Small business website & online presence glossary — India.
45 terms explained in plain English, each with a quotable definition, an Indian example, common mistakes and FAQs.
Every conversation about getting a business online is full of words that sound technical but are not hard once someone explains them properly. This glossary does that for the terms an Indian shop owner, clinic, tuition centre, freelancer or manufacturer actually runs into: the domain and hosting jargon in a registrar invoice, the SEO words in a Google Search Console report, the Google Business Profile settings that decide whether you appear on Maps, and the GSTIN, HSN, Udyam and UPI terms that come up the moment you start accepting money through a website.
Each entry opens with a short, plain definition you can quote, then explains why the term matters for a business in India specifically, how it works in practice, a worked example from a real type of business, the mistakes we see most often, and how Neweb handles it on the ₹249 a month Starter plan. Entries end with five frequently asked questions and links to the free tools, guides and blog posts that go deeper.
Terms are grouped into five themes below: website basics, SEO, local and Google, payments and compliance, and marketing and conversion. If you are starting from zero, read domain name, Google Business Profile, GSTIN and UPI first; those four cover most of what a new business needs in its first month. Everything here is written for owners, not developers, and is updated as Google, GST rules and payment regulations change.
Website basics (10)
Domains, DNS, hosting, SSL, builders and the moving parts behind every site.
- CDN — A network of servers that caches your site near visitors so it loads faster.
- CMS — Software for creating and editing website content without touching code.
- Core Web Vitals — Google's three user-experience metrics: LCP, INP and CLS.
- DNS — The system that translates a domain name into the server address where a site or email lives.
- Domain Name — The human-readable address of a website, such as sharmasweets.in.
- Landing Page — A single page built for one campaign and one action, such as booking or paying.
- Page Speed — How quickly a page loads and becomes usable, usually measured on mobile.
- SSL Certificate — The certificate that encrypts a website and gives it the https padlock.
- Web Hosting — The server space that stores your website files and serves them to visitors.
- Website Builder — A hosted tool for creating and publishing a website without writing code.
SEO (15)
How Google reads, ranks and displays your pages — and the terms your SEO reports use.
- AI Overviews — Google's AI-generated answer summaries shown above results, with cited sources.
- Backlink — A link from another website to yours, treated by Google as a vote of trust.
- Canonical URL — The preferred address of a page when the same content is reachable at several URLs.
- Featured Snippet — The answer box at the top of Google results that quotes a page directly.
- Keyword — The word or phrase a searcher types that you want a page to rank for.
- Long-Tail Keyword — A specific multi-word search phrase with lower volume but higher buying intent.
- Meta Description — The short summary shown under a page title in search results.
- Meta Title — The title tag of a page, shown as the clickable headline in Google results.
- Rich Results — Enhanced Google listings with stars, prices, FAQs or images, driven by schema.
- Robots.txt — A text file at the site root that tells crawlers what they may and may not fetch.
- Schema Markup — Structured data code that tells search engines exactly what a page describes.
- Search Intent — The goal behind a search: to learn, navigate, compare or buy.
- SEO — The practice of making a website rank higher on Google for relevant searches.
- SERP — The search engine results page Google shows for a query, with all its features.
- XML Sitemap — A machine-readable file listing every page you want search engines to index.
Local & Google (4)
Google Business Profile, Maps ranking and the signals that decide who shows up near me.
- Google Business Profile — Google's free listing that shows your business on Search and Maps.
- Google Maps Ranking — Your position in Google Maps and the local three-pack for a query.
- Local SEO — SEO focused on ranking in Google Maps and near-me results for your area.
- NAP Consistency — Keeping your name, address and phone identical across every listing and page.
Payments & compliance (8)
GSTIN, GST invoices, HSN, Udyam, UPI and the plumbing behind getting paid legally in India.
- GST Invoice — A tax invoice from a registered seller showing GSTIN, HSN and the tax split.
- GSTIN — The 15-character GST identification number of a registered Indian business.
- HSN Code — The international product classification number that sets GST rates on goods.
- MSME — A micro, small or medium enterprise as defined by investment and turnover limits.
- Payment Gateway — The service that lets a website accept cards, UPI and net banking and settles to your bank.
- QR Code Payment — Paying by scanning a QR code that encodes a UPI ID and, optionally, an amount.
- Udyam Registration — The free government registration that issues an MSME certificate and Udyam number.
- UPI — India's instant bank-to-bank payment system run by NPCI, used through apps.
Marketing & conversion (8)
WhatsApp, calls-to-action, analytics, newsletters and the numbers that show if a site works.
- Bounce Rate — The share of visits that leave after one page with no interaction.
- Call to Action — The button or line that tells a visitor exactly what to do next.
- Click-to-WhatsApp — A link, button or ad that opens a WhatsApp chat with your business in one tap.
- Conversion Rate — The percentage of visitors who take the action you want, such as calling or paying.
- Newsletter — A regular email or WhatsApp update sent to people who opted in.
- Online Presence Manager — A service or platform that runs your website, Google listing, SEO and messaging together.
- Website Analytics — Tracking who visits your site, where they came from and what they did.
- WhatsApp Business API — Meta's programmatic WhatsApp access for businesses that need automation and scale.
Glossary questions
Who is this glossary for?
Owners and managers of Indian small businesses who want to understand the words used by web designers, SEO agencies, Google, their CA and their payment provider, without a technical background. Each entry is written in plain English with Indian examples, rupee figures and GST or UPI context where relevant.
Can I cite these definitions?
Yes. Every term page opens with a short, self-contained definition that is marked up with DefinedTerm structured data so search engines and AI assistants can quote it accurately. Link back to the page if you reuse the text.
How are the terms chosen?
From the questions Neweb customers ask during onboarding and from the Google queries that bring Indian business owners to neweb.ai. The list currently has 45 terms across website basics, SEO, local and Google, payments and compliance, and marketing. New terms are added when a new question comes up often enough.
Do I need to know all of this to use Neweb?
No. Neweb registers the domain, sets up DNS, SSL and hosting, creates the Google Business Profile and runs SEO for you. The glossary exists so you understand what is being done and can make good decisions when a vendor, bank or Google asks you something.
How often is the glossary updated?
Entries that depend on rules, such as GSTIN thresholds, HSN digit requirements, MSME limits or UPI charges, are reviewed when the rule changes. Google-related entries are reviewed when Google changes how Search or Maps behaves.
Know the words. Skip the work.
Neweb sets up the domain, site, Google Business Profile, SEO and payments for you from ₹249/month.