Note: Since we are not web site developers or experts, we cannot help with the actual creation of your web pages. However, because so many of our clients ask for advice on this subject, and because it can be so difficult to find answers to some of these questions, we have put together this section of Website Tips. Please understand that these are meant as suggestions only, not "rules". It is up to you to decide which, if any, of them should be applied to your website, and how. We hope that you find some of the suggestions given here helpful to your online endeavor.

efore you start building your website it is a good idea to make sure you have a grasp of the basic website terms and components.

 I will try to explain, in as simple a way as possible, some of the most common terms that you will encounter.

What is a Website ?

            This is probably the most fundamental and basic question, and it is surprising how many existing website owners don't really understand exactly what a web site actually is.

 A Web site is a collection of web pages place in a folder on a web server. The website has a unique identity otherwise known as its domain name. The website maybe the only site on the web server or they may be many others on the same server.

What is a Web Server?

A web server is the physical machine, and looks very much like the machine you are currently using. An analogy may be useful in order to distinguish between a website from a web server. If we compare them to normal shops.

Shops are located in physical buildings and each shop can either have its own physical building or share a single physical building with other shops (shopping mall). In our analogy a server is equivalent to the physical building. A physical server can host multiple Websites or a single Website.

For large companies that have many visitors to their Website then the Website is located on one or more physical servers. For smaller companies that have fewer visitors, then their Website can be located on a server which also hosts Websites for other companies .i.e. the server is shared hence the term shared hosting.

 This is the most common form of website hosting and undoubtedly the one you will be using.

What is a Domain Name

You domain name is effectively your address. If you compare it to where you live your house is equivalent to your web site and your house address is equivalent to your domain name.

 However unlike in the physical world this isn't a permanent relationship between the two, as it's possible to link your domain name to a new web site.

For more details see  domain names .

What is a Web page?

             A Web page is like a page in a book or newspaper and is created using the same tools as you would create a book or newspaper i.e. by using a word processor or similar tool.

So what is the difference between the page you are currently reading and a Web Page – The answer is in the Formatting and structure. Web pages are formatted and structured using a special Language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).

HTML (XHTML) formatted pages are meant to be read by a special program called a Web Browser e.g. Internet Explorer. An HTML page is a text page containing special tags which tell the Web browser how to format and display the text. We will examine HTML in more detail a little later.

You can create HTML pages with any text editor like notepad but doing so require detailed knowledge of HTML itself. Most Website developers use special Web editing tools like Microsoft FrontPage which require no or very little real knowledge of HTML.

Web pages are in fact the building blocks of a web site, and the first thing you need to do is to make web pages and understand how they are structured and linked together .

See starting HTML/XHTML and how to make your own web page for more details.

What is a Home Page?

            The home page is the first web page you go to on a Website. Its purpose is to make it easy for visitors to find the information they want from your site; it is in effect a kind of guide.

You can think of it as being the equivalent of a receptionist in a large office. He/she has the first contact with visitors and assists them to locate whoever they have come to visit. A bad receptionist can have a negative impact on new visitors- likewise for a bad Homepage.

What is an Hyperlink?

            A Web page can contain references to other Web pages in the same way a book can contain references to other books or articles. If you are reading a book and see a reference to another book or article you must go to the library and get the book or article in order to read it.

On the Web this is much easier as the references on a Web page are actually links to the article and when clicked the Web browser displays the article. These links or references are called hyperlinks and are normally shown underlined in Web browsers.

When you move the cursor over these links the cursor icon changes (to a hand on Internet explorer) and you  see the location of the destination page displayed in the lower left bar of the browser.

Links that are unvisited are normally shown in blue and go black when they have been visited (viewed). Figure 5 shows how the browser displays hyperlinks all of the links in this example are unvisited.

HTML and Your Browser

Do you know why you must use a web "browser" to surf the net? Most people do not. They only know that in order to go online they must use a browser. For most people that is enough. They don't want, or need to know more than that. If you are going to have a web site however, you will need to know a little bit more.

A web browser is a program. A program that reads HTML (hyper text markup language). Just like Notepad is a program that reads text (.txt) files, and Microsoft Paint is a program that reads bitmap(.bmp) files. The internet is made up of websites which in turn are made up of web pages written in HTML. In order to view these pages as they are meant to be seen you need a program that can read HTML and translate it properly. The program you need is a web browser.

Try this: From within your browser while viewing a web page, place your cursor on the page and right click. You will get a sub-menu of options. The exact wording depends on the browser you are using, but select an option to "View Source" or something similar. You will get a screen of print that makes very little, if any, sense if you try to read it. This is HTML . This is what the internet would look like to you if you did not have a program called a browser to view it with.

• HTML Web Pages

  In very basic, very layman terms, you can think of the HTML code on a web page as little more than a list of commands surrounding whatever text will be on the web page. It tells your browser program what goes where, which directories, or folders, to go to get all of the different components needed to create and display the web page, and in what order, color, size, etc. to display them. Luckily for the majority of us, there is no longer a need to learn HTML in order to create a web page. You only need to have a basic understanding of what HTML is, and know that your web pages will be HTML pages. All of the text, images, or sound files that you want to put on a page will be embedded into an HTML page.

• Homepage

  When you type in the URL for a website, you rarely enter a specific page of the site. For example, you might enter www.turbocheck.com or www.yahoo.com. This is all that is required. Your browser will automatically locate and load the homepage, or first page of the website for you. The question is, how the heck does your browser know which page is the homepage? Good question!! It is because when a URL is entered by the domain name only, as the examples above are, without a specific page designated, a browser will, by default, load any page named index.html (or index.htm) If you do not have an index.html page, a browser will display a File Not Found error. For this reason, it is important to remember to name the page you want visitors to see first on your website index.html (or index.htm).

• Hyperlinks

  A hyperlink is a bit of code that, when activated, (usually by clicking on a line of text or an image) will take your browser to another URL. The only way your viewer is going to be able to get from one web page to another is if you provide hyperlinks. If you have only one page, then it won't be a problem. If you have several pages, you may want to create a Table of Contents page that lists all of your pages and provides hyperlinks to each one.

The internet is a visual medium. Without color and images to provide interest and excitement to your pages, you would have nothing but rows of text. Boring! Chances are your visitors will lose interest very quickly and move on. But you don't want to overdo the images either. If you keep your visitors waiting too long for your page to load, well..they may decide to go find something else to look at. Below you will find a few tips on using images in your web pages.

• Image Formats

  There are many different image formats. Since most browsers can read only .jpg and .gif images, those are the formats you will need to use. These are the best two formats for web use since they are the most compressed, resulting in smaller file size, which results in shorter load time. Remember that the larger a file is, the longer it will take a browser to load and view it.

• File Size and Download Time

  The larger a file is, the longer it will take a browser to load and view it. We recommend a maximum individual image file size of approximately 35KB. Since .jpg and .gif image formats are compressed formats, a 35KB can be quite large and very clear if done properly. Remember that each file you embed in a page adds to it's overall size. So, if you place two 20KB image files in one page, you will have 40KB of image files that your viewer must load before viewing your page.