Website words, explained: a glossary for AI builders

Addresses

Domain

The name people type to reach your site. You rent it yearly from a registrar. Example: maisoncafe.co.uk.

Subdomain

A name in front of a domain, set up by whoever owns the domain. www is the most common one. Example: brave-otter-4821.pagelemon.dev is a subdomain of pagelemon.dev.

Bare domain

The domain with nothing in front, also called the root or apex. Example: maisoncafe.co.uk rather than www.maisoncafe.co.uk.

Registrar

A domain company: where you buy and renew a domain. Example: you buy maisoncafe.co.uk at a registrar and pay them each year.

DNS

DNS

The internet's address book. It turns a name into the place a site lives. Example: when someone types your domain, DNS tells their browser which host to ask.

CNAME record

A DNS entry that says "this name is another name". It's how you point www at a host. Example: www → customers.pagelemon.dev.

Nameservers

The company that holds your domain's DNS records. Usually your registrar, unless you moved them. Example: after moving DNS to Cloudflare, your nameservers end in ns.cloudflare.com.

Hosting and publishing

Hosting

A computer that stores your site and sends it to every visitor, all the time. Example: Page Lemon hosts sites at pagelemon.dev addresses or your own domain.

Static site

A site made only of files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images) with no program running on a server. Most sites an AI makes are static. Example: a café page with a menu and opening hours.

index.html

The file a host shows as the home page of a folder. Example: ask your AI for "one index.html with the CSS and JavaScript inside" and you have a whole site in one file.

Deploy (publish)

Putting your site's files on a host so the address works for everyone. Example: "Deploy on PageLemon.com" asks your AI to deploy it.

HTTPS

The secure version of a web address, shown as a padlock. It needs a certificate, which most hosts now set up for free. Example: https://www.maisoncafe.co.uk.

AI tools

Artifact

Claude's name for something it makes in a panel next to the chat, like a web page or a small app, that you can preview and share. Example: "Make me a landing page" often gives you an artifact. See publish a Claude artifact.

Canvas

The side panel in ChatGPT and Gemini where you edit a document or code with the AI and preview it. Example: Gemini Canvas can show your page live as it writes it. See publish a Gemini Canvas site.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

An open standard that lets an AI app use tools from other services, like publishing a site or reading a calendar. Example: Page Lemon runs an MCP server at https://mcp.pagelemon.com/mcp.

Connector (plugin, app)

What chat apps call an MCP tool you add to them. Claude says connector, ChatGPT says plugin. You add it once and sign in. Example: Connect your AI.

API key

A secret code that lets a program use a paid service on your account. Never put one in a web page: anyone can read it. Example: a canvas app that calls an AI may ask for one. See is it safe to publish AI-written code?