What is a website? Static Vs Dynamic Website [Beginners Guide – How does a website work]

Are you thinking to build a website and what to know what is a website and how does it work?

Today in this blog, we are going to share with you what is a website and the importance of making a website.

Let’s start with the definition of the website.

What is a website?

The website is basically the collection or set of web pages, images, documents, and many other related elements that are known by a common domain name and published on a web server.

Google.Com, WordPress.Org, and WPEntire.Com are some of the popular examples.

To know better let us take an example of a book. A book is a website and the pages are web pages. As the book consists of a single topic, likewise a good website must be focused on a single range of subjects.

Websites are dedicated to a specific purpose or topic, such as e-commerce, education, entertainment, news, or social networking.

Users can reach websites using different devices like computers or mobile devices.

There is a public as well as a private website. As the name suggests public websites can be accessed by all users while the private website is made for specific company work and can be used by restricted users only.

What is the Website made of?

The basic constituents or members of the website are web pages having text, images, and other elements. All the web pages and elements are placed in a folder and then stored on the web host server. 

Web pages are written in codes that define the layout, format, and content on the pages. In general, the most common language used for creating a web page is HTML.

How does a Web Browser Work?

The browser is one that connects our computer to the server using an IP address. The web browser is the central hub of the internet. The internet has been easy to use and access is due to these web browsers.

Every day millions of people visit websites by browsers. Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera are the major web browsers occupying 95% of the web traffic.

The web browsers accept the URL via the address bar, gather resources, and display them on the screen. Basically the browser function in four major steps, they are.

• Fetch
• Process
• Display
• Storage

These steps give the action path created by the subsystem that the browser has to follow to reach a website,

Fetch

The network layer is the subsystem that plays a vital role in fetching information from subsequent web servers via the internet.

The network layer takes the URLs from the user interface of the browser and makes network calls to get resources via HTTP/FTP protocols. The processing subsystem known as the rendering engine gets data from the network layer. And this is done in byte size to enhance execution.

App cache or service workers make a copy of data if the approached website implements cache as they need to be used for next time. Caches are very important if the site is regularly visited as it saves time and provides a quick response at the time of the visit.

The network layer has an important role in giving a good user experience as they act as a narrow bridge in web performance as the browsers wait for remote data to come.  However, there are many strategies that we can take to reduce its effect on the user’s experience.

Process

This step has covered by taking the data from the network layer and feeding that data to the display subsystem. It has been further divided into render engines, JS engines, and UI backend subsystems.

The Rendering Engine

The incoming data from the network layer is processed by rendering the engine subsystem and displaying that web content on the screen. It has the inbuilt capacity of processing HTML, XML, and image files, and furthermore, this capacity can be improved by adding different extensions.

Some examples of the engines are Blink, Gecko, Trident, EdgeHTML, and WebKit and most of them are written in C++.

Then there comes a feature called render tree that combines parsed HTML and CSS.  The render tree is formed with visual instruction and attributes to render elements on the user’s screen. Once the render tree is formed it further process for layout and painting works and displays the output on the screen.

Data is processed in chunks and content is displayed without taking time in the rendering process as it does not for the entire to complete layout and painting process.

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The JavaScript Engine

It is responsible for breaking JavaScript code to machine language and execution of the code.js engine can be taken as standard interpreters or Just in time compilers.

Chrome V8 for chrome, javascript code for safari, spider monkey for Firefox, chakra for the edge, and internet explorer are some of the major examples of the JS engine and they are written in c++.

Further, this engine comprises the memory heap and the call stack. Memory is allocated for functions, variables, and other JS elements in the memory heap. Where the queue of stack frames or sequential steps executed by the browser is the stack.

Both of these engines have several internal tasks going on. They are

• Fetching, compiling, and executing code
• Profiling thread to analyze functions and their time consumption
• Optimizing the execution process
• Garbage collectors

Display

This is related to giving the visual output of the data to the users. For analyzing user navigation and data presentation user interface and browser engine are responsible.

User interface

The user interface is related to the visual appearance and screen components. This includes an address bar to write web URLs, and navigation buttons such as a back, forward, refresh, and a home and bookmarks bar. Furthermore, there is a viewport to display the materials pulled from websites.

It communicates with more subsystems within the browser to display content and respond accordingly. No standard is imposed for the interface look.

The Browser Engine

This embeddable subsystem provides a high-level interface to the rendering engine. It loads the entered URL and assists initial browsing actions such as navigating forward, back, and reload.

It also gives hooks for viewing several sides of the browsing sessions like javascript alerts and viewing current page load progress. We can manipulate the rendering engine settings from this browser engine.

Storage

JS objects and functions of the browser are stored in local storage and session storage.

The data on the browser during the active website session is stored on session storage. The memory on the browser is local storage. It stores data until the user or javascript clears or alters it. Moreover, this data storage is useful when privacy and security are considered.

There are some others like IndexDB, file System, and WebSQl that have the capability to store data on the browser considering performance, necessity, and size.

