A Beginner’s Guide to Website Development |
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Deciding to
build a techeffex for your organization or business is a bigger decision than
most people realize. On the surface it seems like a simple enough undertaking,
but as most people quickly learn, there are many decisions that have to be made
along the way. This can be a daunting task for those who are not familiar with
what goes into the development and maintenance of a website. To make matters
worse, there are many crooks and unscrupulous businesses out there preying on
those unfamiliar with the landscape.
This guide
is designed to give you an idea of what you need to consider in the development
of a website and what to look out for when signing a contract. We’ll also introduce
you to some of the technical topics you need to be aware of so that you can
make the best decisions for your website development.
What Will The Website Be Used For?
The first
question that must be addressed is: what will the website be used for? The answer
to this question will have a significant impact on the type and cost of the site
you need. Here are some of the more common reasons for developing a site:
Building Your Brand
A website
is terrific marketing vehicle allowing for a rich variety of media to be
presented to the site visitor. The content can be changed as often as the site
owner wants allowing coupons, daily specials and promotions to be added with
ease. A much more colorful, detailed description of the business can be provided
at a fraction of the cost of the Yellow Pages.
Sell Products or Services
You may
want to sell your products or services through your website – either
exclusively or in addition to traditional sales channels. E-commerce (ie accepting
money on the Internet for products or services) is very common in websites
today. While there are many security concerns both as a consumer and business
owner, the convenience of online commerce seems to outweigh the concerns of
most users. Work with your web developer to determine what security is
appropriate for your site.
E-commerce
sites are typically bigger and more complex than an information only site
mainly because of the added security requirements, transaction processing
(credit card etc…) and database functions (product catalog). It is reasonable
to expect to pay more for a well designed e-commerce website.
Provide Customer Service and Support
With so
many consumers now on the Internet, it is almost a mandatory requirement to
provide some form of customer support on your website. It may be as simple as
soliciting feedback on your product or service or as complicated as a database
driven online customer support service. Many site owners start out with a
simple customer support function and gradually add more features over time.
Save Time and Money
Websites
can save money in many different ways. Processing orders directly online can
save money and eliminate costly data entry errors. Having an online catalog
saves a tremendous amount in print and distribution costs. Communications with
customers can be made more efficient through e-mail and online forms resulting
in time savings. For example having a FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page
can solve many customer questions online thereby reducing the amount time and
cost of customer support.
What Will You Have on Your Site?
After
deciding what the site will be used for, you will get a better sense of what
kind of content you want or need. The pages you need for your site will depend
on what kind of business your site is for. To get some ideas, go on the
internet and look at other sites that are in the same line of business as you.
Decide what type of presentation you find appealing. Here are some common
pages that can be found on most websites:
Home Page
The Home
Page is typically the first page a visitor sees so it should make a good first
impression. You should be able to link to any of the major information areas
on you site from here. Eye catching graphics can be a good idea but don’t get
carried away with too much animation or slow loading graphics. Many visitors
will leave if it takes too long to get the information they are looking for.
About Us
About Us
pages are used to give some background or history on the business and is a good
opportunity to convey a sense of what the business owners philosophies are.
You don’t want to get too wordy as the visitors have a short attention span.
Contact Us
A Contact
Us page is essential if you need to interact with the site visitor. This page
should be easy to find and contain any relevant contact information including
address, phone, fax and e-mail. Many sites use a contact form instead of e-mail,
however, some visitors will not fill out a form because it’s too much work.
Having both options available will ensure that people can get in touch with you
however they like.
Portfolio
A Portfolio
page is used to display samples of the work you have done. Often in the form
of digital images, this is a great opportunity to show off your products or
services. Be careful to use high quality images – poor photo quality can
sometimes have a negative effect.
Services
A services
page is where you document what you do. If the visitor has made it this far,
it usually means they are interested in what you are selling. If you can
describe all your services on one page that’s fine, but don’t short change
yourself. You can add links to other pages describing your services in greater
detail. Remember, at this stage you have the visitor’s attention so don’t hold
back.
Links
A Links
page can have several strategic purposes depending on the type of business you
are in. In general, you can add links to any other sites that may be relevant
to your business and would be of interest to a visitor. A contractor may wish
to include links to a Builders Association or suppliers they recommend. A
physician may wish to include links to educational resources for patients.
What to Look for in a Contract
Price
Price is an
obvious element of any contract but with website development one has to be
extra careful as to what is included in the price. Typical pricing for web
development averages around $60/hour or $100/page. Of course, these rates will
vary depending on the complexity of your site. Other considerations:
- Is your
site hosted by the developer? Many website developers charge low rates
for development and make it up on hosting fees. Hosting fees should NOT
be included as part of your website development contract. As a reference,
the monthly hosting fee with Techeffex Web Hosting is $3.95/mo for
their economy package which is suitable for most small business
informational websites. Many developers have legitimate hosting services
but they should be dealt with separately.
