Using a computer is easy these days, but how exactly are websites accessed? And why is this important for SEO? In this lesson, we’ll be covering the basics on how the web works.
Why is Understanding the Web Important for Technical SEO?
When it comes to diagnosing technical SEO issues, some of the issues that are touched on are related to pagespeed, crawling, and rendering.
With these types of issues, having a core understanding of how the web works will make it clearer on why certain website improvements will have an impact on your search rankings.
Key Terms of the Web
Client
This is typically the web browser on a computer, but may also be the entire user machine or computer. The client’s purpose is to make requests from web servers based on user interactions. When you go to load webpages, your machine would be considered the client.
Web Server
A web server is a computer connected to the internet that stores web server software and website’s component files. The server will take requests from other machines like the client and respond accordingly. There are various types of servers, but in this instance we are focusing on the web server.
IP Address
The Internet Protocol Address is a unique identifying number that is assigned to different computers for communication.
ISP
An ISP is your internet service provider, like Cox, ATT, Centurylink, etc. that acts as a middle man between your computer and a server. The ISP conducts a DNS lookup to figure out which IP address you are trying to reach.
DNS
DNS stands for Domain Name System, and this is a database that keeps track of domain names and their corresponding IP addresses. This is what makes it easier to connect to other machines.
Domain Name
The “Simple name” that is used to identify one or more ip addresses.
HTTP
Hyper-text Transfer Protocol is the protocol used by web browsers and web servers to communicate over the internet.
How the Web Works
The web works by connecting computers together through a connection. This connection could be a physical wire, which is the case for the base connection of the internet.
The data that is passed through that connection for many people (through that physical wire) is a network of really long cables under the sea.
There are other methods of connecting to the internet, like satellite, cellular connections, amongst others.
With that said, you can see how connecting to certain websites based on server location may impact loading.
A Basic Overview of How Websites Work Inside the Web
When you are connecting to another computer, or a server, you are making a request for the IP Address to make that connection between the two devices. The IP address is easier to read through a domain name, like Google.com, thanks to the DNS.
When you type a URL into your browser, you are making a request for a specific resource based on the information in the URL.
You have the protocol, HTTPS
The domain name, google.com
And the resource, in this case the index page.
The browser communicates with your ISP to conduct a DNS lookup of the IP address in search for the IP address of the web server hosting google.com
Once that IP address is received by your ISP, it is sent to your web browser and a connection is made.
After the connection is made, the browser sends an HTTP request to the web server for the main HTML of the web page.
If the page is valid and exists, it is sent back to your browser, which then takes the page and parses through it looking for other assets that may need to be requested.
When all the assets on the HTML page are loaded, the page is loaded and the connection will close.
How Browsers Work
After the browser connects and receives the information needed, there are steps that it goes through to make the page readable.
The browser starts by rendering the content, parsing the HTML, then generating the DOM (Document Object Model).
The DOM is how the objects in your HTML document are laid out. You’ll notice that the DOM is different than your source code because it can be manipulated by JavaScript.
The browser will work through the DOM to paint the page on your screen by paying attention to the styles, positions, and much more of each object.
Key Takeaways
That is a basic rundown of how the web works. There are a few more layers that I have left out to simplify the explanation, but I’ve linked out to a few resources below for you to check out.
I recommend jumping in and reading through a few of those to solidify your knowledge on the different parts of the web.
The biggest takeaway from understanding how the web works is that you are making a connection to a server from your computer pulling in the files of the webpage you are trying to access. Knowing this will help break down concepts like pagespeed.
Additional Resources
- https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_started_with_the_web/How_the_Web_works
- https://medium.com/@matryer/yes-the-internet-really-is-just-loads-of-wires-that-run-under-the-sea-ccd244c103c8
- https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/web-application-security-understanding-the-browser-5305ed2f1dac/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/website/dom-web-design
