Introduction
Web sites can range from very simple, such as a personal page associated with a web access account, to extremely sophisticated such as Google Maps or Amazon. Understanding some of the fundamentals and available alternatives will help you decide what fits your needs.
The first thing to decide is: What is your specific objective in having a web site? That objective should determine what features, appearance and design characteristics it should include. This warrants careful thought and two-way discussion with an experienced web site developer.
Browsing
When you type a web page address, like “http://google.com” into your browser, the browser sends a request to a Google server computer for a page of data. It then converts that data into what you see on your screen. Usually the data references images and other data files that are needed to completely display the page. Each additional item causes another request and another piece of data to be sent. All this data is saved by your browser on your computer. When you go to another page, if images or data from that page are already on your computer, they are not requested again. They are reused.
So, the browser on your computer gathers data from the web site computer (called the “web server”) and builds a local copy of the information. The local copy is used to display the web page.
Interactions with Web Pages
Web pages respond to user interactions locally at the browser or remotely at the server. The browser controls dynamic screen behavior such as items changing color and menus appearing or displaying moving content. The server selects what information to deliver such as requested pages, references that match a query or the catalog item descriptions from a database. The kinds of interactions required by a web page and where they must happen determine what services are required from the server.
Web Page Identifier
The string typed into the browser after “http://” identifies the specific page and information to be returned. In the example “http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&tab=wn” “news” identifies the specific computer, “google.com” is the domain name, “nwshp” identifies a specific page and “hl=en&tab=wn” is data for the program on the server. The computer name is usually “www” and often can be omitted. The page identifier is often omitted and defaulted by the server. Data is only used when the page is really a program run on the server.
Domain Names
The domain name must be unique. It consists of a top level domain name, the rightmost part of the name, and the body of the name. There are a limited set of top level domain names. The most common are: .com, .net, .org, .edu, and .gov. The top level domain names are usually associated with the site's purpose or owner. "Edu" sites belong to schools, "gov" sites belong to government units. Foreign sites have country indicators as top level domain names. (Some countries have sold their entire national domains to private business entities elsewhere.)
Account Websites
Several internet service providers (ISP's) and most universities allow anyone with an account to have a website. The web page identifier for these pages looks like “http://myuniversity.edu/~myaccount”. The tilde (~) character is followed by the account name. Normally, a folder named public_html in the account contains the website data. If the account has a folder by that name, files in that folder will be distributed by the web server.
Creating a New Website
A website needs a domain name and a host server. Domain names are rented, often in one year periods. Hosting organizations typically charge by the month. Finding an unused domain name can be done by simply entering trial names into a browser. Companies that lease domain names often provide websites that search for the name across several top level domain names. Companies that offer site hosting sometimes also lease domain names and may offer the first year free as an inducement.
Selecting a Hosting Company
Selecting a hosting company requires determining what features the site will require and then comparing offerings. Typical hosting companies will have different offerings based on amount of storage, number of mailboxes and bandwidth. An entry level offering costs between $6- $10 a month. Normally, features like secure access, database and content management systems, and e-commerce are available at added cost. The web site http://www.webhostingtalk.com provides reviews that will help compare offerings.
The storage needed is driven by images, audio, movie files and the database size. Normal page text takes little storage. Bandwidth measures how much data the site sends out in a given amount of time. It becomes an issue if the site is delivering large audio files or movies.
Specialized Websites
The descriptions below (taken from en.wikipedia.com) describe some of the special uses and special tools for websites. Most of these require special server services like databases and programs on the server.
A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
A content management system (CMS) is a computer application used to create, edit, manage, search and publish various kinds of digital media and electronic text.
CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators' manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures. The content managed may include computer files, image media, audio files, video files, electronic documents, and web content.
A web content management (WCM) system is a CMS designed to simplify the publication of web content to websites, in particular allowing content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of the language web pages are written in, HTML, or the uploading of files.
A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone with access to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis. Wikis are used in business to provide intranet and knowledge management systems.
Selling Through a Website
In addition to providing potential and current customers with information about a business or organization, several websites offer products on the site. This can be as simple as displaying the products and providing an order form that gets sent via email to the powerful amazon.com website.
Except for a site with very few items, a database is required to contain the information about each item and forms with password access are used to support database updates.
Accepting payment information requires a significant cost and complexity increase. Paypal and credit card account numbers must be kept secure. Also, arrangements are required with the issuing companies to allow accepting payment this way. Fees are usually charged to the selling merchant for every transaction and there may also be minimum charges per month.
Password-Protected Websites
Web servers provide a mechanism to require anyone accessing a website to have an account and a password for that website. This can also be used to limit access to parts of a site, such as the forms used to update content. It is common to also make password protected pages “secret”, accessed by knowing the page name or by clicking in an unexpected place. This reduces one kind of user frustration.
“Secret” Web Pages
Normally, a website is organized as a tree or a web with every page pointed to by one or more other pages. Sometimes it is convienient to insert a page that is not pointed to. Testing an update by giving the page a slightly different name is very useful to find problems before they become public. The page is accessed by entering its full name such as “http://myuniversity.edu/~myaccount/secretpage.html”. Anyone you tell the name of the page can access it.
Website Updating
Usually web pages are not edited on the server. They are edited and transferred to the server. Tools like Frontpage handle the transfer. Alternatively, the transfer may be done with the file transfer protocol (ftp) or by a tool accessed by a form on the server. The website may include forms for updating its content. Wikis use this approach. Different hosting sites have different restrictions on which methods can be used for transferring information to create, install, transfer and update web sites on their server.
Keeping a website current by keeping the information up to date and eliminating "dead" links is essential to providing a useful website. The website should be designed to be easily maintained. If the person who will maintain it has limited time, the design should make normal updating very straightforward.
Web Site Indexing
Steps are required to ensure that the popular search engines, such a Google, will index all of your web site when it is created and re-index it when it is changed. Other steps are required to help ensure that it will be retrieved in response to the search words and phrases for which you want it to appear. Often the criteria for indexing and ranking are obscure or even kept secret. Steps are also required to limit the material on the site that is indexed. There may be personal information like phone lists that you don't want indexed.
Recap
Websites can be very simple or very complex depending on the tasks they are designed to do. A simple site may be available through your email provider but it is likely highly limited in what can be done with it. If not, a site can be set up in a few days for about $65 -$130 a year. The challenge in web design is determining what capabilities the site should provide and how to present those capabilities. A site should be visually interesting and easy to understand and use. A site needs to be kept current to remain useful. It should designed to be easily updated.