In today’s world almost every individual is using internet every day because of the abundance of information it is loaded with. The information is generated by multiple sources and is carefully organized in the form of files and web pages, which, when grouped together to form a single entity, become a website.

A website represents a centrally managed group of web pages, containing text, images and all types of multi-media files presented to the attention of the Internet users in an aesthetic and easily accessible way. All websites enabled through the Internet constitute the World Wide Web (WWW).

The data contained in the websites is organized and made accessible to the online public with the help of programming languages such as (X)HTML and PHP, just to name a few. Website programming is the main method of defining the structure of a website and managing its behavior as visitors browse through its pages. With the help of web design techniques, the well-structured information is given a user-friendly look & feel. In order for the properly programmed web pages to be presented on visitors’ monitors, they need to be hosted on a web server, which will allow them to be transferred to any web browser via HTTP, the main protocol of the WWW and the 4-letter abbreviation we see at the beginning of each website name.

Website elements

The remarkable progress in website creation technologies and the limitless capabilities of the human imagination has determined the great variety of websites we see today on the web. However, they all contain some basic elements that make them easily recognizable by users in terms of functionality – a home page, the first page we see when entering a site; a navigation menu – the main guide to the website’s contents; a footer area with important links, copyright information, etc. With the help of hyperlinks the visitor is taken from one web page of a site to another in a logic-driven way, which considerably increases the website’s usability.

The creative concept and software behind a website determine whether it is static or dynamic. Static websites present the information online to the visitor in a straightforward way – as it is stored on the server. A good example of a static website is each simple company website providing details about the company’s portfolio, contacts, future projects etc. Its setup usually requires some basic website skills and knowledge of HTML and CSS. Dynamic websites, in turn, use databases to store and handle the information, which allows the web pages’ content to be changed automatically in certain pre-defined cases. A dynamic website is, for instance, every portal, blog, or e-commerce store you may visit daily. The list of dynamic website software is much longer, including – PHP, JSP, Perl, ASP and many more.

There are various sites which provide free templates of the websites. If you want to build a website and don’t know anything about website development then there are various online free website builders which would help you to make a professional looking free websites.