If you often visit websites but still confuse the header and footer, then this article is for you. You will learn:
- what is a website;
- what types of sites exist;
- what the website consists of;
- what elements are included in the website's interface;
- how websites work;
- how to make a website yourself.
What is a website
A website is a set of logically related websites located on the Internet under one name - domain. Websites are documents written in the HTML markup language and available on the Internet. Websites contain content such as articles, photos and videos.
Web browsers are used to view websites. To open a website in a web browser, enter the website's web address in its address bar. More details about browsers can be found in a separate article.
When people are not looking for a specific website, but for information, they find it not using a direct address, but through a search engine: Google or others. The search engine receives a query such as "what is a website?" The system searches the website pages for those that contain the answer and displays a list of such pages.
According to Internet Live Stats, there were 1.88 billion websites on the Internet in 2022. Websites sell goods and services, post information, play games, communicate, make video calls, learn, and watch videos. In the next section, we'll describe common types of sites.
What types of sites exist?
Website owners use their sites to solve a variety of problems, from selling goods to changing public opinion. We will provide examples of several types of sites designed for different tasks, but this is not an exhaustive list.
An online business card is a small, one- or several-page website containing basic information about a person, company, product or service. On your business card page, you can include a product or company description, photos and contact details. Let's assume that an SMM specialist can create a business card website where he can talk about his services.
A corporate website is a website that contains detailed information about a company, its products or services. The website may also contain sections with news, documents and job offers.
Corporate resources are created to sell goods or services. Therefore, on company websites, unlike business card websites, you can place an order or at least contact the manager - for example, leave a request for a call back.
An online store is a website where a single seller sells goods. The online store has a product catalog, a shopping cart and a payment system. Online stores are opened by manufacturers, distributors and trading companies.
Another type of website is similar to online stores – marketplaces. These are online platforms where many sellers trade. The owner of the website is not the seller himself, but an intermediary company.
A news site is a source where news is published. A news site may have a narrow focus - for example, only sports news.
News websites are created, for example, by media that previously existed offline. To make money, owners of such resources place ads on them.
A blog or news website is a website where an author or group of authors regularly publish news articles. Blog articles may concern the author's life, hobby, niche area of specialization, professional or practical issues - for example, how to care for houseplants.
Blogs are usually devoted to one topic. To make money, blog owners can place ads on their blogs.
There are many other types of websites - these also include forums, social networks and landing pages. There are also sites that combine elements of different formats.
What does the website consist of?
Websites are technically complex. Without getting too technical, let's look at something without which most websites cannot function or be useful. These are code files, hosting, domain, functionality, design and content.
Code files are documents written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. HTML files are needed so that all page elements - headings, images, text - are displayed in the correct order. CSS is a styling language used to define the appearance of elements such as color and font size. Element behavior scripts are written in JavaScript. For example, you can use it to change the color of a button when you hover over it.
Hosting is placing website files on a server. Without hosting, no one will see your website.
Every website is a collection of files, and not just code files, but also image files, documents, and text. For people to see and interact with them, the website must be loaded onto a computer with special software and 24/7 access to the Internet. Such computers are called servers. You can learn more about this in the article about hosting.
A domain name or domain is the unique name of a website, the address where it can be found. All websites have domains.
Functionality is the set of capabilities provided by the website. Each resource has its own, depending on why the site was created.
For example, on most websites you can navigate between pages. In the online store, the user can register, make a purchase and pay for the goods. On the company website, complete the feedback form to receive a call back. The website's functionality also includes calculating the project cost using an online calculator.
Design - visual design of the website. The colors, fonts and images used on the page, the spacing between elements and their order are design elements. The project is developed both in terms of the elements of the website itself and the content - its content. Design is needed to make your website look attractive and make it comfortable for people to use.
Website content is the information content of web pages: text, images, video, audio and multimedia. For example, the article you are reading now also contains content.
What elements are included in the website interface
The interface is the visible part of the site system with which the user interacts. Since websites are created for different purposes, their interfaces are also different. However, most resources have a header, navigation elements, and a footer.
