Website Terminology

May 7, 2015 websites

The following is a few definitions of commonly used terminology with websites:

  • Domain name – identifies a group of pages on the internet and is registered in the Domain Name System (DNS)
  • DNS –  Domain Name System translates names to numerical IP addresses where websites can be found.
  • URL – Uniform Resource Locator – is a reference that specifies the location of a resource on a computer network Ie http://www.spirithills.ca/contact
  • Host – A computer or other device that provides data or services that a remote computer can access via the internet
  • WWW –  World Wide Web
  • Website –  A series of interconnected webpages on the World Wide Web
  • Web Browser – A program to access the World Wide Web
  • Homepage –  The main and usually first page or index page of a website.
  • Link – Short for Hyperlink; will activate another document, webpage, website etc.
  • Social Media – Websites and application that provide a medium for people to share information
  • HTML – Hyper Text Markup Language used to create webpages.
  • CSS – Cascading Style Sheets – used to define the look and layout of text and layout of a webpage or website
  • SEO – Search Engine Optimization
  • Server – A computer that responds to requests across a computer network.
  • Bandwidth – The rate of data transfer
  • Cache – Duplicating data that is stored on your computer to facilitate faster loading of webpages
  • .jpg – a lossy compression used for digital photography (Joint Photographer Expert Group)
  • .gif – a compressed graphic format using 256 colors. It supports transparency and animation (Graphic Interchange Format)
  • .png – Portable Network Graphics – a raster graphics file that is lossless
  • Favicon – A small graphic that can be added and seen on an address bar, history and bookmarks
  • HEX – Hexidecimal colours are considered web-safe colours. They can be viewed on any monitor without substantial colour-shifts.
  • Plug-in – A software component that adds a specific feature
  • Template – A master page used to produce web pages
  • Tag – used to categorize articles on a website and help with search engines, similar to keywords
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