WordPress, in plain English
The words that come up when someone talks about your site, explained without assuming you are technical. If a term you have been told is missing, ask us and we will add it.
A
Admin (wp-admin)
The WordPress control panel for your own site, usually at yoursite.com/wp-admin. This is your site's admin, not a tool we give you.
Auto-update
WordPress applying an update by itself, without anyone checking it first. Convenient, and the usual reason a site breaks overnight.
B
Backup
A stored copy of your site's files and database, so it can be put back after something goes wrong. Only useful if someone has tested restoring it.
Blacklist
A list of sites flagged as unsafe, usually by Google. Being on one puts a red warning in front of your visitors and stops most traffic dead.
Brute force
An automated attack that tries thousands of password guesses against your login page until one works.
C
Cache
A saved copy of a page, served instead of rebuilding it every time. Makes a site much faster, and is the reason your changes sometimes do not appear.
CDN
A Content Delivery Network stores copies of your files in different places so visitors load them from somewhere nearby.
Core
WordPress itself, as distinct from your theme and plugins. Core updates are usually safe. It is the other two that break things.
Core Web Vitals
Google's measurements of how fast a page loads, how quickly it responds, and whether things jump around while loading.
D
Database
Where WordPress keeps your posts, pages, settings, users and, on a store, your orders. Files alone are not a complete backup without it.
DNS
The system that points your domain name at the server your site lives on. Changing hosts means changing DNS.
Downtime
Any period your site is not reachable. What it costs you is roughly your monthly revenue divided by 730, per hour.
M
Malware
Malicious code added to your site without permission. Usually hidden rather than obvious, because the longer it goes unnoticed the more it earns.
Managed hosting
Hosting tuned for WordPress, often with caching and backups included. It covers the server. It does not cover your plugins, theme or content.
Migration
Moving a site from one host to another. The part where things get lost if it is rushed.
P
PHP
The programming language WordPress is written in. Running an old version means missing security fixes, and it is the update nobody remembers.
Plugin
An add-on that gives WordPress extra features. Also the single most common way sites get broken into, when one is left outdated.
R
Restore
Putting a backup back onto a live site. Anything changed since that backup was taken is lost, which is why backup frequency matters.
Rollback
Undoing an update that broke something, returning to the version that worked.
S
SLA
A Service Level Agreement: what a provider commits to. Most host SLAs cover the server only and exclude plugin, theme and application problems by name.
SSL certificate
What puts the padlock in the address bar. When one expires, browsers warn visitors away from your site.
Staging
A private copy of your site where changes get tested before they touch the live one.
T
Theme
What controls how your site looks. A custom theme built by someone who has moved on is a common source of update problems.
Two-factor (2FA)
A second step at login, usually a code from your phone, so a stolen password is not enough on its own.
U
Uptime
The share of time your site is reachable. 99.9% works out to roughly 8.7 hours of downtime a year at the outside.
Uptime monitoring
Automated checks that your site is responding. Worth remembering that monitoring tells you it broke. It does not fix it.
W
WAF
A Web Application Firewall inspects traffic before it reaches WordPress and blocks requests that match known attacks.
WooCommerce
The plugin that turns WordPress into a shop. Raises the stakes on everything: checkout runs on plugins and you hold customer data.
Rather not learn any of this?
That is a reasonable position. Send us your site and a real person will check its speed, security, backups and update status, then explain what they found without the jargon.
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