Glossary: web, tech & SXO explained simply

Separation of content (backend) and presentation (frontend), connected via an API.

A stack of interchangeable best-of-breed building blocks; MACH stands for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native and Headless.

A content management system that delivers content via API, without its own frontend.

The headless CMS Gridonic works with – cloud-native, fast and editor-friendly.

Google's metrics for loading (LCP), responsiveness (INP) and visual stability (CLS).

Delivering content from a node close to the user – for maximum speed worldwide.

Optimisation to be cited in the answers of AI systems such as ChatGPT or Gemini.

A library of reusable components and design tokens as a single source of truth.

A web app that behaves like a native app – installable and offline-capable.

Search Experience Optimization – classic SEO plus visibility in AI/LLM search, combined with good UX.

Measures when the largest visible element of a page has loaded; good value: under 2.5 seconds.

Measures a page's response time to user interactions across the whole session; good value: under 200 milliseconds.

Measures the visual stability of a page while loading; good value: under 0.1.

Time until the server delivers the first data to the browser – often a hosting or CDN issue.

Time until the first visible content appears on screen.

A distributed server network that delivers content from the geographically nearest location.

Content such as images outside the viewport is only loaded when needed.

Temporarily storing files so that repeated page visits are significantly faster.

Vue-based web framework for fast, server-side-rendered frontends.

Web framework that ships little JavaScript by default – ideal for high-performance sites.

JavaScript library for 3D graphics in the browser, based on WebGL.

Browser technology for hardware-accelerated 2D and 3D graphics.

Animation library for high-performance, complex web animations.

An interface through which systems exchange data and functionality.

A query language for APIs that returns exactly the requested data – no more, no less.

HTML is rendered on the server and delivered ready to the browser.

Pages are pre-rendered at build time and served as static files.

The process of making statically delivered HTML interactive in the browser.

An architecture of small, independently deployable services instead of one monolith.

A development approach in which every function is available as an API first.

Software designed to run in the cloud – scalable and resilient.

A protocol that instantly informs search engines about new or changed content.

An automatic system-to-system notification on an event – e.g. publishing triggers a build.

A DatoCMS field type for flexibly composable content blocks.

A structured, machine-readable rich-text format in DatoCMS.

Click and edit content directly in the preview, without hunting for fields.

An established open-source CMS that can also be used headless.

A flat-file CMS, ideal for lean, static websites.

An image CDN that delivers images automatically optimised for device and network.

A platform for high-performance on-demand video streaming.

The overall experience a user has with a product.

The visual and interactive surface of a product.

The path a user takes through an application to reach a goal.

An interactive model for testing concepts before development.

A user's desired action – such as an enquiry or a purchase.

Design that is usable for everyone, including people with disabilities.

AI generates functional interface building blocks from a natural-language description.

Search engine optimisation for better visibility in organic search.

A short description of a page for search results and social media previews.

Points to the preferred URL of a page and prevents duplicate content.

Markup of the language and country versions of a page for search engines.

A machine-readable list of all indexable URLs of a website.

A file that tells crawlers which areas of a website they may crawl.

Meta tags that control how a link is displayed on social media.

Search queries answered directly, without a click through to a website.

The aesthetic layer of an interface: colours, typography, imagery and composition.

Layouts that scale smoothly with the viewport – e.g. via CSS clamp() – instead of only snapping at fixed breakpoints like classic responsive design.

The structure and organisation of content so users can orient themselves and find content logically.

A design grid of columns and spacing that structures layouts consistently and in balance.

Documentation of a brand's visual rules – colours, typography, components – as the basis for consistent design.

A user's entire journey across multiple touchpoints, often over a longer period of time.

The discipline of designing the visual and interactive surface to be clear, consistent and easy to use.

A reusable content or layout building block from which pages are assembled – e.g. the content modules in DatoCMS.