These are just a few of the web design terms you hear floating around as you try to design your site. If you aren’t familiar with web design lingo, it’s frustrating to understand what these terms mean and how they impact your design.
That’s why we’ve created this simple web design glossary so you can find terms, learn what they mean, and use them appropriately. Keep reading to get informed about all terms related to web design!
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To kick off this web design glossary, let’s take a look at some basic web design lingo:
Back-end: One of the most common web design terms you’ll hear is “back-end,” which refers to the part of your site hidden from website visitors. This part of your website generally contains your code and any other information that runs your site.
Content Management System (CMS): A Content Management System (CMS) is a software system used to edit and design your website’s content. WordPress and Drupal are examples of content management systems.
Conversion: A conversion is when someone completes a desired action, like buying a product or completing a form. It’s critical to design your website with your conversion goal in mind, so you can get people to complete your desired action.
Domain: Your domain is the phrase people type into the browser to visit your website. A domain name is like your company’s online address.
Front-end: The front-end of your site is anything visitors can see when they visit your website, from photos to videos to text. You’ll also see user interface (UI) used with this web design vocabulary term.
Heading: A heading is a web design term that refers to the title or subtitle you use on your page. Headings typically follow H1 through H6, going from a larger to a smaller font size.
Hosting: Hosting is where you house and maintain your website’s files. Your hosting provider contains all your site’s information so you can display it to your audience.
Search engine optimization (SEO): Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most critical web design terms. It focuses on designing a site optimized for search. Having a fast loading, mobile-friendly website design, for example, can help your site rank better in search.
Template: A template is web design terminology for a pre-set website layout. Templates are designed for your business to plug in your information without much modification. While templates are convenient, they can appear cookie-cutter.
Usability: Usability focuses on how users interact with your site. You can test your website usability to see where users may struggle so you can improve their experience by using a tool like Hotjar.
User experience (UX):User experience (UX) focuses on designing your website to deliver the best experience for your visitors. It’s one of the most common web design terms you’ll hear because you need a user-focused website to keep users engaged on your site.
Web developer: A web developer is someone who creates and sets up a site’s back-end. These professionals typically do all the coding for websites based on a web designer’s design.
Technical web design terms
Now that we’ve covered basic website design terms, let’s look at some more technical web design terminology:
301 redirect: A 301 redirect is one of the most vital web design terms because it involves creating a permanent path from an old website to a new website. You will typically use 301 redirects when you secure your site and switch to HTTPS or if you move pages on your site.
404 error page: A 404 error page appears when someone finds a non-existent page on your website. A 404 error typically occurs if someone mistypes a URL path or tries to access a page deleted from the site.
ADA compliance: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) states your website must provide people with disabilities the same access as their non-disabled peers. In terms of web design, ADA compliance means adding alt text to images, captions to videos, and providing easy-to-use transcripts for audio or visual content.
Alt tag: Alt tags enable you to add descriptive text to the back-end of images in your design. This element is one of many that can help you create an ADA-compliant website. If images aren’t viewable, people will have that alt text to reference what the image displays.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a programming language that enables web developers to determine how a website will look visually. CSS helps you set visual aspects like your background color, element sizes, and positioning of visual elements.
HTML:HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is another website programming language –– it tells website browsers how to interact with a piece of content. Web developers use HTML to create the structure and format for websites.
HEX code: A HEX code is web design lingo that programming languages like CSS can reference to know which colors to display on your site. Each color has a specific HEX code, like #F4D03F for a sunflower yellow.
JavaScript:JavaScript is programming language that allows web developers to create opportunities to interact with a web page. Many web developers use JavaScript for special effects or loading content without reloading an entire page.
Lazy loading:Lazy loading is a page speed optimization technique where your page loads as users scroll down rather than loading everything as soon as they enter your site. This optimization trick is used to help keep people on your site longer and prevent slow load times.
Page speed:Page speed is how quickly your site loads when someone visits a page on your site. A key element of good design is a fast-loading site, so users stay engaged and learn about your business.
Plugin: Plugin is web design lingo you need to know if you use WordPress. Plugins enable you to add more functionality to your design to deliver a better experience on your site.
Semantic markup: Semantic markup is a type of HTML coding where the tags used to describe a piece of content also provide metadata. For example, you can use the <div class=” header”> to indicate the header section of your page.
