Website Designing and Hosting

 

Chapter 3

 

3.1. Website designing and hosting

3.2. Web Hosting

3.3. Life cycle of website building

3.4. Website content and traffic management

3.5. Working of ISP and Classifications of ISP

3.6. Choosing and registering a domain name

 

3.1. Website designing and Hosting

 

A website is a collection of many web pages, and web pages are digital files that are written using HTML. To make your website available to every person in the world, it must be stored or hosted on a Web Server.

When type a certain URL in a browser search bar, the browser requests the page from the Web server and the Web server returns the required web page and its content to the browser. Now, it differs how the server returns the information required in the case of static and dynamic websites. 

There are two main types of web pages: static and dynamic. Static web pages are those that are written in HTML and do not change based on user input or other variables. They are simply a collection of text, images, and other media that are displayed to the user in a fixed format. Dynamic web pages content of pages are different for different visitors by a computer program to change some variable content. Dynamic web pages are often generated using server-side technologies such as PHP, ASP and Ruby on Rails etc.

 

Types of Website: 

·       Static Website

·       Dynamic Website

Static Website: In Static Websites, Web pages are returned by the server which are prebuilt source code files built using simple languages such as HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. There is no processing of content on the server (according to the user) in Static Websites. Web pages are returned by the server with no change therefore, static Websites are fast. There is no interaction with databases. Also, they are less costly as the host does not need to support server-side processing with different languages. 

 

 

Dynamic Website: In Dynamic Websites, Web pages are returned by the server which are processed during runtime means they are not prebuilt web pages but they are built during runtime according to the user’s demand with the help of server-side scripting languages such as PHP, Node.js, ASP.NET and many more supported by the server. So, they are slower than static websites but updates and interaction with databases are possible. 

Dynamic Websites are used over Static Websites as updates can be done very easily as compared to static websites (Where altering in every page is required) but in Dynamic Websites, it is possible to do a common change once and it will reflect in all the web pages. 
 

3.2. Web Hosting 

Web hosting is a service of providing online space for storage of web pages. These web pages are made available via World Wide Web. The companies which offer website hosting are known as Web hosts. The servers on which web site is hosted remain switched on 24 x7. These servers are run by web hosting companies. Each server has its own IP address. Since IP addresses are difficult to remember therefore, webmaster points their domain name to the IP address of the server their website is stored on.

It is not possible to host your website on your local computer, to do so you would have to leave your computer on 24 hours a day.

 

 

3.2.1. Types of Web Hosting

The following table describes different types of hosting that can be availed as per the need:

S.N.	Hosting Description
1.	Shared Hosting   In shared hosting, the hosting company puts thousand of website on the same physical server. Each customer has their own allocation of physical web space and a set of bandwidth limit. As all websites share same physical memory, MYSQL server and Apache server, one website on the server experiencing high traffic load will affect performance of all websites on the server.
2.	Virtual Private Server (VPS) It is also known as Virtual Dedicated Server. It is a server which is partitioned into smaller servers. In this customer is given their own partition, which is installed with its own operating system. Unlike shared hosting, VPS doesn’t share memory or processor time rather it allocates certain amount of memory and CPU to use which means that any problem on a VPS partition on the same drive will not affect other VPS customers.
3.	Dedicated Server In this kind of hosting, single dedicated server is setup for just one customer. It is commonly used by the businesses that need the power, control and security that a dedicated server offers.
4.	Reseller Hosting A reseller acts as a middle man and sells hosting space of someone else’s server.
5.	Grid Hosting Instead of utilizing one server, Grid Hosting spreads resources over a large number of servers. It is quite stable and flexible. The servers can be added or taken away from the grid without crashing the system.

 

3.2.2. Web Hosting Companies

Following are the several companies offering web hosting service:

S.N.	Hosting Company
1.	Blue Host
2.	Go Daddy
3.	Host Gator
4.	just Host
5.	Laughing Squid
6.	Hivelocity
7.	liquid Web
8.	Media TempleServInt
9.	Wired Tree
10.	Wild West Domains
11.	Wix
12.	WIPL
13.	Big Rock

 

3.3. Life cycle of website building

The Web development life cycle includes the following phases: planning, analysis, design and development, testing, and implementation and maintenance.

