Website Terminology

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