Web Page Definition | The Interactive Glossary

The term webpage is used to refer to the final cohesive document that is displayed in a web browser. However, a typical webpage does not consist of a single document. Most webpages are the final assembly built by the combination of multiple web resources.

The web resources used to build a typical webpage include:

• Markup document: This is the primary document that determines what a webpage will contain. In essence, the markup document contains instructions that tell the browser which resources and content should be included in the final webpage. The markup document is written in a markup language, typically HTML, although XML and XHTML are also common, and additional markup languages exist and may also be used.
• Stylesheets: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is the language used to apply styling – background colors, borders, space between elements on the page, and more – to the webpage. While CSS can be included in the markup document, in most cases CSS rules contained in one or more external documents which are linked to within the markup document.
• Scripts: JavaScript is often added either directly into the markup file or as a separate file which is linked to the markup document. Scripts add interactive features to webpages such as animations and responsive image sizing. Scripts are also used by web traffic analytics programs.
• Media: Images, videos, and audio files exist as separate files on a web server and are embedded in the webpage where they are linked to by the markup document.

A webpage is the sum of these resources, and the term refers to the way that these resources are rendered as a single web document when viewed in a browser.

Also See: Website, Server, Anatomy of a Web Page, CSS

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do programming languages such as Ruby on Rails, PHP, and Java come into the picture?

All of those languages are called server-side languages. If a webpage makes use of files written in server-side languages then the scripts in the files will be executed on the server, the results compiled into a markup document, and the markup document will be what your browser received and renders.

Does every webpage have to include a markup document, stylesheets, scripts, and media?

Every webpage must include a markup document. However, every other resource we mentioned is optional. The markup document is the bare minimum requirement that must be met for a web browser to generate a web page. While stylesheets, scripts, and media are optional, virtually every website you visit on a daily basis will include all of these resources, and a webpage would provide a very bare-bones experience if it just contained markup.

Are the terms website and webpage interchangeable?

While the terms website and webpage are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not synonymous, and should not be used interchangeably.

Webpage refers to a single page on the web, and website refers to all of the webpages that share the same domain. The website you are visiting right now is Learn the Net and the webpage you are visiting is titled Web Page Definition | The Interactive Glossary. All of the webpages that share the domain https://websitebuilders.com make up the website known as Learn the Net.