Web Development Phases and Questions
Web development phase	Questions to ask
Planning	What is the purpose of the Web site Who will use this Web site What are their computing environment Who owns and authors the information on the Web site
Analysis	What information is useful to the user
Design and development	What type of Web site layout is appropriate What forms of multimedia is helpful to the user
Testing	Is the Web site content correct Does the Website functions correctly Are users able to find the information they need Is the navigation easy to use?
Implementation and Maintenance	How is the Web site published How is the Web site updated Who is responsible for content updates Will the Web site be monitored

 

3.4. Website content and traffic management

From a marketing point of view, good website content is content that has been optimized for search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) drives traffic to websites through organic search results on search engines such as Google.

SEO involves understanding what your audience is searching for—including the specific terms they are searching for—and using them strategically to increase your ranking within search results.

Website Content Writing Guidelines

Google publishes guidelines for writing content for websites. They can be extremely useful when writing web site content for your own page or for a client’s website.

Make Your Site Interesting

The more people come to your site, the higher it will tend to rank—particularly if your bounce rate is low. Having interesting ideas and novel concepts is the surest way to attract and hold viewers.

Know What Your Readers Want – If you have a site for your business, choose topics that potential customers will want to read about and would be most likely to come to your webpage as a good source of information.

Write Easy-to-Read Text – It’s a sad fact that literacy levels in this country are not always commensurate with the highest level of education completed. With this in mind, your web content writing should be easy for your target audience to read. Naturally, if you’re writing about technical topics, you may need to use words and describe concepts that are beyond the understanding of most people, but the potential customers you’re trying to reach shouldn’t have difficulty reading your information.

Organize Your Topics Clearly – When most people click onto a website, they scan the headers to see if they’re likely to find what they’re looking for. Use headers, subheaders, and bulleted lists to describe what’s to follow in the text.

Create Fresh, Unique Content – Your content should be accurate, concise, unique, and fresh. If you find that there’s not a lot of available information on the internet on a particular topic in your industry, that’s an opportunity. Google can also recognize when a site has gone stagnant, so review and update your information regularly. Having a web content writing service post blog pieces is an excellent way to introduce new topics and information on your page.

Optimize Content for Your Users – Google has a number of metrics that measure whether or not your site is giving users what they want. Google tracks the number of users who view your page, how long they stay on each page, how often they return. There’s simply no way to get the search engines to give you higher scores in these areas without engaging your readers. SEO requires a long-term approach and you’re going to have much better results if your page enhances the user experience.

 

 3.5. Working of ISPs

An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. Data may be transmitted using several technologies, including dial-up, DSL, cable modem, wireless or dedicated high-speed interconnects. Internet service providers may be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privately owned. Internet services typically provided by ISPs include Internet access, Internet transit, domain name registration, web hosting, Usenet service, and colocation. An Internet service provider is also known as an Internet access provider (IAP).

 

Classifications of Internet service provider (ISP)

Access providers

Access providers ISPs provide Internet access, employing a range of technologies to connect users to their network. Available technologies have ranged from computer modems with acoustic couplers to telephone lines, to television cable (CATV), Wi-Fi, and fiber optics.

For users and small businesses, traditional options include copper wires to provide dial-up, DSL, typically asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), cable modem or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) (typically basic rate interface). Wireless access is another option, including cellular and satellite Internet access.

Mailbox providers

A mailbox provider is an organization that provides services for hosting electronic mail domains with access to storage for mail boxes. It provides email servers to send, receive, accept, and store email for end users or other organizations. The task is typically accomplished by implementing Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and possibly providing access to messages through Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), the Post Office Protocol, Webmail, or a proprietary protocol.

Hosting ISPs

Internet hosting services provide web hosting or online storage services. Other services include virtual server, cloud services, or physical server operation.

Virtual ISPs

A virtual ISP (VISP) is an operation that purchases services from another ISP, sometimes called a wholesale ISP in this context, which allow the VISP's customers to access the Internet using services and infrastructure owned and operated by the wholesale ISP. VISPs resemble mobile virtual network operators and competitive local exchange carriers for voice communications.

3.6. Choosing and registering a domain name

Domain names are the human-friendly forms of Internet addresses, and are commonly used to find web sites. Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.bamkc.com/index.html, the domain name is bamkc.com

A domain name also forms the basis of other methods or applications on the Internet, such as file transfer (ftp) or email addresses - for example the email address contact@bamkc.com is also based on the domain name ojssindia.in.

 Domain name system (DNS)

The domain name system is basically a global addressing system. It is the way that domain names are located and translated into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and vice versa. A domain name such as ojssindia.in is a unique alias for an IP address (a number), which is an actual physical point on the Internet.

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:

gov - Government agencies

edu - Educational institutions

org - Organizations (nonprofit)

mil - Military

com - commercial business

net - Network organizations

in- India