Every business owner knows a website can have a huge impact on driving customer demand, loyalty and sales. But to get the greatest benefit from your online presence, what should you consider as far as your website development strategy and costs are concerned?

When you sit down with a web developer, you’re likely to hear a lot of buzzwords, acronyms and marketing terms that, if you’re not a techy yourself, can leave you more confused than certain you’re actually making a smart website investment.

HTML. PHP. CSS. Javascript. Responsive design. User experience. The list not only goes on, it keeps changing all of the time.

Fortunately, most web developers aren’t out there to get you. The terms above are as important to a website as a sturdy frame, a good engine, and a great paint job are to a car. Just as you need to know what you’re buying from a dealership, you should also know why each component of a website is critical before deciding what’s best for you.

Here’s a quick rundown of key terms to help you make more informed decisions during the website development (and investment) process.

HTML: The Cornerstone of Website Development

Let’s start with Hypertext Markup Language, better known as HTML. Sticking with the car theme, HTML can be compared to the frame. It’s a computer language that provides the structure the rest of the site will be built on. Every picture, video, and the text you see on a website? Without HTML, none of them would appear.

But by itself, HTML isn’t very pretty to look at. Think back to the earliest web sites in the 1990s. These were built almost entirely with HTML. Sites were basic, mostly text-based, and limited in content. That just won’t fly in 2017.

Javascript and PHP: Customization, Animation and Application

To add functionality, scripting languages like JavaScript and PHP (Hypertext Processor or Personal Home Page) were introduced. You can think of scripting languages as the engine that gets your car moving. JavaScript allows for some of the cool features you see on a website, like animation. It can make your website interactive and allow for things like custom greetings for visitors. PHP, on the other hand, allows you to collect data through things like contact forms, tracking who visits your site and helping to provide valuable information that can lead to sales, contacts, and more.

Here is a simple demonstration of Javascript. The site reacts to your mouse as it hovers over the text. When the mouse moves over the text, the script then runs and tells the website to break the text up into particles that appear as animation.

CSS: The Expression of Your Brand

Like an automobile, a website needs to look clean and polished. In the world of web design, that’s where “Cascading Style Sheets”, or CSS, comes into play. CSS is the computer language that determines the colors, layouts, and fonts of your website. It also allows your site to be compatible with various screen sizes, devices, etc.

A simple example of CSS in action can be seen on globallyspeakingradio.com—a podcast site for language professionals. In this example, CSS is used to apply various tints to each podcast image. If you’re on a desktop, moving your mouse over the tinted photos then reveals a black and white image that, in turn, scales the photos to give them a “zoomed in” effect—delighting and enticing visitors to look deeper into what the podcast has to offer.

Now that you know some of the terms, do you really need all of their capabilities? If a basic text site is all you’re asking for, you may be able to skip on the Javascript, and a designer doesn’t need to spend a lot of time with CSS.

But consider this:

According to a study by Chartbeat, 55% of users spend 15 seconds or less on a website. Your window of opportunity to teach people about your company is shorter than the shot clock in a basketball game.

Want to skip out on some beautiful, eye-catching colors or visually appealing designs that come from CSS? And what about PHP to track your visitors, not to mention the ability for prospects to have a great user experience, regardless of what kind of device they’re on—whether it’s a PC, tablet or mobile phone.

Of course, a successful website also needs quality content, like videos, blogs, testimonials, links to social media platforms, and more. But without the core components in place, it’s impossible to promote any content, no matter how great it is.

It’s good to know as much as you can about what goes into making your website. But when website development isn’t your day job, it’s unlikely you’ll want to know anything more than what will make your site as successful as possible.

At a minimum, I recommend starting with HTML and CSS. If you need more functionality, especially complex interactions, your developer can also use scripting languages such as PHP and Javascript.

Adding functionality does increase your up-front costs. But with the right combination of website technology and strategic market planning, you can also increase your site’s ROI.