Glossary
Glossary: the words in a website or online store project
The short answer
This glossary explains 30 terms you’ll meet when building an online store or moving one to Shopify, from 301 redirects and themes to VAT, sales tax and GST/HST, in plain English. Each says what the term means, where the facts come from, and what we do about it, including what we don’t do.
Key facts
As of October 2026
- Shopify Basic costs US$25 a month in the US, £25 in the UK and CA$49 in Canada, on Shopify’s pricing pages.
- Google says 301 and other permanent redirects don’t cause a loss in PageRank.
- A Shopify store can have up to 100,000 URL redirects, or 20,000,000 on Shopify Plus.
- Google suggests a page’s main content loads within 2.5 seconds, responds in under 200 milliseconds, and shifts less than 0.1.
- A UK-based business must register for VAT over £90,000 of taxable turnover in 12 months; Canada’s GST/HST small-supplier limit is CA$30,000.
What do these words mean?
Every platform and tax fact links to its source, the vendor’s or the government’s own page, checked on 27 October 2026. Rules and prices change, so check the linked page before you rely on one.
- 301 redirect
A permanent redirect: it tells browsers and search engines that a page has moved for good to a new address. Google shows the new address in its results, and says 301 and other permanent redirects don’t cause a loss in PageRank.
With us: Every store we move to Shopify gets a 301 redirect from each old address to its new one.
Redirect map templateSource: Google Search Central: Redirects and Google Search
- App (Shopify app)
An add-on from the Shopify App Store that gives a store a feature it doesn’t have built in, such as reviews or subscriptions. Each app’s developer sets its price, which can be a monthly fee, a fee by use or a one-time fee, and many apps are free.
With us: When we build a store, every app is named, with its monthly cost, before it’s installed.
- Card fees
What a payment provider takes from each card payment, usually a percentage of the sale plus a fixed amount. Through Shopify Payments, an online standard card payment on the Basic plan costs 2% + 25p in the UK and 2.8% + CA$0.30 in Canada. Shopify’s US pricing page doesn’t list its rates.
- Change of Address tool
A tool in Google Search Console that tells Google a site has moved to a new domain or subdomain. Google says it’s only for those moves, not for a change of platform on the same domain.
- Collection
Shopify’s word for a group of products, like a category. Every collection’s address starts /collections/, alongside /products/ for products, and Shopify won’t redirect those fixed paths.
- Core Web Vitals
Google’s three measures of how a page feels to use. Google suggests loading the main content within 2.5 seconds (Largest Contentful Paint), responding to a tap or click in under 200 milliseconds (Interaction to Next Paint), and keeping layout shift under 0.1 (Cumulative Layout Shift).
With us: Our Shopify speed fix measures the same five pages before and after. We don’t guarantee a score.
Shopify speed optimisationSource: Google Search Central: Understanding Core Web Vitals
- CSV file
A plain spreadsheet file, with values separated by commas, that most platforms use to export and import data. Shopify imports products, customers and redirects from CSV files; past orders come in only through a migration app or Shopify’s API.
- Domain
Your web address, such as yourshop.com. Domains bought through Shopify typically start at US$9 a year. A domain you already own can be connected to Shopify instead, which Shopify says usually takes effect within two hours, and at most two days.
With us: Your domain is in your name from the start, not ours.
Source: Shopify Help Center: Connecting a third-party domain
- Fixed price
A price agreed before the work starts, for a written scope. Ours are in US dollars, the same in the US, the UK and Canada, and anything outside the scope is quoted separately before it’s built, never added to an invoice without your agreement.
- GST/HST (Canada)
Canada’s Goods and Services Tax, 5%, which some provinces combine with their own sales tax as the Harmonized Sales Tax: 13% in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia, and 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. A business must register once its taxable sales go over CA$30,000 in a calendar quarter, or over four quarters in a row.
With us: We set up Shopify’s tax settings with you, to match what you’ve confirmed; we don’t give tax advice.
- Metafield
Shopify’s place for information its standard fields don’t have, such as a care guide or a size chart. When a store moves from WooCommerce to Shopify, its custom fields become metafields.
- Migration (moving platform)
Moving a store’s products, customers and orders from one platform to another, and redirecting its old web addresses to the new ones. Shopify says to import products first, then customers, then past orders, so the orders link up.
With us: We move stores to Shopify for US$1,250, fixed: up to 300 products, 3 to 4 weeks.
Moving a store to ShopifySource: Shopify Help Center: Migrate to Shopify
- Payment provider
The company that takes card payments for a store, sometimes called a payment gateway. On Shopify, if you use a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own fee on each sale: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.
- Plugin
An add-on for WordPress or WooCommerce, the equivalent of a Shopify app. Plugins are WordPress software and don’t run on Shopify, so a feature a plugin gives you needs a Shopify app or a different set-up after a move.
- Private mode (password page)
A Shopify setting that hides every page of a store from visitors and search engines and shows a password page instead. A new store starts in private mode, and stays there until it’s launched.
Shopify migration checklistSource: Shopify Help Center: Restrict access to your online store
- PST and QST (Canada)
Provincial sales tax, charged alongside the 5% GST in the provinces that don’t use the HST: 7% in British Columbia and Manitoba, 6% in Saskatchewan, and the Quebec Sales Tax, 9.975%, in Quebec. Each province runs its own.
