This quick and easy guide is designed to simply help you understand exactly what goes into building a site so you can feel better about spending your hard earned money to have one built, as well as understand a bit of the geek-speak your designer is certain to throw your way. Keywords will be italicized to help you recognize them when you hear them in the future.
The Basics:
A website in its simplest form consists of the following:
- A domain name – This is the “something.com” which must be registered at, of all places, a registrar. Some registrars you may have heard of are GoDaddy, Register.com, and Network Solutions. There are many many registrars, and they all essentially provide the same service, which is to to establish ownership of a given name on your behalf.
- Data – Data consists of the various files, such as images, HTML pages, and databases which make up your site. You can build a web site on your own computer, but no one would be able to see it but you! That’s why we require…
- Web Hosting – This is a service, provided by a company, to serve up your site’s data, usually from a reasonably powerful computer sitting in an an air-conditioned basement somewhere. They sort of lease you the digital real estate where you set up shop. It’s not uncommon for web hosts to act as registrars as well, but you should not be obligated to purchase a domain name from your web host.
So to sum up the above, you need a domain name, or no one would be able to find you. It would be like opening a business, but never giving it a name. How would a customer distinguish you from all of the other stores selling widgets and doo-dads? You need data…which amounts to the furnishings in your digital storefront (let’s stay with the store analogy, even if you’re not exactly running a store on your site…it’s still your front line to customers on the web)…shelves, graphics, display cases, brochures.
You need to furnish your store nicely, or customers won’t want to come back (that’s what WE help you do!). And finally, you need a place to put all those furnishings…if you just set up shop in your basement, it may look wonderful, but no one will ever see it but you! The web host puts you in a public place where people can find you (providing you’ve advertised your address).
Types of Sites:
Static, or Brochureware - This is one of the most common, and simplest types of sites. It is geenrally informational in nature. There is little to no interaction with the visitor beyond the presentation of content, and navigation of links…and often, this is enough! If you’re running a local service business, and just need the phones to ring…if you’re a non-profit, and you want people to be able to read about your organization…if you’re a freelance artist who wants to showcase their gallery – this type of site will likely be sufficient for your needs. In the past, it was common for static sites to be hand-coded in HTML and CSS, and any changes or updates required the further services of a web designer. Nowadays, even so-called “static” sites can technically be dynamic, if they are built on a CMS (content management system). This means that the site owner can easily make changes, update information, and even add new content from a back-end “control panel”, without needing to know anything about web design or HTML.
Blog - Often used for online journals of a personal nature, it’s also common for companies, organizations, bands, artists, and community groups to use the blog as a place to post updates on their status, current events, and recent information they want their visitors to see. Blogs are a type of CMS. They can have multiple contributors and can be updated as often as you like. It’s becoming more and more common for a company to allow some employees to blog about their experiences on their sites, allowing customers to get an inside look at how they operate. It’s possible to have a blog as subsection of your site, or even have the blog be your entire site.
E-commerce - It’s just like regular commerce…but with a nice, shiny “e” in front of it! If the purpose of your site is to buy, sell, or trade something, then you’re involved in e-commerce. The simplest e-commerce sites may consist of a “buy it now” button linked to a payment service such as PayPal. However, if you have multiple items and types of items, you’ll likely need a “shopping cart” . The shopping cart allows visitors to add multiple items to their order as they browse the site…all culminating in a “checkout” process where they would enter their shipping info (if applicable) and payment details to place their order. Payment options vary and can be handled through a payment service such at PayPal or Google Checkout, who handle the credit card processing on your behalf for a fee (often a percentage of the transaction), or via an actual merchant account which the site owner maintains in order to process their own credit cards.
Forums or Message Boards – This is a piece of software to facilitate an online community of people, coming together and discussing a given topic or topics. Members are able to create accounts with avatars (pictures to represent themselves), nicknames, contact info, and possibly other information. Once logged in, they can participate in discussions (called “threads”) in various forums (categories). An administrator decides what the categories will be and moderates the discussion to keep things civil (if so desired). They can also delegate moderation to trusted forum members. If allowed by the moderator, members may upload pictures and/or files to share with the community. It’s becoming increasingly common for businesses to create forums which allow their customers and users to meet in one place to discuss their products, give reviews, provide each other with support, and also interact with their clients in a public way…allowing many people benefit from the exchange, making it more useful for their user base than a series of emails would be.