Where is a website stored?

There are millions of websites that can be accessed with some clicks using the internet. It is not possible that there is someone sitting and providing you information every time you asked. Websites are stored on large specialized computers called servers.

A server is a computer providing data and resources to another computer. It serves data to systems on LAN or WAN.

As websites can be made by web hosting companies that provide domain names. The domain name is directed to the website name by web servers. These servers are composed of many huge storage disks. And such farms are connected to the internet so that the data can be accessed.

These computers are identical to regular computers but larger and more secure. We have heard about Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc and some other larger websites have their own server farms, which are large buildings having huge storage devices.

Some medium-sized companies have server rooms whereas small websites run server space from big server farms.

What is website hosting?

Web hosting is the services provided by web hosting companies that allow any company or person to publish a website or webpage onto the internet.  A web hosting provider is a business that assists with technologies and services required for the website to be launched on the internet.

These hosting companies host websites on specific computers called servers. The users need to give the website address or domain to the browser to view the website. Their computer will connect the website’s server to web pages that will be delivered through the browser.

Email Accounts

Most hosting providers expect users to have their domain name; else they will provide a domain name. With a domain name, an email account is also provided by the hosting companies.

FTP Access

FTP allows uploading files from local computers to the web server so that they can be accessed through the internet.

WordPress Support

WordPress is the best website creation tool and also a strong blogging and website CMS which makes website design and management easy. WordPress powers more than 35% of the total website on the internet. 

How does a domain name work?

The domain name is the address of a website that people type in the URL bar of the browser to visit a website. 

The internet is a huge mesh of computers connected to each other through a large cable network. 

We can visit the website by simply entering a domain name or address of the website.

When we enter the domain name in the URL bar of the web browser, the initial request is sent to the global network of servers that form the Domain Name System (DNS). These servers then search for the name servers related to the domain and pass the request to such name servers.

For example, if a website is hosted on HostGator, then the name server details will be like ns1.hostgator.com or ns2.hostgator.com.

The name servers are the computers managed by the hosting companies. The hosting company will forward this request to the computer having the website stored.

The web servers are the computer having special installed. Such web servers then get the web page and information linked with it.

To create a website we need both domain name and website hosting. These can be taken from the same or also from different companies. But for better execution and compatibility, the same company is to be preferred.

There are different extensions of the domain name. Some of the popular are .com, .org, .net, .tv, .info, etc.

Tips to choose a domain name

• We should go for the .com domain name for it is a popular, easy to remember, and easy to promote
• Keep it shorter and easy to remember
• Numbers or hyphens recommend not to use.
• Take assistance from domain name generators to get good domain name ideas.

Importance of the website?

In the present world of the internet every business, organization, personality, and more has a website. There are various user-friendly, free, and open-source content management systems available to design a website.

Hence it is easy to build a small website by ourselves and also we can take professional help to build one.

The initial cost is also very low and this factor is making it more popular. There is much importance of a website; some of them are listed below

Low-Cost Advertising

Websites have a very large strata than any other type of advertisement. We can reach a large mass of people with less expense.

However, it is time taking and hard job to build a noticeable amount of traffic on the website but once it is built then it stands in front of an advertisement.

Our website acts as the detailed prospectus of any personal or corporate organization.

With the help of the website, we can advertise or endorse our company or organization on the web or social networking sites and some other advertisement programs.

Visibility and Ease of Access

Today is the era of the internet and online presence. If people listen about something new or something they don’t know, the first thing they do is search for it on the internet.

Likewise, for any company or organization, or personality, it is important to have a website so that people can know about it and can be lured toward it.

A website is available 24 hours and can be accessed from any place having internet. So it becomes the easiest channel to get information without waiting for working hours.

Sales and Supports

A website is an easy platform to sell any products or ideas. As a user can reach the website easily and there is much assistance present to create and launch a website easily. So products can be sold easily and in an attractive way.

The customers of the websites can ask for their confusion and seek help any time they got stuck. Because to get in touch with any person directly for help is hard in any organization. The support group gets the queries and they can take action accordingly.

Top Websites on the Internet Today.

There is millions of website on the internet today. Each one of them has been created for unique purposes. Some are for publicity, some for business, some for informational purposes, etc. We may have heard the name of some famous ones like Google, Facebook, etc.

Some of the top websites on the internet today according to the number of visitors are:

• YouTube.com  1.6 billion monthly traffic
• Wikipedia.org   1 billion monthly traffic
• Twitter.com  535 million monthly traffic
• Facebook.com  512 million monthly traffic
• Amazon.com  500 million monthly traffic
• Yelp.com  190 million monthly traffic
• Reddit.com 185 million monthly traffic
• Imdb.com 168 million monthly traffic
• Fandom.com 168 million monthly traffic
• Pinterest.com  160 million monthly traffic

This data gives the success and popularity of that website. We can learn from their working strategies to make our website rise high.

How does a website work?

