Anyone who knows me well knows that meeting with clients is one of my very favorite parts of my job! I enjoy talking to people, getting to know them and building relationships! Part of what makes me who I am is that I am constantly reading a conversation… without even trying, my mind is analyzing the flow of the conversation and responding to cues as to whether I’m relating and explaining myself clearly. SO… all that said, one of the most common places I see a huge change in conversation is when I begin talking about website hosting, or domains, or URL’s (basically, anything that has to do with the back end details of what creates the heartbeat of a website) halts the conversation in its tracks.
The fun part is that it can all be broken down in a very easy to understand format! This simple picture of a house can explain it all! Are you ready? Okay, here we go!
URL (AKA Domain Name): The URL of your website is like the street address of your house. It’s what you give to people so that they can come visit you. Plug a street address in to your GPS and you’re on your way to their house right away. The URL of a website functions exactly the same, type in the URL and you’ll go straight to their website.
Hosting: Your website hosting most closely resembles the plot of land your house sits on. It’s not pretty, it’s not functional and you can’t live on it until you build a house on it. In the same way, your hosting does nothing until you build a website on it.
Website Front End: The front of your website is like looking at the front of your house. When you give someone your address, they pull up to your house and see the front. They walk in the door and see all your beautiful decorations, pictures and learn about who you are. Do you see the connection?
Website Back End: Have you ever watched a house get built? All of the pipes, electrical wire, studs and sheetrock work together to provide the structure of your house. When the plumber comes over to fix a leaky pipe, they get in and work behind the scenes, similar to the way we work when there is a problem on a website. You may notice an issue from the outside (IE: A pool of water on the floor), but the real issue needs to be fixed behind the scenes. This is generally where HTML coding comes in to play. HTML code is essentially the structure of the back end.
So, have I painted a clearer picture for you? Your website (both front end and back end) sits on your hosting (like the lot of land your house sits on) and everything can be found by knowing your address! Now, let me be the first to tell you that there are A LOT more technical details that go on in the background. But, at the very least, you can show off your new “foreign language” knowledge next time the topic of website hosting comes up!
Well, that’s it! If reading all of this still overwhelmed you, or more likely bored you, it’s time to trust your website design and hosting needs to our web design experts at B. Creative. I love to provide information to help you make the best choices for your business. But, in all reality, I know that you don’t want to know all of this information. So, trust us with the details of your website so you can focus on what you do best… running your business!
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