Glossary
Web design and Webflow terms, explained plainly
Definitions written to be understood, each ending with the practical angle a dictionary leaves out. Use them to decode a brief, a proposal, or a conversation with a developer.
Design
12 terms
Above the fold
Above the fold is the part of a web page visible without scrolling. The phrase comes from newspapers, where the top half of the front page had to sell the paper on the stand.
Read the entryBrand guidelines
Brand guidelines are the document that records how a brand identity is used: logo variants and clear space, colour values and their roles, the type scale, imagery direction and the things not to do. Also called a brand book or style guide.
Read the entryBrand identity
Brand identity is the set of decisions that make a company recognisable: the logo and its variants, colour, typography, imagery and the rules for using them. It is what the brand looks like, as distinct from what the brand is.
Read the entryDesign system
A design system is the set of reusable elements a site is built from: type scale, spacing, colours, components and the rules for combining them. It is what keeps page fifty consistent with page one.
Read the entryHero section
The hero section is the first screen of a web page: the headline, supporting line, primary action and usually an image, seen before any scrolling. It is where most visitors decide whether the page is for them.
Read the entryInformation architecture
Information architecture is the structure of a website: which pages exist, how they group, what each one is for and how a visitor moves between them. It is decided before design and determines most of what design can do.
Read the entryMobile-first
Mobile-first is the practice of designing and building the narrow-screen version of a page first, then adding complexity for wider screens, on the reasoning that constraints force priorities.
Read the entryRebranding
Rebranding is changing how a company presents itself: the name, the visual identity, the positioning, or some combination of the three. It ranges from refreshing a logo to replacing everything a market currently recognises.
Read the entryResponsive design
Responsive design is building a page so that its layout adapts to the width of the screen showing it, rather than shipping separate desktop and mobile sites. One page, every width.
Read the entryStyle guide
A style guide is the reference page or document that shows how a site's elements look and behave: headings, body text, buttons, links, form fields, colours and spacing, each in every state.
Read the entryVisual hierarchy
Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements so that the eye meets them in a deliberate order: size, contrast, spacing, colour and position tell the reader what matters most before they have read a word.
Read the entryWireframe
A wireframe is a low-detail layout of a page showing what goes where and in what order, without colour, imagery or final copy. It exists to settle structure before visual design makes structural changes expensive.
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Build & CMS
9 terms
Client-First
Client-First is a naming and structure convention for Webflow projects, published by Finsweet. It defines how classes are named, how sections are structured and how spacing is handled, so that any developer who knows it can read any site built with it.
Read the entryCMS
A CMS, or content management system, is the part of a website that lets people add and edit content without editing code. It separates what is said from how it is displayed.
Read the entryComponent
A component is a reusable block of a page, such as a card, a navigation bar or a call-to-action section, built once and placed many times. Changing the component changes every instance at once.
Read the entryDesign handoff
Design handoff is the point where a finished design, usually a Figma file, passes to whoever builds it. What survives the handoff depends on how much the file actually decides and how much it leaves to be guessed.
Read the entryDesign tokens
Design tokens are the named values a design system is built from: a colour called "surface-dark", a spacing unit called "space-md", a type size called "heading-2". Elements reference the token, not the raw value.
Read the entryHeadless CMS
A headless CMS stores and manages content but has no front end of its own. Content is delivered through an API to whatever displays it: a website, an app, a kiosk, all from the same source.
Read the entryWebflow
Webflow is a website platform that combines a visual design tool, a CMS and hosting. Sites are built visually but produce real HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and can be edited by non-developers after launch.
Read the entryWebflow CMS
Webflow CMS is the content system built into Webflow. Content is organised into collections with defined fields, and collection pages are designed once as templates that every item flows through.
Read the entryWebsite migration
A website migration is moving a site from one platform, domain or structure to another while keeping what has value: the content, the search rankings and the links other sites have already made to it.
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Conversion
10 terms
B2B website
A B2B website is a company website whose visitors are buying on behalf of an organisation rather than for themselves. That changes what it has to prove, how long the decision takes, and what counts as a conversion.
Read the entryBounce rate
Bounce rate is the share of visits in which the visitor viewed one page and left without interacting. It is often treated as a measure of page quality, which it is not.
Read the entryCall to action
A call to action, or CTA, is the element that asks the visitor to do something: book a call, request a quote, download a guide. It is the point where reading turns into a decision.
Read the entryConversion funnel
A conversion funnel is the sequence of steps between a visitor arriving and a visitor converting, drawn as a funnel because fewer people reach each successive step. It is a model for finding where people leave.
Read the entryConversion rate
Conversion rate is the share of visitors who complete a defined action: form submissions divided by visits, for example. It is the most quoted website metric and the most easily misread.
Read the entryLanding page
A landing page is a standalone page built for one audience arriving from one source, usually an advertisement or campaign, with one thing to do on it. It exists to continue the promise that brought the visitor.
Read the entryLead
A lead is a person or company that has shown interest in a way that can be followed up: an enquiry, a request, a booked call. A website's commercial job is usually to produce leads that are worth following up.
Read the entryMicrocopy
Microcopy is the small text in an interface: button labels, form hints, error messages, empty states, confirmation lines. It is the writing nobody plans and everybody reads.
Read the entrySocial proof
Social proof is evidence that other people have chosen or trusted something: testimonials, client logos, case studies, reviews, numbers of customers. It answers the question a visitor rarely asks aloud, which is whether anyone else has done this.
Read the entryValue proposition
A value proposition is the statement of what a company does, for whom, and why it is a better choice than the alternatives. On a website it usually occupies the hero headline and the sentence beneath it.
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SEO & performance
10 terms
301 redirect
A 301 redirect is a permanent forward from one URL to another. The browser and the search engine follow it automatically, and search engines transfer the old address's standing to the new one.
Read the entryAlt text
Alt text is the written alternative to an image, read aloud by screen readers and shown when the image fails to load. It describes what the image conveys for someone who cannot see it.
Read the entryCanonical URL
A canonical URL is the address a page declares as its official version, so that search engines treat duplicates and variants as one page rather than several competing ones.
Read the entryCore Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to describe how a page feels to load and use: how quickly the main content appears, how responsive the page is to input, and how much the layout shifts while loading.
Read the entryHreflang
Hreflang is a tag that tells search engines which language or regional version of a page to show to which audience. A page in English and its Polish equivalent point at each other, so each ranks for the right searchers.
Read the entryInternal linking
Internal linking is how pages on a site link to each other. It tells search engines which pages relate and which matter, and gives visitors somewhere to go next instead of leaving.
Read the entryMeta description
A meta description is the short summary of a page in its HTML head, often shown under the title in search results. It does not affect ranking directly, but it affects whether people click.
Read the entrySchema markup
Schema markup, or structured data, is machine-readable information added to a page that describes what it is: an article, a product, a business, a set of questions. It helps search engines understand content and can enable richer result displays.
Read the entryWebsite audit
A website audit is a structured review of a site against its purpose: whether it says the right things to the right people, whether it works well, and what is stopping it from producing enquiries. The output is a prioritised list of what to change.
Read the entryWebsite redesign
A website redesign is rebuilding an existing site rather than starting a new one: new positioning, structure or design applied to a site that already has content, traffic and links worth keeping.
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