forms, security, backups or SEO tools.
A website that adjusts its layout to work properly on different screen sizes, including desktop, tablet and mobile.
Something that encourages a visitor to take the next step, such as Book a consultation, Get in touch or Find out more. It might be a button, link or piece of text.
The security technology that encrypts information sent between a visitor and your website. It’s also what gives your website the https at the beginning of its address and the padlock/security indicator in browsers.
A stored version of parts of your website that helps pages load more quickly. It can also be why you make a change to your website and then wonder why the old version is still showing.
The menus and links that help visitors move around your website and find what they need.
SEO & search
The process of improving your website so search engines can better understand it and are more likely to show it to people searching for what you offer.
The words or phrases people type into a search engine when they’re looking for something – for example, ADHD counsellor in Exeter or online anxiety therapy.
What someone is actually trying to find or do when they type something into Google. Understanding this helps you create pages and content that genuinely answer what they’re looking for.
The title Google and other search engines can use for your page in search results. It helps both people and search engines understand what the page is about.
The short description that may appear underneath your page title in search results. It gives people an idea of what’s on the page and can encourage them to click through.
A written description of an image that helps people using screen readers understand what’s shown. It can also give search engines useful context about the image and page.
The process of Google discovering and adding a webpage to its searchable index. If a page isn’t indexed, it generally can’t appear in Google’s organic search results.
A file that gives search engines a list of important pages on your website, helping them discover and understand its structure.
A link to your website from another website. Relevant, trustworthy backlinks can help search engines see your website as more established and credible.
Code added to a website that gives search engines extra information about what a page contains – for example, that something is a person, business, service or article. It can help search engines understand your content more clearly, but it isn’t a magic shortcut to higher rankings or appearing in AI-generated results.
A framework Google uses when assessing the quality and reliability of content. For a therapist’s website, things like clearly explaining your qualifications and experience, being transparent about who you are, and providing accurate, trustworthy information can all help demonstrate these qualities.
Google’s term for topics that could significantly affect someone’s health, finances, safety or wellbeing. Mental health content can fall into this category, which means accuracy, trustworthiness and appropriate expertise are particularly important.
Google & local search
The free business listing that can appear in Google Search and Google Maps. It lets you provide information such as your services, location or service area, opening hours, contact details, photos and reviews.
SEO focused on helping your business appear when people search for services in a particular area – for example, counsellor in Exeter. Your website and Google Business Profile can both play a part.
The map and group of local business results that Google may show for searches with local intent. Which businesses appear depends on factors including relevance, distance and prominence.
Your basic business contact information. Keeping these details accurate and consistent across your website, Google Business Profile and other online listings helps avoid confusion for both people and search engines.
A free Google tool that helps you see how Google is finding and understanding your website, including which searches are bringing people to it, whether pages are being indexed and whether Google has spotted certain technical problems.
A tool for understanding how people use your website – for example, how visitors arrived, which pages they looked at and what they did while they were there.
The process Google uses to confirm that you genuinely own or manage the business you’re creating a Google Business Profile for. The verification method Google offers can vary.
The geographical area where a business provides its services. On Google Business Profile, service areas are particularly relevant to businesses that travel to their customers rather than serving them at a publicly displayed business address.
An online mention or listing of your business details, often on directories or other websites. Accurate listings can help establish information about your business and its location.
A public rating and comment left on a Google Business Profile. Reviews can influence local visibility and potential clients’ decisions, but therapists need to consider professional ethics, confidentiality and the implications of asking clients to publicly identify themselves before actively requesting them.
Design & print
Extra artwork that extends beyond the finished edge of a printed design. It allows the printer to trim the page without leaving an accidental white edge.
Small lines added to a print-ready file to show the printer exactly where the finished design should be trimmed.
A measure commonly used when talking about print resolution. For printed materials, images usually need to be high enough resolution to stay clear and sharp rather than looking blurry or pixelated.
A colour system used for printing, based on cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks. Colours can look slightly different in print from how they appear on your screen.
A colour system used for screens, based on red, green and blue light. It’s generally used for digital designs rather than files intended for professional printing.
A PDF prepared with the correct size, resolution and other settings needed by a printer, so it should be ready to send for production without further design work.
A design created so you can change elements yourself afterwards – for example, updating wording, fees or contact details in Canva without having to redesign the whole thing.
The visual and verbal elements that help make your practice recognisable and consistent, such as your colours, fonts, logo, imagery and tone of voice. You don’t necessarily need a full professional brand identity before creating useful marketing materials.
A set of instructions for how your branding should be used – usually covering things such as colours, fonts, logos and imagery – so that everything you create has a consistent look.
The amount of detail contained in an image. An image that looks perfectly fine on a website can still be too low-resolution for printing at a larger size.
Still not sure what you need?
You don’t need to know your schema from your sitemap before getting in touch. Tell me what you’re trying to do, what isn’t working, or what you’d like some help with, and we can work out the rest from there.