Determine Your PurposeBefore you begin, clearly define the
primary purpose of the site you want to create.For example:
- Do you want the site to primarily
generate profit?
- Do you want the site just for promotion
purposes?
- Do you want to expand your services
online?
- Do you want to deliver information to the
end-user?
- Do you want to provide customer support?
- To ensure that your site benefits your business and its
users, clearly define your site goals before you begin.
This first step in establishing an online presence is
defining two sets of goals:
Near-Future Goals:
Outline what you want to accomplish with your web site.
Long-Term Goals:
Establish your long-term goals, so you can prep your site to
be scalable as your business grows.
Once you have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish
with the site, you need to create a plan.
Choosing a Strong Domain NameIf you are seriously planning
on creating a web site for your business, you need to consider
purchasing a Domain Name, unless you have already done so.
However, before you begin this process, you need to determine
if your business name will depend on the Domain Name you find
and choose. In other words, will your business practices be
conducted primarily online?
Once you have determined how your site will affect your
business practices, you can get started researching available
Domain Names.
Should it be a .com?
Should it be a .Net, should it be a .org; what
do they stand for anyway? Before you make this decision, you
should know what these extensions stand for.
The extension com means Commercial and is primarily
used for profit oriented businesses.
The extension net means Networks and has been
primarily used by organizations involved in Internet
infrastructure activities.
The extension org means Organization and has been
primarily used by non-commercial organizations.
Although there are no restrictions for purchasing Domain
Names with any sort of extension, you want to consider the one
that best fits your business practice. The .com, .net and .org
are the most three types of extensions used, however, you
should be aware that there are lots of other extensions that
can be used. For example:
One-day mission
Always research Domain Names, the same day you are planning on
purchasing. It is probably safe to say that a new domain name
is purchased every second of the day, therefore, if a domain
name is available today, it does not mean it will be available
tomorrow or even later on that same day.
Keep the domain name as short as
possible
Of course, finding short Domain Names is getting harder by the
minute, however, in some cases Domain Names that were
previously purchased and not renewed become available again to
the public, therefore it is a good idea to research them
anyway.
Owning a short domain name has its advantages. It's easy to
fit into logos, makes a better brand, it is harder to misspell
and it is easier to type as an email and on a browser.
Keep it simple
A good domain name is unforgettable. Everyone remembers
generic names, such as homes.com and cars.com; even more
original names such as Yahoo.com and eBay.com. Why? They are
short. Other companies have combined words together in their
Domain Names and they have been successful at it, however,
when choosing multiple words, don’t forget to pronounce them
out loud and listen carefully how they sound together.
Sometimes a domain name is easy to read, yet hard to
pronounce.
For example, look at the difference between these two
Domain Names:
www.microsoft.com
www.microsoft-software.com
The top one is much easier to remember and pronounce.
Avoiding Confusion
A good domain name isn't easily confused with others. Smaller
companies, desperate to purchase a .com domain, have settled
for hyphenated Domain Names. Can you imagine giving out a
domain name like
www.cruise-the-seas.com over the phone?
Make sure the name relates to your business
It would be ideal, if your domain name could be guessed
from your company name, however, in your search you may not
find it available. Should you give up? NO! The answer is “get
creative”.
Try using words that describe your business practices in
your domain name, or words like: GO, MY, YOUR, IN etc. If you
can’t find the domain name you want to use, you may also
consider searching a different extension like, .net,
.cc, .tv etc.
Establish your Web Site's Mission
- Every site needs a purpose--a mission that will drive
your team, and attract your users.
- Defining your mission is important and may seem
overwhelming. Ask yourself:
- What do you want to accomplish with this
site?
- What do you want your users to accomplish
with this site?
- What categories should be on the site?
- What will keep a user on your site?
- What will encourage a user to return?
Write down all your answers. During this process, you may
come up with more ideas, which you should jot down anyway.
Once you have compiled all your answers, categorize them under
the following:
- Important
- Average
- Could do without
Categorizing your tasks will be necessary in the event of
limited resources or time constraints.
Identify your AudienceKnowing who will be visiting
your web site will give you a much clearer picture for the
type of content to be used and the look ‘n feel of the site.
It will also allow the user to know why they are on that site
and what they will find. If your site does not have a specific
purpose from page one, you may run into the risk of alienating
your users. Instead, identifying your user’s characteristics
will make your site specifically targeted improving their
overall experience.
