Frequently Asked Questions
- I need a website where do I start?
OK starting from scratch there are a few different elements that go into an online presence, here is a quick overview.
- Pick a domain name, this needs to be unique are aimed at your target market, eg ending in .co.uk if you are aiming at the UK market. Although we can do this for you we would advise you do it yourself with, we suggest http://www.123-reg.co.uk
- Design & development, this is where the client would sit down with us and we would get an understanding of what you would like to achieve and come up with some ideas. When you are happy you would sign off and we would complete the site.
- Hosting; every website needs to be hosted on a web server, a server the world can see. We offer hosting.
- Marketing. Once your new website is on the net the world needs to be able to find it. We can help with both natural search (submitting and optimising for search engines like Google). Or we can run paid campaigns, for a set budget we will ensure your advert shows up on search engines matching specific keyword or phrase searches.
- We know how we want our site to look, can you just build it?
Absolutely, if you can provide us with good quality designs, ideally in PSD format, we can give you a quote to code it up. The price would largely depend on the detail of the pages and the level of functionality you would like.
If you only have a rough plan for your design then thats OK too. We are happy to work from your plans, however we will advise against any web no-noes.
- How can I tell how many visitors I get on my site?
If you host with us we will be able to provide server stats about your site visitors. If your website is hosted with another company or you want to view user trends we suggest using an external monitoring system, something like google analytics.
- Will you train our staff to maintain the site?
Possibly but if your site needs constant updating we would strongly suggest you would need a site with a CMS (Content Management System). There are two options, we can either user an off the self system or build you a bespoke system tailored to your needs.
While many content management systems are free, they can be fairly complex to set up as well as customising the look and feel to match your brand.
Glossary
- Ajax
(Asynchronous JAvaScript and XML)
Programming language behind the functionality of "web2.0" and modern dynamic websites such as google maps.
- Apache
Is the open-source software that runs most websites.
- ASP
(Active Server Pages)
ASP is a scripting language developed by Microsoft that enables HTML pages to be dynamic and interactive and to draw information from a database. Asp pages usually need to be hosted on licensed Microsoft web servers.
- Atom
Is a newer and improved to protocol to send out news feeds from websites, the original method was RSS.
- Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data sent though a connection, usually measured in bits-per-second (bps.)
- Blogs
(weB LOG)
Are online journals which can range from anything like personal opinions to industry news.
Blogs are usually run on free open-source Wordpress or Google owned Blogger where hosting is included.
- Blogosphere or Blogsphere
Sub-culture or Community of bloggers.
- Broadband
Broadband is faster internet connections via ADSL or Cable rather than modem dial-up.
- Browser
The client software used to look at websites. Common browsers are Internet explorer, but Loungemedia recommend Firefox or Opera for their security and standards complicity.
- Cookies
A small text file placed on the clients computer by a website to store information such as login details or shopping cart information that it can read back on another visit.
- CMS
(Content Management Systems)
CMS allow site owners and their staff to manage and update their website from a private management area. No technical knowledge or hardware is needed. Anyone with the login details can update/edit the website from any internet device.
- CSS
(Cascading Style Sheet)
A W3C standard for presenting the style of a website. Typically one css file will hold all the style information of a website while the html file will hold the content and markup.
- CTR
(Click Through Rate)
CTR relate to online marketing campaigns. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions).
- DNS
(Domain Name System)
The Domain Name System is the system that translates Internet domain names into IP addresses.
- Domain Name
Domain names are unique names for websites. Domain names have two or more parts separated by a "dot". Broadly the suffix indicates the location of the company or website (eg .co.uk).
The domain name for this site is loungemedia.co.uk
- Firefox
Firefox is an open source alternative browser to Internet Explorer. Loungemedia recommends everyone to use Firefox as their main browser.
- FTP
(File Transfer Protocol)
Common method of moving files between two computers over the internet.
- HTML
(HyperText Markup Language)
The language used to create web pages. Predefined tags are placed either side of the content to make it perform a certain way. Eg <strong> makes the content bold </strong>turns it off.
HTML is being replaced by xhtml and xml, similar but more powerful languages.
