The Internet is basically websites. Any user of the Web at least approximately understands and can explain what a website is. We read, communicate, buy products, watch videos, listen to music, use a variety of web services for banking, document management, mail, etc. But what is a website in the fullest sense? Let’s take it from here, put it all in a nutshell.

A website is a set of web pages united under a common domain and linked by links, themes and design. According to the law, each website must be registered to a legal or physical person, that is orphan, phantom web resources do not happen. Any page that a search engine gives out on a query, is part of any website.

All user devices for accessing the Internet, viewing websites and working with web services use the browser – a program for sending requests and receiving responses from remote servers in order to match domain names to IP addresses in order to access the contents of pages. The browser is also a rendering engine, that is, the transformation of the code component of pages (HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, etc.) into human-readable content formats – text, images, forms, videos, etc. All modern PC browsers are free, the most popular are Chrome, Yandex, Opera, Mozilla, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari.

A website, or rather a web page that is part of it, is anything that the browser opens to you by a search query or by entering a domain in the address bar.

Why do we need websites?

Websites for their owners can solve a huge range of problems, both for companies and individuals. The main ones are as follows:

• The ability to make themselves known, to go beyond the limitations of the offline business space;
• Searching for new customers to sell goods and services;
• Searching for business partners;
• Receiving orders and payments online, systematizing and processing requests;
• Providing information on products, prices, benefits, cooperation terms, etc..;
• Strengthening the reputation, increasing and maintaining the level of trust of the potential audience;
• Interaction with customers, answering questions, informing about upcoming promotions, events, etc;
• Advertising tool: in about 30% of cases, customers learn about the company by visiting its website from search results;
• Increase of efficiency of business processes. The website automatically gives a lot of information, works around the clock, allows you to streamline communication with customers through different communication channels – any CRM solves this problem with flying colors. There are savings in material and time resources.
• In general, we need websites and private entrepreneurs and companies. They have a good purpose. More or less – a different matter, the effectiveness depends on many factors. But at least some growth will be, at least 10% in the case of a very poorly implemented. With a quality approach, you can expect an increase in turnover by several times.

For users of websites everything is obvious: they get information from them, buy goods, communicate in social networks, blog comments and forums, work with web services (banking, mail, hosting, website builders, message boards, food delivery, dating websites, etc.), find work and much more.

The main types of websites

Websites can solve a huge number of tasks. Just list their types at a glance: business card, forum, landing page, directory, bulletin board, online store, corporate, gaming website, social network, web service, blog, dating website. There may be something you missed. Nevertheless, the most common, the most in-demand are business cards, weblinks, stores and blogs. It is some of these that most often need to be created by beginners. Let’s describe each position in a little more detail.

Business card website type

Ideal website format for entrepreneurs, self-employed and companies. As a rule, it consists of a small number of pages (5-20). It serves for presenting services, telling about yourself/company, providing contact information and receiving applications, customer feedback. A business card to attract the attention of the target audience. These websites are easier and more convenient to create in the designers with a visual editor – quickly, inexpensive, beautiful it turns out.

Corporate website is an expanded version of business cards. As a rule, these websites are created for medium and large businesses. They have a more complex structure, providing more information about the company, its departments, production facilities, partners, corporate culture, employees. They can contain a catalog of products, a blog, online chats for consultations, various forms, surveys for company employees, cost calculators for calculating something, buttons/forms for direct communication with company representatives in different directions. In general, a lot of things.

Portfolio is another business card format. A small website with examples of the work of a photographer, artist, model, illustrator, interior designer, etc. Anything that is convenient to present through galleries of photos can be packed into a portfolio. Usually such websites are beautifully designed, they do not have much text, the whole emphasis is on showcasing the results of the activity. They are used to attract attention of customers/clients. Particularly demanded among members of the creative professions. And not only: a teacher, writer, psychologist, trainer, speech therapist, engineer and representatives of other professions can have a portfolio.

