| |
| |
|
Web Development Information |
|
Website Success is Key
The popular search engine Google indexes over 8 billion websites. Is one of them yours, or is your website just floating around in cyberspace and you're hoping your customers will just find you? Is your website a benefit to your organization or company? Is it just an expensive showpiece or is it of true value? These are some of the many questions that can be asked when launching a new website. With so many different websites being published (some amazing, awful and otherwise), it would be safe to assume that most current business plans underway include the utilization of a website, and that most active companies are utilizing the Internet to some degree. If you are interested in publishing a website, or already have, here are some key elements that may help towards its success: 1. Domain Registration: Be sure to register your domain name (www.yourdomain.com) yourself or have it done within your organization, as opposed to letting a third party register your name. Without control of your domain name registration, you can expect to run into some unnecessary delays if the third party becomes unavailable, which is surprisingly common. You also run the risk of having the registration setup incorrectly or even losing the domain. Purchasing a domain is very easy and available at less than $10 a year, so it is a very inexpensive yet potentially valuable asset. 2. Hosting: After domain registration is complete, you will be in control of where to host your website. Your website will be hosted on an Internet server, a computer that will house your website files and process any functionality such as shopping carts, email, databases, etc. Shop around for hosting options, they vary from inexpensive do-it-yourself options, to managed hosting plans, to exorbitantly expensive plans that are unnecessary. What you need to accomplish with your website will determine what your hosting needs are. I have seen small, compact sites be very effective, so beware of purchasing 500MB of hosting when you may only need 10MB. 3. Design and Development: When it comes to website design, less can often be more. Your website should load quickly and yet be visually stimulating. Try to maintain a consistency of look with any pre-existing marketing material you have in place. Avoid bombarding your visitors with tons of miscellaneous information and links, keep your content precise and to the point, and be sure all of your links work properly and that information is presented in an organized manner. Further development can allow you to take online orders, process payments, store customer info in a database, etc. The type of development you need will depend on what your company wants to accomplish with the website. The bottom line is that even a simple website should be beneficial to your organization when well designed. 4. Caution: Keep in mind that anyone, anywhere in the world, can access your website, so take caution with what you make public. The Internet offers wonders of information exchange, but sadly that can sometimes work against us, depending on who accesses the information and for what reasons. One very bizarre and extremely sad case was the young pregnant mother that was murdered and her baby stolen, after her killer saw a picture of the pregnant woman on the Internet (selling dogs) and then setup a meeting pretending to have an interest in a dog. Focus on publishing informative content related to your products and services only, and keep personal or sensitive information private as much as possible. 5. Marketing: Once your website is designed and hosted you will be ready for visitors, but how are you going to get them to visit your site? Make sure a major search engine indexes your website. If the website is coded correctly, this will be automatic but may take a few weeks. Be sure your website address appears on all of your marketing material, and direct customers to your website for specific reasons, ie. coupons, specials, additional info, etc. Also, explore the many online marketing opportunities as well as traditional print ads. 6. Maintenance: Be sure to pay all domain registration and hosting fees on time. If you would like to be able to update and edit your website yourself, some professional website designers may offer this service. You may be surprised how easily it can be done and being able to do self-maintenance allows you to get the most out of your website. Good luck and have fun publishing! Michael Faeth is the owner of website and print design shop GLOBI Worldwide. Our clients include local and national companies, both large and small. For more information and to see our portfolio, contact http://www.globi.us or 559.355.3619. Special thanks to Suzanne Crosina-Sahm for editing the article.
