Terms
Web-related Definitions and Terminology
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework (DOT-NET Framework) is a software component that is part of Microsoft operating systems. It provides
the base upon which Microsoft web and windows applications are built. Think of it as a common car chassis used by an automaker to build
various unique cars. The finished cars are very different even though they all share the same base chassis. The .NET Framework
provides an underlying foundation with thorough functionality upon which programs and web sites can be built and run.
Anchor
Commonly, anchors are referred to as links that jump to a specific part of the same page and usually used the <a></a>
tags. Although this use and definition is becoming outdated, as current web standards allow any html element on a page to become an "anchor"
by using the "id" attribute, with no use of actual "anchor tags" (<a></a>) necessary. You can see anchors used on this page
by clicking on the terms up top and see the page jump to the given definition.
ASP
Also known as "Classic ASP" this a web programming language created by Microsoft
which is similar to and a competitor to
PHP. It is still in use, but has been superseded by ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is the successor to "classic ASP" and is very different than its predecesor. It is a web programming language built on the
.NET Framework (DOT-NET Framework) and can use C# (C-Sharp) or VB (Visual Basic) as it's programming back-end.
ASP.NET has flourished and is in widespread use today.
ASPX
If you see a webpage that ends with ".aspx" then that page was written in the programming language ASP.NET.
If a webpage ends in ".asp" then the page was written in classic ASP. This website uses ASP.NET, as you can see
by the webpage name ending in ".aspx". See ASP.NET for more information.
Content
Content is a word we
often use to describe the information
that you display on your site. Content
is usually text but can also be images,
videos, Flash, or
music...
Cookie
A cookie is a small
text file that a website sometimes saves
to a person's computer. The real purpose
of cookies is to make the life of the
website viewer easier. When you visit a
website and you go to the login screen
to find that your username/email is
already filled out, that is an example
of what cookies can be used for. If you say yes to this option,
one way for the website to save your
username is to place a cookie on your
computer containing the username. Then
when you re-visit the site, the website
looks for that cookie...
Crawlers
Sometimes referred to
as a spider or a robot, it is a computer
program which searches the internet for
websites and reads their contents.
Search engines use them to review
millions of websites in a very short
period of time. Usually the search
engine wants to read the
content on the
site to see what its about. Then when
people do searches on the search engine
later, the search engine
knows what sites to display because it
already crawled them all...
CSS
This acronym stands
for Cascading Style Sheets. What this
means is that the settings for how your
site looks is centralized to one file.
That might not mean much to you now but
if you want to change a font or a color
on your site, its nice to just change
one file instead of every single
individual page on your site...
Data-Driven Web
Design
See Dynamic Web
Design
Domain Name
A domain name, often
referred to as a URL or a website's
address, is the unique name that is
assigned to your website such as
http://www.yoursite.com where the "yoursite.com"
part is the domain name, and technically
the whole thing all together is the URL.
It is important to note that the .com
part is called the extension and that
different extensions mean different
domain names. So yoursite.com is not the
same as yoursite.net...
Dynamic Web Design
Dynamic websites are
ones which get a significant amount of
their content
from a data source. The data source can be a database, XML file, or even a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file.
We usually use a type of database called
MSSQL. Dynamic
sites offer many advantages over the
alternative -
static
sites. Some things that are possible
with dynamic sites that are not with
static ones include: custom search
results, login systems, calendars,
shopping carts, and statistics tracking.
Flash
Flash is a product
made by Adobe and previously by
Macromedia. Flash is basically a fairly
easy way to accomplish animation on
sites today.
Host (Or
Website Host)
A hosting company is
commonly used to host your website and
make it available for others to see. The hosting company runs servers that provide the hosting
software which can properly respond to requests from computers around the internet that want
to view a page hosted on the server. Often, many businesses will have their own servers which
host web pages and files for their own company and may not be accessible outside the business' network.
However, it is common for businesses and individuals to use hosting companies because they have
24-7 on-hand staff that support the computers and have the expertise necessary to handle issues that arise.
A website host can also provide email and database solutions in
addition to hosting your site. Sethmatics, Inc. provides
hosting services. Check our
products page to
see what we offer.
HTML
This acronym stands
for Hyper Text Markup Language. All you
need to know about HTML is that it is
the fundamental building blocks of all
websites. If you right-click on this
screen RIGHT HERE, you should see a menu with an
option to view the "Source" of this
page. The gibberish text that comes up
is HTML. Also, HTML is not a programming
language, it is a markup language, which means it is simply a language to display text and information in a meaningful way.
JavaScript
This is a programming
language which is used for many things
to enhance your websites. One common example is
when users are filling out a form to
submit, and when they click the submit
button they might get an immediate error
suggesting that the form was not filled
out correctly. Its JavaScript that makes
this possible...
