When starting out on Sites–and web content management systems in general–there is some basic nomenclature you should become familiar with in order to better manage your website and its content. Below is a list of a handful of the most popular terms with discussing website management, structure, and content.
Call-to-action: A piece of content intended to induce a visitor to perform a specific act.
Dashboard: The first screen which will be seen when you log into the administration area of your site. It is a collection of menus and navigation that provide information and management of elements of your site.
Header: The header of a webpage typically includes the company or organization’s logo, as well as the main navigation bar. This section, which resides at the top of each webpage, is often part of a template and therefore is the same across the site.
Media: A tab in your WordPress admin dashboard which is used to manage user uploads (images, audio, video, and other files).
Navigation Menu: a WordPress theme feature which allows users to create navigation menus by using a built-in menu editor located in WordPress admin area under Appearance » Menus.
Page: A page is where you build and place content for your website, known externally as Web Pages. A page is often used to present “static” information about your site.
Post: A post is a place to share content that is more timely in its message and used to promote news or updates. Posts are reserved for use in myUMBC only.
Sidebar: A specifically designated area on your website used to display information that is not a part of the main content.
Slideshow: A graphical representation of highlighted content on your site. Readers can click on the image/text to access the full content. Images will automatically move from one to the next after a few seconds.
Widget: A small block that performs a specific function. You add widgets to sidebars on your website. Widgets provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. UMBC Sites offers pre-configured widgets to automatically display popular content on your site pages.
WYSIWYG: An acronym that stands for “What You See is What You Get.” More commonly referred to as an editor, it is the tool-set used to place and design content on your web pages.