The Basics of Websites

Websites are very popular in today’s world. Nowadays most of us use the Internet all the time, but lots of us still don’t really know how it works. Well, knowing how websites work makes getting online a lot easier. Let’s review the basics of what websites are made of, where websites are stored, and how websites get from where they are to your computer. First off, websites are really not that complicated. It’s true good websites can take a lot of time, money, and talent to create. However, at the end of the day, every website out there is just a bunch of files – just like you have on your computer at home. Websites are made of pictures, music, movies, text, graphics, and so on. We call these things content. There’s another part of a website that’s a little more difficult for the average person to understand. Just like a website can’t function without content, all websites have to have this other component.That other component that all website have to have is called computer code. The code for each website is unique to that website.

 

HTML – The Building Block of the WEB

All websites include computer code written in a programming language called HTML. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML defines and describes the content of a webpage. It is the most basic building block of a Web. Every website has HTML. While experienced and skilled website designers are trained in HTML, you don’t have to study computer science in order to build your website. There are a couple of options available to the novice who wants to experiment.

WordPress

You can use a content manager like WordPress to create your website pages. It takes a little practice, and there are a lot of tutorials available on the WEB, but soon you will be writing website pages rapidly. One advantage of WordPress is that the post editor (like the word-processor) has a regular text side and an HTML side. So, you can write and design (layout, add videos, images, etc.) you content on the text side of the editor in regular language and sentences. In WordPress, you can then click a simple tab and look at the HTML side of the editor. The HTML side automatically translate you regular words, images, and videos into HTML. You can go back and forth between the two sides. At Website Hosting Store we provide you with a free Apps installer that will install WordPress and a number of other content management solutions free of charge. So, if you have a domain name and you are ready to set up your own website, then all you need to pay for is the hosting of the website. Our apps installer will install your WordPress website free of charge.

HTML Converter/Cleaner

If you’re not using wordpress, you can write your content in plain text language like you would in a word processor. However, if you do, you have to go to an HTML translator/cleaner to change your text into HTML. The cleaning part is important because a regular word processor inputs invisible code into your articles. The HTML cleaner removes unnecessary code that could interfere with the display of your web page.

Javascript and other Computer Code

Besides HTML, there are other computer code terms used to describe a webpage’s appearance and presentation. These include CSS and javascript. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Basically, this term describes the appearance – how HTML is displayed on your device. The second term, Javascript, is all about functionality. JavaScript is the programming language) if you aren’t familiar with programing this code may not look pretty but the web browser on your computer loves it.

WEB Hosting Servers

Your browser is designed to use this code to stick all those files together into a website you can see on your screen. So think of these files as pieces of a puzzle and think of the code like instruction on how to talk Now all these files and the code need a place to be stored. Just like music or picture files on your computer at home, website files take up space. That’s where web hosting servers come in. Web hosting servers are just super powerful computers. They look a little different than what most of us have at home. There’s no mouse or keyboard, and there’s no display monitor. The reason why there are no monitors to display content on is that these computers or servers have just one purpose. That purpose is to serve as a place for websites to be stored and accessed. At Website Hosting Store, we provide the servers for you to host your website on.

What is the Role of Servers

These computers are called servers not so much because of what they are but more because of what they do. They serve data. They just have a lot of extra hard drive and processing and take a lot more power to run. And they’re flat. That’s so they can be stacked. Website Hosting Store is powered by thousands of these servers in several data centers.

DNS – A Phone Book for Websites

Now lastly, how do websites stored on these servers get to your computer at home. Well, when you look up a website, you open up a browser, type in the website or domain name, and press enter. Behind the scenes, your computer then goes online to find the server where that particular website is stored by using what’s called the domain name system or DNS. Similar to how a building has an address, The DNS maintains a list of which websites are on which servers . The DNS then tells your computer where the websites are. So, think of a DNS as a phone book for websites.

Once your computer finds the server, it connects, gets the files and HTML code, and then your browser puts it altogether into a website that you can and use.

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