- Do you own
the code? This issue is often tied with the hosting strategy: you get a
low cost website and pay a nominal amount every month for hosting. If you
choose to go to another hosting company to save money you would have to
start a new website. Make sure it is stated in the contract that you own
all the code for your website.
- Support.
Web developers should guarantee their code to be bug-free for at least a
year. Most will guarantee the code forever as long as no one else
modifies it.
- Updates.
Does the price provide for any modifications down the road? Normally specified
in terms of update support hours with 2-3 hours being the norm. This
allows an additional page or two to be added should it become necessary.
More and more websites are being designed with a Content Management System
allowing the site owner to make modifications and additions through an
easy to use interface.
Schedule
Scheduling
a website development is quite difficult because a website tends to be more art
than science. For example, you may start out thinking blue is the best color
but once you see it on the screen you may decide red is better, or maybe brown,
or yellow etc…
Allowing
for this, it is still reasonable to expect the developer to adhere to certain
milestones, particularly in the absence of any changes on the site owner’s
part. If your site is expected to be over 10 pages, ask for some form of
schedule or milestones so you can track the developer’s progress. Just be
aware that if you keep changing things it will delay the project. That’s not
necessarily bad; you want to get a site you’ll be happy with. On the other
hand, you don’t want to get bogged down with details that will be lost on your
customers.
Payment Terms
Most
developers will want a portion of the cost up front and have the balance paid
at the completion of some milestone(s). Never pay the whole cost up front. If a developer asks for this – walk
away. It is reasonable to pay as much as 50% up front, but no more. Larger,
more complex sites will typically have three payment milestones. Most small
business sites will have the up front fee and the balance paid on completion.
Websites 101
Hosting
Hosting
refers to the computer system on which your website resides. Hosting functions
include things like:
- internet
connectivity
- data
storage (disk space)
- security
Hosting
packages are typically sold based on how well or in what quantity they provide
these functions. Let’s look at a couple of key factors:
Disk Space
A typical
web page is about 50 Kbytes in size including graphics. That means a 10 page
site needs about 500 Kbytes of disk space. Bluefire Web Hosting’s Economy
Hosting package provides 10 Gbytes of disk space! That’s enough to store 200,000
pages! Talk about room to grow!
Transfer Bandwidth
Transfer
bandwidth refers to how much data can be transferred from your site every
month. If you exceed the limit, you will usually incur some additional
charge. Let’s do the math to see where we’re at: Bluefire Web Hosting’s
Economy package provides 300 GBytes of transfer a month. Assuming our pages
are 50 Kbytes each we could transfer more than 5 million pages a month or 166
thousand pages a day. If you had a 10 page site that would mean some 16,000
people a day could check out the entire site! Once again, don’t feel compelled
to upgrade your service until traffic warrants it.
E-mail Accounts
All hosting
packages provide for some number of e-mail accounts. Any company can usually
make use of 3-5 accounts in addition to an account for each person associated
with the site. Bluefire Web Hosting currently offers 500 accounts with their
Economy Package.
Domain Name
A Domain
Name refers to a portion of your website address or e-mail address that defines
your space on the web – your domain. For example, Techeffex Internet Marketing
Solutions has the domain “techeffex.com”. Any e-mail to be handled by the Techeffex
domain will have @techeffex.com in the address indicating that it should be
processed by a mail server (a computer that manages e-mail). If someone is
looking for the Techeffex website, they type www.techeffex.com.
The “www” indicates that the user request should be processed by the web server
(a computer that manages a website, not necessarily the same computer used for
e-mail). The common element is the domain: techeffex.com.
When you
set up your website, you’ll want a domain name that is appropriate for your
business, for example, “bobswidgets.com”. Domain names are registered by
certain authorized organizations called Registrars. You pay them an annual fee
($9.99/year or less at Bluefire Web Hosting) and they take care of the
administration of the name on the internet.
A domain
name will have 3 types of contact information associated with it:
- Registrant:
The legal owner of the domain. Make sure this is you and not your
hosting company or web developer.
- Technical
Contact: Typically the name of someone in your Information technology
group. For a small company, it’s usually you again.
- Administrative
Contact: Sometimes the person who pays the bills or takes care of
multiple domains. In a small company…you again
Remember,
domain name registration is cheap. Prices do vary, but don’t let anyone charge
more than $10-$20 per year. Also, consider getting multiple domains especially
if your domain could easily be misspelled. This way, visitors can find you
even if they make a typo. You can have all your domain names point to the same
website.
Conclusion
The
business world is changing rapidly with the internet taking on a larger role in
all businesses from large corporations down to the smallest businesses. As
more and more consumers get access to broadband networking through cable and DSL technologies, the demand for an online business
presence grows. The number of searches for local businesses online now exceeds
that of the Yellow Pages and will surpass it very soon. Any business needs to
get online to capture this growing market base, yet overcoming some of the
technical barriers can be challenging. This guide introduces some of the
concepts involved in getting a web presence established. Your next step is to
find a web developer that will develop a great site for you and be there to
help you as your internet needs grow.
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