The term webmaster has been used in several
connotations over the years. To some it means a web
designer whereas to others it means a web server
technician. Actually a webmaster does more than
that.
A webmaster’s duties are a blend of web design
skills, web marketing and administrative functions.
Primarily, a webmaster manages websites hosted on a
server. He may not necessarily be the designer but
he has the fine skills of making sure that viewers
are able to asses the pages within the website and
that the site functions well. So he has the
qualities and technical knowledge of a web designer,
a web developer and a software guru.
A webmaster also serves as an advisor on web
technologies and updates for the principal of the
sites he works on. He closely monitors events taking
place in the internet world and recommends or
advises against which practices to adopt and which
to drop.
He is also concerned with the marketing of the
websites and affiliates programs. Web marketing
doesn’t necessarily mean placing adverts and running
promotions. It also involves optimizing the web
pages so that search engines are able to index them
. This way web surfers can easily find the site and
thus maintain or increase traffic.
Web content is dynamic and several changes may be
made to a website during its hosting lifetime. A
webmaster maintains the code and documentation for s
website so that reference can be easily made to it
in the future for upgrades, trouble shooting or
appraisal. A webmaster may leave a job for another
to take over. In the course of this transition,
records on how the site is structured should be made
available to the one taking over for study and
mastery so he know how the site functions and which
method to apply for updates. Remember that a website
code also contains something we call comments which
shows why a particular program was written and what
it is supposed to do. This feature is very important
if a changeover occurs so you know exactly what
works at which place.
A webmaster also maintains the software aspect of a
server. I mean the programming aspect. A server has
two meanings depending on your perspective: it can
be the physical cabinet-like machines we find at
ISPs or a software used to share or distribute data.
The hardware aspect of a server like installation of
extra hard disks etc is managed by a technician but
installation of scripts like perl modules and PHP
are managed by the webmaster. He manages these
scripts to enhance the operation of the sites hosted
on the server. Scripts are very important if you
want to run dynamic websites like chatting sites,
database sites , etc. Scripts are just small
programs that automate otherwise laborious or
repetitive processes. Think of emailing newsletters
to ten thousand subscribers. It will be time
consuming to sit at a machine and send the
newsletters one by one. A script does that
conveniently.
Obviously, a webmaster also updates or maintains the
contents of a website. He fixes scripts and repairs
broken hyperlinks. A website is never static.
Occasionally or frequently, you may have to make
changes. A webmaster does that.
A webmaster also takes feedback from the site
visitors and translates these comments into improved
service for the website. It is necessary to monitor
site users and carve a website to suit their taste.
A website thrives on its traffic. Once you get the
traffic coming, they will look at the content. You
can have nice content but if you don’t keep
monitoring your site visitor perceptions, you may
not serve them well. Perhaps, demand and supply also
applies in web dynamics too,
Lastly, a webmaster sets up websites on a host
machine. He can register your domain name and then
put the web pages on a server to be accessed by
visitors.
To become a webmaster, you will need to know web
technologies. You should have excellent knowledge of
web design, web development (i.e. programming) and
then server management. There are a lot of
certifications to prepare you for this job but the
widely known is Certified Internet Webmaster.
So, next time you visit a website and find “Contact
Webmaster” at the foot of the page, you know the guy
there has more stuff in his head than Archimedes: He
is Jack of all trades, master of all (not none).
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