BUILDGIN
Above the fold Design
Whatever a visitor sees before scrolling. On a phone that is roughly the first screen and a half.
Why it matters This is the part that has to load fast. Our build target is under 900 KB for everything above the fold.
Buildgin / Resources / Glossary
Every word they will use, in plain English.
49 terms you will meet on a website quotation or in a vendor call. Each one says what it means and what it actually changes for a business like yours. If a vendor uses a word that is not here, it is fair to ask them to explain it.
Alt text Content
A written description of an image, held in the code rather than shown on screen.
Why it matters Screen readers read it aloud and search engines use it to understand the picture. Without it, an image is a blank to both.
Analytics Measurement
Software that records who visited, which pages they opened and where they arrived from.
Why it matters If nobody has ever opened yours, you are guessing about what the site does. Analytics history also cannot be recovered once lost.
Backlink Search
A link from somebody else’s website to yours.
Why it matters Genuine ones from trade bodies and customers help. Bought link packages are a risk and we would leave them alone.
Bounce rate Measurement
The share of visitors who arrive and leave without going anywhere else.
Why it matters A high rate on a product page usually means the page did not answer the question they arrived with.
Cache Technical
A stored copy of your page, kept so it loads faster next time.
Why it matters It is also why you sometimes see an old version of your own site after a change. Caching is usually the answer to why did nothing update.
Canonical URL Search
The version of a page you have declared to be the real one when several addresses show the same content.
Why it matters Without it, search engines can split the credit for one page across three addresses, and none of them rank properly.
CDN Technical
A network of servers in different places that serve copies of your site from whichever one is closest.
Why it matters Matters more if you sell outside India. A server in Mumbai serving a buyer in Mumbai is already fast.
CMS Platform
Content management system. Software that lets somebody edit the site without touching code. WordPress is the common one.
Why it matters Only worth its maintenance cost if somebody genuinely publishes regularly. If the honest answer to who edits this is nobody, you are paying for a login and a security exposure.
Core Web Vitals Performance
Google’s three measurements of whether a page is pleasant to use: how fast the main content appears, whether the layout jumps, and how quickly it responds to a tap.
Why it matters They feed into rankings, and more importantly they measure something a buyer actually experiences.
Crawler Search
The automated program that reads your pages so a search engine can index them. Also called a bot or a spider.
Why it matters If a crawler cannot read something, it does not exist as far as search is concerned. That includes anything inside an image or a PDF.
CSS Technical
The code that controls how a site looks. Colours, spacing, type, layout.
Why it matters Worth knowing only because vendors quote for it separately. It is the styling layer, not the content.
DNS Infrastructure
The system that points your domain name at the server your site lives on.
Why it matters When a site goes down after a move, DNS is the usual culprit. Know who controls yours.
Domain Infrastructure
Your web address. buildgin.com is a domain.
Why it matters It should be registered in your company’s name, not your vendor’s. Roughly a third of the companies we audit do not control their own.
Favicon Design
The small icon shown in the browser tab.
Why it matters Trivial, except that its absence is one of the fastest signals that a site was never finished properly.
Featured snippet Search
The direct answer Google sometimes shows in a box above the normal results.
Why it matters You only get one if a page answers the question directly, in a sentence or two, near the top of a section.
Generative engine optimisation AI search
Making a business legible to AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Sometimes called GEO or answer engine optimisation.
Why it matters Most of it is ordinary good practice with a new name. Expect to be quoted for it separately, at a premium.
Hosting Infrastructure
The server your website actually lives on, and the monthly bill for it.
Why it matters Ask where the server is, how often it is backed up, and how you would restore it. Get the answers in writing.
Hreflang Technical
A tag telling search engines which language or country a page version is meant for.
Why it matters Only relevant if you genuinely run more than one language. A translate widget does not count.
HTTPS Security
The encrypted version of a web connection. The padlock in the address bar.
Why it matters Free to add through Let’s Encrypt. Browsers label sites without it as Not secure, which is the first thing a cautious buyer sees.
Indexing Search
A search engine storing your page so it can appear in results. Being crawled and being indexed are different things.
Why it matters A page can be perfectly good and still be unindexed. Search Console tells you which of your pages are in and which are not.
JSON-LD Technical
The format schema markup is usually written in. A block of labelling in the page code that visitors never see.
Why it matters It is what tells a machine that this page describes a product, with this specification, from this company.
Keyword Search
A word or phrase somebody types into a search box.
Why it matters Yours are longer and more specific than you think. Buyers close to ordering include the size, the grade and the city.
