WordPress CMS Glossary
Glossary of terms for the WordPress Content Management System
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WordPress CMS
Akismet
Akismet is a spam filter plugin for blog comments and pings. The idea is to moderate comments automatically so that you can spend your time doing other things – it stops an average of 7.5 million pieces of spam per hour! Akismet is pre-installed on your WordPress blog, but you’ll need to activate it when […]
WordPress CMS
Block and Block Templates
Blocks are content building elements you can add via a content or page builder (such as Gutenberg or Elementor). These can include basic text and images, or be more specific like ecommerce store product carousels or a custom donation form. If you’re using a builder there will be basic blocks included, however often times you […]
WordPress CMS
Cache or Caching
A Cache or the act of Caching stores data. For websites, including WordPress sites, this typically refers to a stored, static version of your website pages. This is like taking a photo of your pages exactly as they are.
WordPress CMS
Carousel
A Carousel or Slideshow is a collection of media (which can be images, posts, products, etc.) much like a slider, but featuring multiple images (or “thumbnails”) with an interactive way to scroll or slide through the media.
WordPress CMS
Category and Tags
When you create blog posts (or posts for other sections) on your WordPress site you have the option to organize your content. To visualize, a Category is a main grouping for your posts. For example, if you visit a news blog you might see categories for “Politics” or “Technology.” Tags are more specific and often […]
WordPress CMS
CDN
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network and is a network of servers and data centers spread out around the globe. It hosts a copy of your website’s static files (like your images, CSS files, etc) and delivers them to site visitors from geographically closer servers. This can speed up your site and helps lessen the […]
WordPress CMS
Content
Your Content consists of all the posts and pages on your website. This can be text, tables, images, or anything else your add to your site. It’s essentially all the information outside of your graphic design.
WordPress CMS
CSS, HTML, PHP, JavaScript and jQuery
CSS, HTML, PHP and Javascript are all common, popular programming languages. They’re what developers use to build and design websites.
WordPress CMS
Customizer
The WordPress Customizer or Live Customizer is a visual editor where you can style or set options for your WordPress site typically according to your theme. This can include uploading a custom logo, choosing a main website accent color, creating menus, adding widgets, customizing post type settings and more. This section can be found from […]
WordPress CMS
Dashboard
The WordPress Dashboard is another way to refer to your WordPress site’s back end. And the Dashboard Menu is the vertical list of links on the left-hand side of your Dashboard.
WordPress CMS
Database
A Database is an organized collection of data, and in terms of WordPress it refers to the whole your website data. This is all your posts, comments, themes, plugins, design – everything.
WordPress CMS
Excerpt
An Excerpt is a short blurb to describe your post (or page). It’s typically used on your main blog page where a list of all your recent posts are displayed and gives readers a hint as to what your posts are about. By default WordPress will automatically use the first 55 words of your post […]
WordPress CMS
Footer
Your Footer is the last section of your website, down at the very bottom. Depending on your site design you may have multiple footer areas and often this section can be customized with widgets, menus, etc.
WordPress CMS
Front End vs Back End
You might sometimes see the words front end and back end tossed about. The Front end is the part of the website that end users (that is, site visitors) see when they visit a site.
WordPress CMS
Gallery
A Gallery is a grouping of images. When you are creating content on your WordPress site you can choose to “Add Media” where you might insert one image, video or other media file.
WordPress CMS
Gravatar
A Gravatar is an avatar (name and image) associated with your email that you can create on the main Gravatar website. Now I’m sure you’re asking, what does this have to do with WordPress? Well WordPress uses avatars for authors who write yoru blog posts, for readers when they leave comments, for customers who leave […]
WordPress CMS
Gutenberg
Gutenberg is the no-code content builder included within WordPress by default. With it you can use content “blocks” to design layouts for your posts and pages (and depending on your WordPress theme, even your header and footer sections too).
WordPress CMS
Header
Your Header is the top of your website. This usually features your logo, a navigation menu, maybe an icon for your search or a shopping cart (if your website also has a store) and possibly even a notification bar.
WordPress CMS
Host and Hosting
A Host or Web Host is a company that manages servers. To have a self-hosted website using WordPress you’ll need to purchase a Hosting plan from a reputable web host.
WordPress CMS
htaccess
htaccess is a WordPress configuration file that defines how your web server operates important aspects of your website. This includes (but is not limited to) setting a site language, enabling SSL, managing url redirects, etc.
WordPress CMS
Jetpack WordPress
Jetpack is the core WordPress all-in-one plugin that includes modules for security, website backups, site search, social links and more.