Home > Steps to Creating a Web Presence
There are a number of essential steps that must be done in
the right sequence to ensure your move on-line is successful.
You can do all of the steps below yourself, or all can be
done on your behalf by a web development company. Usually
the optimum approach lies somewhere between these two extremes
and the break up of duties should be determined by discussion
with the web developers.
When contracting a web development company to build your site
it is important that it is clearly specified which of the
following steps are the responsiblity of the web development
company, and which are your (the client's) responsiblity.
- Evaluate
- Goals
- Plan
- Functional specification
- Cost estimates/quotation
- Register domain name
- Create the website
- graphic design
- content creation
- site build
- content load
- web developer testing
- client acceptance testing
- Hosting
- Domain name delegation
- Email setup
- Site maintenance
- Site promotion
- printed material/advertisements
- search engine listings
- email lists
- Evaluate
Is a website suitable for your business?
First you need to determine if you are likely to get a return
on the work and money needed to produce an effective website.
Who is the target audience?
Are they using the Internet?
Will they in the future?
This can be determined by a direct survey of your target
audience, which can be as simple as talking to your customers.
Additionally, a browse through Internet
Usage in Australia will supply up-to-date information
and informed predictions.
Are similar businesses benefiting?
The case
studies of the Australian Government's National Office
for the Information Economy (NOIE) will provide some interesting
insights.
What are your competitors doing?
One source of information is to conduct some Internet searches
using various keywords related to your business - ninemsn
is particularly useful for it's Australian focus, while
Google
is currently the most popular international search engine.
- Goals
How does a website fit with your overall marketing plans?
What do you want to achieve with a website?
Create more reach into the market place?
Sell product?
Deliver detailed information into the hands of your customers?
Pre-sales?
Technical support?
Customer support?
Product catalogue?
Portfolio?
- Plan
As in any business endeavour, a considered step-by-step
approach will most likely achieve the best results.
We have all heard the horror stories of businesses spending
ten's of thousands of dollars to create websites that failed
miserably. But little is said about the many small-medium
enterprises that have taken a less foolhardy approach, and
are quietly building effective online strategies.
An effective first website does not have to cost a fortune.
In fact, a professionally built site can cost well under
$1,000 (ref: Web Starter Packages).
The cost of custom-built graphics can vary greatly depending
upon the requirements. For this reason, it is usually more
sensible to build the first website based upon the existing
artwork/graphics of the business. This eliminates this additional
cost.
As you gain experience, and receive feedback from your customers/visitors,
you can refine and enhance your site, adding content and
features that you know will be of benefit.
It is a good idea at this stage to take a close look at
the web sites of similar businesses. Make a list of these
sites, and of the features you like as well as those you
do not. You'll find this very useful in ensuring you have
not forgotten to include some aspect, and will go a long
way towards ensuring you do not repeat the mistakes others
have made.
It is not just a matter of aesthetic screen layout, but
how is the site going to work?
How are visitors going to get to the information they want?
How are you going to lead them to the action you desire?
Create a wishlist - list out each item you would like included
in the website, the give each a priority ranging from essential,
should have, like to have, through to not important.
Include all your ideas no matter how difficult to implement
you may feel they are.
Now, at this point you need to be talking to someone who
has a good deal of experience building commercial websites.
They will know the various web technologies that can be
employed and will be able to give you feedback on the feasability
of your ideas. They may also possibly be able to give you
additional suggestions based upon what others have found
successful, and will be able to give broad estimates/indications
of costs associated with each element.
With this information, a strategy can be worked out which
will work towards what you want and fit to your current
budget.
If you need help with this step, remember our offer of a
free consultation.
- Functional specification
Based on the outcome of the preceding steps, the next step
is to specify exactly what the site will do and the particular
technologies that will be employed in the construction of
the website.
For simple sites this may take the form of a site map outlining
the structure of the site, with the number of pages and
nominating what content will go on which pages.
