If you're like most folks, you don't enjoy being "talked down to". When I've experienced it, I always wonder if the person talking to me actually knows what they're talking about, or whether they just want to impress me with their language skills.

So, with that in mind, I thought I might give some every day explanations to terms used in website development.

• web page/web site - a web page is just that - one page that contains information, images and links. A website is a group of related pages that work together. Some people only need a webpage, while other people need a web site. Your designer will be able to help you decide.
• HTML, DHTML, etc - this is the basic language used to tell your web pages what to do. When you click on a link on a page, an HTML tag tells your computer where to move. To see what HTML looks like, check your menu items at the top of your screen and find "View - source" or page source or something similar. A text file will open up - the source for this page sets the background colors, the text colors, what images to use and where to put them.
• domain name - your domain name is similar to your mailing address at home. This tells everyone where your website can be located, just as your home address lets everyone know where you live. You usually buy a domain name on a yearly basis, then you renew it so that someone else won't have the ability to use it.
• hosting company / server- this is the company that will house your website, just as an apartment building houses your apartment. You rent or lease the space from them on their servers, which are computers that store the information. There are many different hosting companies, each with different options from which to choose.
• meta tags - these are codes that is placed in the hidden part of each web page. Some of the more common meta tags include:
  • keywords -the words you want associated with that page. When you use a search engine, the words you enter in the search field are keywords.
  • description - this is the phrase that shows up on most search engine lists after the name of each website.
  • title - this is the phrase that shows up on the very top bar of your screen when you have a web page opened.
• bandwidth - this is the amount of visitors you can have in any one month. This amount also includes how much information goes onto your space as your designer publishes your website.
• Javascript script, cgi script, Perl script - these are all other "languages" to tell the website what to do. For example,the drop down menu for this site is created using JavaScript. This makes it possible to change the menu in one place, which changes the menu on each page. A CGI script might be used so that a form on your website that can be emailed to you by clicking "submit". For an example, see our FAQ page. There are many special effects that can be created using these "extra" languages and scripts.
  
• FTP - this is one way to connect to your server to "publish" the files of your website. This process is similar to copying files from your hard drive to a disk.

Beth Rogers is a web and graphic designer located in Rutledge, Alabama, in Crenshaw County. She's dedicated to making her clients the most successful business people in the world. You can visit her at Rogers Web Services.