This first tutorial provides an overview of how websites function.

By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to: Understand what is web development, need to join the course; why to use the host to manage your websites; and discuss how networks and the internet function at a high level.

If you are a complete beginner, web development can be challenging — this tutorial will hold your hand and provide enough detail to you to feel comfortable and learn the topics in the easiest way.

You should feel at home whether you are a student learning web development (on your own or as part of a class), a teacher looking for class materials, a hobbyist, or someone who just wants to understand more about how web technologies work.

A website can be defined as a collection of several webpages that are all related to each other and can be accessed by visiting a homepage, using a browser like Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Google Chrome or Opera etc.

In this section, we will explain the concept of website development, from the simplest to the latest advancement. It will help users to learn all about websites and how they are designed and maintained.

Each website has its own URL which is a unique global address called domain name.

Example of URL: https://www.online.ssidigital.in/courses

A URL comprises of –

• The protocol used to access the website, which in this case is https, meaning port 443. It can also be http; port 80.
• The subdomain which by default is www.
• The domain name; domain names are normally chosen to have a meaning. Like in our case “online.ssidigital.in/courses”, we can understand that this website offers digital online courses.
• The suffix name which can be .com, .info, .net, .biz, .in-country specific.
• The directories or in simple words, a folder in the server that holds this website.

What is the Need of Websites?

Websites primarily act as a bridge between one who wants to share information and those who want to consume it. If you are running a business, then it is almost imperative for you to have a website to broadcast your services and reach out to potential clients at a global stage, connecting the whole world.

The following points explain why it is important to have a website

• A website is an online brochure, link, or bride where you can advertise your business offers and services.
• It gives you a platform to reach out to a far-and-wide global customer, friends and family.
• If you are a blogger, you have the possibility to influence your readers.
• You can show all your ideas and publish them on a website.
• If you have a business idea, then you don’t have to wait. You can straightaway open an online shop and sell your products or services online. An added advantage is that the online shop will be open 24/7 for your clients, throughout the year.
• You can communicate with your customers, giving them an opportunity to express themselves.

How to Setup a Website of your own?

A website is composed of several elements and while setting up a website, you would have to take care of each of them.

·        To set up a website and make it live, you should first purchase a hosting plan.

·        Select a domain name for this website.

·        Point the DNS records to the server or the hosting provider.

·        Develop the content that you want to publish on the website.

·        Check if you need to purchase a public certificate and install it.

·        Publish the webpage on the Internet.

Skills Required to build your own website

The skills required to set up a website can vary from very basic to the most advanced.

If you are going to set up a professional website for a global audience, then you should have the following set of skills or you would have to hire a group of people to do this job for you.

• Content Experts/Writers

1. Content experts provide the content that is to be published on the website.
2. They design/create the content as per the requirement of the target audience and then, edit and refine the content before it gets published.
3. Content experts normally rely on the expertise of the site designer and the webmaster.
4. Note that the content can be text, data, images, audio or links

• Website Designer/Developer

1. A website designer is a technical person who designs and maintains the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the website.
2. For example the role decides, where the buttons should be placed, how the images are to be displayed, etc

• Graphic Designers

1. Graphic designers develop image files that are to be included in the website.
2. These designers have a keen understanding and knowledge of developing suitable graphics for the web environment.

• Web Developers

1. Web developers create the program codes to manipulate the supplied content, based on the site design established by the website designer.
2. A web programmer should use a set of programing languages to compile specific functions that the webpages should do in the background.
3. Here is a set of important programing languages that a web programmer must be good at −

HTML / XHTML − These are the markup languages which you will use to build your website. A web programmer must have a good understanding of HTML and XML.

PHP − It is a popular programming language to develop webpages.

PERL Script − PERL is another language which is being used to develop interactive Web Applications.

Java or VB Scripts − These scripts are required to perform user-level validations and to add more interactivity to your Website. So, a web developer is required to have adequate knowledge of any of these client-side scripts.

AJAX Technology − AJAX is the latest technology on the Web. Google and Yahoo are using this technology to give a better browsing experience to their website visitors.

ASP or JSP − Web developers are required to be well-versed with ASP or JSP to develop interactive websites.