Whether you are designing your own website or someone is doing it for you, it is really helpful to know the words for the different parts of a webpage.
If you are running into difficulties, you can Google for help if you know the word for what you are talking about.
It is a lot easier for your designer to give you want you want if you are both using the same words for things.
For example, I worked on a large project where weeks were put into creating the forms the client asked for. Only to find out that when he said form, he meant table. I have no idea how much it cost him. This was a large web design firm with about 15 people wasting 2 weeks. (A table presents information in rows and columns. It is just the way the information looks. It doesn’t,at least in this case, do anything. A form has fields to put in information. It often stores the information in a database.)
Home Page: The home page is the first page of your site if people put in your website address. It should be informative. People should be able to tell what your site is about with a glance.
Landing Page: A landing page is the first page people see if they reach your site from a link. Advertising can go to a landing page that is more specific than the home page. The landing page is more targeted and persuasive.
Top of Home Page
These are some of the things you might find on a home page. Not everything is required.
Top Bar: This is where you can put some of your navigation.
Logo: The logo or page title should link back to the home page.
Menu: Organized links to the pages on your site.
Top Menu: The menu at the top of the page should have links to the most important pages.
Hamburger Menu: The little hamburger menu icon lets people know that when they click, they will see the menu.
Amazon puts a lot into the top bar. A search box, language preference (this is at the bottom of every page, too), link to your account and shopping cart.
Image: Images are photos or other graphics.
Hero Image: The hero image is a big image, usually on the home page or a landing page.
Slider: A slider is like a little slide show of images. The large arrow on Amazon’s home page allows you to go from banner to banner on the slider.
Banner: A large image or graphic, usually with a call to action. Sometimes sliders rotate banners.
Call To Action: What you want the visitor to do next. Read more, call your business, put an item into their shopping cart…
Featured Image: The featured image is the big image on a secondary page or post. It can be shown with a blurb from a page or post on a home page, or search page.
Blog Post Excerpt: Many blog home pages shows a little bit of the beginning of posts followed by Read More linking to the post.
Introduction: The first words on each page should make you want to read more. These are likely the words that will show up when the page or post is excerpted in search results.
Sidebar: Sidebars can be on the right or left side of the page. Or on both sides.
Thumbnail: Very small image
Fold: The fold is where what you see on the screen ends. The most important things you want people to see should be “above the fold.” People should not have to scroll down to know the point of your web page. Anything less important can be “below the fold.”
The fold is not the same on every monitor, but the closer things are to the top of a page, the more likely they are to be above the fold.
Top of a Secondary Page
Top Bar: This blog only has the site name in the top bar. It is a link back to the home page.
Top Menu: This WordPress Theme shows a hamburger menu in mobile view and this menu on a PC.
Content: The words and pictures on each page
Content includes text, images and anything else you put on a page.
Copy: Copy is the words for your website.
Sidebar: This Theme allows you to put anything you want in the sidebar. This blog has a search box and a list of post categories as a secondary menu.
Search Box: Most WordPress Themes include a search box. People love a search box. People will put what they are looking for into the search box even if there is a giant photo and a flashing button with the same thing they are searching for.
Secondary Menu: You can put more menus into the sides and the bottom of the page to reach less important pages.
Title: The page title also shows up in search results and at the top of the browser window.
Featured Image: The featured image is the big image on a secondary page or post. It can be shown with a blurb from a page or post on a home page, or search page.
Bottom of a Web Page
Once a site visitor gets to the bottom of the page, you want to give them some options on where to go next.
Ribbon Menu: Microsoft Office went to a Ribbon user interface in 2007. This menu looks like a ribbon, but it just links directly to pages that are logical next pages from this page.
Footer: If you have to have a legal disclaimer or declaration on every page, this is the place for it. Every page should have your copyright information.
Return to Top Link: If the page is long, it’s nice to have a link back to the top of the page. A jump link is a link that lets you move from spot to spot on a web page.
Contact Information: If you want to be contacted, and most businesses do, your contact information should be prominent on every page. It should be obvious in the footer.
Branded Footer Link or Site Credit: The very last thing on a webpage is often a banner or text link crediting the site designer or WordPress Theme designer.
Authorship Credit. Part of our “payment” on some websites is authorship credit. “Authorship credit in the name of the Designer shall appear on the Web Site in the meta tag and page bottom along with a text or banner link to the Designer’s web site. If Client alters the Web Site design, the Designer shall have the right to have Designer’s name removed from the Web Site.”