Website jargon guide 
Introduction
This article is intended to explain much of the jargon commonly associated with the development and running of a website. It is aimed at business owners who either already have a website, but don't fully understand the terminology or for those who are considering having a website but wish to understand more before making a decision.There are 3 main things which are required to establish a presence on the internet. These are a domain name, some hosting and the actual website content. Each of these is explained in more detail below. Following these detailed explanations, we will also explain the meaning of a number of other jargon words you may come across.
Domain name
The domain name is the unique name which identifies your website. For example the
domain name for this website is: ropernetit.co.uk. There are several different types
of domain names, some of which identify the country of your business (e.g. .co.uk).
A domain name is registered through a domain name registration company. Depending
on the type of domain, some registrations are for one year and some are for two
years. At ropernet IT we can register domains on your behalf, or you may register
them yourself.
Hosting
Hosting is the term used to describe the equipment and services used to act as a
home for your website and to allow it to be accessed by other people. A hosting
company is usually based in a major UK city to allow a high speed connection to the
internet. A good quality host will have computers that have 24 hour monitoring, backup
power supplies and multiple connections to the internet. This means that your website
should be available 24 hours a day 365 days a year.Within the UK there are many different hosting companies available. Each of these companies usually offers several different 'packages' to suit different people. Key differentiators include:
- Amount of disk space - This is the amount of storage space you are allowed on the host computer. A typical business website only requires about 20Mb.
- Bandwidth allowance - This determines the amount of data which can be downloaded from your website in a given period (usually a month). The more visitors you have to your website, the more bandwidth you will use. 1Gb of bandwidth per month is more than enough for most business websites.
- Database availability - If a database is available, it is possible for your website to include more advanced functionality such as product searches and even an on-line shop if you wanted.
As well as providing website services, a host also provides you with other services such as email.
Website content
The website content, is the actual website pages themselves. On a more complicated
website the content can include scripts (to perform clever operations) and also a
database - which is used to store and retrieve data. Each webpage typically consists
of some text and some images, which are laid out in a design. There are software packages
available which let you develop webpages yourself. However care is required, since to
make a webpage which both looks good and is accessible by a wide audience requires
a great deal of skill. A webpage which doesn't display properly for some clients is
a sure way to put them off your business. The same thing goes for a webpage which may
display OK, but looks very amateurish. ropernet IT have a great deal of knowledge on
producing professional webpages, gained through education and through many years
of experience. Once the webpages are produced a piece of software is used to upload
these to the host (see previous section). When this has been done, the website is
then be available to view.
Other terminology
Provided below is an explanation of other terminology:- FTP - File Transfer Protocol. A method of transferring files to (and from if required) your website.
- HIT - This is what occurs each time a client requests a webpage (or image or any other file) from your website. It is commonly used to determine how popular a site is - e.g. how many 'hits a day' the site has.
- HTML - HyperText Markup Language. This is the name of the language which is used to create a webpage.
- ISP - Internet Service Provider. These provide you with a facility to access the internet, commonly through a dial up modem or through a ADSL connection. They sometimes provide other services too.
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About the author
Mark Roper is the proprietor of ropernet IT. ropernet IT supply web design, site hosting and domain registration services. For full information please visit www.ropernetit.co.ukThis article is copyright ropernet IT 2004. If you wish to reproduce or publish this article in any form, please contact us.