A little information about what goes into creating a website...

What's a Website?

A website shows words, colors and pictures on your computer screen when you type in a website name or click on a bookmark or a line in a Google search, everyone knows that. However, there are many parts of a website that are not visible on the screen. For a quick look at part of what makes a website work, try going to the "View" menu on your browser and select "Page Source". Instead of the pictures, colors and text that you saw on the web page, you will see patterns of text and numbers, some of the "code" that must be written to make the website possible.

Besides what is visible on the screen, a website needs a name, a space, a design, marketing and maintenance.

A Name of One's Own

Your website address -- the way others find you on the internet -- is called a domain name, and consists of the name you choose and an ending of .com, .biz, .net, or .org. The names have meanings; .com for commercial or commerce, .biz for business, .net for networks and .org is for organizations such as the Toastmasters. Educational institutions use .edu. No two websites can have the same name, so research must be done to find a name that is both suitable and available.

Once you have found an available name, you may option its use for a yearly fee. Think of it as rent. You cannot permanently purchase a domain name, and if you do not renew your chosen name it can be claimed by someone else.

Internet Real Estate

Once you have obtained the name, then you must "host" your domain with a server, which is a large computer connected to the internet. The amount of space and "bandwidth" you need for your website will be part of what determines the cost of "hosting" your domain.

Website Construction

After the name and space, then you need a web page or pages. This is the part that others will see on the web, and should be carefully designed to display the image that you wish to project to the world. A website designer will lay out the site and format of the pages, and provide the computer coding and programming that will make the site look its best and, most importantly, work correctly with the search engines people use to find your site. The website must also work correctly with the numerous internet "browsers" that people use. Other issues such as making the website available to handicapped visitors, or to cell phone browsers, are also handled in the "invisible" programming.

To come up with ideas for the appearance of your website, you may wish to look at the websites of others in your field or area of interest, although your site should be visually unique. The sample gallery may also provide some ideas.

The content of the website can be anything you wish to present to the world. Specific information, forms, or illustrations that you need to have on your pages should be thought out and designed before construction begins on your website. Extra items such as an online store, blogs, or galleries must be integrated with the rest of the website.

Calling Traffic

After the site has been designed, built and working correctly, then the site must be marketed. What you hope to see is your website listed in the first few pages of the major search engines, so people can find your website. This is done by designing the site to the search engine specifications, and submitting your site to the major search engines. Pages must be kept current and re-submitted to search engines as necessary, usually once a month. Paid ads are another option,

Other marketing tools, such as electronic newsletters or interactive pages on your site, can be added by the designer and programmer. An attractive and easy to use website is the best way to bring visitors to your site - and keep them coming back.

Maintenance

Keeping up the website is as important as designing it in the first place, as an unmaintained site quickly becomes ignored and irrelevant. Maintenance can be very time consuming, so plans should be made for maintenance when the site is first designed. Changing and updating content to keep the search engine 'spiders' coming to your site is as important as keeping information current for your visitors. Regular maintenance keeps your site visible to the search engines, keeps visitors coming to your website, and preserves your initial investment in the site.

Typical website maintenance may include such things as making backups, adding pages or images, changing an address, adding information or re-wording a page's content, checking for broken links, or optimizing for search engines. Periodic reworking of the look and content arrangement of the site are also considered to be maintenance. Other maintenance may require special software, such as formatting photographs for the web or creating printable brochures.

Solutions

Contact the webstirizer with your ideas and we will provide you with an estimate.

The easiest way for a novice to try out having a website is to sign up for a free Yahoo! or AOL account, and take advantage of their free website space and website templates. These are usually hard to maintain for more than a couple of pages. Graphically they are instantly identifiable as cheap and cheesy, but are fun for experimentation. Yahoo! also offers web hosting and "e-commerce" sites with pre-made templates. They sell the domain and the server space to you along with the template, and you use a scrapbook-like program to paste in your words and pictures. You do your own maintenance. Pricey, time consuming, and standardized-looking, but it might be a way to try out a business on the web. Keep in mind that they hold your business name.

Another way to go might be to learn modern, standard web coding, research servers, and host and maintain your own site. Cute and simple but complete introductory books include "Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML", by Elisabeth Freeman and Eric Freeman, and "Head First Programming", by Vernon L. Ceder; O'Reilly Books. You may find the time involved would be better spent elsewhere.

Or, you could contact the webstirizer with your ideas and we will provide you with an estimate.