Design-related web design terms
For the next part of this list of web design terminology, let’s look at terms related to designing your website:
A/B testing: A/B testing is web design terminology for testing changes and comparing them to see which performs better. With A/B testing, you only test one element at a time and make one change at a time, so you can see what’s impacting your audience’s site engagement.
Breadcrumb navigation:Breadcrumb navigation is a navigation style that enables users to see a trail of the path they took to get to a certain point on your site. It’s a great web design feature for reducing bounce rate.
Call to action (CTA) buttons: Call to action (CTA) buttons are a critical design element that helps people take the next step. You want to design these buttons to stand out on the page so users know how to proceed.
Favicon: A favicon is a small image that appears on the browser’s tab when someone visits your site. This icon is typically a company logo.
Font family: A font family is a group of typefaces. These fonts are all similar and typically labeled with a generic name, like “serif.”
Infinite scrolling: Infinite scrolling refers to loading all your pages of content onto a single page. When users scroll to the bottom of the page, more content is loaded, which creates an “infinite” scroll.
Navigation:Navigation is what your audience uses to move about your website. Your navigation typically appears at the top of the page and guides users to pages on your site, from product pages to your about us page.
Responsive design:Responsive design enables your site to adapt to whatever device someone uses to access your website. This type of design uses elements like hamburger menus and thumb-friendly buttons to create a positive mobile experience.
Slider: A slider is a rotating banner of visuals that companies typically put at the top of their site. It usually shows in a slideshow format that shuffles the different videos or photos.
Visual hierarchy: The visual hierarchy is the arrangement of the elements on your page to emphasize certain elements.
Whitespace:Whitespace is web design lingo for website areas that don’t contain any text, images, or graphics –– these areas are blank. Whitespace is essential web design terminology to know because you want to use it to prevent your site from looking cluttered and overwhelming.
Wireframe: A wireframe is a visual guide to how you want to structure pages on your website. There are three types of wireframes: Low fidelity, mid-fidelity, and high-fidelity.
Feeling shaky on these web design terms?
There are many important web design terms to know when you’re building and designing your site. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed trying to understand all these terms and keep them in mind when building your site, don’t worry.
You can rely on the experts at WebFX to help.
Our award-winning design team is up-to-date on the latest web design lingo. With over 20 years of experience, we know the ins and outs of web design and can design a site that’s perfect for your business.
Want to build a beautiful site that has everything you need? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our web design services!
In the latest episode of the Digital Marketing with Bill Hartzer podcast, I talked about choosing a business name along with the ideal domain name. I also reflect on how checking for a trademark on the business name you’re choosing, and how it’s related to the domain name that you register. I also discussed why you should choose one name over another, and also went into domain name security, as well as other considerations to minimize risk of losing your domain name.
Here is the full transcript of the podcast. You can watch the video above at YouTube, or listen to it anywhere you download your podcasts.
Bill Hartzer(00:03):
This is Bill Hartzer. And this is the digital marketing podcast, the digital marketing podcast with Bill Hartzer. Today I’m going to talk about specifically, we’re going to go over choosing a business name as well as related, which is choosing a domain name and internet domain name. And in this particular case you talked a little bit about why, when you are going to name a business whether, you know, why you really need to at the same time, think about the internet domain name, because there are definitely considerations and it can be a lot more, a lot of hassles when it comes to your online presence. So choosing a domain and choosing a, you know, choosing a business name and choosing a name based on a domain name of a availability is definitely a consideration. So let’s say we’re, I’m going to use an example as a ditch, you know, digital digital company let’s use the example of blue snowball.
Bill Hartzer(01:20):
Okay. And kind of a generic word that w you know, the word blue is generic. The word snowball. And so we’re starting a business, a marketing company named blue snowball. So what we want to do is look at, you know, certainly that’s, that’s a name you know, whether or not we go with blue scope with snowball marketing, blue snowball.com you know, blue snowball.marketing, which is dub marketing as a new TLD or our generic ending if you will marketing, not digital and so forth. Dot com.net.org. Those are all endings, but there’s a couple of considerations here. We’re naming a business. And choosing that name, you know, we want to look at domain name availability what domain name for our branding of our business and name of the company you know, is, is there a domain available, is blue snowball.com available for domain registration or can we purchase it for a reasonable price being, you know reasonable is I’ll, I’ll also relative.
