Website, Web Page and Homepage.

The website is the whole: all the pages, images, documents and functions that can be reached under a domain such as example.ch. A web page is a single document within that website with its own URL, for instance example.ch/services. The homepage originally meant the start page, the page that appears when you call up the bare domain. In German-speaking usage, 'Homepage' has also become established as a synonym for the entire online presence, especially among smaller firms and associations. That is not wrong, just imprecise. English-language sources use 'homepage' almost exclusively for the start page and 'website' for the whole presence.

In practice the distinction is more than hair-splitting. Google does not assess the website as a whole but each individual web page: every URL ranks on its own, with its own title tag, its own meta description and its own content. Anyone who says 'our homepage should be easier to find on Google' usually means that the page for a particular service should appear for a particular search. That is almost never the start page. A painting and decorating firm with five services therefore needs five separate service pages, not one start page where everything is crammed into a single paragraph.

Precise language helps with quotes, too. 'A website with ten pages' is an understandable quantity; 'a homepage' is not. The effort behind a website depends less on the design of the start page than on the number of page types (start page, service page, case study, contact, blog article), the number of languages and functions such as forms, booking or a shop. An example: a website with a start page and eight service pages that all follow the same structure is built considerably faster than a website with four pages, each of which has a function of its own.

There are also related terms that are often confused. A landing page is a single web page geared to one goal, usually for advertising campaigns. A one-pager is a website consisting of just one long page. A web app, finally, is an application in the browser with a login and data, not an information site. What a website from DLM Digital costs and how it is made is explained on the page Have a website built.