Landing page website

As a rule, a one-page website, serving to effectively promote products and services on the Internet. The peculiarity of such websites – the structure: a catchy headline, a bright, concise description of the product, calls to action (buy, subscribe, order a callback, leave a request) and so on. The general idea is to quickly capture the visitor’s attention, get him interested in the offer, showing the benefits, and fuel the motivation to take advantage of it. As a rule, the purpose of such websites is the collection of customer contact data and subsequent interaction with them. They, too, are easy to create in designers with a visual editor.

eCommerce website or Online shop

A website for selling digital/physical goods and services. As a rule, has a shopping cart and the ability to pay for the aforementioned online. There is a catalog with products, descriptions, prices, and the possibility of ordering. Also, as a rule, such websites allow you to leave reviews about the products, to consult online, give some methods of payment, delivery, provide warranty, return policy and so on. The main thing on such a website: the convenience of product selection, navigation, range, the quality of descriptions, customer feedback, prices and the reputation of the store, which is formed in the process of its operation.

Blog website

A blog is a website that displays a news feed. The articles are in chronological order and can be categorized for easy retrieval. The main thing for such a website is the quality of materials and ease of reading. Website-articles can be personal or thematic – our blog Uguide.ru just a thematic resource for those interested in the creation of websites and everything associated with it.

A blog can also be called an Internet journal where posts are regularly added. Such websites often become a medium for communication of the target audience, implemented the possibility of commenting on the entries. For example, our visitors often wonder which engine to use to create this or that type of website, as well as share their impressions of using different designers and CMS.

The main criteria for platforms suitable for creating a blog are the speed and convenience of designing entries, administering a large number of them, SEO potential, and the ability to interact effectively with readers. Among the engines that are good at solving the task of blogging are WordPress and Wix.

What does the website consist of?

Website – an orderly system of a number of components of a technical and software nature:

• Design – everything about appearance: fonts, graphics, colors, backgrounds, buttons, sizes and indents, banners, forms, as well as the mutual arrangement of all these elements in the interface, on the layout of web pages. Registration affects the perception of content as well as ergonomics, ease of navigation. It should blend with the subject of the website for overall style.
• Content – the information on the website. Descriptions of services, products, articles, contact information, photos, audio, video, links, graphics, documents – all this content. Its tasks differ depending on the objectives pursued: selling goods/services, collecting traffic, subscriptions, informing, organizing communication between visitors or something else.
• The interface code of the website. In the process of making the pages, programmers write code that describes the design using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other languages. This is a software framework with an html extension to display page layouts in browsers.
• The server code specifies the behavior of the site when the visitor interacts with it: it determines what happens if you click the button, fill out a form, create an account, buy a product, etc. This code is written in Java, PHP, Ruby and other languages. He is not needed not all sites. For example, one-page sites often do not have the ability to accept payments, register users, etc.
• Web server or hosting – a computer with special software that responds in real time around the clock to browsers, giving them information about the content requested web pages.
• Domain name – something you type into your browser’s address bar. For example, Google.com, Facebook.com, Uguide.ru. All pages of the site are united by a domain, which in the sense is a folder with the files of the site, lying on the hosting, and connected to the Internet via the hardware/software part of the web server. Domain is inextricably linked to the IP-address, which is in the sense of a “phone number” of the site, the “phone” for the dial-up to which the browser serves.
• Content Management System – CMS or website builder. Serve to manage the content of the site and interaction with visitors, set a certain set of features for developers. There are sites written in HTML, do not have the backend, but less than others, because create / manage any complex site in such a way is impossible.

To summarize. Any website consists of program code, design and content. All of this is tied together in a pile with a domain name and hosted. Technical and software implementation may vary markedly from site to site, but the above is everywhere.

Websites are created in constructors, on CMS, frameworks or self-written engines. Approaches to creating a lot, and for users, the essence of their work looks simple: the browser on your request receives from a remote server html-file pages and opens its contents.

Website ranking

After the website is published on hosting under a unique domain name and IP address, indexing of its content will begin. All search engines have robots – algorithms that automatically scan the Web to update data about the content of websites. Once the site is in the database, its pages will soon begin to appear in search results on relevant topics queries.