Bill Hartzer(02:39):
You know, it depends on you know, your budget, certainly, but you’re, if you name a company, blue snowball.com, okay. Or blue snowball, let’s look at two things. Let’s look at number one, develop a domain name, availability, number two, you know, want to look at are, is there another company in the same industry, essentially the same size, you know, as I see code, if you will, the same, you know, doing the same thing with the same name can you get a trademark on that business name now? You certainly can get a trademark. I’m not a trademark attorney, so you would want to run this by you know, a trademark attorney, but, you know, the basics are that, you know, you can, if you have, let’s say your business is named target. That’s not going to stop you from starting a company named target marketing, or or even just target because you’re in a different, if you, you know, as long as you’re not in the same industry as being a, let’s say a retail store and having the name target that’s not going to really stop you from getting a trademark if you’re in another industry.
Bill Hartzer(04:02):
And it’s clear that you’re in another industry and you still have the name target, or but say boost, snowball and blue snowball with the same, you know, there may be a trademark on that. And that might be, you know the name of a product. You know, it could be loose snowball. There could be actually a, you know, a food some trademark in the food industry or a food and beverage industry. But at the same time, if you’re going to name your, you know, your name, your company name, you know, blue snowball, then, you know, you want to make sure there’s not any other companies in that same industry. So the potential for looking at trademarks, if you’re in the United States, you would want to use the U SPTO tess system. And you can use, there is a search function there, and you can do a search, a basic search there.
Bill Hartzer(04:59):
I do recommend getting with the trademark attorney, that’s qualified and to do the searches as well to make sure that there’s not any conflicts, not only just you know, in the United States, if you’re in the United States, but in theory, you could, you know, if your company grows and you expand outside the United States, you’d want to actually make sure that that’s, you know, there’s availability there. Now, it doesn’t, you know, that doesn’t necessarily stop you from, you know, from from starting a company with that name. Because I have certain domain names that, and literally there were 26 to 28 different companies with the same exact name. They did different things. But there were, you know, there were potential buyers of that domain name because there were doing 26 different companies with the same such with the same name. So that happens.
Bill Hartzer(05:52):
And certainly, you know, thinking about target as a generic word or, or, you know, in this case, we’re using an example of blue snowball. So let’s considerations are, you know, if you name that, if we use both snowballs, a company named we’d want to look up, you know, trademark potential trademark issues, we wouldn’t want, want to look up do just a Google basic search, a basic Google search and for that word and see what comes up whether the, you know, whether or not there are any companies or whether or not, you know, if you are starting to get marketing company with that name, or what other, other service are there any products that are showing up because you are essentially going to be promoting that name. And so as you promote that name and it gets more notoriety okay.
Bill Hartzer(06:44):
And, and more people are searching for blue snowball. Well, are they, are they, even though it’s, it’s not necessarily, you know, a word, a keyword maybe that you would target, you know, as an SEO campaign you know you know, to try and rank for that keyword, but in some cases, you know, you want to make sure that there’s a potential that you can actually, you know, as you promote your business show up in the, in the search results and people can find you by company name. So why does that competition, like, that’s something that you’re going to want to, you kind of get gauged before you actually make all of these commitments as far as, you know naming your company. That that is a consideration because you’re, you’re looking at all Allie trademarks, but online competition, what are you, what is your competition overall you know, in that particular industry for your name and so forth, and just, what are, you know, what’s the competition for your name, your company name at the same time?
Bill Hartzer(07:53):
You know, look at, think about when somebody is going to type in blue snowball.com or your company name, are they going to be, you know, what’s the availability of that domain name. Okay. And are you going to be able to buy it? All that consideration is what we get to when we get to a point where we’re going, you’re going to file for the trademark. When you file, you will want to make sure you register the domain name at the same time, or essentially, you know, at the sign on the same day, what I am coming across now, and people are coming to my DM protect service right now, and be in protect to recover domain names because they filed, let’s say on, on January 1st, they filed for the trademark and January 2nd or third, somebody else went and bought the domain name. So all was happening is, is somebody was watching the new trademarks that were coming through.
Bill Hartzer(08:53):
They found a unique name. They knew that potentially that person would want, would want the domain name. So what they did is some, you know, the person, someone else registered that domain name in the hopes that they could sell it for a couple of thousand dollars to the person who just filed the trademark. So we’re having to help the trademark holder get a hold of that domain and shine off show that the domain registration was after the file, the trademark, and then the domain registration in this case was in bad faith because they essentially wanted to, you know, want to just sell that domain to the trademark holder. So that can Rena it’s, it’s, it can run an issue, but a little forward thinking here registering the name of your company name and similar names, or typos can save you a lot of hassle later on.