Functional Specifications Plan
Whether you are planning a small or large web site, writing a
Functional Specification Plan will assure that everyone who is
involved in the development of the project understands how the
site will function before it is built.
A Functional Spec is the blue print of the site and should
contain an outline of how the content is organized, a
navigation plan, the technology to be used and how the overall
site will function down to the very last click.
Importance of Good Navigation Structure
Web sites should be built like a
mall directory. The shopper enters the mall to find a store
and heads for the mall directory (on the site, the menu). Once
the shopper finds the location of the store in relation to the
mall directory, the shopper starts heading towards the store
they were looking for. Once the shopper walks inside the
store, each department is clearly labeled with the products it
offers. For example, apparel, cosmetics, etc. eventually
finding the exact product they were looking for.
If the mall directory was not properly labeled with an
accurate floor plan, the frustrated user just may run to the
nearest emergency exit and decide to shop in a different mall.
Never assume that your viewers will figure out your web
site’s structure. Most simply will not. The navigation must
clearly assist the viewer through the navigation of your site.
If the navigation is not consistent, chances are your viewers
will not come back to your site any time soon.
The design begins with the Home Page Navigation and that
navigation should be consistent throughout your site. The
directory should provide an easy reference to finding what the
user is looking for and with the least amount of 'clicks'.
Once the visitor leaves your Home Page and begins navigating
through your site, you should provide clear and unambiguous
answers to the two basic questions visitors will ask
themselves, Where am I? and Where do I go from here?
One important aspect of navigation is simplifying your
site: boiling everything down to as few categories as possible
with content on each. The next step is to organize these as
simple as you can imagine.
The 'coolest' sites out there are no better than their
navigation. The navigation bar should appear as a friendly
helper to the user. It should always look the same - simple,
functional, and most of all, consistent.
Create a Design that Works
When entering a web site,
most people pay a lot of attention to two major factors: the
design and the content. A web site’s success relies on a good
design. The design needs to grab your customers’ attention,
while allowing them to enjoy exploring your site, find the
information that they want and make contact with you either
through contact forms, email or by returning to your site when
they are ready to purchase your product or utilize your
services.
If there is one thing that stands the test of time it is
the voice of experience, but is that what your viewers want to
see or would they be more interested in a design that is new,
exciting and refreshing. A well-designed web site should try
to draw attention to the product or services by drawing a
parallel to a design view that the viewer can relate to or
find interest in.
Consider these factors when selecting
your web site’s overall look n’ feel: Color, Type, Images, and
Animation.
Which Colors to use?
A general rule of thumb in balanced design is using one color
as the primary and most dominant color, followed by one or two
more secondary accent colors.
Nature has provided us with large variety of colors and
shades and choosing colors can be a blast. However, when
applying colors to your web site, keep in mind two major
factors:
What is Your Existing Corporate
Identity Color?
If your business has been around for years, you most likely
have a corporate color that you have been using throughout the
years for your logo, stationary and printed materials. If you
are planning on expanding your business online, it is always a
good idea to tie your corporate branding colors on the web
site you are planning. Consistency is an important factor in
business. Remember that changing colors for your business can
get costly. Instead, if you are starting a business, you are
free to get creative and choose the colors you want, but keep
in mind the following.
Who is Your Audience?
When choosing colors, it is very important to keep in mind the
purpose of your site and your audience. For example: Can you
imagine a car racing web site targeted mainly for men,
designed with light pastel colors like pink, baby yellow and
light blue? Well, although these colors could work based on
the design, using stronger colors in a car racing web site,
would probably be safer.
You should now have an idea of which colors to use for your
site. If you are still not sure, you may want to consider
doing some research. Study your competitors online and examine
which colors have worked for them.
Few Words of Caution
For the most part, text on a computer monitor can be tiring to
read. Using color is fine, however, avoid using all the colors
of the rainbow.
The Proper Use of Fonts
Upper or Lowercase?
Fonts were intended to be Upper and lower case so they are
easier to read, and readability should be the number one
concern to your audience. You will find greater retention by
your visitors if your web site follows this rule.
What size text should you use?
- Two common mistakes are made on many web sites.
- Type is too small
- Type is too large
Use common sense when deciding what size your text should
be. Many web sites use type that is way too small to read, and
others use offensively large type, as if viewers are blind.
