How a Website Works? - Under the hood.

We all know what a website is, as we use some or other websites daily in our day-to-day life. But have you ever thought about how a website works? Let’s get on with it.

What is a website?

A website is a collection of informative pages, linked with each other. The linking, (hyperlinks) can be found on images, videos, text, and others; and also can be found on navigation menus, which makes it easier for users to navigate from one page to another. Web pages basically contain informative text, images, or videos, and are arranged by designers so that it has a good look and feel. These design elements also include a careful selection of fonts and colors, which represents the brand of the company or best match the topic of the website.

A website is known and called by a name, also called a domain name. A domain name is connected to a web server also called a hosting server, which is identified by its IP address. The domain name and Hosting Server IP configuration are set using Domain Name Server (DNS) Configuration. If this configuration is incorrect, a user will not be able to view the website using the domain name of the website. But nothing to worry about.

When you purchase a domain and a hosting space from the same provider, this is automatically done for you. Only if you have purchased the domain and hosting from different providers you will have to update the server IP in the DNS configuration provided by the domain provider.

Types of website, by their function.

A website caters to a purpose, and for the same, it must function by providing useful features.

The very basic purpose of a company website could be like, to display information about the company, what all products and services they offer, how to reach them, and how to contact them. But as the website evolves, the features of the website may grow and the company may wish to have a users section where users can log in to download their invoices or may be able to raise a trouble ticket to the company. Further, the company may wish to have an administrative panel where company staff may log in and make some changes to the content of the website or access some work-related information online.

Features can be very basic and could be extremely complicated. To understand it better, assume a person handling multiple blog websites alone without any working staff. In contrast to the same assume websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other similar companies, where thousands of people are working to manage and maintain just one website. So as the features and requirements of your website go higher, your infrastructure need will also go higher.

Some prominent types of websites as per their features are as follows:

1. Blogging
2. Products and Services
3. E-Commerce
4. Search Engines
5. Social Networking

Types of website, by content.

Technically websites are of two types, Static and Dynamic Websites.

Static Websites

A static website is a single-page website or a collection of multiple static pages, which are generally informative pages and has no interaction. A simple page, made using tools that create HTML, CSS, client-side scripts, image, and video files describing the topic of the page. Websites like Product Brochures and/or Standard Information websites, and usually are not frequently updated.

Dynamic Websites

A dynamic website is a single or a collection of dynamic pages, which are interactive. These websites can display information as per the user who is using the page. These websites use server-side scripts which execute the scripts on the server and display results in HTML format to the user (client side). The content of the web page is stored and managed in a database. These websites are highly customizable. Websites like Web applications, Content Management Systems (CMS), E-Commerce, Blogs, Streaming websites, and many others, are all dynamic websites.

Search Engines

In layman’s terms, Search Engine is a website, where we can search for information. But beneath the surface, it is a complex software that works on multiple layers and levels. In general, there are multiple software programs working simultaneously day & night, like bots. Bots are automatic programs that read website pages, images, videos, and descriptions (also called crawling).

All that data is dumped in their multi-petabyte storage systems and indexes are created. So when we search for some words, the search engine uses these indexes and lists the best-associated website which has the information.

Google is not the only search engine available, but fascinatingly Google itself shares 86% of the market share, and hardly needs an introduction to someone. Some of the top known search engines are as follows:

• Google
• Bing
• DuckDuckGo
• Yahoo
• Baidu
• Yandex

Read this article if you want to make your website Google-friendly.

Impact of websites on our society.

As the name Internet describes itself as inter-network and the connectivity has spread like a web of wired and wireless connections, hosting millions of websites and webpages. These days we can’t imagine a company without a website, or a professional without having an email to correspond. Companies, governments, professionals, and even students can’t work or perform without the usage of websites and the internet. This abundance of websites provides us with infinite sources of information, which makes us feel like having some sort of superpower.

Benefits of a Website

1. It is your online business address and it improves your credibility.
2. If your small business does not have a website, you will be undermining its ability to generate income. A website never closes. It’s available 24×7, even on holidays.
3. It helps you to promote your business efficiently. Press releases, paper/magazine ads, and pamphlets are a waste of valuable resources, time & money. Online marketing is faster, more efficient, and inexpensive. New ways of marketing & promotions are Social Media Marketing and SEO. Online marketing is a sustainable process. Your content never goes waste. You can easily update and reuse it month after month.
4. A website is not an expense. It is an investment because you should expect a return on your money, within a period of time.

The design of a modern website

The website should be easy to read, use and navigate, with intuitive features and easy-to-understand menus. Here is another must-read article if you are looking for creating your own website.

Summary

Simple, clean, to-the-point, and search-engine-optimized websites will give you far more positive results and quick returns on investments, as compared to a clumsy but pretty and graphic-rich website that takes time to load and is complex to read and navigate. When making your website follow this evergreen Keep it Simple (KIS) rule.

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