Bill Hartzer(09:58):
So that’s something we’d want to definitely do. The other consideration is choosing a name. That’s not, you know, if you set up, if you set up a company and do all sorts of branding and marketing around your company, name, booth snowball, and there already as a blue snowball.com. Yeah. You, you know, you might be able to get blue hyphen snowball or blue snowball.marketing, or, you know, something similar and something else. However, in that particular case, we may end up in a situation where you’re, you’re promoting and people are ending up typing in the other domain and, and there being some confusion there. So the domain name and availability and trademarks in your business name don’t just choose you know, my recommendation is don’t just choose a name that is a re you know, that, that a reason why you’re just choosing a name because you like the name.
Bill Hartzer(11:07):
There is some consideration here about, you know, your digital online presence. And so that comes in, in hand with trademarks, with availability of domain, with, you know, what your name and your company, what you know, are you going to name your company? The other options are maybe you are a Dallas dentist, a dentist in Dallas. Okay. and you’re, you know, you have, you know, blue snowball is your blue snowball dentistry. Okay. Is your company name will, do you want to make your company name or your domain name, you know, Dallas dental.com or Dallas dentists.com where you have a different domain different than they got your company name in that case where you’re using a keyword as your domain name and, you know, especially the city name or just using a keyword in your domain name, and that’s different much, much different than your company name.
Bill Hartzer(12:12):
You’ll still want to get your company name and do some redirects, redirect the visitors from blue snowball.com to you know, to Dallas dental.com or Dallas dentist be your keyword name. So still even though that’s, you know, that’s an option you may want to, you know, I’ll work using a city name and when that’s going to be our primary domain name, we have a key w a geo name, G a word, you know, a location. Okay. one of the considerations that, you know, you, you, that I recommend looking into is that, you know, the potential, certainly you are in Dallas, or let’s choose Dallas as an example here. Okay. And you get Dallas dentist and that’s your, that’s your domain name. Okay. We’re giving your business name in that case. You know, what are the, what’s the potential, the future will you potentially have additional locations?
Bill Hartzer(13:23):
Will you move have an additional location in Austin also, maybe in, in, you know, in Plano, Texas or suburb of Dallas are you going to like span potentially, you may not have plans to expand right now, but you may later, you may, you may expand to other cities, other states, other locations, you may move. So you may move your business for whatever reason you may, you know, be in Dallas and you might need to relocate for some reason, you know, a family reason to another city in another state, then you’re tied to Dao, you know, Dallas, the city name, you know, keyword.com. That’s all relative about your strong overall strategy and naming your business and so forth. So that’s definitely, you know, something to think about when we come into registering domains. Okay. As far as checking availability I recommend that you probably not go specifically to a registrar to check availability.
Bill Hartzer(14:37):
Let’s say, you know go, you know, go to you know, Eddie, you know, a domain registrar where you would buy the name. You would not want to go there. What you would want to do is, is ready to recommend specifically is going to something like the yowling to the main ICANN website, which typically is look up dot icann dot org and looking at up there, because, because what can happen is, and there’s been reports, you know, it’s all about, this is all about risk, but basically if you’re going and looking up a bunch of domain names, a matter of one particular registrar, there is the potential for somebody to somehow get a hold of that data that you’re working up domain names of one particular registrar and looking at availability. And then, you know, if you don’t, if you don’t re you don’t buy the name right then, and there you wait a day or two, then somebody else might register that domain.
Bill Hartzer(15:46):
You know, whether or not that person had in, you know, who registered it knew that you were looking it up. Okay, well, that’s, you know, that that’s, that’s a whole totally different story. But at the same time, you know, it, it there’s potential risk there so far as availability goes, if you just looking at, to see if something is available in, you know, dot com.net.org now I would look up, use the, I can look up now when it comes to registrars you know, there are, you know, for typical.com, let’s say.com domain names. There are typically what say, you know, there, there there’s thousands of options for registrars. There’s ones that are cheap. That’s, there’s ones that are more expensive. You can certainly get a coupon you know, and, and get a dollar 99, or pay 99 cents for a domain name for the first year.
