Website Basics: Definitions

In the typical case, a website provides information that is designed to be presented by a web browser via an Internet connection. Here “information” means anything that informs the senses, and information on websites usually consists of that can be seen or heard: written text, spoken words, graphics, images, video clips, music, or sounds.

This information is organized into “pages,” and a website can consist of many pages, a few pages, or even just one page. One of the things content creators and developers think about is how to organize information into pages in a way that makes sense to viewers and uses computing resources wisely. In addition, content creators think about how to organize and arrange information within pages.

A visitor typically gets to one of the pages of a website either by typing something into the browser address bar or by following a link. In either case, this works as expected when the browser is able to translate the action into a complete Internet address known as a URL. For example, I have designed this page so that when you click on the link URL definition, your browser will translate that into the URL

https://www.britannica.com/technology/URL

This URL takes you to a page which explains that a URL has three basic parts: protocol, domain (or host), and path.