For a website to work, it requires three major things; are

• A website
• A domain name
• A server

When we open a web browser and give a domain name, our browser will show the web pages of the domain name that we have entered.

The website is having a website address or domain name. Such a domain is connected to a unique IP address of the server on which the website is present. Domain Name Server (DNS) manages and tracks the IP address.

We can compare the work of DNS with the mobile contact application.  As we enter a name the application gives the contact information of the person. After we can decide what action to take further.

When we enter a domain name in the URL bar of the web browser, it conducts a series of inquiries. They are

• Looking up to the IP address of the domain name,
• Finding the web server hosting the web pages of that domain name,
• Requesting the server to provide a copy of that web page,
• Fetching the web pages from the server and
• Lastly, translate the web page code to display the information on the screen.

This is a short brief about how the website works. So there is a series of activities from entering the website address to displaying information that occurs in a fraction of a second.

Types of Website – Static vs. Dynamic

There are millions of websites in the market today, they have been developed to serve some purposes. Although we have tried to narrow it down to some most popular types. These categories are some general concepts on which the websites are built.

They are social media, video streaming, blogs, corporate, e-commerce, portfolio, news, crowdfunding, educational, portal, and community forum.

If we have access to the inter then we must have used most of the types at least once and some have become a part of life.

Social Media

Social media are the platform where users can connect to other people, share thoughts and ideas, or give opinions on a certain topic. Social media is the most popular and growing format of the website.

Furthermore, many people are relying on social media for news, information, and communication rather than using older forms of methods. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, etc are the major ones.

Video Streaming

Video streaming websites are changing the idea of TV watching in the world. They form a library of videos that can be viewed by users. With this website, we can watch any given video at any time.

Netflix, WordPress.Tv, etc are a popular example. To catch up with this trend many channels have started their own online portals.

Blogs

There are many online journals and informative pages on the internet they are called blogs. Such pages are regularly updated. In fact, WPEntire is a blog. Blogs are managed by any small group or individual.

It can cover any topic we can think of like financial, travel, education, etc. these are written n simple and professional and formal or informal language.

Corporate

A Corporate website is the website of companies and organizations. These are helpful for both the companies and the people.

Corporate websites have information about companies. In this age of the internet, the website is the first step to giving or taking information.

Ecommerce

The online portals allowing taking payments for products and services are eCommerce websites.

An e-commerce website can be in the form of both a blog and a corporate website having the feature of online payments. Online business has been increasing day by day and this market has increased rapidly.

Portfolio

A Portfolio is a website to display and promote previous work. Initially, these types of websites are used by the creative industry. This platform can be used to demonstrate skills to impress customers and clients.

News

These purposes for news publishing. The news website is needed to be updated regularly about current affairs and hot topics.

Everyone does not have time to read the newspaper or watch tv to get the news. For such people. news websites are very helpful. The magazine is a website giving entertainment news and information.

Crowd Funding

These types of websites are created to raise funds from the public for the same cause. Basically, it is created to get donations.

For big projects or natural disaster relief where it is difficult to manage funds by individual, company, or government, crowdfunding websites are formed to raise money.

Educational

Anything related to education and its wings comes under these categories. Websites of schools, college learning classes, or online education providing websites ate the member of this column.

Portal

Portals are the website active for the internal purpose of any organization like schools colleges companies etc. They are useful to grant access to files and information required by the member of such an organization.

Students and teachers can get EBooks or information about the classes from a school website.

Community Forum

Such websites allow adding and editing content on the website. The best example is Wikipedia, it allows anyone to add and edit information and give access to the articles.

What is Static Content?

As the name suggests static means fixed. The content on the website doesn’t modify or change according to time and users.

In simple words, they are not regularly updated. Such types of content are informative and built using HTML. As the information in a dictionary is static as the words have the same meanings.

What is Dynamic Content?

The content that s regularly updated and changed is dynamic content. We can find enough such content on blogging sites, e-commerce sites, etc. WordPress is a popular dynamic site development software.

Also, dynamic content design can be helpful to show different content to categorized users. As the products of an e-commerce website are changing with tie as well as new blogs are added regularly on blogging sites

How to Start a New website?

We can start a new website by the following steps:

• Choose a domain name
• Register a domain name and sign up for web hosting
• Setup a website using WordPress
• Customize website design and structure
• Add pages and content
• Setup navigation menu

Hiring Developer to Develop a Website

Though website building has been easy, many ones find it difficult to design a website. For this reason, we may need to hire a developer to build a website for us. We can follow these simple steps and hire a good developer

• Select and know the website’s challenges
• Select the type of developer according to the skill
• Search for a required specialist
• Inquire about the developer team’s expertise
• Figure out the working model
• Select a payment model

Conclusion

These are the major things you need to know about before starting a website.

We have tried to collect all information related to the website in detail so that you can have a clear idea about the website and how to start it.  You can get assistance on the internet today about creating and managing a website.

We hope you will find the article useful and can get a huge amount of information from the article. You are free to send your queries if any.

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