Bill Hartzer(16:49):
You know, this is your, this is your domain name that we’re talking about. Okay. You need to, you know, w what I recommend is that you realize that this is, like I said, this is your domain name. Okay. Then we’re talking about your domain name is tied to your email. It’s tied to your, your, your email, your website and, and your brand. Okay. And if you lose your domain name, your website goes down. You, you know, you say, let’s say you have customers doing searches, hitting our website. You’re paying for Google ads, your pay, you know, you have all the social media, you have the links from other websites to your website. You have all these promotions going on. Maybe you’re viewing offline advertising on radio, television you know, different media and so forth billboards. This is your domain name. Okay. So paying a dollar or $2 for your domain name.
Bill Hartzer(18:00):
Yeah. You know, I have reservations about that. You lose your domain name and you overnight instantly lose your business. You know, you lose access to email, you lose access to your website, all your leads. You know, it’s devastating to businesses who lose their domain names. And so I have a business, you know, that I’m involved in DN protect D N protects.com, and we recover stolen domain names. And we can, we have, you know, we recover domains or issue, you know, the main two that have been lost for whatever reason would deal with issues like this every single day, you know, number one is there’s two issues. You know, they, they, they don’t, they didn’t choose the right registrar. And so the registrar, you know, basically for some reason, doesn’t have their back, your BA you know, didn’t have their back when, when they didn’t, you know, they didn’t renew, or somebody hacked into their account.
Bill Hartzer(19:07):
You know, our, the domain was just transferred out without their knowledge to somebody else or something like that. Or, you know, I’m also dealing with issues that someone had Ray had bought a domain. It was, you know, their businesses so forth and, and S you know, it is it’s everything for them. And they had their credit card set up to auto renew, you know, auto renew. And for whatever reason, it did not auto renew, and they lost the domain name. You know, and, and at that point it had expired. Someone else had purchased it. You know, at that point they ended up, you know, now we’re dealing with the fact that they’ll have dependents, spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to get it back simply because they, they re you know, relied on the fact that system work was, was supposed to work.
Bill Hartzer(20:09):
Auto renew that the credit card was, you know was still valid that, you know, that it was a credit, you know, that the credit card transaction went through that that, you know, the expiration date didn’t need to be re you know, be changed or updated that you know, there’s a transaction one little transaction that goes through once a year, if you have it set up for a renewing annually, you know, you’re, again, you are there, it’s risky, you are inviting risk when you have something set up on auto renew and you, and every year you’re that it, that everything will go through. You can take care of that. You can renew your domain name for at least five years. That’s what I recommend at this point. I recommend highly recommend renewing a domain name, additionally, for at least five years.
Bill Hartzer(21:08):
Then obviously you want to set it up properly. There’s a lot of other systems, you know, not just pointing it to a web host, they’ll want, obviously a web host that is separate from where you registered domain name. I have seen, you know for, you know, websites for whatever reason being taken down or, or are by the web host and they didn’t want her hosts the domain anymore. Because of, you know, because of constantly got hacked or because of, you know, because of content on the website generally that’s not issue for most businesses, but you know, it can be. And so there can be other issues that, you know, web hosts doesn’t want to, or does, or, you know, the web host goes out of business. And if you’ve renewed the domain, if you’ve registered the domain name to that web post you have your web host, your website and up and running on a server and the web house goes out of business.
Bill Hartzer(22:11):
And then all of a sudden, okay, while you are not, you cannot access the, the main name, you cannot access the web hosting. So I recommend using a different domain registrar, then you do your web host. And that way, if you’re, you know, have a website or your website goes down, or for whatever reason, you know, it gets cropped or whatever, ideally you’ll have backups every day, every website. So then you could just go to your domain registrar, get a new web host, upload your old BA you know, your backup from let’s say a day or two ago where your website was not corrupt, where it wasn’t, you know, hacked into point it to the new web host and you’re up and running. You know, that typically depending on the size of your website, that actually could be done within an hour. So in that case, you know, that can be done.
Bill Hartzer(23:11):
So as far as domain registration goes I do, like I said, I do recommend not relying on auto renew because I’m seeing cases come across all the time that were auto renew for whatever reason failed and somebody else ended up purchasing the domain name. I’m an expired domain option or in some other situation. So that said as far as domain names go those are, you know, that’s my thoughts around brand new domain names, ones that you are going to register and related to a brand new business. When we, the other option is that you may find, you know, you have a business name and you’ve done your research and so forth. You found that there is a domain name that is expired, that that you might, you know, this, that might get number one, you want to do diligence due diligence on the domain name.
