The Definitive Therapist Website Glossary
When creating a website for your private practice, there is a TON of information that goes into each of the various parts of the project.
While an experienced developer or development team will move the project along and ensure its success, there’s still likely going to be times when you’ll want to explain what you are looking for on your website.
To help with this, we’ve put together a glossary of the most important terms used when talking about therapist websites.
While the creation of a website is vital to your business,
there are many other ways to market your practice too.
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Therapist Website Glossary
Click on any of the terms below to jump to its definition.
General | Technical | On-Page Design Elements | |
URL | Registrar | Header | Content |
Domain | Web Server | Navigation Menu | Subheading |
Slug | Web Host | Sub Menu Items | CTA (Call To Action) |
Subdomain | SSL | Banner | Sidebar |
Favicon | Sitemap | Page Header | Footer |
Or, if you prefer, you can click here to view the entire list of terms.
And it doesn’t stop there! To further clarify each of these terms, we’ve also created this supportive visual of Therapist Website Terms using a simple house analogy.
A Website Is Like A House
Much like building a house, there is a certain order that must be followed when building a website to ensure you have everything in place to support the next steps. So it may help to think of this glossary of terms in two separate phases, where phase 1 is what is needed before moving on to phase 2.
Phase 1
Phase 1 consists of terms from the ‘General’ and ‘Technical’ sections of our glossary. Things like choosing a location, getting an address, laying a foundation, and drawing up a blueprint of the house you’re planning to build – these are the things that must be decided on prior to moving onto the next phase.
1. Before you can begin building, you must lay a foundation. Think of your Web Server and Web Host as the foundation for your website.
2. In order to let people know where your home is located, you have an address. The same is true for a website. Your Domain / URL is your website’s online address.
3. Just as the Domain / URL is your main web address, a Subdomain can be used to describe an individual portion of your website. Think of a Subdomain as a single floor of your home, such as the upper level in our example.
4. Furthermore, a house is not only divided by floors, it also has individual rooms on each of its floors. The pages on websites are the equivalent of the rooms in homes. Websites have multiple pages such as Services, Blog, Contact, etc. Each of these individual pages are represented in the full URL by a Slug to differentiate one page from another on your site, much like we refer to the Master Bedroom, First Bedroom, and Second Bedroom in a home.
5. Finally, once the house has been built, you need to be sure you’ve found a way to secure your belongings so that you don’t fall victim to any sort of intrusion. On a house this is achieved with walls, doors, and windows – maybe even a home security system. Your website will need the same and this is where an SSL certificate comes into play.
Phase 2
Phase 2 consists of the remaining terms from the ‘On-Page Design Elements’ section of our glossary. Once you’ve gotten through the logistics of building your home/website, you can then focus on the aesthetic side of things.
1. Just as all homes will have a roof and ceilings, all websites will have a Header section.
2. At the same time, all websites will also have a Footer section just as all homes will have floors.
3. Even if you only opt to go with a shade of white, you will paint the walls of your house. Banner images, or Slideshows, are also used to decorate the pages of your website.
4. A Page Header is exactly what it sounds like – the name of an individual web page. Again, think of each individual page on your site as an individual room in a house. Similarly, you can think of the Content Section as the furniture that is found in that particular room.
5. And finally, just like some rooms in a house will have their own spaces that are divided off from the rest of the room and can only be accessed from that room – such as Bedroom Closets or a Master Bathroom – while it will not be displayed on all pages of your website, some of your web pages will likely have a Sidebar section.
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Therapist Website Glossary
General Terms
Technical Terms
On-Page Design Elements