When choosing fonts for your web site, remember to use
fonts that your viewers’ computers will support. Most
computers are sold with a list of fonts pre-installed. These
fonts are called system fonts. If your site uses a font that
your viewer does not have installed, their browser will
replace it with another font, causing the text to display
differently.
Serif
Times New Roman, Georgia, Garamond
Sans Serif
Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Tahoma, Trebuchet
The Power of Images and Photo ManipulationYou have heard the expression
a picture is worth a thousand words”. Dressing up your site
with photos increases your audience’s interest, and can be the
crucial selling tool for a product or service.
The Power of Images
Images possess a subliminal and contagious emotional power.
For example, they can make you happy, sad, calm, angry,
thirsty you name it! When choosing photos for your web site,
try to predict what type of emotion they will pass on to the
viewer, and then make your decision.
Different people, from different cultures and different
tastes will be visiting your web site and when choosing
photos, it is advisable to get several opinions from
colleagues and friends. Remember that a photo you may like
everyone else might hate. In this case, just because you like
a photo and you own the web site, it does not mean it is the
most appropriate for the message you are trying to portray if
everyone else disagrees with you.
An important factor to consider in the realm of photography
is the quality. A professional sharp photograph will
strengthen your site’s design and stimulate a sense of trust
to the viewer. Instead, an ordinary snapshot can be a dead
giveaway that your business is small and does not pay much
attention to detail.
When creating a web site, dedicate a generous amount of
time to photographs. After all, they are the ones “worth a
thousand words”. If your budget allows, invest some money in
better photographs, they will pay-off in the long run. On the
other hand, if your budget is limited, there are alternatives.
Technology has given us the ability to manipulate photos
for the web that look professional and load fast, for a low
cost. By modifying colors, contrast, saturation, backgrounds,
even over imposing, ordinary photos can “scream a thousand
words”.
A Word of Advice
When a viewer comes to your site or begins surfing through
your pages slow loading graphics will guarantee that they will
leave long before the graphics appear. Chances are they will
never come back. The only acceptable delay is no delay.
Realize the difference of loading time between 'dial-up' and
'high-speed' Internet connections.
Using Effective AnimationAdding a little movement to your
site can stimulate the viewer’s interest, however, adding too
much movement on a web site can be a turn off. The key to
integrating animation to a web site is by determining how much
is too much!
Newer technologies have enabled designers from every
country to extend their creative ideas and launch high impact
presentations online. On the other hand, with the excitement
about these new technologies, many developers have tended to
forget about the end user.
Today, the Internet is saturated with fully powered
multimedia web sites that are nice to watch, only after they
have loaded at their own pace. A lot of web sites have
introductions trailers that must load before the viewer can
access the information on that site, and many viewers,
especially the ones on dial-up loose interest in this medium
and move on before the introduction has had chance to
completely load. After all, who would want to sit and wait for
something to load and not even know if what they are about to
see is something they are interested in? So, what’s the
solution?
Should you not have animation on your
site?
Absolutely! Animation can be a powerful tool in drawing
attention to a specific area of the page effectively
highlighting a product or service.
A Word of Advice
Keep in mind that the faster objects move, the more attention
they will grab. If you have too many elements moving on the
page at the same time, the page can get distracting taking
away from the main message you are trying to portray.
Broken Links are Unprofessional
Because surfing the web has
become a hit and miss experience, people are visiting fewer
and fewer web sites everyday. Good part of the cause is lack
of access to information. In other words, broken links.
Half the time a search is performed, just when viewers seem
to have found what they were looking for, they get slapped
with an error stating that the page they were looking for is
no longer there. That’s frustrating.
Links are the gateway between one page and another. They
function as the backbone, which allows content to be
navigable; therefore, managing them is a vital task in running
a web site. As part of the maintenance of a website, it is
important to use accurate software that will check the
integrity of links on a regular basis.
Companies that constantly change the information
architecture of their web sites have not spent the time and
effort to plan how their content should be organized. Time
spent up front structuring a solid information architecture
plan saves lots of money, time and effort in the long-term not
to mention reducing users’ frustration. Don’t let frustrated
users classify your company as unprofessional just because of
broken links.
Using a Database on a Web
Site
What is a database?
A database is a collection of organized massive amounts of
data that can be queried, accessed and modified.
