Tips for success in creating a website

There is a good chance that only a few of the hundreds of web designers in your area will meet your needs. That said, it pays off big time if before you make any calls to web design firms you first arm yourself with as much useful info as possible.

It won't take days of research or even hours to build up a solid foundation of knowledge. This knowledge will enable you to quickly navigate your way successfully through the maze of local web site designers.

Below I have laid out a concise overview that details many aspects of owning and managing a web site. In under 30 minutes you will be able to gain the confidence needed to successfully interview the design firms and have your web site produce a strong ROI.

Clean Layout Design: A clean layout that uses a lot of white space enhances a site's looks. Try to keep the focus on your content, use a template for this. Use fonts that will be available on all computers to prevent your site looking messed up.

Neat and Easy Navigation: Navigation of links on your site plays a big role in determining the stickiness of your site (how long your visitor stays and explores your site). Ask yourself this, What do visitors do as soon as they open your site? They would probably read the content of the present page and then look around to find any other page that interests them. Read our article on

1. Domain Names

The first step in getting your web site design project going is to decided on a domain name and purchase it. There are hundreds of companies like GoDaddy.com and Dotster.com that offer very reasonable rates.

There are a couple of things to think about when deciding on a domain name. You can get a domain that reflects your organization e.g.: AceToolWorks.com, BrooksTileStore.com, DunnSandandGravel.com, BotiqueMary.com or CommunityKitchen.org

You might also consider a domain name that reflects your line of business or the service your offer e.g.: LawOffices.com, IcecreamStore.com, ReadingTutor.org, CarRepair.com, ShoesFixed.com or Da DayCare.org

Of course with millions of small business and nonprofit's looking to be on the web finding just the right name may take a couple of hours. TIP you can use a dash - between words in a domain and the search engines will read it as a space. This may be a good idea if you want to optimize your site for the search engines. An example is this site. I choose Web-Site-Design-NH.com because I knew that this site and all of its content would be about web site design and that many people looking for information on that topic would type in those words in a search engine. So my goal is to have a site optimized for the information I am presenting.

Using the dash in the domain name on a site that you want people to find out about through word of mouth may be problematic. People may tend to forget the dash when passing on the domain through word of mouth. But if you want people to find it primarily through search engines and links then there will be little or no problem.

EXTRA INFO: For more information about Domain Names and Buying Tips go to our page Domain Name Buy Ideas and History

2. Hosting Your Site

Once you have decided on a Domain Name for your web site you will want to choose a host for that site. Now you could wait until you hire a web site designer for their opinion and that is ok. I would however recommend you visit 3 or 4 hosts and look at what they offer. Hosts like Bluehost.com. , Lunar Pages and GoDaddy all offer very good packages at competitive rates and have very good customer service.

I recommend you avoid small start ups if this is your first go at a web site and you are not sure of the ins and outs of moving and rebuilding a site if you were to have problems with your host or their customer service. Taking the road of going with a well established hosting company as you learn your way is really the way to go. Of course once you are sure of what is going on there are many hundreds of hosting companies to choose from and if you want to change hosts it can in many cases be done in a few hours.

The benefit of going ahead and getting a host before you even approach a designer is that you will get to know how things are setup and there won't be any surprise hosting charges showing in the designers bill. Another advantage is you will have all the information for logging in and creating your site. I can't stress this enough, you need to possess all hosting information in case something should happen to your designer or coder. Not having the information is like not having the title to your car when it is time to sell it, no one will talk with you. TIP whether you let your designer setup your hosting account or you do it (secure your information).

Most small businesses and nonprofit's can set up a wonderful web site for under 10.00 US a month and if you pay for a year many hosts will give you a discount. Unless you have a huge company or an online store you don't need to spend more. TIP if the traffic to your web site is less then 400 people a day stick with a hosting account costing less then 10.00 US a month.

At today's (2007) prices you want a host that offers 100GB (gigabytes) of space or more, 1000GB (gigabytes) of data transfer a month or more. The package should also include PHP and 5 MYSQL database connections or more. Most web design people deal with hosts that have the servers running Apache with PHP and MYSQL and this allows you to have a robust site built on a CMS (Content Management System) like Joomla or Drupal. A robust CMS allows you to make changes and updates to your web site from any web browser if you don't want to rely on a third party to do the work.

I'm not forgetting that many hosts offer packages with Windows server instead of Apache. Windows servers offer scripting like ASP instead of PHP and can do a very nice job. Of course there is a but and that is that most Open Source (free software) is written for the Apache Server and in the end will save you money.

EXTRA INFO: Head on over to our page on Web Hosting Tips for a more in depth view of Web Hosting.

3. Gather Your Information

• Write down your thoughts about what you want from a web site and what you think it will do for your organization. This is an invaluable exercise that will serve as a guide post for both you and your web developer.
  
  
• Put a folder in a prominent place where everyone in the organization can put ideas for the site. Put everything in the folder, pictures, brochures, articles about the organization. Anything that even remotely concerns the organization. This folder will serve your organization well; ideas you can't use now will come in handy down the road.
  
  
• Come up with a navigation map for the site. What sections do you want highlighted when someone first sees the site. Include sections that tell your viewers about you, contact info, links to similar sites etc.
  
  
• Take an hour or two and surf the web looking at organizations that are similar to yours. What are they doing that you like or dislike? What seems to work in their presentation? Put these impressions into your folder.
  
  
• Think about types of organizations you want your site to link to and sites you might want to link to you. This will help make your site a resource in its field. In turn that will bring more people to your home on the World Wide Web. Search engines will rate your site higher the more reciprocal links you have. If you have friends who have websites ask them to link to you, if you know people in the same field as your business and they do not directly compete with you ask them.
  
  
• If your business is a service business the updating twice a year may work ok. If on the other hand you do something like landscaping, cabinet making or auto body repair you will want to change the pictures four to six times a year. Put this on you calendar and designate someone to follow through with the updates.
  
  
• If you do not have a large staff ask your web developer about maintaining the site and ask if any tutoring is included for your staff in the site price.

4. Transparency

Transparency: Now there is a loaded word if there ever was one. There may be as many definitions of what it means as there are web designers. My definitions is simple.

1. All charges and fees are written out before any work is done.

2. All info and content to be created by the buyer and the designer are listed in printed document which both parties have agreed to.

3. Both parties agree to a written time frame that has benchmarks of progress about when content will be produced.

Simple as: I will do A,B and C and you will do D,E and F and we will each do what we say we will do by such and such a date.

Please have your web designer put on paper what he/she will do and when, and you need to put on paper what information you will deliver to the designer and when. Once it is on paper and agreed to then you have a working understanding and reasonable expectations are laid out.

If for any reason your chosen web design firm does not want to do this then find another person to do the work. Follow this plan even if you are hiring a friend or relative to build your site.

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