Keyword or Key Phrase
This is a subject related to
Search Engine Optimization. A
keyword is a word or collection of words
that you anticipate people will search
for in search engines in order to find a
site like yours. For instance, keywords
for this website which does website
design are:
- Phoenix Web Design
- Web Hosting Company
- Custom Websites
When people type in these
phrases, Sethmatics, Inc. is a candidate for coming
up in the search results. To learn more
about which websites come up first in search
results. See
Search
Engine Optimization.
Linux
Linux is an operating system and an alternative to Windows or Mac. It can also be a server operating system, just as
Windows and Mac have server versions of their operating systems as well. See Server.
Meta-Tags
This is a subject related to
Search Engine Optimization. A meta-tag
is a hidden piece of information within a
website. Originally meta-tags were used to
tell search engine
crawlers how to categorize your website.
So if you said the word "Website Design" in
your meta-tags, that means that when people
type that keyword,
your site will appear. But remember, this is
the way it used to be. For many years
now, search engines have ignored meta-tags
because of website designers abusing
meta-tags for dishonest purposes...
MSSQL
This is a type of
database and stands for Microsoft SQL (Structured Query Language). Usually MSSQL runs on a Windows server and is often
associated with ASP.NET-based websites. Databases store vast amounts of information
and are the back-end to data-driven websites. If you are
using a database for your website then you have a
Dynamic
Website and not a
Static one.
MySQL
This is a type of
database which runs on a server. Usually MySQL runs on a Linux server and is often
associated with PHP-based websites. Databases store vast amounts of information
and are the back-end to data-driven websites. If you are
using a database for your website then you have a
Dynamic
Website and not a
Static one.
Organic Search Listings
This is a subject related to
Search Engine Optimization. Organic
search listings means when someone types in
a keyword into a
search engine,
your website comes up...
Page Hit
If you have a stats
program for your website, you can
probably see how many page hits you are
getting. While the definition of a "hit"
can vary, usually people are referring
to how many pages got viewed on their
website. So if 100 people saw your site
yesterday and each person looked at 3
pages, you would have 300 page hits.
See also
Unique
Visitors vs. Unique Visits...
Pay-Per-Click
This is a subject related to
Search Engine Optimization. When it
comes to getting listed on
search engines,
there are two ways to do it. Pay-Per-Click
is an arrangement where you pay for every
click that someone does on a search engine
to get to your site. Typically you can bid
on how much you want to pay. But in the
bidding aspect of PPC, the high bidders
usually get better position on the page...
PHP
This is a programming
language which makes it possible to make
dynamic
websites. Server-Side Programming
Languages like PHP are responsible for how
huge the web has become today. With PHP, a
website can do
database searches, uploads, security, logins,
signups, emails, statistics, reports, and
much more.
Search Engine
A search engine is not
the same thing as a
search directory.
A search engine is a huge database of
websites which have been visited by
crawlers which read
the site to determine its contents. When you
type keywords into
the search box of Google, the
servers at Google will
display websites that most closely match
your search based on what the crawlers found
on your site...
Search Engine
Optimization
Abbreviated as "SEO", this is the scientific
process of designing your site so that
search engine crawlers
will list you more closely to the top of the
results. Sethmatics, Inc. offers
SEO services. Visit our
services page to view more information.
Search Directory
A search directory is not
the same thing as a
search engine. Directories are similar
to phonebooks. There are main categories
like Business and Arts. When you click on
Business you might get a sub-category like
Investments. There can be many
sub-categories of sub-categories but
eventually you will see a list of sites that
match the category you are in...
Server
A server is a computer with a server operating system that provides functions such as website hosting. In other words, your
"website host company"
is one that has many powerful servers which
holds sometimes hundreds of websites per
server. When someone types your
domain name into
their browser to look at your site, their
computer will connect to the server which
will send the files to the users computer.
Essentially, a server will "serve" files to
your computer...
Spiders
See
Crawlers
Sponsored Search Results
See
Pay-Per-Click
Static Web Design
Static website is what
most small websites are. Static just means
that the information doesn't change easily
like it does for
dynamic
websites. Static sites are usually much
cheaper and faster to make than dynamic
sites...
Unique Visitors vs. Unique Visits
Both of these website
statistics are useful and its also
useful to know the difference. A unique
visitor is one person visiting your site
for a variable amount of time. So if
two people visit your site over and over
again, you will only have two unique
visitors (the number doesn't go up with
the amount of times they visit: See
Page Hits).
Unique visits, on the other hand, show how many times your
site has been visited regardless of how
many pages were viewed. So if one person
goes to your site five different times
and a second person visits one time,
that would count as six unique visits
but would be two unique visitors...
URL
See
Domain Name
Website Address
See
Domain Name