Tech terms, plainly defined

A fractional CTO is a part-time technology leader who owns roadmap, vendors, and engineering standards without a full-time executive salary.

A full-time, temporary technology leader who covers a gap in the executive team, typically during a search process, a transition, or a critical delivery sprint.

A structured review of a software product, codebase, or technical organisation before an investment, acquisition, or major contract.

Data integrity means business data stays accurate, complete, consistent, and traceable across systems.

AEO makes a page clear enough for answer engines to quote when a buyer asks a direct question.

GEO shapes how generative systems describe your company, category, product, or expertise.

SEO makes pages discoverable, crawlable, and worth ranking for searches that can turn into revenue.

Schema markup gives machines a structured version of the facts already visible on the page.

Google AI Overviews are generated search summaries that may cite sources. Buyers can form an opinion before clicking any classic result.

Topical authority is earned when a site covers a subject with depth, consistent entities, and clear internal links across a cluster.

Structured data is machine-readable page information, usually Schema.org in JSON-LD, that labels facts already visible to users.

Entity SEO makes your brand, people, and services unambiguous so search and answer systems can connect the right facts to the right name.

The useful difference a page adds compared with other pages already covering the same query.

Search that tries to understand meaning, entities, relationships, and intent beyond exact keyword matching.

Google quality-rater shorthand for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

A search result where the user gets the answer on the results page and does not click through to a website.

A structured database of entities and relationships that helps search systems understand people, organisations, places, products, events, and concepts.

A highlighted answer block that Google may show above the regular organic results for a query.

The practice of linking between pages on the same website so users and crawlers understand which pages matter and how topics connect.

llms.txt is a root-level text file that tells AI agents which pages to read and how to cite the brand.

AI citations are credited sources inside generated answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and similar tools.

ChatGPT Search adds live web retrieval and source citations to ChatGPT answers.

Google Business Profile is the free local listing that feeds map pack results, reviews, and local trust signals.

NAP consistency means name, address, and phone match exactly across every public business listing.

The planning, building, and maintenance of websites and web applications that run in a browser.

The part of web development that runs in the browser and shapes what users see, click, read, and complete.

UI is the surface people use. UX is whether that surface helps them finish the job.

Responsive design keeps the same user task usable when the screen, input method, or connection changes.

The server-side part of web development that handles data, business logic, authentication, permissions, integrations, and the workflows users do not see directly.

A defined way for one software system to request data or trigger actions in another system.

A rendering method where the server generates the HTML for a page before it reaches the browser.

Information architecture is the map users follow: sitemap, navigation, and labels. If the map is wrong, design and copy work harder for worse results.

A design system is the shared components, tokens, and rules that keep UI consistent across pages and releases so teams stop redesigning the same button every sprint.

Conversion rate is the share of visitors who complete a defined goal. In B2B, track qualified outcomes, not vanity form fills.

Usability testing observes real users attempting tasks on a design or site to find friction before you scale traffic or freeze visuals.

Form abandonment is when users begin a form and leave before submitting. It is a primary conversion leak on B2B sites and checkouts.

Design tokens name colour, type, spacing, and related visual values so Figma and production stay aligned when the brand changes.

WordPress is the open-source CMS most growing companies already know how to edit. The real question is whether your build stays fast, secure, and maintainable after launch.

Gutenberg is WordPress's block editor. Pages are built from blocks and patterns so editors can ship layouts with clear ownership and reusable sections.

A block theme puts templates, global styles, and many layout parts into the same block model editors already use for page content.

WooCommerce turns WordPress into a shop. Catalogue and checkout sit in the CMS editors already use, with the ops burden of payments, stock, and performance still on you.

Managed WordPress hosting buys a stack that expects WordPress: caching, backups, staging, and platform care. It does not replace plugin and content maintenance.

WP-Cron schedules WordPress background jobs. By default it runs on page visits, which fails on quiet sites and can pile up on busy ones.

The WordPress REST API exposes content and admin actions as JSON over HTTP for headless sites, apps, and automations. Auth and capabilities decide whether that is powerful or dangerous.

Plugin dependency risk is the security and ops cost of relying on too many, overlapping, or abandoned WordPress plugins.

Accessibility makes a digital product usable when people navigate, read, listen, type, zoom, or use assistive technology differently.

The European Accessibility Act (2019/882) requires many consumer-facing digital products and services in the EU to meet accessibility standards from 28 June 2025.

The German regulation implementing WCAG-based accessibility requirements for public-sector websites and apps.

The international standard for web accessibility, published by the W3C.

NIS2 turns cybersecurity from an IT checklist into a board-owned operational obligation for in-scope EU sectors.

The EU AI Act classifies AI by risk, then decides what you must ban, disclose, document, or monitor.

GDPR (DSGVO) is the EU personal-data law. Websites must prove lawful basis, consent before tracking, processor contracts, and a path for access or deletion requests.

A formal request from an individual exercising their right of access under GDPR (Article 15).

A contract required by GDPR (Article 28) between a data controller and any data processor who handles personal data on their behalf.

Prompt injection steers a model with untrusted text so it ignores instructions, leaks data, or misuses tools. Treat retrieved content as data, not as the new boss.

Core Web Vitals measure whether a page loads, responds, and stays visually stable for real users.

INP measures whether a page responds quickly after clicks, taps, and keyboard input.

A set of limits on the technical metrics of a web page, agreed before build and enforced through automated checks after each deployment.

Performance drift is the slow decline in speed and responsiveness after a site has gone live.

A CDN serves content from edge locations so pages load faster and origin servers do less work.

Lazy loading delays non-critical assets until the user is likely to need them.

LCP measures when the main visible content appears. Good LCP is 2.5s or faster at the 75th percentile of real users.

CLS measures unexpected layout movement. Good CLS is 0.1 or less at the 75th percentile of real users.

TTFB is how long until the browser receives the first byte of the HTML response. Slow TTFB drags LCP down even when images are optimised.

An open protocol, published by Anthropic, that defines a standard way for AI agents and LLM applications to connect to external tools, APIs, and data sources.

A headless CMS separates content editing from the front end that renders the website.

The decision framework for whether to commission custom software or purchase an off-the-shelf SaaS product for a given workflow.

Vendor lock-in means switching away from a tool or provider is harder than the business expected.

Architecture drift happens when production no longer matches the system the team thinks it has.

A custom integration connects systems around the real workflow when standard connectors are not enough.

A webhook lets one system trigger another when a real event happens.

A tech stack is the set of tools and platforms a product or website depends on.

RAG retrieves trusted documents at query time and feeds them to a model so answers stay grounded in your data instead of inventing policy from training memory.

AI guardrails are the controls that limit model outputs and actions: permissions, filters, evaluations, and human escalation.

Tool calling lets a model invoke structured functions or APIs, not only return text. Permissions and approval decide whether that is useful or dangerous.

A staging environment is a production-like place to test changes before users feel them.

Technical debt is the future cost created by shortcuts, postponed fixes, and unclear ownership.

AI pilot-to-production is the gap between a promising demo and an AI workflow the business can trust.

Production-ready means a system can run with real users, real data, and a person responsible after launch.

A 301 redirect permanently sends an old URL to the correct new URL.

The preferred URL for a page when similar or duplicate versions exist.

The attention search engines spend crawling a site during a given period.

A machine-readable file that lists the important URLs a site wants search engines to discover.

Whether a page can be included in a search engine index.

Human-in-the-loop means AI drafts or proposes, and a person approves before the action affects customers or systems.