We define basic terms for business website owners

Basic website terms explanations

Important website basics explained to business owners

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Basic terms definitions

A basic understanding of the basic terms used by website designers and others involved in website development is very important to business owners. Many business site owners are simply uninformed of even the basic terms and their significance in web site design and performance. A business web site is competing with billions of web pages for the attention of potential new customers. Your customers want to know what your company website terms mean. Making good business decisions will help you produce a successful web site.

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Browser or web browser

Although nearly 90% of all personal computers use Internet Explorer from MicroSoft as their web browser, several other popular browsers are available. These include; Netscape , Opera , Mozilla and Konqueror . Your web site pages will not look identical in all web browsers. Care in basic web page design will ensure that your pages will still be usable by every visitor. Explorer is not the only web browser! The rest are far less forgiving, when they try to display a poor web page. Meta tags are still important to all web browsers.

Term Definition: Source: Wikipedia.org — ( Web-Browser )

Browser display properties will determine how your web page looks on the computer monitor screen. Web page validation proves that your pages will operate ( display properly ) on different browsers. Every web page should be validated. Validate this page? See also: Screen Resolution

Meta Tags

Meta tags provide important information to web browsers and some search engines. Although they are not visible to human visitors, they can still provide a lot of information about a web page. They tell the browser which document type and character set the page uses, page information description, content self rating, the page author and their contact information, web page common language and more. Most search engines ignore most meta tags. Use meta tags correctly, or don't use them at all.

Metatags were abused in the first few years of the www. Most major search engines place little value on the declared keywords and do not rank web pages from the list you provide anyway. Some very important meta tags are content-type, description, language, author, and contact.

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DHTML (JavaScript)

Java is a computer programming language (like C++). JavaScript is a markup language commonly used on web pages. Sometimes referred to as dhtml, because it provides dynamic web page actions, JavaScript is not HTML. JavaScript is embedded into the html web page and the browser performs the actions indicated in the script. A simple method for designing user interactive web pages.

Free JavaScript resources can come with a big repair bill. Editing and customizing a JavaScript to function properly on your business site, can be a time consuming process. JavaScript requires exact written code. It does not permit close enough markup! Search engines con't easily follow the links in JavaScript.

Alt Text

Search engine spiders, text only, audio browsers and others can't see all the beautiful pictures on your web page. When the web browser (like Explorer) loads a web page, it also searches for and retrieves external image files and temporarily places them on the page being displayed. They are not part of the written web page. Alt text (alt= attribute) will describe the graphic with real words. Eliminate the alt text and all that's left, is blank space! Many beautiful web pages simply appear to be blank pages to the search engines.

Alternative text descriptions for ALL THE GRAPHICS used on a website can often make or break your website's user experience. This includes how search engines rank your web pages. Visual presentation is only one aspect of a good web page. Providing descriptive alt text and a long description when necessary, will enhance both user accessibility and your search engine results.

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Access keys

Access keys help in navigating an accessible website. To be accessible to people with disabilities, your site needs to provide users with an alternate method to using a mouse. Simple access keys are a much faster method for finding your way around an accessible web site.

Access key navigation may be the only way some user groups can navigate a good business web site. Providing access to every user, shows your potential customers that you care about every visitor. A user friendly web site always provides access keys.

DocType

The document type page declaration tells the web browser how to read your web page and then display it correctly. Validation of a web page relies on the correct declaration for the type of markup used. Writing good web pages depends on the correct use of the markup language (code) and character set to be used in displaying text information content. Our web pages use valid xhtml1-strict.dtd.

Missing Doctype declaration forces browsers to fall-back to the simplest document type available. Making the effort to use the correct declaration, will allow your website users to access the web page the way it was written. It's an important component in producing a really good web page. Without the correct DTD a web page will not validate, period.

Blog ?

Although a blog can be an interesting addition to a "General Interest" or "personal" website, business web sites can quickly lose business credibility with their customer. Allowing users to add content to your web site can also create security problems if extreme caution is not exercised.

Weblogs really don't belong on most business websites. As tempting as it might be to tell the world about the daily routine at your place of business, it is not very professional. Business web sites need to maintain professional credibility, if they want to attract new customers. A good business website is about providing what a customer wants, not what you want to tell them.

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Basic terms summary

There are many terms to describe all the basic components used to create a good website. Confusion and misunderstandings can quickly cause you to spend too much money to create a business website that does nothing to help your business. Spending a few minutes to research the basic terms could pay big financial rewards. We try to ensure that all our clients understand the basic terms, before we start to design a business web site to find their potential customer.

Please read: What is a website, before you make any important business decisions about a website.

• Basic term definitions:
• Important web site definitions
• Basic terminology
• Definitions of common terms
• Basic website definitions
• Basic ebusiness terms

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