Largest Contentful Paint Performance
How long until the biggest thing on screen has loaded, usually the hero image or main heading. Written LCP.
Why it matters Google wants it under 2.5 seconds. Dated Indian sites regularly measure 8 to 12 seconds on real 4G.
Lazy loading Performance
Delaying the load of images further down the page until somebody scrolls to them.
Why it matters Cheap way to cut what a visitor waits for. Should never be applied to the main image above the fold.
llms.txt AI search
A plain text file at the root of a site, summarising what the business does and linking to its main pages, written for AI assistants rather than people.
Why it matters Not an official standard and no assistant is obliged to read it. Costs about an hour, so the downside is small.
Meta description Search
The short summary shown under your title in search results.
Why it matters It does not affect ranking directly. It heavily affects whether anybody clicks. Home and Welcome to our website wins nobody.
Mobile-first indexing Search
Google ranks using the mobile version of your site rather than the desktop one.
Why it matters A site that scores well on desktop and badly on mobile has a real problem, and the desktop score is close to irrelevant.
Nameserver Infrastructure
The server that holds your DNS records and answers the question of where this domain points.
Why it matters Changing hosting usually means changing these. It is the step that takes a few hours to take effect.
Noindex Search
An instruction telling search engines not to list a page.
Why it matters Occasionally correct, for a thank you page or a staging site. Left on by accident after a redesign, it removes you from search entirely.
Open Graph Content
Tags controlling how your page looks when shared on WhatsApp, LinkedIn or Facebook.
Why it matters Without them your link shares as a bare address with no picture, which looks broken in a WhatsApp group.
Organic traffic Measurement
Visitors who arrived from unpaid search results.
Why it matters The number worth watching. Paid traffic stops the day you stop paying.
Page weight Performance
The total size of everything a page loads, in megabytes.
Why it matters The single number most likely to explain slow. Almost always images uploaded at camera resolution.
Redirect Technical
An instruction sending one address to another. A 301 is permanent, a 302 is temporary.
Why it matters This is how a rebuild keeps its search position. Every old address gets a 301 to its new equivalent.
Responsive design Design
A layout that reflows to fit whatever screen it is on.
Why it matters The alternative is a desktop site pinched to fit a phone, which is what most pre-2015 Indian sites do.
Rich result Search
A search listing with extra detail attached. Star ratings, FAQ dropdowns, prices, opening hours.
Why it matters You cannot get one without schema markup, and you should never mark up something that is not genuinely on the page.
Robots.txt Technical
A file at the root of your site telling crawlers what they may and may not read.
Why it matters One wrong line here can remove your entire site from Google. It is worth checking after any rebuild.
Schema markup Technical
Structured labelling that tells a machine what kind of thing a page describes.
Why it matters Invisible to visitors. Increasingly what decides whether an AI assistant can quote you accurately.
Search Console Measurement
Google’s free tool showing which searches reach your site, which pages are indexed, and what is broken.
Why it matters Free, and most companies have never opened it. It shows the actual words buyers used to find you.
SERP Search
Search engine results page. The page of results you get after searching.
Why it matters Useful only as shorthand. Vendors use it a lot.
Sitemap Search
A file listing every page you want indexed, submitted to Google so it knows what exists.
Why it matters Should contain only real, indexable pages. Ours excludes anything carrying a noindex directive.
Slug Content
The readable part of a web address after the domain. In /website-audit.html the slug is website-audit.
Why it matters Should describe the page in words a person would use. Not page_id=47.
SSL certificate Security
The certificate that makes HTTPS work.
Why it matters Should be free and automatic. Anybody charging separately for a basic one is charging for nothing.
Staging site Process
A private copy of the site where changes are made and checked before going live.
Why it matters Ask whether your vendor uses one. The alternative is editing the live site while customers are on it.
Structured data Technical
The general term for machine readable labelling on a page. Schema markup is the common form.
Why it matters Same idea as schema. You will hear both words used for the same thing.
Uptime Infrastructure
The share of time your site is actually reachable.
Why it matters Worth monitoring. Most owners find out their site is down because a customer rings to say so.
UTM tags Measurement
Extra text added to a link so analytics can record where a visitor came from.
Why it matters Useful on a campaign. Never put personal information in them, because they end up in logs.
WebP Performance
A modern image format, typically 25 to 35 percent smaller than a JPEG at the same quality.
Why it matters Converting the images on a dated site is often the single biggest weight saving available.
Wireframe Process
A plain layout sketch showing where things go, with no colour or styling.
Why it matters Approving one early is much cheaper than rearranging a finished design.
Nothing matches that. Try a shorter word.