How is a website like an apartment? Read on to find out and have all the website lingo explained in a simple-to-understand metaphor!
A web site is like a house. It has:
- An address (domain name)
- A physical location with enough space (hosting)
- Several rooms (the web pages)
- A big enough door to let people in and out (bandwith / transfer)
- A superintendent (website designer / maintainer)
You and your visitors will also need:
- A car to get there (ISP-internet service provider like Comcast, Cox, etc)
It's also nice to have:
- A mailbox (email using your domain name)
- An answering machine (autoresponders)
- A mailman (cgi scripts to process forms)
If you have a business there too (online store) you might need:
- Shopping baskets (shopping cart)
- Cash register (merchant account)
- A security system (secure certificate)
- Good advertising (search engine optimization)
Now we're getting a little carried away . . .
- Neighborhood (the world wide web)
- Basement with a dumbwaiter (database)
- Hallways (hyperlinks within your site)
- Phone line (hyperlinks to other sites)
