When you have a website built, it can be helpful to know a little about how the internet works. Based on years of discussions with clients we’ve put together some introductory information that can be helpful.

Since 1993 the internet has become a more and more important element of everyday life, whether you feel that you use it or not, there are people in their twenties who don’t know what the world was like before the World Wide Web.

But, only a small proportion of people actually know what the internet really is, and fewer still know how it works. So let’s start with the big one:

What is the internet?

Put simply, the internet is every computer in the world connected to the telephone network. These days it is mostly dedicated fibre-optic cables, but that is what it boils down to. Every connection to the internet has an IP (Internet Protocol) address so that other computers can work out where it is.

Websites work because they are associated with an IP address in a series of huge directories that say what is where, these are called the registries and they hold the information on domain names.

What are domains?

Possibly the most famous domain name is google.com, the .com bit is called the extension and says exactly which registry to look to; in this case the ICANN registry in California. They look for their record for google.com (well, they don’t usually, but we’ll come to that) and tell the person doing the looking which IP address to go to in order to find the website.

Actually, your Internet Service Provider, does the looking on your behalf, and they keep a record for a little while (between 4 and 48 hours usually); and so you are directed immediately from their own list. This is why when a domain name is moved from one place to another it can take a couple of hours before you start seeing that it has moved.

What about the WWW?

Most people think that the internet is the same thing as the World Wide Web. This isn’t actually true. The internet consists of all sorts of different things, and all of it is information being sent from one computer to another. Email is the most commonly understood use of the internet that isn’t “World Wide Web” — but there are plenty of others as well, usually set up for a very specific and limited purpose.

The WWW is everything that uses Hypertext, this started as a simple way of making words pretty. Now, with other technologies running in the background, it is what makes everything from Google’s Search to Facebook’s likes, to Tweets, to the MetOffice telling you that you’re going to get wet, or ordering a new book on Amazon.

Your website is built from Hypertext (more commonly known as HTML) — and it has been put together by someone who has spent a fair amount of time learning how to do it. The people browsing the internet don’t realise it but they are actually seeing the results of a lot of hard work. They don’t notice because their browser be it Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari or their phone/tablet/games console converts this HTML into the webpage you are seeing right now.

So where does my website fit into this?

More and more people are using the internet to find businesses and services, without even thinking about it. If you want tangible proof of this, look at the most recent Yellow Pages or Thompson Directory — if you can even find it. Notice how small it is? Remember when ripping one in half was a demonstration of strength?

There are lots of ways the internet can bring you in more business. But it generally comes down to putting your contact details where your potential customers are. The internet is about two key figures: visitors and conversions. Visitors is our bread and butter, it is the people who see your website — your advert. Conversion is tougher — that is convincing that visitor to part with their hard-earned cash and become a paying customer. We can get you, visitors, with information gleaned from a single phone call with you, conversion means you have to pay attention.

So, why is what you do important?

Well, aside from actually building the website in the first place; your website is a potent advertisement for your business (well it should be, if it’s not you need to speak to us). But unless someone can see your website, how is it going to do its job? It’s like paying for a billboard advert and then keeping it rolled up in your office, only to unroll it for a customer who is already talking to you.

Our job is to make it so people who use the internet to find goods or services that you provide in the area you provide them can find your website.