A website is a collection of web pages at a single domain, under a single administrative or editorial authority. Usually, websites share a single theme — though it may be an especially broad theme.
Websites Have Different Purposes
Most websites are commercial sites, run by companies. Some commercial websites are marketing focused, acting as a sort of online brochure or billboard for services rendered offline. Other commercial websites are actually online businesses, such as stores.
While most are commercial in nature, not all websites are commercial. There are sites for:
- Non-profit organizations
- Informal groups
- Individuals
- Governments and government agencies
- Events
Websites Can Be Applications
While most websites are (in essence) collections of documents (web pages), some are really web applications. Rather than being platforms for content, the site allows the user to do something:
- Play a game
- Connect with other people
- Find information
- Check your email
- Keep a schedule or calendar
- Create documents
- Take notes
- Edit media
Website Organization
Most websites have a home page — a page that serves as the “front door” of the site. The home page usually has an index of site content, or a list of recent site updates (or both). If the site is run by an organization or group,it may have news about them. The home page is usually found at the URL that corresponds to the domain name for all the pages
Some websites have a very organized structure, with pages and subpages. Other sites are just a bunch of individual pieces of content linked together in a loose way.
It isn’t always true that larger and more successful sites that have a well-defined organization. Wikipedia, one of the largest and most popular sites on the web, has a very loose organization structure. In the case of a site such as Wikipedia, searching and browsing take the place of a defined, hierarchical structure
There are around 1 billion websites. If you looked at each one for just one second, it would take you almost 32 years to see the home page of every site on the web.