Web Development Terminology - or How to Know What Your Design
Team is Talking About
Hosting and Domain: Most people do know about web hosting and
domain names are these days, but every now and then some
confusion might arise as to whether they are independent or one
in the same. Basically, your web hosting is the space you "rent"
on the internet to place your website. Your domain name, also
called your URL is www.your_website.com. Some hosting companies
will offer the purchase of your domain name at the same time you
purchase your hosting account. Often times however, you purchase
a domain name separately from a company such as Register.com or
GoDaddy.com.
FTP or Login Info: When you are asked for this information, this
refers to the host name, user name, and password needed to
access your hosting account. This will come from your hosting
company when you sign up.
Site Map: A site map is exactly what it sounds like - a flow
chart or outline of all the pages on your website. This is
created to help organize the way your website is put together.
Menu or Navigation: Often times before creating a concept (see
below) for your site, a designer will ask you what Menu items or
Navigation you would like. These are simply the "buttons" within
your page design that help a visitor get around to the other
pages. For instance: About Us, Our Services, Our Products, and
Contact Us could all be menu items.
"Mock Up" or Concept: When designers mention these terms they
are talking about the initial or concept designs for your
project. In the case of a website, the concept will most likely
be delivered to you via the web and be an example of how your
site will look. These concepts are created and revised to
achieve the final look of your website. Also note that designers
often use "dummy text" (see below) if you have not already
provided "content" (see below).
Royalty Free or Stock Photography: Royalty Free and Stock
Photography refers to photos and graphic images that you or your
designer purchases to use within your design or on your website
pages. These images can vary greatly in price, depending on the
company they are purchased from. A good designer will have their
own selection of images that were already purchased for you to
choose from. Even so, sometimes the "perfect" image(s) can not
be found so you must turn to other sources.
Screen Resolution: The resolution for images and graphics for
the web is 72 dpi (dots per inch). If you supply images to your
designer, they should be of this resolution or higher. If you
expect to do any printing (say, you want a brochure made to
match the look of your website), your images will have to be in
print resolution or 300 dpi.
Vector Graphic: Designers will sometimes ask if you have your
logo as a vector graphic. Vector graphics are shapes, lines,
text, even illustrations which have been created in Adobe
Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand. What makes a vector graphic
different from a regular graphic is it's ability to be resized
(especially larger) without distortion or loss of quality.
"Dummy" or Filler text: Designers (both web and graphic) often
use nonsense text in place of your real page text when first
creating your site. Do not be alarmed! This is just to show you
the areas where text will be placed. Once you provide your
actual text, the designer will place that in those spaces.
Content: Content refers to any text or special images which will
go on your website that you will need to provide to your
designer.
Meta or "Head" Tags and Keywords: The meta (often called the
head tags and keywords) of your page are special code to help
search engines find your page. If your designer ask you for
these you should provide the following: a description of your
company/site (this can be several sentences that include your
company name and a few keywords about what you do); page titles
(what you would like each page of your website to be titled -
this shows up in the browser window); keywords (these are single
words and short phrases that you believe your visitors might
type in a search engine in order to find your website).
CSS or Stylesheet: CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. It is a
system of coding that helps control things like the font on your
page, link colors, page layout and many more.
Static HTML or Static Page: Most websites are created with the
language of HTML. Often times, a designer will call something
"static" to denote that it is 1) not Flash (see below), or 2)
not dynamically generated from a database. This is simply a
"regular" website page.
Flash: Flash is the software from Macromedia that designers use
to create motion and animation on your website. This can be in
the form of a presentation, moving graphics, or even a game. The
applications for Flash have grown along with high speed internet
connections such as DSL and Cable.
"Splash" Page: This is usually referred to as a page that loads
up before the main pages of your site. It can be your logo, or a
Flash animation. Most designers are trying to steer their
clients away from such a page as the attention span of the
average internet user is quite short these days!
Blog: Blog is short for Web Log and has fast become a very
popular feature on many websites. Basically, a blog is a way for
you to keep your site content fresh by posting articles and
other information on your site.
Online Marketing: A designer might mention Online Marketing to
you as something to consider to help promote your site. This can
include: affiliate programs, search engine optimization (see
below), banner advertising, placing your website link in
directories on the web, email advertising, newsletters, and
online press releases.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Although most designers do not
perform this type of Optimization, they might mention it if you
show an interest in ranking better in the search engines. SEO is
the process of manipulating your page content and Meta tags in
order to achieve better rankings.
mySQL or msSQL/SQL and Databases: Unless you have custom
programming or an ecommerce shopping cart on your website, your
designer most likely would not mention these things.
Nevertheless, sometimes they do come up if some of these things
might be happening at a later stage. mySQL is the type of
database that you would need to have set up if you are hosting
your website on a UNIX server whereas msSQL is the type that is
set up if your are hosted on a Microsoft Windows server.