The following questions and answers are provided as examples. They are not complete definitions of the terms considered (to make them less than 2 pages each), but should provide you, in layman's terms, enough information regarding your most common questions.
What is a Website?
As simple as this one seems, it is still worth looking into it...
A website is a collection of files (text, images, videos, etc...) located on a computer accessible remotely via the internet.
What is hosting?
Hosting or web hosting refers to the keeping the files of a website (programming, text, images, videos, etc...) on a computer, and making them accessible from the internet. In other words, the website is the car and the hosting service is the parking lot.
What is a server?
A server, more specifically a web server, is a computer accessible remotely from the internet on which the files of a website are located.
How much does hosting cost?
There is no fixed price when it comes to hosting. There are several variable making it almost impossible to quote a specific price. Those variable include: the programming language in which your website is written, the amount of data (text, images, videos...) you website uses, the number of visitors, and much more. Having said that, a simple website will usually cost between $50 and $150 per year to host.
What is a URL?
In order to avoid a very long and complex explanation, we will simplify by saying that URL, web address, internet address and domain name refer most of the time to the same thing, for example: www.tradeandvalue.net
How much does a domain name cost?
Although there is no fixed price for a domain name; usually their prices vary from $8 to $25 depending on which company you buy them from.
Where can I buy a domain name?
There is an important number of websites you can domain names from. Personally we use: www.parklandtechnologies.com
How important is a domain name?
The choice of a domain name is of the utmost importance. Your domain name will be the first thing that people will know about your website. Choosing a domain name is a complicated task since most of the domain name you’ll be looking for will most likely be already taken. Certain companies specialize in figuring out domain names for businesses and charge them several thousand dollars for their services.
The 3 most important factors in a domain name are:
- Does it tell your company name or what you do?
- Is it easy to remember?
- How easy/complicated is it to spell?
How much does a website cost?
How much does a pair of shoes cost is already hard to answer, but when it comes to websites, it is plain impossible to answer accurately. The price of a website will greatly vary according to several factors; in most cases they are: number of pages, functionalities, database, and graphics. Having said all this, a simple 5 page website with us usually costs around $850.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The term refers to "optimizing" or bettering the referencing of your website in the search engines. This means placing your website in as close to the top of the list of search engine results as possible. Here’s the very controversial part of the definition...
No one, except for the people who actually make the search engines, knows exactly how search engines operate. Search engines give us many tools to understand part of their inner works, but none reveal their trade secrets (why would they?) making it impossible to know exactly what to do in order to get a website "on the first page".
Although, as said earlier, it is impossible to know exactly how search engines work, it is safe to theorize that the following will help your website be well referenced in the search engines: relevance of the contents, number of pages, presence of links, accurate meta description and meta tags, frequency of updates, and the number of websites referencing your websites (linking to your website).
There are many other factors that may be affecting your site positively and negatively and we will be happy to discuss them with you during a consultation.
