Glossary

Deployment, domains, networking, security, SEO — going live throws a lot of unfamiliar words at you. They're grouped by topic below, each with a plain-English sentence or two. Come back any time you hit one you don't know; relevant guides are linked where it helps.

Deployment & hosting

VPS (Virtual Private Server)

A "virtual" server: a physical machine sliced into pieces, and you get one slice with its own CPU, memory, and root access. Far cheaper than a dedicated machine and the most common choice for self-hosting small projects. See Cheap cloud servers.

Cloud Instance

A virtual server provided on demand by a cloud provider (AWS, Google Cloud, etc.) that you can spin up, shut down, and resize anytime, billed by usage. Essentially "a VPS that scales elastically."

Serverless

You write only function code; the platform runs and scales it automatically per request, and charges nothing when there are no requests. "Serverless" doesn't mean there are no servers — it means you don't manage them. Great for APIs and scheduled jobs. See Publish to the internet.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Sits between "run your own server" and "Serverless": you push code and the platform handles building, running, and scaling it (Railway, Render, Fly.io). Low-hassle, ideal for developers who'd rather not touch ops.

Static Hosting

A service built to host pure frontend static files (HTML/CSS/JS), usually free with a CDN and HTTPS included (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel). The first choice for frontend projects. See Publish to the internet.

Docker / Containers

Packages your app together with its runtime environment (dependencies, config) into a "container" so it "runs the same everywhere." Kills the classic "but it works on my machine" problem.

CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment)

An automated pipeline: the moment you push code, the system tests, builds, and deploys it. Once set up, shipping a new version is just a git push.

Env Var (Environment Variable)

A config value kept outside your code (database passwords, API keys, etc.) and injected at runtime. The benefit: secrets stay out of your repo, and different environments (local/production) can use different values.

Backup

Regularly copying your data and config somewhere else. Servers die, fat-fingered commands drop databases — a backup is what lets you recover. "Feels redundant until the day it saves you." See Ops security.

Networking & domains

DNS (Domain Name System)

The internet's "phone book," translating human-friendly domain names into machine IP addresses. When you visit a site, your browser looks up DNS for the IP first, then connects to the server. See Set up Cloudflare.

A Record

A type of DNS record that points a domain directly at an IPv4 address. When binding a domain to your own server, the A record is the one you'll most often add.

CNAME Record

A type of DNS record that points one domain at another domain instead of an IP. Hosting platforms often have you CNAME to an address they give you, so if they change IPs you don't have to change anything.

Nameserver

The server responsible for managing all of a domain's DNS records. Handing a domain to Cloudflare means switching the nameservers at your registrar to Cloudflare's.

Registrar

The company you buy and renew domains from (Cloudflare, Namecheap, Porkbun). Note the distinction: the registrar handles "who owns the domain," the DNS provider handles "the resolution records" — they can be different companies. See Buy a domain.

TLD (Top-Level Domain)

The last chunk of a domain, like .com, .org, .xyz, .dev. TLDs vary a lot in price, renewal cost, and "vibe" — always check the renewal price before buying.

Port

A "number" on a server that distinguishes one service from another. Web uses 80 (http) and 443 (https); SSH uses 22. A single IP can run many services at once, told apart by port.

Reverse Proxy

A layer in front of your app that receives all incoming requests and forwards them to the backend. Commonly used to terminate HTTPS, balance load, and host several services under one domain.

nginx

One of the most popular web server and reverse-proxy programs — fast and rock-solid. Often used to serve static files, terminate HTTPS, and forward requests to a backend app.

Security

SSL/TLS

The protocol that encrypts traffic between browser and server (TLS is the modern version of SSL, though people still say "SSL"). It stops others from eavesdropping or tampering with what's sent, and is the foundation of HTTPS.

HTTPS

HTTP with TLS encryption added. The little padlock in the address bar means it's on. It's now the default — without it, browsers flag "Not secure" and SEO takes a hit. See Set up Cloudflare.

Certificate

A file signed by a trusted authority proving "this domain really is yours" — required to enable HTTPS. Both Cloudflare and Let's Encrypt issue them free and renew them automatically.

Firewall

Rules controlling which network traffic may enter or leave a server. The golden rule is "deny everything by default, open only the ports you need" (e.g. 22, 80, 443). See Ops security.

SSH

The encrypted protocol for logging into a remote server and running commands. Strongly prefer "key" login over passwords — it's both safer and more convenient. See Ops security.

ICP Filing

A mainland-China regulatory requirement: sites whose server is in mainland China and serve mainland visitors must file first. An overseas server generally isn't subject to it.

WAF (Web Application Firewall)

A layer of protection that specifically detects and blocks malicious requests aimed at websites (SQL injection, cross-site scripting, etc.). Cloudflare ships with basic WAF rules built in.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)

An attack that overwhelms your server with a flood of requests so real users can't get through. CDNs like Cloudflare include DDoS protection that absorbs most of the attack traffic.

SEO

sitemap

An XML file listing all the pages on your site; submitting it to search engines helps them index you faster and more completely. See SEO.

robots.txt

A text file at your site's root that tells search-engine crawlers which pages they may fetch and which to skip. Misconfigure it and your whole site can go unindexed, so handle with care. See SEO.

canonical

When the same content lives at several URLs, a canonical tag declares "this one is the original," so search engines don't treat them as duplicates and split your ranking weight.

hreflang

A tag telling search engines "this page has these language/region versions," so multilingual sites send Chinese users to the Chinese page and English users to the English one.

Core Web Vitals

A set of metrics Google uses to measure page experience — mainly load speed, interaction responsiveness, and visual stability. They directly affect search ranking. See SEO.

Open Graph

A set of meta tags that decide the title, description, and thumbnail shown when your link is shared on social platforms. Set them up and your share cards look good and get more clicks.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A worldwide network of cache servers that serves your content from the node nearest each user, making it faster and more reliable. Cloudflare is one of the most widely used. See Set up Cloudflare.