The website header or header is the topmost module of your website. It usually contains a logo, contacts, navigation buttons, a shopping cart, and a button to log in to your account. The logo is often clickable: clicking on it takes the user to the website's home page.
Typically, the header is visible on all pages. This is often fixed - it stays at the top of the page even when scrolling.
The footer is the bottom module of the website. The footer usually contains reference information: contacts, links to social networks, support phone number. Also in the footer there are sometimes links to sections of the site.
Site navigation elements are elements that help you navigate through the resource. For example, a menu is a list of pages grouped into sections. Sometimes this is indicated by a symbol in the form of three horizontal lines, which is called a burger. Menus are often added to the header and recorded with it.
The next navigation element is the "back to top" button. This has also been fixed - you can see it when scrolling the page. It helps you get to the top of the page quickly instead of manually scrolling.
In addition to the above-mentioned interface elements, the website may have forms for submitting data, social networking buttons, photo galleries and a search bar.
How the website works
The user finds the site in a search engine or enters its name in the browser and opens the desired page. Then the user can interact with the resource: read articles, download files, buy goods. There is a complex process behind this. Let's describe it step by step:
- DNS query. After receiving the website name, the browser sends a request to the domain name server - the DNS server. The server responds to which IP address the website domain corresponds to.
- Establishing a connection. The browser connects to the server using the received IP address. To do this, the browser sends a request and the server responds.
- Page request. After establishing a connection to the server, the browser sends a request to download the requested website. The server sends this page as an HTML document.
- Page loading. The browser downloads the HTML document sent by the server and begins processing its contents.
- Analyzing the page. The browser parses the HTML document into headings, paragraphs, images, links and builds the page structure.
- Loading resources. The browser downloads all the content specified in the HTML document: images, videos, fonts, etc.
- View the page. The browser displays the page in its window and the user can start working with the site.
When the user performs an action on the page, the browser also sends requests to the server, and the server responds to these requests. In fact, all these processes take a few seconds or even fractions of seconds.
How to create a website yourself
You can outsource development to a freelancer or web studio, or assemble your own team: hire a designer, programmer and other specialists. If you need a complex website, developing it can be expensive.
You can also create a website yourself using a website builder or CMS. Let's look at these methods in more detail.
Constructor is an online platform that allows you to build a website in a visual editor. You don't need to know the code to do this. Creating a multi-page website in the builder can take only two to three hours.
A CMS, or content management system, is a platform that allows you to create, customize, and manage website content without having to write code. CMS are more complex than website builders, but they provide more possibilities, e.g. optimizing websites to meet the requirements of search engines.
To create a website on a CMS system you need:
- Register a domain. To do this, you need to choose a free domain name and register it with a domain registrar.
- Order hosting. You can host a website on a server for a fee or for free.
- Select CMS. The most popular CMS in the world is WordPress. Wix is also often chosen for working with news portals, blogs and multi-page websites. For online stores - OpenCart.
- Connect your domain to your hosting. This is done in your personal account on the website of the hosting company.
- Host your website on your server. To do this, you need to go to the control panel of your hosting, create a website and configure basic settings. You can learn more about this in the instructions of the hosting company or from the company's technical support specialists.
Then you need to create websites and fill them with content. The logic for configuring and populating it depends on the type of resource you are creating and what CMS you are using to manage it.
The most important thing about websites in 4 points
1. A website is a set of logically related websites located on the Internet under one name - domain. Websites are documents written in the HTML markup language and available on the Internet. These pages contain content such as articles, photos and videos. Websites are viewed using a browser.
2. Websites are created to solve various problems. These include, for example, business card websites, corporate and information websites, online stores and blogs. The task of a business card website is to tell about a person or company, while the task of an online store is to sell goods.
3. The main components of a website are code files, hosting, domain name, functionality, design and content.
4. You can create a website yourself using a website builder or CMS. Designer is a platform with a visual editor that allows you to create pages from ready-made elements. CMS is a content management platform: CMSs are more complex than builders, but they offer more possibilities.
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