University
Home
Search
⌘E
Dashboard
Try Webflow — it's free
Learn
Courses
Docs
Videos
Interactive Learning
Glossary
Certifications
Engage
Support
Community
Events
Forum
Accessibility
Switch to Light mode
Switch to Dark mode
High contrast
Glossary
Certificate authority

Certificate authority

A certificate authority (CA), also known as a certification authority, issues digital certificates that verify a website’s owner. Certificate authorities distribute certificates via email or by adding a DNS record to the site’s domain registrar’s account. They help form the chain of trust that protects visitors from scam sites and website owners from cyberattacks.

An SSL certificate, for example, appears as an “s” on the end of HTTPS in a website’s URL. It means the SSL encrypts sensitive data before passing it on. If you’re buying a pair of shoes online, HTTPS in the URL lets you know you’re purchasing from a real seller and that your data is encrypted and safe.

Webflow supports SSL hosting, issues certificates, and automatically renews them so they’re never out of date (as long as the DNS records are continuously pointed to Webflow and the site is loading on Webflow SSL hosting servers). Enterprise customers can also choose to upload a custom SSL certificate if they prefer (but a custom certificate won’t renew automatically).

Relevant courses

Ultimate web design course

From the fundamentals to advanced topics — learn how to build sites in Webflow and become the designer you always wanted to be.

Getting started with Webflow Enterprise

Get familiar with Webflow’s website experience platform and Enterprise features.

CSS grid in Webflow

An overview of CSS grid. Use the grid layout in Webflow to get more control over your designs and create powerful, responsive layouts — faster.

Figma to Webflow

Learn the entire design process from idea to final output as we take you through Figma, Cinema 4D and Octane, and Webflow.

Web elements

A comprehensive look at the building blocks and elements Webflow puts at your fingertips — start designing websites visually, with confidence.

Client's guide to the Editor

This is the Client's guide to the Webflow Editor. Share these lessons to get your clients up and running.

Other glossary terms

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Compile time

→
Compile time is the length of time it takes for a compiler to convert high-level code into low-level code.

Resolution

→
Resolution is a metric measuring clarity and detail through the number of pixels displayed on a screen or used to render an image.

Certified

→
A digital certificate is a data file embedded in the site that signals the site’s safety to visitors, internet service providers (ISPs), and servers.

Behavioral targeting

→
Behavioral targeting is a marketing technique that leverages user data to deliver personalized ads to drive conversions.

Child

→
A child element is an element nested within a parent element in a hierarchy.

Image field

→
Available in CMS Collections. With this field, you can upload images from your computer and use them as dynamic items in your individual Collection item.

Ciphertext

→
Ciphertext is unreadable, encrypted data that ciphers use for security during data transit.

Flex-order

→
In CSS, flex-order is a property that allows you to manipulate the default source order of the items within a flex container. Flex-order is especially useful when you want content to display differently on mobile than on desktop.

Subdomain indexing

→
When a search engine crawls your site's Webflow subdomain (e.g., your-site.webflow.io).

Strong text

→
The <strong> element defines important text with added semantic importance.

Text block

→
A typography element that is used when no other element is specifically suitable.

CSS Filters

→
CSS filters apply visual effects to HTML elements and their children using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

Synchronous

→
Synchronous programming refers to sequentially executed operations.

Plugin

→
A plugin, also called an add-on or extension, is a software component that enhances the host or browser or application by adding new features or capabilities to it.

Keyboard shortcuts

→
Keyboard shortcuts are combinations of keys on a computer keyboard that perform a specific action or command within an application or operating system.

DHTML

→
DHTML, or Dynamic HTML, is a web-development technique combining HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create dynamic, interactive web pages and complex web applications.

.htaccess

→
.htaccess is a powerful configuration file that allows you to configure and control how your website functions.

ASCII

→
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is an encoding standard that assigns numerical values to characters and translates them into computer-readable code.

Top padding

→
The inside spacing between the top border of an element and the elements inside it.

Left margin

→
Left margin is a CSS property that defines the space between an element's left edge and its surroundings.

Optimizely

→
A web app that helps you measure how different site designs impact user behavior.

Registrar

→
A registrar, or domain name server (DNS) registrar, manages the sale of domain names and the assignment of IP addresses, ensuring each domain’s uniqueness.

Lightbox

→
A lightbox displays content in a popup or modal window on top of a web page’s main content.

