What you need to know about the Internet

New users are flocking to the World Wide Web by the millions every day. At first, the terms can be confusing, even overwhelming, but we all go through it, and you will find that will pass quickly. Allow us to help you become "Internet savvy."

Your Address on the Web

It's called a URL or Universal Resource Locator. That's your "dot-com." We will help pick your Internet address, check on its availability and reserve it for you. Then, whenever someone from Minneapolis to Australia types in yourcompany.com there you are!

That brings us to another important term: hyperlink, sometimes just called a link. Hyperlinks are imply any text or picture that a visitor can click on that takes them to another page in a website or to another site altogether. Text hyperlinks generally are underlined and/or in a different color, or they may change appearance when you pass your mouse cursor over them. Here is a hyperlink which will open a new window and take you to an excellent glossary of Internet terms. Images may also be hyperlinks. If a picture is a link, your mouse cursor will likely change from a pointer to a pointing finger when it passes over the image.

A Host? Like Motel 6?

In the Internet world, a host is simply a computer where your website is stored, ready for anyone to access it. When a web user types in your URL, this host computer "serves" the pages to his computer. That's why the host computer is also called a server. Not all servers are created equal. The ones we use employ the latest technology and are lightning fast. 

Speed is everything

The way the server is connected to the Internet is also critically important, and our host server connection is approximately 116 times larger than most providers. What that means to you is that Rita in California won't give up and go to another website because she got tired of waiting for your site to come up on her computer.

Search engines

The vast majority of website visitors find what they are looking for through search engines. Yahoo!, Excite, AltaVista and Lycos are some examples. Search engines often use keywords which are embedded in your site to describe what it is you do. Getting listed favorably on search engines is more an art than a science. It can be a long, laborious process, and it is a very important part of our service to you.