A Website is a group of Web pages and graphics that are interconnected by hyperlinks. They all use HTML tags that create documents that can be read on the Web using special programs called Browsers. A single Web page can contain many screens or printable pages of text, graphics, audio, and even video.

Although each Web page can be considered an Internet site, the starting point for a Website is generally a single page called the home page.

Websites can also contain word processor documents, multimedia, scripts, and databases. They can even contain other Websites, called Subsites, that are nested within the main site.

A. Disk-Based and Server-Based Sites:

Disk-Based:
Typically, you start by creating a Website on your local computer's hard drive. This is called a Disk-Based site. However, a Disk-Based site isn't available for other people to see until you Publish (or copy) it to a Web server; and there are many kinds of publishing software available to do this.
Server-Based:
Once a site is published on the Web, it is then a Server-Based site. You can also work directly on a Web Server to modify a Server-Based site without the extra step of publishing, but normally this isn't the best way to do it

The advantage of starting with a Disk-Based site is that you can build and edit your pages and test them on your hard drive before they go live. This is something you'd definitely want to do if your site has the potential to impact people in a substantial way.

For example, it's probably wise to create and test a disk-based site if it lists products and prices. You'd want to test and review the pricing pages to make sure each price is accurate and that the shopping functions work. Also, if someone is paying you for an advertisement on your site, you'd want to check out the appearance of the ad and any hyperlinks to make sure they take you to the right place.

The disadvantage of a Disk-Based site is that there are some functions that won't work on them until you publish them to a server because they rely on software that resides on the server. These can be things like hit counters, tracking functions and certain data base operations.

A Few things to Consider when Planning your Web Service:

ASP pages can only be processed on Windows-based Web servers.
ASP.NET (the NET framework) and PHP are usually not offered on the same server. If so, you'll have to choose between one or the other. Some Microsoft programs require the NET framework, while other programs are set up to work with PHP programs. You should know ahead of time what programs you will be using so you can ask what the hosting company can provide.
MySQL can run on UNIX, Linux, and Windows-based Web servers but not all ISP companies will offer it on all of their server setups.
MS SQL (by Microsoft) and ASP.NET will work on the same server..

Check with your web server provider to verify what they CAN and CANNOT do. Some will provide services that other don't or cannot provide.

For more information on what you might need from a Web Hosting service see the topic on Hosting Services.

B. Personal, Information and Business Websites

If you want to set up a website, but don't know what it will be about, then you need to decide what you will put on the web pages. Once you know this, then you will know what kind of website you will have.

You content can be determined by your interests or hobbies, the interest's of others, knowledge or information that you have to offer, a home business or retail business that you want on the web, etc.

Most websites that are setup and run by individuals can generally be classified into three main categories.

Personal or Family Site:
If you want to set up a personal or family site then the content will likely contain information that your (or your family) are interested in or passionate about. Building and maintaining a personal or family site shouldn't feel like work, but should be fun.
Information Site:
Maybe you have some information that others on the Internet would be interested in and you'd like to share it with them, such as: Research information, hobbies, reading interests, sports, fun and games, or talents.
Business Site:
If you want a business site, then it will be your storefront on the Internet. You should know what your competitor's sites are like. Study them, and note some of the things that you like about their sites. Make a list of everything that you want your site to have and what will be on each page. The list will probably get very large very quickly; if so, then depending on your time or money, you might have to pair it down. We'll discuss more about this topic in Site Planning.

There are many other kinds of websites, such as search sites, news websites, social networking sites, financial, etc, but these kinds of websites are usually set up and run by large business, and not by individuals.

If you are curious just how popular your website or subject might be, here is a tool that will let you check how popular certain keywords are with the search engines.
Wordtracker Keyword Suggestion Tool is an online program that generates keywords from a suggested keyword and displays the estimated number of daily searches for each keyword.

In the next section, Choosing A Site Name, I'll explain domain names and give you recommendations on how to select a good name for your Website.