Margin

→
Margins are an essential spacing element of web design, dictating the amount of whitespace between a box and its surroundings.

Below the fold

→
Below the fold refers to the lower portion of a webpage that isn’t immediately visible to visitors upon loading until they scroll down.

Height: auto

→
The "height: auto" CSS property automatically adjusts an element’s height based on its content.

Localization

→
Localization (l10n) involves adapting digital content and applications to meet a specific region or culture’s language and conventions.

Component Module

→
A section in the Add Panel that houses pre-built Webflow elements such as sliders, tabs, and lightboxes.

Head code

→
Custom code that's added just before the closing </head> tag in your site's HTML file. Learn more about custom code in head and body tags.

Layout section

→
A tab in the Add panel that houses prebuilt layouts for your Webflow site.

Custom domain hosting

→
A Webflow service that lets you point a custom domain to your Webflow-hosted site.

Email template

→
Email templates — or pre-designed HTML layouts — ensure consistent branding and visual aesthetic in marketing campaigns.

Mutable

→
In JavaScript, mutable objects are dynamic elements that allow post-creation changes and modifications.

Button

→
A button is an interactive element that facilitates user actions.

SSL CDN

→
SSL CDN, or Secure Sockets Layer Content Delivery Network, is an option that allows you to serve your images over your own CDN service while using SSL.

Fold

→
The fold distinguishes the visible portion of the webpage immediately visible to users without scrolling from the remaining content viewable by scrolling down.

Style Manager

→
The third tab in the right-side panel where you can rename element classes, preview your class and tag styles, search for classes and tags, and delete any classes that aren’t in use.

Modal window

→
A modal window (or modal) is a web element that displays above all content and restricts user interaction until it’s manually dismissed.

Front-end

→
The front-end refers to the visual and interactive part of a website or application that users directly interact with.

Pixel

→
A pixel (px) is the smallest unit of measure in a digital image or display, representing a single point of color or light.

Percent

→
A measurement unit relative to an element's parent.

ATAG

→
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) are a layered rule-set that influence how designers and developers create a more accessible internet.

Control flow

→
The control flow is the order in which a computer program executes its instructions or statements, guided by control structures.

Inheritance dropdown

→
A dropdown menu that displays all the selectors that affect a given element.

Flex-align

→
A flexbox property that lets you customize the alignment behavior of flex children, based on the cross-axis of the flex container. The cross axis is the opposite of the flex-direction property, so if you set the direction to vertical, the cross axis is horizontal. Options include start, center, end, baseline, and stretch.

API

→
APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are common code protocols that let apps safely exchange data with other apps, software, and hardware.

Literal

→
In JavaScript, literals are fixed values written directly into the code.

Target

→
The currently selected element.

Inline style

→
Inline style applies CSS to an individual HTML element using the "style" attribute within the HTML tag.

Content network

→
A content network is a collection of websites where advertisers can pay to display digital ads.

Certificate authority

→
A certificate authority (CA), also known as a certification authority, issues digital certificates that verify a website’s owner.

Maximum width (max width)

→
The “max-width” CSS property defines an element’s maximum width.

Element settings panel

→
The second panel on the right side of the Designer. Here, you can change element-specific settings such as the element ID, Custom attributes, Search index settings, Editor settings, etc. You can learn more about the element settings for a specific element by searching for the element’s name on Webflow University.

Website name

→
A website name, or domain, is the title of a website that appears in the browser tab and search engine results.

Form block

→
Form blocks allow you to add form elements to a website, including appointment booking, surveys, applications, polls, and contact forms.

Empty elements

→
Empty or void elements are HTML elements that don’t require a closing tag because they contain no content.

Google Universal Analytics Tracking ID

→
A unique ID you can use to link your Google Analytics account to your Webflow site.

CRLF

→
On Windows-based systems, the sequence of two ASCII characters representing a line break in text files is called "Carriage Return, Line Feed," or CRLF.

Map

→
A Webflow element that embeds an interactive Google Map in your site.

GIF

→
A GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a digital image format that uses multiple frames of an image or soundless video to create a short, looping animation.

Number field

→
Available in CMS Collections. It lets you insert an integer with or without decimals.

Radio button

→
A radio button is a form element for selecting one option from a predefined set of mutually exclusive choices.

Bundling

→
Bundling, or bundle pricing, is a pricing technique in which retailers sell products together at a lower price than they would be sold at individually.

