Websites 101: 18 Terms Every Fitness Studio Owner Should Know
Sometimes us tech/designer/internet-business types forget that most people don't spend their free time reading up on the latest digital design trends. So for those of you who would rather not spend hours behind a computer screen to learn the ins-and-outs of internet tech talk, here’s a quickrundown.
Common terms you may hear as a business owner with a website:
1. Brand
Simply put, it’s what your customer thinks of when they think of your business. Your brand is the promises you make, the visuals you use, the emotions your products evoke, how your customer service operates, the tone of your written material, even your products or services and prices themselves. It’s a short word that covers a lot of areas.
2. Brand Identity
Also known as Visual Brand, it’s all the parts of your brand that your client can see. Your logos, fonts, colors & imagery, and how these are all used together.
3. Graphic Designer
Someone who is skilled at visual communication; who can combine elements like fonts, images and illustrations into a finished products that communicate what they want it to communicate. Graphic designers use software like Adobe photoshop, illustrator or InDesign to create files for print or the web.
4. Brand Designer (or Brand Identity Designer)
A Graphic Designer who is skilled at creating foundational graphic elements for a business: logos, font & color palettes, textures, patterns, etc.
5. Web Designer
A Designer who creates the structure and look of a website. These can be static graphic files that are then taken to a developer to be made live on the internet or, in the case of Squarespace, a web designer can implement their own design on the Squarespace platform, eliminating the need for a developer.
6. Illustrator
A person who draws or digitally creates pictures. Think 'artist'. Most designers are not illustrators.
7. Developer
A programmer who can take a static picture of a website and make it into a real, working website on the internet. Some developers are also designers, but many are not.
8. Code
The languages developers use to create functioning websites, apps and computer programs. The most common types of web code are HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language: the foundation for web pages) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets: controls how that foundation looks)
9. Copywriter
A writer who specializes in writing for businesses (not to be confused with a copyright, the legal protection).
10. Visual Marketing
The photos, graphics and other visual elements you share on a day-to-day basis while marketing your business on blogs, newsletter, flyers, social media, brochures etc.
11. Domain
The address you give your website: www.yourwebsite.com
12. URL
Refers to any one of the pages within a certain domain. www.yourwebsite.com/about is a url, while www.yourwebsite.com is the domain.
13. Website Hosting
Where the source files for your website are saved and maintained so they appear live on the internet. If you have a Squarespace website, Squarespace takes care of this for you. If you’re building a website via Wordpress, you’ll need to find and purchase website hosting at a hosting company.
14. Website Platform
The tool you choose to build your website with. Squarespace, wordpress, wix, weebly, joomla are all different website platforms.
15. Templates & Themes
A starting layout & structure you can use to build your website. Squarespace calls them templates, Wordpress calls them themes.
16. Responsive Website
A website that automatically adjust to provide an optimized viewing experience on all devices regardless of screen size.
17. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
What you can do to affect when and where your content appears in search engine results.
18. Integrations
How all the software you use to run your studio works together online and off. Integrating your scheduling software and newsletter service provider with your website, for example so you only have to make changes in one place.
Got all that?! Good ;) If not, use this list as a reference whenever you need it.
Need a logo, responsive website and the tools and tutorials to implement it all in your day-to-day marketing? I can help. Check out how we can work together here.