All you wanted to know about websites and the Internet, but were afraid to ask. Next time you hear a couple of computer geeks talking in front of Starbucks, you will know a little about what they are talking about. One of the most common questions we get is "What is the difference between a dynamic site and a static site? In a nutshell, a dynamic site is one where the pages are actually "created" via code when clicked to. A "static" site is usually in HTML based code and the link simply "goes" to it. Look at the URL of any page in any site. If it ends in .asp, .php, etc. it is a dynamic site. This is an over simplification, because we didn't want this page to be a technical page, but that is a good simple definition.
If you want to check out the Search Engine worthyness of your own site, go to our
Free Tools section and plug your site into all of the tools, they can tell you a lot, they are accurate, and most of all, free to use.
Especially the
Search Engine Spider Simulator tool. Plug in a static site, then plug in a dynamic site and you can see the difference for yourself. This tool will show you how a Search Engine, Robot, or Spider "sees" your site. If all it "sees" is code, your site might as well be closed down.
Backend"Behind" the front end, this is the code, database, and site architecture invisible to a user that "powers" a website.
Bandwidth Transfer
Measure of how many files downloaded from a website during a specified period of time. "Files" include web pages, images, PDF files, audio and video clips. Here's a formula for calculating approximately how much bandwidth transfer your site will require:
Average number of pages viewed during any given visitor's visit x Average size of each page on your site x Number of visitors per month = Total Bandwidth per month.
Database
A database is often referred to as an electronic file cabinet. A database is a store or a house for the organization of related data. These pieces of data are separated out into separate fields, or cells (think of a spreadsheet) that can be pulled together or accessed according to a user's needs. The pieces of data can be photos (like a photo gallery) or names, addresses and phone numbers of contacts or customers.
Dedicated Hosting
This term refers to a web hosting environment where only one website exists.
Discussion Board
A forum on a Web site for the discussion of a specific topic or set of related topics. A forum, chat room and/or blog are all kind of related.
Domain Name
This is a name that identifies one or more IP addresses (such as www.redlandswebhost.com). When you own a domain name, it really doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean you have a website or you have any rights the the actual name. It just means that you own that particular domain name. The company that is in charge of managing that domain is called a registrar, like www.godaddy.com, funny name, but they are the biggest domain registrar in the world. Wilshire Publicity, Inc. has over 300 domain names registered with them. You will need access to your domain name. Over the years things change, like contact information and emails. It is important to register any domain with a stable, reputable company. We do not have an affiliate or resale agreement with Go Daddy. We just use their services, they are reliable and stable.
Dynamic Website
A website that provides for interaction. Ordinarily, there is a database that acts as the engine behind a dynamic website. So, often, you will hear a dynamic website termed a "database-driven" website. A dynamic website requires programming. A dynamic site can gather email addresses, have forms completed by visitors with the results emailed to you and/or collected onto a database on the server.
E-Commerce
E-Commerce is the act of conducting transactions over a secure website, or accepting payment for products and services over a website.
Front End
This is a website's visible side, or "user interface".
Graphical Design
Graphical Design can be defined a number of different ways. Basically, graphical design is the visual design and layout displayed in a website, brochure, logo, or other production medium. There are different schools of thought regarding the importance or impact of design with a website. A site can look fantastic, but if it takes too long to load or doesn't bring in new business, what good is it? Conversley, a site can look blah, but if it is bringing in new customers, who cares?
Homepage
The homepage is a very specific web page within a website: the first page a user is presented with when he or she visits a website.
HTML
Stands for Hypertext Markup Language. Refers to the format a webpage needs to be in to be accessed or browsed on the Internet. HTML is not a programming language but a markup language that employs a set of tags to display text and images in the format and style you see on any give web page.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
An ISP is company that provides your company or organization with a connection to the Internet. Connections to the Internet can come in the form of a dial-up connection, DSL, Cable, T1, and T3.
Listserv
A listserv electronic bulletin board delivered to its subscribers in email format. Any message posted to the listserv is broadcast to all subscribers via email.
Megabyte
Measurement of data storage. A megabyte (or MB) is equal to 1,000 kilobytes (Kb). A gigabyte (or GB) is equal to equal to 1,024 megabytes. For perspective, the average size of one web page within a website is about 50-100 Kb, or 1/20- 1/10 of a megabyte.
Pay-per-click advertising
Online advertising payment model in which a business is charged everytime a user clicks through to its website from an online advertisment for that company.
Personalized email addresses
Email address that contains the name of your company (or organization or firm, etc). Example: yourname@yourwebsite.com
POP Account vs. Email Alias
A POP account is a seperate, real email account that has to be set up on both the server and your individual computer. It is totally seperate from any other of your email accounts or addresses. You can have many different email addresses.
