I work primarily with small businesses and non-profits and I regularly encounter the same questions from clients who want to understand their site better. I’ve complied them here and will add to this post as I think of it.
Please note: These are simplified answers intended to help non-technology oriented folk feel more comfortable conceptualizing and talking about their site. They may not directly reflect the full technical reality of these systems.
See a word you don’t understand? It might be on my Common Web Vocab List
What do I need for a website?
At the bare minimum you need a host to display your website. This could be an account with WordPress.com or Squarespace which have built-in site building tools. Or you can purchase hosting from a number of sites and then build your site with a tool you install.
What’s the difference between my Hosting and my Domain?
Hosting is the storage that holds everything that makes up your site (photos, text, html, etc).
A Domain is an address to a particular folder on a particular host. (you might think of it similar to your mailing address)
Why is the internet so complicated?
There’s a lot of duct tape and string holding it together! If we think about how often our computers do odd little things, and then think about the internet as a series of computers talking to each other and copying information between them, its a legitimate human wonder its works as smoothly as it does!
Why did I see an outdated version of my site on a different device?
Caches. Your browser almost assuredly has a copy of your site (or at least pieces of it) saved to your device. Most sites and browsers do this to some extent or another to speed up loading times. Particularly for sites you visit often, your browser makes decisions on what pieces of a site need to be reloaded from the host or if they can be loaded from your locally saved files. Sometimes, especially if your site is actively being built, it doesn’t realize there has been a update until you force a refresh and ask the browser to get a fresh cache.
What is WordPress?
WordPress.com is a for-profit hosting company. WordPress.org is a non-profit that owns the open-source product called “WordPress”. WordPress is a pre-built file structure for a website that gives you a user interface to interact with your website admin dashboard. WordPress the product is always free and can be installed on most any hosting.
Why do I need a WordPress theme?
WordPress Themes are a piece of your website that define the front-end visuals. Many themes make a lot of visual decisions for you, and some make hardly any decisions for you and have substantial customizability.
What bills should I budget for my website?
Hosting: Should not exceed $20/month except in specific high traffic/large storage needs. (Keep an eye on the fine print as many hosts offer an introductory pricing that expires after the first year or two)
Domain: Should not exceed $40/year except in specific big name domains. (Many hosts offer 1 free year of a domain when you sign up for Hosting service)
Theme: Themes range widely in price and quality. I recommend finding a theme with good documentation/tech support that offers a lifetime license rather than a monthly subscription. A basic theme should cost less than $60 and a high-quality block builder theme such as Divi costs around $300 but includes excellent support and lifetime updates for unlimited sites.
Third-Party Tools: Depending on your site needs you may need to pay for various third-party tools. These may include upgraded contact forms such as WPForms Pro, newsletter management tools such as MailChimp, eCommerce tools such as WooCommerce.