The Plain-Language Web Dictionary.
Twenty web words, explained the way a neighbor would — no jargon defining jargon. For board members, volunteers, and anyone who has ever nodded along in a meeting while quietly wondering what a DNS is. Bookmark it, print it, send it to whoever needs it.
The basics
Three different things people buy together: the domain is your address (yourgroup.org), the hosting is the land the house sits on, and the website is the house. You can move the house to new land and keep the same address.
The app you look at websites with — Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox. That is all it is.
Google, mostly. The card catalog of the internet. Being findable there is a different job from having a website — related, but different.
Anything you can click that takes you somewhere else, usually colored or underlined. If clicking it surprises you, it was a badly made link — not your fault.
Someone else’s computer, professionally looked after. When your photos are “in the cloud,” they are on such a computer — usually safer than only on yours.
The system this site — and about 4 in 10 websites on earth — is built on. The frame and wiring of the house; the design goes on top.
Behind the scenes
The padlock next to a web address means the connection is scrambled so nobody can read along. Every legitimate site has one now. No padlock, no typing anything personal.
A complete spare copy of the website, kept safely elsewhere, so any mistake can be undone. A backup nobody has ever tested restoring is a hope, not a backup.
An add-on that gives a website a new ability, like a contact form. Useful — but each one needs updating, which is why a pile of old plugins is where websites rot first.
A saved snapshot of a page, shown because it is faster than rebuilding the page for every visitor. Also why you sometimes must refresh to see a change — you were looking at the snapshot.
The internet’s phone book: it translates your domain name into the actual location of your website. Changed rarely, feared widely, actually fine.
A website that rearranges itself politely for phones, tablets, and computers. Not optional: for many visitors, the phone is the only computer.
Designing so everyone can use the site — readable text sizes, real contrast, buttons that say what they do, descriptions on photos for screen readers. It helps every visitor, not just some.
Money and safety
A fake message pretending to be a real company, hoping you click and type a password. The tell is urgency. The defense is the pause: anything urgent involving money gets verified through a channel you already trust.
A second lock on an account — usually a code on your phone — so a stolen password alone is not enough. Worth having on your email above everything else.
A vault that remembers strong, different passwords for every account so you do not have to. Safer than the notebook, much safer than reusing one password.
The specialized, insured company that actually handles card numbers when someone donates or pays. Money should never live on your website itself — it lives with these people.
Any arrangement where leaving means losing your work — a site builder you cannot export from, a designer who owns your hosting. The revealing question: if we part ways, what do we keep? The right answer: everything.
The bouncer for your inbox. Occasionally over-eager — which is why “check your spam folder” solves a surprising number of mysteries.
Counting visits so you know what people read. It can be done politely (anonymous counting) or rudely (following people around the internet). Worth asking which kind your site uses.
A word you were hoping to find?
Ask, and it gets added — that is how dictionaries grow. And if the whole subject makes your shoulders tense, that is exactly what patient help is for.