An Alias is when an email address like: info@company.com is set up just to point to your individual email address like: yourname@yahoo.com. It is not a seperate account, it just points. When you recieve an email like this, and you reply, the person receiving your reply will see your real email address.
Programming
Programming Refers to the different languages used to translate business logic into instructions that computers can understand.
Take for example a travel website that shows you all of the flights between Washington, DC and Chicago, Illinois this afternoon between 2 pm and 4 pm. A programming language is used to translate a user's request and return results based on his or her request.
Programming languages include Java, JSP ASP, Cold Fusion, C++, and Cobalt.
RSS Feeds
What Does RSS Stand For ?
Some say that RSS is Really Simple Stupid, or Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. Who knows what the original name was, here is a brief explanation:
Without going into much detail on what an RSS feed is, we focus on how we use a Feed on a web page in order to create fresh daily content for the purpose of getting more search engine traffic.
What Is RSS Feed ?
An RSS Feed is a stream of information which can be displayed on your web site or can be displayed on your desktop with RSS and News Readers.
The Feed contains a headline link and a short description of the actual article.
Who Uses It?
- Webmasters who want to increase web site traffic
- Allow other webmasters to display your content on their site
- Display other people s content on your site
- People who want to subscribe to specific RSS Feeds
Search Engine
Search Engines are software programs that "crawl" the Web in an effort to index and organize the billions of websites on the Web. Each Search Engine uses a different algorhythm to deliver results to the person searching. The more accurate and useful the results, the better. We base our SEO services on mainly the Google Algorythm because Google is still the big Kahuna in terms of search.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Online marketing technique that targets keywords and phrases related to a website, and aims to rank that site high in the search engines when a user searches on those keywords and phrases. This is a dynamic, complicated task. It is changing all the time and it is an ongoing battle. It is easier to do if you have a budget.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting refers to a web hosting environment where many websites reside on one server connected to the Internet. Each site "sits" on its own partition, or section of the server to keep it separate from other sites.
Shopping Cart
This is a term used in relation to e-commerce. Technically, it's the designated place within an e-commerce website that lists the items you have selected to purchase.
Static Website
A website that does not provide any interacticity between it and its users. The text and the images on any given page of the site are "hard-coded" and will not change from visitor to visitor. It is a common misconception that static websites are somehow unsophisticated, or not up-to-date, technologically. That is not true; some of the most sophisticated sites on the Web are static. Whether your site is static or dynamic entirely depends on your business objectives online. A static or "online brochure" website, as they are often called, might fit your goals online, and therefore is the best solution for your business.
Website
A website collection of pages of text, images, and other files (such as audio or video clips) that make up a company or organization's presence online. This is not to be confused with a web page, which is one single page within the collection of pages that make up a website.
Website Address
A website's address is its location on the World Wide Web. This is the same as the domain name. The domain name points to the actual site, specifically the server where the web site resides. It uses numbers to point to, they are called dns numbers. DNS stands for Domain Name System. You need access to your domain to be able to change the dns numbers, you will want to do this whenever you change web hosting providers. You want to be able to have anyone you want host your site; and change when you want to. This doesn't cost anything to do, so don't get ripped off.
Website Hosting Provider
Website Hosting Providers provide your company or organization with server space to house your website on the Internet. Hosting providers monitor your website and make sure it is "up" and accessible to the general Internet public. It is like a self-storage unit; you need somewhere to "put" your website. A great place to store, or host your site is www.redlandswebhost.com, a sister company of Wilshire Publicity, Inc.
Website Navigation
Refers to a site's internal organization. Specifically, it is the avenues or paths a visitor can take to browse through a website. Navigation is important, you want to build your site so that the visitor can find what they are looking for easily and quickly.
Website Statistics Reports
These reports allow you to monitor traffic to your website; they provide invaluable marketing and demographic information about your website users. Website statistics reports include information such as: Domain name from which your visitors are coming
Length of time visitors spend on each page
Pages visited most frequently
Number of unique visitors over a specified period of time
Number of repeat visitors over a specificed period of time
Pages users exit from most frequently
Key phrases visitors typed into search engine to find your site
We like to use Google Analytics to provide this information to you about your site. It is free and it works great.
Website Storage
Amount of space or storage that a website hosting provider allocates to any given website. This is different from bandwidth. See bandwith. One of the services we offer is just straight website hosting, packages start at $20.00 per month. Or, you may want to visit www.redlandswebhost.com also.
URL
This acronym stands for Unified Resource Locator. It is the location for any page, image or other file on a website. This is the same as a domain name.
