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browser:
the program you use to see web pages. Internet Explorer
is the most common browser. Another very popular browser is
Firefox, which you can download for free.
crawler:
a program that scours websites and reports its finding to
a search engine. Crawlers help websites like Google and Yahoo
compile their search results. These crawlers, or "spiders,"
are constantly reviewing the material published on the web,
and so making your website "crawler friendly" is
something web gurus definitely advocate. The easier it is
for the crawler to flip through the content on your website,
the more likely it will be that your website will be properly
ranked by search engines.
DNS numbers
(Domain Name Servers numbers): This set of numbers is like
a map--it tells the computers that run the internet what to
display when someone types in your web address (domain name).
i.e. It tells the computers that run the internet where to
look for the files that make up your website.
When you register
your domain name, your domain name is assigned a default DNS
number. You need to change the default DNS number so that
it matches the DNS number of your "host" (server).
Then, when someone types in your domain name (web address),
the computers that run the internet will know which host company
is storing your website page files--and then the computers
that run the intenet will go to that host, find your web pages,
and display them for the person who typed in your web address.
If you don't match
your website domain name's DNS numbers to the DNS numbers
of your host (server), no one will ever be able to see your
website!
domain
name: what people type in to get to your website.
Also called a “web address.” Here are some famous
web addresses/domain names: www.yahoo.com, www.google.com,
and www.myspace.com.
Domain
Name Servers (DNS numbers): see "DNS numbers"
home page:
this is the "front page" of a website.
When you're making your front page (the page people will see
when they type in your web address [domain name]), save the
file with the file name "index" and it will save
as your index.html (or index.htm) file.
When someone types
in your web address, the computers that run the internet automatically
display this file. If you don't create an index file, people
will only see a weird list of all of your html files.
host (web
host, website hosting company, server): a company that takes
all of the pages you create on your personal computer and
puts them on the web. All of your web pages are "uploaded"
to a host by you.
You can't create
a web page on your home computer and expect it to show up
on the internet! After you create web page files on you rhome
computer, you must "upload" them (send it over the
internet) to a hosting company (Lunarpages is one popular
hosting company). You need to rent some space from a hosting
company first--when you do, you'l then have somewhere to upload
your website files!
The hosting company’s
computer is connected to the World Wide Web, and whenever
someone types in your web address, they get plugged into your
folder on the hosting company’s computer, and they can
browse through all of the pages you’ve sent (uploaded)
there. Get it? These “hosts” are also called “servers”—they
serve your content up to the masses!
html code:
symbols and letters that a web browser uses in order to properly
display the content on a web page. A basic understanding of
html code is very helpful, but it's not necessary in order
to create a web page.
Every web page-making
program will automatically create the code behind the scenes,
so to speak, while you type away and copy and paste. When
you use a web page-making program, it feels a lot like you're
just typing something up like you usually do on your computer.
You may never even see the html code itself, but it's there.
For instance, if
you type "I love chocolate milk," and you want it
to be in a large red font on your web page, behind-the-scenes
with the code it looks like this: <font
color="#FF0000" size="5">I love chocolate
milk.</font> All that stuff between the sideways
"v's" is html code.
index file:
the home page or front page of your website--see "home
page" above
main directory:
(see "root")
organic
results: the websites listed in a search engine's
results whose positions have been determined by the popularity
and relevance of the website, rather than on fee money paid
to the search engine administrators.
paid results:
the websites listed in a search engine's results whose positions
in the search engine's rankings have been paid for.
When a person enters
a search at a website like Google, the results come back in
the form of a list of the most popular results in descending
order. However, the top two or three results are often at
the top of the results not because they are the most popular
websites for that search, but instead because the owners of
those websites have paid Google to be at the top of the results
page for those particular searches.
See the section
enitled "Getting
a Boost with Adwords and Sponsored Search" for more
information.
register.com:
a website where you can purchase a domain name.
After you pay for
a domain name (web address), in order for people to see anything
when they type in your domain name you need to create a web
page, save it as an index.html file, and upload it to a host
(server).
registering
a domain name: when you register a domain name, you're
purchasing the rights to a web address. For instance, the
folks that run yahoo.com began by "registering"
the domain name "www.yahoo.com." You can only purchase
the rights (register) to a domain name that has not already
been registered.
root:
the "root" of a website is where the "index.htm"
("index.html") file is stored. The root is sometimes
referred to as the "main directory."
