{"id":21650,"date":"2020-01-28T14:15:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T14:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/webmaster"},"modified":"2026-09-14T20:35:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:35:43","slug":"webmaster","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/webmaster","title":{"rendered":"Webmaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad alignright wp-image-15100 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/webmaster-1.png\" alt=\"Webmaster\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" style=\"margin-top:0;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/webmaster-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/webmaster-1-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>webmaster<\/strong> is the person responsible for coordinating the operation and maintenance of a website. The scope of the role depends on the project: the person may perform technical and editorial tasks directly or supervise specialists who handle them.<\/p>\n<p>The term does not necessarily mean website owner, server administrator, or developer. <strong>It describes responsibility for the website as a whole<\/strong>, although larger organizations usually distribute those functions among several roles.<\/p>\n\n<h2>Origin and evolution of the term webmaster<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The term became widespread during the early years of the World Wide Web<\/strong>, when one person often designed, published, and maintained every page of a website. It was also used to identify an operational contact through addresses such as webmaster@domain.<\/p>\n<p>As websites, content management systems, and specialist services evolved, those tasks were divided among development, design, content, systems, security, analytics, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/seo\">SEO<\/a>. <strong>Webmaster remains in use<\/strong>, particularly when one person retains a cross-functional view and acts as the website&#8217;s technical or operational owner.<\/p>\n<h2>Functions of a webmaster<\/h2>\n<p>Responsibilities should be defined according to the website&#8217;s size, technology, and objectives. A webmaster may handle:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Availability and maintenance:<\/strong> check that the website works, coordinate updates, and manage incidents.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Content publishing:<\/strong> administer pages, media, users, and permissions through a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/cms\">CMS<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Technical quality:<\/strong> identify broken links, display errors, performance issues, and compatibility failures.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Operational security:<\/strong> keep components updated, control access, and coordinate backups and restoration.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Measurement:<\/strong> review traffic, events, and errors using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/web-analytics\">web analytics<\/a> and monitoring tools.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Coordination:<\/strong> communicate requirements between content, design, development, marketing, systems, and suppliers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Not all these functions always belong to the webmaster.<\/strong> Server administration, application development, SEO strategy, or content creation may be assigned to separate teams. The responsible person should know who performs each task and how it is validated.<\/p>\n<h2>Required knowledge<\/h2>\n<p>The role requires an understanding of a website&#8217;s basic architecture and publishing process. <strong>HTML and CSS, a CMS, domains, DNS, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/hosting\">hosting<\/a>, certificates, and backups<\/strong> are common areas of knowledge, although the required technical depth varies.<\/p>\n<p>It is also useful to interpret metrics, work with issue-tracking systems, document changes, and apply accessibility, privacy, security, and SEO criteria. <strong>A webmaster does not have to master every programming language or administer the infrastructure directly<\/strong> to perform the role.<\/p>\n<p>An effective webmaster maintains inventories and procedures, tests changes, and preserves recovery paths. <strong>The main responsibility is to ensure that the website can be used and maintained in a controlled manner<\/strong>, not to concentrate every digital discipline in one person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a webmaster is, how the role evolved, and which functions and knowledge are needed to manage a website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":79605,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1319],"class_list":["post-21650","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-team-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/21650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=21650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}