Information on which pages should be sent for indexing and which should not is stored in the robots.txt service file. Noindex/Nofollow tags allow you to hide from index the text of pages and links to them, respectively. Many designers allow you to customize the settings to hide the site from indexing, which is useful at the time of its development, so that search engines are not added to the output of raw material. Clearly, after the completion of the site should unblock the possibility of indexing, otherwise your site will not be seen in search engines.

Conclusions

Website – a set of web pages that are under a single domain. Each domain corresponds to an IP address stored on a remote DNS server. To view the content of sites use browsers – programs that can send/receive requests to match the IP-address to the domain, receive data and convert the code content of html files, which they receive from the hosting of the desired site, in an understandable format – text, pictures, graphics, video, etc.

Any site is hosted – a remote server permanently connected to the Internet. Its essence is to respond to all requests from browsers, coming to the IP-address of the site, and send users information about the content of web pages. Hosting stores the website databases, mail, DNS records and other software components necessary for the functioning of the sites.

Sites come in different types and technically can be implemented in different ways: working on the CMS, designers, home-built engines or frameworks. Every site has a graphical interface – a design, which is converted by means of a make-up into code understandable for browsers and written according to standards generally accepted in the industry.

You don’t have to be a programmer and understand the technical details of website engines, how the Internet works and more to create a web resource for your soul, to support your business or just for the sake of curiosity. Constructors allow everyone to publish sites without skills. You don’t need to have a lot of money and spend a lot of time to do this. The main thing is to choose an engine that suits your profile and level of capability.

General algorithm for creating and maintaining a website (for all projects)

• Development of the website concept and its marketing model.
• Design development or selection of a suitable ready-made solution (template).
• Selection of the platform (CMS, constructor, framework).
• Collection of a semantic core and elaboration of the structure of materials.
• Creating a launch site (following the instructions above: domain + hosting + engine).
• Writing (creation) of materials (media content) within the chosen strategy and the compiled semantic core.
• Adding the site to the webmaster panel of popular search engines (for Runet is Yandex and Google). PS will start to index the site.
• Adding the analytics codes and metrics.
• Running advertising campaigns (most relevant to commercial sites).
• Examination of the errors in the webmaster panels and analysis of user behaviour on the pages.
• Eliminating problems if any, updating materials.
• Organising social media promotion (if necessary).

FAQ

Question: Do I have to hire an SEO specialist?

Answer: It all depends on your willingness to do it yourself. In fact, there is nothing difficult about it. Search engines have long since learned to identify quality content and find useful information for users. If your website is useless for your target audience, no SEO expert will help you. You will only waste your budget. At the same time, it makes sense to carry out a technical audit to identify in good time any shortcomings that may affect the quality of promotion. In some online engines, such as uKit, technical audit function is built-in.

Question: Which engine/platform to choose?

Answer: Here you can argue until hoarse which platform is better. But, as we said above, everything will depend on the goals and objectives of the site, as well as your requirements for the necessary functionality. There are no perfect solutions that will fit all needs. If you have a simple business website, try uKit or Wix, if you have a larger project – start with WordPress and its hosting, if you need a ready-made online shop, there are dedicated platforms for that, and so on. Want more substantive information on the subject – check out our rankings (see footer).

Question: Why don’t you recommend online designers for large projects?

Answer: The answer is very simple. All constructor platforms are a kind of shared hosting. Which means that server resources are shared between members/clients. All the rates of popular platforms are fixed. And if you start consuming too many resources, keeping your site on the platform’s servers will become unprofitable for the provider. That is why all settings within the system are made so that it is difficult and inconvenient for you to create multi-page projects. The target audience for such services is small businesses. This is neither good nor bad. You just have to take this into account when choosing a platform.

Conclusions

What does it take to build a good website? Firstly, a desire. Secondly, a set of handy tools and a little specialist knowledge. In today’s web no one requires you to have superpowers, as many technical issues have already been implemented at the software level. Thirdly, you need a good idea. If you pick the wrong niche or identify the wrong target audience, the project is likely to fall apart quickly or you will lose interest.

Otherwise, there is an abundance of information and ready-made tools. If you have the will, there are a thousand opportunities to implement what you have in mind. The main thing is not to be afraid and do it.