At the root of
a website's space on its web hosting account (server) , you
can expect to find the index file, the sitemap file, and the
robot.txt file. All of the other files that make up a website
are usually stored inside folders and sub folders. For example,
the image files used on a website typically reside inside
of an "images" folder at the root.
search
engines: websites where you go to search the web.
Google and Yahoo are the most famous search engines. Everyone
who has a website has the goal of being listed at the top
of Google and Yahoo's rankings. You see, when you go to Google
to search, let's say, for "scissors," Google will
throw up a big list of websites that have something to do
with scissors, and the websites that are near the top of the
list will get clicked on (visited) the most. The closer you
are to the top of Google's listings, the more visitors to
your website you will have.
SEO: stands for Search Engine Optimization.
The goal of most websites is to appear in Google's (or another
search engine's) search results. If you do, you have a better
chance to get people to come to your website. The purpose
of SEO strategies is to get your website to the top of the
search results.
Most searches return pages and pages of results, but most
people searching click only on the results on the first page
of the results, and the top three results on the first page
get far and away the most clicks.
From the wording on your webpages, to the focus of your website,
to the analysis of statistics about your website's performance,
SEO strategies are all about tweaking your website so that
search engines will view your website as one that should be
at or near the top of their rankings.
server:
this is a computer which stores the files that make up web
pages.(See "host" above.) Hosts have servers, and
when you sign up with a website hosting company, they will
create a folder on one of their servers just for you. You
create your web pages at home, then upload them to your folder
on the server so they can be seen on the internet.
site map
(sitemap, Sitemap): a file that lists the
web addresses of all the pages of a website. Most website
creators make a sitemap because it seems to be a file that
search engine crawlers find useful when crawling over all
of the web pages of a website. Some site maps are designed
for the use of the people who visit a website. If you've created
a website, it may help your website rise in search engines'
rankings if you have created and uploaded a sitemap. You can
read more about making a site map here.
spider:
(see "crawler")
subdomain:
When you sign up with a hosting company, you can
run several websites from this one account. The first domain
name you sign up with is going to be the name of your account,
but within that account you can create folders that contain
the files for completely separate websites, called subdomains.
When you come up
with an idea for a new website, get another domain name and
then set up a subdomain within your existing website hosting
account. When you do this, your hosting company creates a
new folder within your account where all of the new website's
files will go. Everyone who types in your new domain name
is automatically sent to the matching subdomain folder within
your account.
submit
a website / web page: If you create a website one
day and then type in your domain name into Google's search
box, it probably won't come up in the search results. That's
because it takes a search engine like Google a little while
to realize that this new website is out there on the world
wide web. Eventually they will find it, but you can expedite
this process by submitting your site to search engines--it's
kind of a way to let them know you're up and running.
It is not necessary
to submit your website to the search engines--people can visit
your website whether Google knows about it or not. However,
many people believe that the faster the search engines know
about your site, the faster you will get a little traction
in their search results.
upload:
this means "send somewhere, via computer, so that others
can get to it." In the same way that you might upload
a picture in order to attach it to an e-mail, you upload html
(or htm) files to your web host so the files can be seen when
someone types in your domain name (web address). Everything
that you want to be seen on your website must be uploaded
to a server at a web hosting company.
Most people use
an "ftp" program to upload their files. Dreamweaver,
a web page-making program, has a built-in ftp program, so
as you create html files for your website, with the click
of your mouse you can upload them to your web hosting account.
There are many
free, free-standing ftp programs you can get on the web if
you're not using Dreamweaver.
web address:
what people type in to get to your website. Also called a
“domain name.” Here are some famous web addresses/domain
names: www.yahoo.com, www.google.com, and www.myspace.com.
web host:
see "host"
website
hosting company: see "host"
web page:
a document, in html or htm format, that a web browser
can display. When you upload html files to a web host, they
can be seen on the the internet. Most web sites are made up
of a bunch of html files. (Some web pages are php files--they're
a little more sophisticated than html files.)
A website's "home
page" is always an html file saved as "index.html"
or "index.htm." The index file has links on it to
all of the other html files or web pages of a website.
website:
a place on the internet where someone has posted
some kind of information. A website can be made up of one
or more pages.
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