Prefetch

→
Prefetch is a technique that proactively loads and caches resources to improve website performance and user experience.

Span text

→
The span tag is used to style inline-text.

Duplicate element

→
To copy an element and its content, styles, and settings.

Content-first design

→
A design approach that prioritizes content planning and production in the design process.

Collection

→
A content type (blog posts, recipes, etc.) represented by a group of fields you define. Once created, you can add individual Collection items.

Mobile (portrait) breakpoint

→
A Webflow canvas setting that lets you create styles for viewports with a minimum width of 240px and a maximum width of 479px. Also known as the mobile portrait media query.

Effects

→
A section in the Style panel that houses CSS properties for changing how an element appears, such as its opacity, outline, and box shadows.

Common targets

→
All elements on the page targeted by the same selector.

Selector state

→
A pseudo-class that allows you to change the styles of an element when it is hovered, pressed, or focused.

CMS Collection page

→
A dynamic page that Webflow automatically creates for each Collection item. When you design a Collection page, all the pages that are created for each Collection item will have the same template but different content.

Embed component

→
A Webflow component you can use to embed HTML to display external content, plugins, or applications.

Em

→
An em in CSS is a scalable and relative unit of measurement that defines the size of an element relative to its parent's font size.

Cloneable site

→
Cloneable sites are open source (made available under the CC0 (“no rights reserved”) license). When you enable cloning, you allow any user to copy, modify, and use any part of your site for personal or commercial purposes.Sites with cloning turned off do not give others access to copy your site or open it in the Designer.

Webflow CMS

→
Webflow's content management system (CMS) is where dynamic content (Collections and their Collection items) is stored and maintained so you can reference it throughout your site. A CMS lets you input data in one location, then use Collection template pages or Collection lists to display that content without having to update the content displays one at a time.

Date/Time field

→
A field available in CMS Collections. This field lets you display a date and time in a Collection and/or Collection item.

Character encoding

→
Character encoding is the process of representing characters (such as “a” or “3”) in a particular way, such as text on a computer screen.

Paginate items

→
This checkbox allows you to enable or disable pagination on the selected Collection list.

Bottom bar

→
A bottom bar is a navigation bar at the bottom of an app or webpage.

Bug

→
A bug is an error, fault, or flaw in an application or software that causes the program to behave unexpectedly, often producing inaccurate and invalid output.

Wrapper

→
A wrapper is a programming language function for encapsulating and organizing elements within a well-defined interface.

Workspace plan

→
A Webflow plan that applies to your entire Workspace.

Div block

→
A generic element that is typically used to group content, or when no other element is specifically or semantically suitable. Div blocks have no effect on the content or layout until styled with CSS.

Footer

→
A footer is a section at the bottom of a web page.

Entity

→
An entity is a representation of a special character that causes syntax conflicts in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).

Bounding box

→
A bounding box is a rectangular border around a website element (e.g., a heading, paragraph, or image) that appears during the design process.

Comparison shopping engine

→
A comparison shopping engine (CSE) is a search engine that compares ecommerce pricing, shipping costs, and customer reviews.

Sibling

→
An element that shares the same parent of another element.

Read-only link

→
A way for others to test/debug your Webflow site in the Designer without being able to save or make permanent changes.

Twitter button

→
A Webflow element that embeds a Twitter Follow or Tweet button into your site.

Plain text field

→
A plain text field is an input field for short-form text without formatting or styling.

Responsive design

→
Responsive web design (RWD) is a web development and design approach to create websites, applications, and user interfaces (UIs) that display and function effectively on any device or screen size.

RGB (Red-Green-Blue)

→
RGB, an acronym for Red, Green, Blue, is a color model that screen displays use to represent various colors.

Rich text field

→
A rich text field is an input tool for formatting or applying text styles, such as bold, colors, font sizes, italics, underline, and other visual modifications.

Link

→
A link, short for hyperlink, is a clickable website element that enables navigation between different web resources.

Export

→
A downloadable ZIP file that contains your Webflow site's HTML, CSS, JS, and image files.

CMS section

→
A section in the Add panel that contains elements associated with the CMS.

Micro conversion

→
Micro conversions are small but important user actions on a website that contribute to the overall conversion funnel.
Hmm…we couldn’t find any results. Try a different search term or reset the filter.
Reset the filter
Load more