MORE RESOURCES:
Goal-Setting - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Dos and Donts of Launching a Small Business Website Launching a new small business website is often a long and painstaking process. And for most small businesses, the endeavor rarely ends in success. Developing A Login System With PHP And MySQL Most interactive websites nowadays would require a user to log in into the website's system in order to provide a customized experience for the user. Once the user has logged in, the website will be able to provide a presentation that is tailored to the user's preferences. You Need To Treat Your Website Like An Employee - Heres 5 Ways To Do It People often come to me in a state of crisis and say their website isn't working. Usually they're in a cold sweat:"Mike, give me some practical things I can do to get more sales from my website!"You want practical advice? Stop treating your website like an object in your business and start treating it like an employee. Tell me what your website does! You know exactly what your organisation does and what your website offers its users. This information has probably become second nature to you, but first-time visitors to your site won't know this. Planning A Usable Website: A Three-step Guide A website is like an information flow, with you as the provider and your site visitors as the receivers of the information. If you don't plan your website with this in mind right from the start, you could find yourself with a brand new website that solves all your immediate needs. For Newer Sites, Web Marketing Depends On Titles & Links! We all start out the same. Some have budgets, some don't. How to Promote Your Law Firm Website On the Internet for Maximum Profit Making maximum profit from your law firm website is important, but as a lawyer you might not have any clue about search engine optimization and Internet marketing for your legal site. However, it is not so difficult to poise your website to be successful online even if you are not experienced with Internet marketing and driving website traffic. Maximizing ROI via Web Site Traffic Analysis We are clearly well past the innocent "golden age" of the Internet - Darwinian economics have become the order of the day today. Any company worth their salt must maintain a web site as an information resource and/or to generate incremental ecommerce revenue. The Importance of Website Stats to You One of the best tools you have as a webmaster is your website statistics. The most popular site stats programs are Awstats, Webalizer, and Analog. Five Essential Questions to Answer Before Creating Your First (or second...or third) Website Right after the thought, "I need a website," people usually say, "I need a web designer!" Actually, before even whispering "web design," you need to answer these five questions in as much detail as possible. Once you're clear on your strategy, you can provide better information to your web designer. Website Development: Become Your Own Expert Starting and maintaining a business is challenging enough without the additional financial burden of hiring a web site expert to put your vision on paper. If you are starting your business on a "shoe string budget," hiring someone to take your written materials to type in a basic format, add a few pictures and edit what you tell them periodically may not be sound money management. Creating a Sticky Web Site When used to describe a web site, the term "sticky" refers to a site that is able to get viewers to stay at the site longer and come back frequently. Sticky web sites are more likely to turn viewers into customers. Introductory PHP For Non-Programmers When you started reading this sentence you assumed lo acabaría en inglés. However, I didn't finish in English. Art, Artists, and the Web:Part: 2--First Steps in Building an Artist's Website What you should do and know if you are an artist and you have decided to have a website.1) Look at "Web Sites That Suck. Do Dancers Need A Website? Dance is how you pamper your soul and satiate your creativity. Mesmerized and overwhelmed with the pleasure that the dancer relishes while dancing, often there are some practical aspects that tend to get overlooked. Five Question-Five Minute Web Makeover Quiz If you haven't made the sales and built your clients to an income you want, then you may need a Web Site makeover.What I mean by that is, most people contact a web master to put up their site. 3 Essential Tools Every Website Designer and Marketer Needs Appealing to others is really important when you have a web page. This is because you will not have any personal contact with visitors and cannot persuade them to buy from you or come into your store, not personally that is. 12 Tips To Great Websites Why do some sites succeed while the vast majority of others fail? More and more website owners are asking themselves these questions. The answers are often more obvious than you may think. 3 Reasons Why You Need URL Rewriting Module To Enchance Your Web URL rewriting are major needs for your sites that produce a dynamic pages like PHP pages with redirection pages inside your index page.What is APACHE URL Mod Rewrite ?URL Mod Rewrite is a Apache web server module that can manipulate your URL on fly when a visitors join your URL pages. 7 Golden Rules For Building Mini Sites First, an eye opener. Making your fortune throughaffiliate programs on the internet is not easy.
|
| home | site map | ArticleGecko | A ClashX Production 2006 |
| © 2006 |
