Internet Terminology Simplified

This guide will give you an easy to understand description of common internet terminology. Use it to broaden your knowledge of the internet basics.

Understanding the meaning of these few basic internet terms is s nice starting point from which to create a your website. They will allow you to confidently build a well thought out website.

• Browser: Software program used to view web pages. Examples are: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari.



• Domain name: The main name of a website. In most case it begins with www and ends in .com, .org, .net, or some other suffix. Users type a domain name in a browser. In www.create-a-website-adviser.com, “create-a-website-adviser.com” is the domain name.



• Client/server: Clients are computers used to view web pages. Servers are computers that serve, or distribute, web pages.



• CSS: Stands for cascading style sheets -- CSS documents control the appearance and position of the content on a web page.



• FTP: Is shorthand for file transfer protocol -- FTP is software used to move files between computers. Typically website builders use FTP to upload HTML files to servers.



• HTML: This is an acronym for hypertext markup language, HTML is the computer code used to create web pages.



• Hypertext: This is electronic text that contains reference links also called hyperlinks.



• IP address: Every computer on the internet has an assigned unique numerical address, called an IP address. Each domain name is associated with at least one of these addresses.



• Link: This is an electronic reference or hyperlink that connects one web page, or site, to another. They can also connect to a location on the same web page that the reference is on.



• Search Engine: Software applications like Google who finds relevant pages to what a web user is looking for.



• Search Engine Optimization: Fine tuning a website to perform as best as it can with the search engines. The search engine optimization (SEO) phrase is at or near the top of nearly everyone's the internet terminology list.



• URL: An acronym meaning uniform resource locator -- a URL is the unique address of each page on the web. It can refer to entire sites, or specific pages. URLs usually contain the prefix http://.

You can find extensive lists at many sites such as inetlingo.com and webopedia.com to further broaden you skills.

By taking the time to understand some internet terminology you will increase you chances of creating a successful website -- a website that works well.

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