Bill Hartzer(24:13):
I have lots of other podcasts, other videos, or the articles where I’ve gone through and showed, showed you extra, like the due diligence that you can do on a domain name. Even though if it’s a new domain name, you still, because we’ve had domains for, you know, since on you know, the nineties 1983 first domain name registered around, you know, it and so forth. But you know, a lot of domain names have actually been used before and used for a few years and then dropped it so forth. They have history, they may have links from their other websites. Those are good links or battlings those are, you know, there, there may be traffic to them from the industry and they may be, you know, formerly on a topic that is not related to the domain name.
Bill Hartzer(25:06):
And so you can always archive.org and look at the old, you know, whether there was a website on that domain name or not before. So there’s a lot of due diligence you can do, I’ve gone through it. And you can also run a DNP, you know, find out the DFP score of the domain name DN protects.com. And that does kind of a check on some of the issues you may want to look into also the, the back links the links from other websites sites like majestic.com will show you the back links to your domain, to the domain name before you purchase it, you want to, you know, if, if a good example is marketing.com, marketing.com sold recently for over $2 million, however, the links are not very good at all, and fart those a lot of spam pointing to that domain, even though it’s a really great domain marketing.com you know, doing the due diligence, probably if there wasn’t marketing.com, if it was just some other word, I would never even touch that particular domain because of the fact that there’s so much spam associated with it in the past.
Bill Hartzer(26:17):
And there are other issues I’ve done some other podcasts and other videos related to due diligence might want to look into those. You could also do a search bill Hart, ser due diligence domains, or domain due diligence. Put my name in there and you’ll be able to find a lots of material there. So I said you I’ll expire domains also. Number one is you know, a former, you know trademarks definitely. That’s something that obviously you absolutely have to check. There are any trademark issues because most likely if it was expired domain, if it wasn’t form of business then actually you would want to check out to see if they had gotten a trademark is more, more likely that they did with an expired domain rather than a domain that that is just available for registration that said, this has been the Digital Marketing with Bill Hartzer podcast for Thursday, September 23rd, 2021.
Bill Hartzer(27:28):
Thanks for listening. You can certainly subscribe to my podcast on YouTube. There’s also a lot of other options podcasts on anything from apple podcasts, iheart radio and a lot of other areas and, and a lot of other places out there on the web. I typically will do be doing a transcript of this podcast, if there’s any websites or any concepts or anything that I mentioned here, feel free to get in touch with me on my you can reach me through billhartzer.com or just do a search for my name and you can find me. Thanks.
I make no secret of my love for the web design community. There’s something both unique and beautiful about sharing code, assets, and advice.
But, just as a community can lift you up, certain dark corners of it can put you down. Intentional or not, some commentary can bring about a number of negative feelings. So much so that even an experienced designer can feel them.
People who work in technology tend to put forth some harsh judgements. I’m not talking about direct personal attacks, mind you. Rather, it’s the negativity surrounding the tools, languages, and services we utilize.
What we often don’t realize is how these words can impact other people. When we trash, say, CSS, the message we send can go beyond a simple complaint about the language itself. There may also be a personal toll that goes along with it. Social media and its rapid-fire quickness only serve to exacerbate the issue.
So, how can you deal with all of the noise out there without taking it personally? Here’s some advice for tuning out the darkest parts of the web design community.
Take Opinions for What They Are
Online gathering places such as forums and social media feeds are rife with hot takes. Some designers and developers (myself included) are all too happy to share their thoughts on virtually every facet of the industry.
That’s all well and good. But it’s easy to take things a little too far. For example, it’s one thing to have an opinion on WordPress. But deriding those who use it is something else entirely. The same goes for any content management system (CMS), language, or tool out there.
Seeing these sorts of statements on your screen may lead you to believe that you’re doing something wrong. Or that you’re not a “real” developer because you don’t work with tool x, y and z.
The bottom line is that one person’s opinion, even if they’re considered an influencer, is just that. If they don’t happen to be a fan of the same technologies as you, too bad for them.
Websites are built in all manner of different ways. We can argue the virtues of a specific approach until the sun burns out. But it’s ultimately a personal and professional choice. If it serves both you and your clients well, that’s all that really matters. Let them have their opinions – you keep being you.