With us: We set up Shopify’s tax settings with you, to match what you’ve confirmed; we don’t give tax advice.
- Redirect map
A list of every old web address on a site, each matched to the new address it should send visitors to. It’s what keeps old links, bookmarks and search results working after a move.
With us: The full redirect map is part of our fixed price for a move to Shopify, not an extra.
Redirect map templateSource: Google Search Central: How to move a site
- Sales tax (US)
Tax added to the price of goods sold in the US. There’s no single national rate: most states and municipalities have one, at different rates for different goods, and some goods aren’t taxed at all.
With us: We set up Shopify’s tax settings with you, to match what you’ve confirmed; we don’t give tax advice.
- SEO (search engine optimisation)
Work to help a website appear in search results, through its content, its technical set-up and links from other sites.
With us: We don’t sell SEO, ads or email marketing, and we don’t promise rankings. We build sites that search engines can read, and when we move a store, we redirect every old address.
- Shopify Payments
Shopify’s own payment provider. With it, Shopify charges a card fee on each payment; its extra fee on each sale applies only when a store uses another provider.
- Shopify plans
Shopify’s subscriptions: Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Basic costs US$25 a month in the US, £25 in the UK and CA$49 in Canada, less per month when paid yearly, and Shopify charges no setup fee.
With us: You pay Shopify for the plan directly. Our US$1,250 store build doesn’t include it.
- Sitemap
A file that lists a site’s pages for search engines. Every Shopify store makes one automatically at /sitemap.xml, but Google can’t read it while the store is in private mode.
Source: Shopify Help Center: Finding and submitting your sitemap
- Soft 404
A page that loads, but that Google treats as missing. Google says redirecting many old pages to one unrelated page, such as the home page, can confuse visitors and may be treated as a soft 404 error.
- Staging site
A private copy of a website where changes are built and checked before anyone else sees them.
With us: When we move a store, the new one is built and checked before the switch-over, and the old one stays live on a private address for an agreed period after launch.
- Theme
The design template a Shopify store runs on. The Shopify Theme Store has free and paid themes, and Shopify bills a paid theme as a one-time charge, not a subscription.
With us: Our store build starts from a theme set up around your products, or a design from scratch if the brief needs it. A paid theme licence isn’t in our price.
A Shopify store, at a fixed priceSource: Shopify Help Center: Types of charges
- URL redirect (Shopify)
Shopify’s name for a redirect from an old address on a store to a new one, set up under Content > Menus > URL redirects. A store can have up to 100,000 URL redirects, or 20,000,000 on Shopify Plus, and a redirect only works from an address that no longer loads a page.
Redirect map templateSource: Shopify Help Center: URL redirects
- Variant
One version of a product, such as a size or a colour. Shopify allows up to 3 options and 2,048 variants per product; a product with more needs restructuring or an app.
- VAT (UK)
Value Added Tax. In the UK the standard rate is 20%, the reduced rate 5%, and some goods, such as most food and children’s clothes, are zero-rated. A UK-based business must register once its taxable turnover over the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or is expected to in the next 30 days. A business based outside the UK that supplies goods or services to the UK must register whatever its turnover.
With us: We set up Shopify’s tax settings with you, to match what you’ve confirmed; we don’t give tax advice.
- WooCommerce
A free plugin that turns a WordPress website into an online shop.
With us: We build WooCommerce shops for US$1,250, fixed, and move WooCommerce stores to Shopify. If staying on WooCommerce makes more sense, we’ll say so.
- WordPress
Software for building websites that you host yourself, with an editor for changing pages and posts.
With us: We build WordPress websites you can edit yourself, for US$1,250, fixed (10 pages), with hosting in your name.
What don’t you do?
Some of these terms are things we don’t sell. We design and build Shopify, WordPress and WooCommerce sites and stores, and move stores to Shopify. We don’t do:
- SEO, ads or email marketing
- Writing your copy, beyond editing what you send
- Photography
- Logo or brand identity design
- Work in French
- Tax or legal advice
What else do people ask?
What’s the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?
A 301 is permanent: the page has moved for good, and Google shows the new address in its results. A 302 is temporary, and Google keeps showing the old address. For a move to a new platform, use permanent redirects.
Is a Shopify app the same as a WordPress plugin?
They do the same job, adding a feature the platform doesn’t have, but they don’t move between platforms. A plugin is WordPress software, so after a move to Shopify, each feature needs a Shopify app or a different set-up.
Do I need to charge VAT, sales tax or GST/HST?
It depends on where you sell, how much and what you sell, and each country’s tax authority sets the rules: HMRC in the UK, each state in the US, and the CRA and the provinces in Canada. We set up Shopify’s tax settings with you, but we don’t give tax advice.
Can I suggest a term?
Yes. Email us the word and where you met it, and we’ll add it if it comes up in website or store projects.
Got a project with words like these in it?
Book a 20-minute call: what you have now and what it needs to do. We’ll explain anything that isn’t clear, tell you which service fits and what it costs, and say so if nothing does.
contact@centangleglobal.com · Phone and WhatsApp +1 (307) 269-6427 · A reply within one working day