Tech Terms

Caching is the process of a server or user's computer browser holding on to frequently used files to speed up website performance.

Like the address you use to find someone’s home or a local business, a domain name is a unique address that sends a website user to the correct website. For example, the domain name for the website you are on right now is solopreneurmentor.com. The URL is https://www.solopreneurmentor.com. Most people use domain name and URL interchangeably, but the domain name is the portion after the www.

The company that registered a domain name. The domain registrar is not necessarily the same company as the hosting company, but they may be if a domain was registered at the time hosting was set up.

A method for transferring website files to and from a computer to the server.

Placing the physical website files on a server that serves the files to the world wide web.  You cannot have a publicly accessible website without hosting.

A unique set of numbers that identifies each device that connects to the internet.  IPv4 is the older protocol used that takes on the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.  Due to the limited amount of numbers, there is the danger that all the unique IP addresses will be taken in the near future.  Therefore, IPv6 came out which is significantly more complex.  Both IPv4 and IPv6 are used at this time, but IPv4 is still the preferred protocol. If you want to know your public IP address, you can google "what is my IP address v4" or "what is my IP address v6".

A fluid way of laying out the elements on your website so that no matter how you resize the screen, it looks great without sacrificing important functions of the website. It doesn’t require content updates on multiple websites, because there is just one website for mobile and desktop.

A way of optimizing your website for search engines using keywords within titles, content, image alt tags, and meta description.

The physical computer that contains the files for a website. A hosting company owns the server and maintains it to minimize website down time.

Sharing a physical server with a lot of other people who own websites on the server.  This is the cheapest hosting option available and introduces some security and performance concerns.

Allows a website to start a URL with https instead of http which ensures secure transfer of all data between the server and the website user. It is very important that a website have an SSL certificate if sensitive personal information is requested such as credit card information or social security numbers.

A server can be configured into smaller, virtual servers that stand alone and act as if they are the only server on the physical server.  This is what is known as a VPS.