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).