- IP address
(Internet Protocol address)
A unique number consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 165.113.245.2. Every computer on the internet has a unique IP address.
- ISP
(Internet Service Provider)
An institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money.
- Java
A powerful programming language developed by Sun Microsystems.
- JavaScript
JavaScript is a client side programming language but has nothing to do with Java. Javascript is used in web pages to add functionality. For example dynamic action of this glossary.
- Mashup
A mashup is a web application that draws content from various sources and mixes it together.
- Meta Tag
Meta tags are tags that contain extra info about a specific web page. They are only visible in the source code and hidden from browsers. Historically they were mainly used to tell search engines what the page was about. Today search engines get this information directly from the web page. But meta tags are still useful to tell the search engines to scan the page or not as well as containing other info for other user agents.
- Natural Search
Natural search, also known as organic search, the search engine technology that finds the most relevant matches for a searcher's query from all of the pages indexed from the Web. Natural search contrasts with paid search, in which webmasters can pay for the highest rankings position.
- Netiquette
Internet etiquette, eg typing in UPPERCASE IS UNPLEASANT AND SEEN AS SHOUTING.
- Opera
Like firefox, Opera is a better, (because it's more standards compliant) alternative web browser to Internet Explorer.
- PHP
PHP is a server side scripting language used to run dynamic websites. It's open source and widely supported which means just about every web hosting company will be able to publish a site built using php.
- Podcast/podcasting
A podcast is a digital media file distributed over the internet. They are played back by the listener/viewer on their on computer or can be transferred onto a portable device like a mp3 player.
The file format for a typical podcast is .mp3 for audio only or .mov, .avi for audio/video files.
- PPC
(Pay Per Click)
PPC is a method of charging for online advertising. The advertiser pays a predetermined rate every time the advert is clicked.
- ROI
Return on investment.
- RSS
(Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication)
RSS is a protocol for sharing content often used with blogs, news or regularly updated websites. Users "subscribe" to sites offering RSS feeds and can read headlines from their RSS news reader rather than going to each individual site.
- SEO
(Search Engine Optimization)
As the name suggests, SEO is the optimization of websites to make them more search engine friendly, resulting in higher rankings. The higher the rank the more likely your site will be found. In tern badly designed pages may never be listed on search engines.
- Server as in Web Server
A web server is the computer that hosts websites. Usually one server will host many websites. On the other hand very large web sites may require many web servers.
- Spam (or Spamming)
Usually relates to unsolicited email but spamming can take place on interactive websites like forums or blogs
- SQL
(Structured Query Language)
SQL is a language sending queries to databases required for dynamic web sites.
- SSL
(Secure Socket Layer)
SSL is a allows encrypted communications across the internet, eg banking websites.
- TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
TCP/IP is a networking protocol allowing computers to talk to each other.
- TLD
(Top Level Domain)
The last (right-hand) part of a complete Domain Name. eg google.com.
.co.uk is a second level domain.
- User Agent
A user agent is the device used to view webpages. On a pc this would be a browser but other user agents can include, mobile phones, PDAs, game consoles etc.
- URL
(Uniform Resource Locator)
Basically a website address. Eg http://www.loungemedia.co.uk.
- Viral marketing
Marketing technique that encourages people to pass along a marketing message. The message could be in any format such as a teaser video clip.
- W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium develops guidelines and protocols to help use the full potential of the Web.
- WAI
(Web Accessibility Initiative)
WAI help set guidelines on making websites more accessible to people with disabilities. They are part of W3C.
- WCAG
(Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0)
A set of W3C guidelines for web designers to build more accessible websites.
- Web 2.0
A trend in web design and development - a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis and blogs) which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users.
Web 2.0 and AJAX programming are often synonymous.
- Web accessibility
Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.
- XHTML
(eXtensible HyperText Markup Language)
A W3C standard, HTML expressed as valid XML. XHTML is intended to be used on web pages but is much more strictly defined, which makes it a lot easier to create software that can read it, edit it, check it for errors, etc.
- XML
(eXtensible Markup Language)
XML is a customizable markup language where developers define the elements. XML is also a W3C standard.