For highly complex sites, it would take the form of a document
specifying each page of the site in detail, and how each
page is to operate. Server requirements would be detailed,
along with any special components needed, the particular
scripting language(s) to be employed, and so on.
The Functional Specification should be prepared by a web
developer experienced with the production of commercial
web sites.
Agreement must be reached that the Functional Specification
fully and accurately describes the proposed website before
proceeding with further steps.
This document forms the basis upon which client acceptance
testing is conducted later.
- Cost estimates/quotation
Only at this stage can a realistic estimation of required
effort and cost be made. Attempting to do this with out
the previous steps is likely to result in wrong expectations,
budget over-runs.
- Register domain name
Australian domain names (.com.au) have very strict eligibility
requirements, whereas International domain names (.com)
do not.
However, in most cases we would recommend trying to secure
registration of your Australian domain name.
You can register your domain name
yourself, or as is often the case, it can be done on your
behalf by your web developer.
- Create the website
a. graphic design
At this step, the look and feel of the site is designed
to capture your business branding and align with your visitors
expectations.
It is usual to get client sign-off on the graphic design
before proceeding further.
b. content creation
This is where the actual words and images that go on the
pages are put together. Usually this is your job. You know
your business best. You can explain it best.
The web developers role here is usually to offer advise
on the breakup of content, amount per page, and so on. Where
large amounts of similar information is to be compiled,
the web developer would usually supply a template to facilitate
the task.
c. site build
Construction of the web pages and the navigation system
- usually occurs in parallel to b.
d. content load
Up until now the site has been populated with dummy data.
At this stage, your information is placed on the pages,
or loaded to the database. It is here that the final layout
of each web page is finalised with any fine tuning required
to produce the best presentation.
e. web developer testing
Functionality testing to ensure all was built according
to the Functional Specification and works as it should.
f. client acceptance testing
You thoroughly inspect the site.
Does the site do what you set out to do?
Does it meet your expectations?
If not, did the web developer fall down by failing to meet
the Functional Specification, or are there further requirements
that have come up?
If there are now additional requirements, it is necessary
to go back to steps 4 and 5 to create a specification of
those requirements and have a quotation for the new work
put together.
- Hosting
Hosting for the web site needs
to be organised so that it can be accessed over the Internet.
Many developers offer hosting services (convenient) or you
may wish to organise this yourself independantly.
If you are organising the hosting yourself, care must be
taken to ensure that the particular hosting provider supplies
all the necessary software and functionality on the server
for the website to operate properly.
- Domain name delegation
The domain name which was registered in step 6 must now
be configured to direct to your web site.
- Email setup
Often new email addresses have been set up during the construction
of the site. The computers belonging to the people to whom
these email addresses belong need to be configured to download
their email.
This step normally would mark the completion of a web site
build project. The steps below would usually be part of
a seperate agreement should it planned that they be carried
out by your web development company.
- Site maintenance
Website content must be kept fresh and up-to-date. However,
consideration of the on-going maintenance of the site is
often neglected in the rush to get a site live.
In the past, site maintenance was conducted either by the
web development company (under a seperate site maintenance
agreement), or by people within the organisation who have
been trained in basic web publishing skills.
More commonly now-a-days, easy to use content management
systems are incorporated in the site which allow employees
with no web skills to perform site maintenance. One such
system is PageEditor
which provides a particularly cost-effective solution.
- Site promotion
Once you site is live on the Internet, people must be made
aware it is there. Effective methods of site promotion include:
a. printed material/advertisements
An often overlooked area - ensure your web site's address
is included on all your business stationary, and in all
your advertising.
b. search engine listings
Search Engines are the place people turn to when looking
for information on a specific subject. Having your site
correctly listed in the right search engines can be a very
good source of quality traffic to your site.
c. email lists
Similar to postal mailing lists, but far less expensive.
Many hosting services provide basic list management systems
as part of the service at no extra cost (ref: the email
features of our hosting
plans).
Advanced systems
are available for those who want to take this to the next
level.
Next: Free
consultation
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