Avoid Negative People and Places
Sometimes it can feel impossible to get around all of the negativity out there. Perhaps the only way to do so is by shutting yourself off from online communities. But that would be a shame.
Instead, look to surround yourself with those you can converse with and learn from. On platforms such as Twitter, it’s easy enough to go through your follow list and remove those who don’t fit that profile.
The same thing goes for communities themselves. If you see a lot of nonsense in a particular space, you might save yourself the headache by avoiding it altogether. There are better alternatives.
For example, there are some well-moderated Facebook groups for web professionals where members are expected to behave themselves – and held to account when they don’t.
One of the best aspects of the web design community is that it’s a big place. You’ll find plenty of opportunities to connect with others. It could be online or in-person. Either way, it’s worth exploring.
Remember, We’re All on a Unique Journey
Self-worth can be a fragile thing. And seeing someone else criticize something you’re invested in can cause doubt. You may start to wonder if you’re wasting precious time with an “inferior” tool.
But the road to a career in web design isn’t the same for everyone. Some study it in school while others learn on their own. There’s no singular “right” way to do it.
That’s important to remember, as our personal journey informs how we view the world. These different experiences can lead us to form strong opinions about a specific tool or technology. It’s not necessarily a negative. I think it’s just part of being human.
Negativity is all around us. Yet, no rule says we have to let it affect who we are. The beauty is that we get to decide our own path. If you enjoy working within your niche, keep on doing it!
As for the naysayers, let them continue shouting into the void.
Did you know that 73% of companies use design to help their brand stand out from competitors?
Building a unique website for your business is critical to helping you stand levels above your competition. But making the right custom site starts with choosing the best ecommerce website builder.
With so many ecommerce store builders on the market, it’s hard to know which one is best for your business. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of six of the best ecommerce website builders, so you can find one that fits your needs best.
Keep reading to learn more about these website builders! Plus, if you want to get helpful advice and tricks for marketing your business online, subscribe to our email newsletter!
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1. Shopify –– The best ecommerce website builder for support
Price: $29 – $299 per month (14-day free trial available)
First on our list of the best ecommerce website builders is Shopify. Shopify is one of the most well-known ecommerce website builders, but it’s also one of the most functional and easy to use to sell your products.
This option is excellent for your business if you need support while building your site. Shopify offers 24/7 support, so you can chat with Shopify experts and help troubleshoot any issues that arise.
As for the platform itself, Shopify offers a drag-and-drop builder that enables you to build your website without knowing how to code. You can customize the colors, fonts, and visuals to create a beautiful site that emulates your brand’s unique style.
To help enhance your site, you can use Shopify apps. Shopify apps enable you to add more ecommerce functionality to your store.
An important thing to note about Shopify is the transaction fees. When you use Shopify Payments, you’ll incur different fees based on your package type:
Fee Type
Basic Shopify
Shopify
Advanced Shopify
Online credit card rates
2.9% + $0.30
2.6% + $0.30
2.4% + $0.30
In-person credit card rates
2.7%
2.5%
2.4%
Transaction fee if not using Shopify Payments
2.0%
1.0%
0.5%
You’ll want to factor these fees into your decision-making process to ensure you’re choosing the platform that fits your needs and budget.
Key features of the best ecommerce website builder for support:
Over 70 professional themes with free options available
2. WIX –– The best ecommerce website builder for no fees
Price: $23 – $49 per month (14-day free trial available)
The best online storefront builder for budget-conscious businesses is Wix. Wix is a versatile website builder that’s easy to use and can help you have a brand-focused website built fast.
This drag-and-drop website builder enables you to build a site that functions best for selling your products. You can have unlimited product collections on your Wix site, which means you never have to worry about going over any limits.
Once you create your site and launch it, you can use the Wix dashboard to monitor your performance. The Wix dashboard enables you to integrate data from multiple platforms, from eBay to Instagram to Amazon, so that you can track everything in one place.
One important thing to note about Wix is that they do not charge transaction fees like other website builders, hence why it’s the best ecommerce website builder for budget-focused businesses. With no transaction fees and a lower monthly cost, Wix is golden for keeping your budget intact.
