What Is a Web Page?

Learn what a web page is and what it takes to build one.
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A web page is a document created in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and other languages and is displayed by your web browser. A collection of two or more web pages is called a website.

The content required to create a web page could be delivered by different companies. For example, the main content of a page could be provided by its owner (first-party), but that company may contract others (third-parties) to provide complementary or supplementary content such as pictures or video content, weather reports, stock and share price tickers, advertising, etc.

For each piece of content, your browser will use codes to automatically contact relevant third-party servers in order to download content.

Web pages are made up of many programming languages

Websites can be made as simple or as complex as the site owner needs them to be. Some websites are just built on pure HTML coding while others require more complex code to run and operate.

These languages can include: 

  • CSS
  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • PHP
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • TypeScript

What is a web server?

A web server is a computer system. It stores a website's files, including all the web pages that make up that website. It communicates with your device over the internet to send the web pages to you so you can access them.  

If you're having issues accessing a specific web page, it's likely an issue with the web server. Unfortunately, this isn't an issue that the end user of the website can fix.

What is a search engine?

A search engine helps direct you to web pages that answer your query. It does this by crawling the web page for keywords and then matching queries up with those keywords. 

There are a lot of search engines available. Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, to name a few. However, they all have different privacy agreements and use your data in different ways. Make sure you're following the basic online safety tips to keep yourself safe.

Search engines can track your browsing data. If you want to be anonymous online, the best way is with a VPN

Some web pages and sites are built with WordPress

Over the years as users have changed the way they use the internet, so has the need for more complex website coding.

Many of today's websites run on a platform called WordPress, a PHP program that was built for looking after larger websites with ease.

What benefits does WordPress have?

  • WordPress allows you to create a website in minutes with no coding skills.
  • Images can be edited right from the browser.
  • The site will be fully responsive and mobile-friendly.
  • Any changes to a site's menu are done in seconds.
  • Logo changes can be as simple as a click of a button.
  • Adding media to your webpage is a simple process of uploading and saving the file.

Does WordPress mean HTML is going away?

No, HTML websites are still plentiful, and some elements of WordPress still use HTML. With around 1.7 billion websites in the world, HTML is still used by 93% of all websites as the main markup language. Websites would not be around today without HTML or CSS code.

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