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Professional website development, of course, has its peculiarities. Quite often customers who order sites have to deal with unknown terms in this field – professional slang of web developers. How can a customer and a web developer find a common language? We think that a brief dictionary of the most widespread terms may come in handy.
Browser is a special application which permits to view websites. The most well-known and popular modern browsers are Windows Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera etc.
Website development must be carried out taking into account most popular browsers used by the target visitors of the sites. Otherwise a site may be displayed incorrectly in one of browsers and it will decrease popularity of the site. Ability of websites to be displayed correctly in different browsers is called cross-browser compatibility.
Cookies is a slang term used to name information which is stored on your computer when you visit a website. Cookies can help to determine how often a user visits the site, what his IP address is etc. Such information can be very useful. For example, if you have an online shop you can offer a visitor of your site various goods taking into account the positions he has viewed before. In this situation the visitor is more likely to be interested in these goods.
CMS is an abbreviation for content management system. CMS are used for development of dynamic sites. CMS are built on the principle of separation of website design (external appearance) and content of site pages. For example, almost every CMS used for website development has a special visual editor (WYSIWYG) which facilitates the task of filling site with content and an administration panel (the so-called back-office) which is a part of the system responsible for data storage, creation of site structure etc.
Weight of the site is a slang term which means the size of site pages in kB. The more the weight of site pages is, the longer the site loads. It can displease the visitors. That is why website development is carried out taking into account optimal site weight.
Template is a term which means a certain set of graphical and service files as well as html pages which can serve as a basis for website development. Website development with use of templates is quicker thanks to separation of website design and content. Templates are universal and can be used for typical sites of any subject sphere.
Flash is a very wide notion. Website development understands flash as a special technology of creating web pages with the help of Adobe Flash application and other similar technologies. Flash is noted for abundance of animated elements. It is able to respond to the users' actions. Flash is attractive in outward appearance. Use of flash on websites increases site weight and correspondingly time of their load. It is strongly recommended to use flash moderately during website development.
Usability shows if the site is convenient and easy-to-use. Website development must include usability testing – a special procedure of checking usability (convenience) of a website.
Content is information which a site contains. Content may include textual materials (articles, news, reviews), graphical images, audio and video files, online applications, games etc. Website development should obligatory include filling of a site with interesting and unique topical content.
Meta tags are special tags of HTML which allow browsers to “see” special information about the site. You cannot see meta tags when you view a site page but they are usually taken into account during indexing and ranking of sites. The most generally used meta tags are such meta tags as “keywords” and “description”.
Description is a meta tag which contains description of the whole site or separate site pages for the search engines and site visitors. If you develop a website taking into account all website promotion requirements it is obligatory to include description of the site into its code. Description of the site is displayed in the search engines together with the link to the site. It helps to attract potential visitors.
Keywords is a term in website development which means a meta tag containing words which are important for the site. Keywords may describe activity of a company, its services. Keywords are used to attract site visitors.
Domain, domain name is a special unique name for a site, its “address” in the Web. Thanks to domains you do not have to memorize and enter complex IP addresses of servers on which websites are located. All you have to do is to enter a simple name in letters. Website development as a rule includes service of domain registration for the customer. The customer can choose a suitable domain himself or he can entrust this task to the developers.
DNS (abbreviation for Domain Name System) is a service which organizes groups of computers on the Internet according to their domains (domain names).
Mirror of a site is a slang name for a site which replicates information from the main site. There are several cases when you have to create a mirror of your site. For example, development of mirrors for websites is very convenient if you are afraid that your main site can be inaccessible for some time. Besides mirrors of sites in different domain zones can be created by large companies. In this case a site can be quickly accessed in different countries.
This dictionary of web development terms is just a small part of a great number of terms and definitions in the field of website development. Web design studio WebStudio2U recommends not to be shy if you do not know any terms. We always try to answer the questions of all out clients and explain unknown terms.
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