Key features of the best ecommerce website builder for fee-free businesses:
Over 500 designer templates to build your site
Secure payments from major credit card companies, PayPal, and more
Custom shipping rules and automated taxes to make processing a breeze
3. BigCommerce –– The best ecommerce website builder for growth
Price: $29 – $299+ (15-day free trial available)
The best website builder for ecommerce businesses scaling for growth is BigCommerce. BigCommerce is a great website builder if you want your business’s website to scale with you as you grow.
With BigCommerce, you have a drag-and-drop builder that enables you to build your site how you want. You can also upload unlimited products, so you don’t have to worry about how many products you add.
One unique feature of BigCommerce that makes it one of the best ecommerce store builders is the checkout page. When you design your site, you can build a one-page checkout process, while other sites only allow you to create a two-page checkout. This one-page checkout design is a great way to boost conversions for your business.
The critical thing to note about BigCommerce is the revenue cap. Once you drive a certain level of revenue, you’ll have to pay more each month to maintain your site.
For example, once you reach $400,000 in sales with the Pro plan, you’ll pay an extra $150 each month for each additional $200,000 in sales. So, while BigCommerce does scale to grow with your business, it comes at an additional cost.
Key features of the best ecommerce website builder for growth:
4. Squarespace –– The best ecommerce website builder for quick setup
Price: $12 – $40 per month (Free trial available)
One of the best ecommerce website builders for getting a site up fast is Squarespace. Squarespace is a great ecommerce website builder for companies looking to create a simple but highly visual site.
Squarespace is a great ecommerce website builder for companies who want a website fast because their templates require little editing. You can take their templates, implement your information, add your products, and launch your site.
This site builder is one of the best ecommerce website builders because it offers excellent tools you can add to your site to help deliver a better experience, like booking tools. You can also integrate numerous third-party extensions to help enhance your site.
Key features of the best ecommerce website builder for quick setup:
Access to tax tools, discount tools, and gift card creation
Free custom domain for the first year
SEO integration
5. Shift4Shop –– The best ecommerce website builder for customization
Price: $29 – $229 per month (Free option available)
If you’re looking for the best online storefront builder with maximum customization, Shift4Shop is the answer. This ecommerce website builder enables you to customize your shop beyond what other site builders allow. You can choose to use a template or start from scratch –– the latter option requires help from a web developer.
Shift4Shop enables you to customize multiple aspects of your business, including your checkout page. You can customize your checkout page to fit your customers’ needs best, so you can boost conversions for your business.
If you use Shift4Shop as your ecommerce website builder, you’ll also get access to numerous SEO and marketing tools to help you promote your site.
One unique thing to note about Shift4Shop is that they have a completely free, premium ecommerce option. You can build a fully functional ecommerce site with unlimited products for no cost. The only catch is that you must be a U.S. business and use the Shift4 Payments payment processer.
Key features of the best ecommerce website builder for customization:
No additional transaction fees
Over 50 mobile-friendly themes
Unlimited products, product variants, and bandwidth
Ability to offer bulk discounts
6. Square –– The best ecommerce builder for budget
Price: Free (transaction fees apply)
If you’re looking for an ecommerce website builder that’s good for your budget, Square is the solution for you. Square is a free website option that you can use to set up your ecommerce business website fast. It’s a great option if you already use a Square Point of Sale (POS) for checkout with your business.
Square doesn’t charge a monthly fee to have and maintain your site. The only fee you pay is 2.9% + $0.30 on every transaction. You can opt to get a paid plan to get more features, but the free option has plenty of features to run your ecommerce store.
If you opt to build on Square, you don’t need to know coding to set up your site. You can use one of their many templates to build a well-designed ecommerce storefront for your business.
Key features of the best ecommerce website builder for customization:
Auto import items from your Square POS system
Connect to social media profiles and sell on those platforms
Syncing between your brick-and-mortar and online inventory systems
Unlimited product listings
Build online store through Instagram posts
WebFX’s web design team –– the best ecommerce website builder for results
The best ecommerce website builders can help you build your site on your own and create something that represents your brand. The best website builder for ecommerce businesses, though, isn’t a website –– it’s a team of web designers, like the ones at WebFX.
At WebFX, we have an award-winning design team that knows how to craft websites that help our clients thrive online. In the past five years, we’ve driven over $2.4 billion in revenue and handled over 11.6 million transactions.
Check out our extensive portfolio to see the sites we’ve designed for our clients!
Ready to build an ecommerce site that drives sales and looks beautiful while doing it? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our ecommerce web design services!