When to Use Databases
Databases, like other elements of a web site, have their time
and place. Connecting to databases and retrieving data takes
considerably longer than displaying a static page. For this
very reason, Databases are not always the best solution.
However, if you need to store a lot of information over a
long period of time, databases are clearly the way to go. Many
businesses use databases to maintain all sorts of information.
For example, imagine a company with a database containing
products, descriptions, price and inventory of each item they
sell. Making this information available online, allows
visitors to sort through the products in any way they choose
(by price, product, size, etc,) and pinpoint exactly to the
product they were searching for. Besides, providing better
customer service, this method has allowed businesses to
maintain information about their products and services and
keep it fresh and up-to-date.
When deciding if your web site should have a database or
not, ask yourself the following:
Slow Loading Web Sites
Now more than ever, Internet surfers are becoming
more and more impatient, and compressing graphics to fit an
acceptable download time has become a tricky task. In some
cases, complex queries against large databases can slow
considerably load times much more than a static page. But, the
most common mistake is caused by poor image optimization,
excessive resolution, or general overuse of graphics.
Do you want your site to be amongst the victims of the
phenomenon referred to as the World Wide Wait?
If your target audience includes a high percentage of
people on dial-up, it is recommended to keep your pages small
in terms of kilobytes. Studies show that the ideal load time
for a web page is one (1) second, although some are willing to
bear up to 15 seconds over a modem connection.
If your pages (including the graphics) take longer than 15
seconds to load, you will lose visitors who don't feel like
waiting for your pages to load.
- Optimizing Web Pages to Load Faster is Simple
- Below are some tips on optimizing the file size yet
achieving an attractive and functional look.
Study your competitor’s website; see how
quickly the site loads and how it was built.
Take advantage of HTML tables when
creating a layout.
Use colors within HTML rather than
graphics.
Use text instead of graphics whenever
possible.
Don’t be the guinea pig of new
technology.
If You Build It, Will they
Come?
Many companies new to the web think
that if they publish a page, people from all over the world
will flock to it to visit it. Wrong! The truth is that with
millions of pages and without knowing the URL finding that
page is worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.
Promoting a web site is an ongoing process, and generating
traffic most certainly does not happen overnight. There are
several ways to promote a web site: search engines, link
exchange with other site, newspaper ads, and so on.
A Misconception about Search
Engines
Some companies think that as soon as they publish a web page,
the search engines will pick it up. Let’s examine this
concept. Why would search engines pick up a new site when they
already have millions to show?
In the early days of the Internet, some web sites developed
the concept of providing information to viewers by linking to
other websites, and as databases caught on with the Internet,
it became even easier to provide searchable information along
with the URLs.
Because more than one web site was developing the same
concept at the same time, search engines were competing
against each other as to who had the most links and provide
the most accurate results to their viewers. During that time,
the process of adding a URL to a search engine was free.
Today, for some younger search engines that need competitive
databases, it still is.
On the other hand, search engines that have been around
longer, have had more time to extend their databases as well
as establish a loyal audience and generate ongoing traffic. In
time, and large amounts of URL submissions, search engines
have started charging a fair fee to be listed in their
databases, often providing better positioning to paying web
sites.
Needless to say, that if you are looking to generate
traffic and promote your web site online, search engines will
charge you for a guaranteed listing. Dedicate part of your
budget for online and offline promotion if you want to see
guaranteed results.
Having a Web
Site is Much Like Having a Child
After your web site is
launched the game is not over. It’s only begun. Your web site
will need care, attention, regular updating, and constant
promotion or your visitors will soon start thinking that there
is no one behind the scenes.
Here are some tips you may want to consider implementing
after launching your site, to show your visitors that you are
on top of things and that you are serious about your online
presence.
Make sure the information on your web
site is up-to-date
If you change the information on you site on a regular basis,
repeat visitors will know you are serious about your business.
If the information on your site is not current, your viewers
may start distrusting your commitment to them.
Keep the communication with your
visitors open
It is very important that your visitors have the ability to
contact you at a click of a button, whether via email or
through a request form. These can be used to gather customer
information, which can eventually be turned into an actual
sale of products, or services that you offer. The important
rule here is to consistently follow-up with all contacts
submitted by potential customers in a timely fashion.
Volunteer information to your
subscribers
What better way to bring your viewers back then to send out
eNewsletters about your business via email? Remind your
subscribers periodically that you are there to service them.
Emails are an effective way to keep in touch.
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