As designers, we create, implement, and analyze creative, professional websites for our clients. Even if you're exploring the process for the first time, you need to be able to explain designs and outcomes in layman's terms…
As designers, we create, implement, and analyze creative, professional websites for our clients. Even if you're exploring the process for the first time, you need to be able to explain designs and outcomes in layman's terms…
Communication: Learn a Web Developer's Lingo — post content
As designers, we create, implement, and analyze creative, professional websites for our clients. Whether you're exploring the process for the first time or need to explain designs and results in layman's terms, I've put together basic development and analytics reporting definitions to help you better understand the structure and performance of a website.
Building a Website
Here are some common web development tools and terms you may hear during the development and design of a new website:
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): The standardized language used by web developers to create websites. The latest version is HTML5.
HTML Tag: An element used to define the structure of a web page using opening (<>) and closing (</>) keystrokes.
Script Code: Script Code that allows a web browser to perform actions instead of displaying static content. The most well-known is JavaScript, with variations that can be embedded to play a video, display a Google Map, and more.
HEX: The colors used when designing a website are HEX Colors. Starting with a hashtag symbol (#) and six numerical characters, HEX describes the levels of red, green, and blue used to create that color.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): The common technique used to create the design of a website. Most recently updated to CSS3, it works with HTML to create the overall website by defining design elements such as font, size, colors, borders, and more.
Responsive Web Design: A new design wave that changes the size of a website based on the devices used to access it. For example, visiting the same website on a desktop versus a mobile device produces different outputs due to the smaller screen width and layout.
WorldWideWeb Consortium (W3C): An international organization that sets standards for websites on the World Wide Web. W3C website approval is critical for quality, accountability, accessibility, and security.
Measuring a Website
Websites are meant to be measured, and the most popular method is Google Analytics. Below are common reporting metrics used to track the success of a website:
Unique Visitors: The number of distinct visitors who visit a website within a specific time frame. For example, if Person A visits your website three times in a week, only the first visit is counted. Unique Monthly Visitors (UMV) is a common metric for determining a site's usability, popularity, and overall reach.
Page Views: The total number of pages visited within a specific time frame. This includes repeated pages, so if Person A visits the homepage, a blog post, and the homepage again, three total page views are recorded.
Pages / Visits: The average number of pages viewed in a single visit, including repeated pages. While this may seem similar to Page Views, Pages / Visit indicates an average user experience, whereas Page Views is the sum of all user visits.
Bounce Rates: The percentage of single-page visits, where Person A enters and exits the site from the same page. A site always has a bounce rate, but effective marketers and developers analyze this percentage to determine which pages are causing returns and whether the user is getting the information they need or whether the page needs improvement.
Direct, Search and Referral Traffic, Direct: traffic is when a visitor knows the exact URL of a website and types it into the search bar (e.g., www.dogucanguler.com), while search traffic is when a visitor finds a site from a keyword search (e.g., "San Diego Marketing Company"). Referral traffic is when visitors come to a site using links from other websites or platforms (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn, partner sites, and emails).
Organic and Paid Search Organic: search refers to free visits to a website based on keywords entered into a search engine. Paid search refers to visits to a website based on specific keywords or phrases that the business has identified and paid to associate with the website. Organic search results can be increased using Search Engine Optimization (SEO), while paid search is increased using Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC).
Webmaster Tools: A free Google service that reports on how search engines read a website and provides useful information about site configuration, indexing, broken links, and more. Since Webmaster Tools is primarily used by developers for web maintenance & performance, this tool should not be confused with Google Analytics.
