Title - Word Pool Web Design
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What's a website

Although a website looks like to a printed document viewed online, it's really a set of instructions (called code) that tell your computer what to show on screen. If you're using Internet Explorer, you can click on VIEW, then SOURCE to see the code for this page.

That code is stored on a computer called a server that's connected to the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you decide to visit a site, your computer uses the address to find where the site is stored. Then your internet browser software contacts the server, downloads the instructions and uses them to create the page on screen.

Creating your own website involves several stages

  1. Planning the content, deciding on how the information will be divided between the different pages.
  2. Writing the text and organise the pictures
  3. Designing and creating your site
  4. Organising a web address for your site
  5. Putting your site on the server so people can visit it.

This may sound a daunting process but it needn't be. You only have to get involved with the technical side of the process if you want to. If you don't, you can let us (or another web designer) handle it for you.

To help you through the initial maze, here's a guide to website jargon.

URL The address of a web page, so the URL of this page is http://www.wordpooldesign.co.uk/planning/what.htm - you should be able to see that in the address box on your screen. The letters stand for Uniform Resource Locator - a piece of information that's only useful in quizzes.
  
domain name The bit of the address that comes between the www and the first /. So our domain name is wordpooldesign.co.uk. You can register your own domain name to use as the address for your site.
  
hosting Storing your site on a server. You usually have to pay an annual charge called a hosting fee to do this
  
HTML The basic language in which the site code is written.
  
search engine A website that tries to help you find sites with the information you need.
  
ranking Where your site figures on a search engine's list for a particular keyword. No 1 ranking means you come at the top of the list.
  
navigation

The links that help you find your way around the site. Making these easy to understand keeps visitors happy and helps them quickly find the information they want.