Web Site Design Pages

Beginners Guide to Websites

Website Content is Everything

What is Good Web Design

Beginners Guide to E-Commerce

My Approach to Web Design

Content Management Systems

Other Web Site Services

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Disability Accessibility

Hosting

Domains

Websites for beginners

Website Design

First consider

• What do you want a website for?
• Who is it aimed at?
• What do you want to say on your website?

"Text content is priority one, graphic design isn't ...."

I would advise you to draft your content first before getting your website designed - most times it is done the other way around which means the website design is often focusing a bit too much on graphic design. So too much importance is being attached to appearance and not enough is being attached to content. People visit most websites to get something from the content - the appearance is secondary.

If you want some ideas for content for your website I have included some in my "Website Content is Everything" article.

It is however helpful for the web designer to have some basis to work from so if you have some sort of brand image already (perhaps a logo, some colours, leaflets etc) then this provides the website designer with a theme to base the appearance on. If not the website design can be done from scratch.

Search Engines

Do you want your website to be found in the search engines?

If you do then lots of good quality text content is what search engines like. Think about what your website visitors might type in a search engine to find you - keywords and phrases - then you need to make sure the text content of your website includes these keywords prominantly.

I have written a beginners guide to search engine optimisation to give you an overview of what makes a search engine friendly website.

If you are offered search engine optimisation that does not involve changing the text visitors see on your website, stay well clear - you may be putting your website at risk of being banned from the search engines for cheating.

Disability Accessibility and Website Design

It is illegal for your website to discriminate against disabled people.

Some people have sight, hearing, mobility or information processing disabilities that affect the way they use the web. Others may just access the web in an unusual way or use one of the large array of web enabled machines available.

Good web design techniques associated with web accessibility have a positive effect on a website's effectiveness in search engines. They also help with browsing a website on other web enabled devices such as mobile phones and PDA’s with little or no extra effort. Unfortunately the most commonly used web site design techniques only allow for the most common methods of accessing the web by the fully able.

If you have a website that is illegal, currently it is unlikely to result in legal action being brought against you as this is not happening in the industry, unless you have a really high profile website. However it is likely to be losing you custom, which you are just unaware of, for a variety of reasons.

You can read more about website disability accessibility issues if you are interested.

DIY or use a web designer

"Almost anybody can create a website but should they?"

I'm biased of course but I have been designing websites since 1999 and I still feel there is more I don't know than I do.

If you are going to do it yourself do not underestimate the scale of the task or the level of skill and experience required to create a good website. It is quite easy to create a poor website - have a look around - I am sure you can find loads.

If you see "create your own website in minutes, no skill required, lots of templates to choose from" or something similar - what is really on offer? Well it will be cheaper, you will have to do most of the work and it will probably take you a while before you realise "you got what you paid for".

If you do not already know quite a lot about website design I would definitely advise you to get it done professionally.

Domain Name

A name for your website eg www.mysite.co.uk

A website needs an address - this is called the domain name.

"If a web designer buys your Domain name for you make sure it is done in your name."

Domain names are leased on a 2 year basis normally - they can be obtained from specialist Domain name companies such as www.123-reg.co.uk or the same supplier as your Hosting. For most beginners it is probably easier to buy both together as this is probably simpler and is also likely to give you an email service ready to use as well.

On the down side if you later want to move your hosting to another supplier having to move your Domain name might be a headache.

.com or .co.uk?

.com tends to suggest USA, .co.uk definitely indicates UK based. .coms are around £10 per year, .co.uks around £5 per year.

.org and .org.uk suggest charity or club.

Others - I would not bother as people guessing your web address are not likely to try them.

Website Hosting

putting your website on the web

A website needs to be hosted - placed on a server with reliable, constant access to the internet.

This is an ongoing cost, payable monthly or annually. This you can organise directly yourself (so you are in control) but I would advise you to seek the advice of your website designer - not all Hosting is the same.

Shared Hosting or Dedicated Hosting

"Shared or dedicated, windows or linux?"

Shared hosting is the cheap option and means you are renting some web space on a big server loaded with many other websites. It is more restrictive, not as secure, can be less reliable and can be slower - it's pot luck as it depends on all the other sites on the server. In general you get a lot more bundled in such as web site statistics and email. For most small web sites it is the obvious choice and likely to be perfectly satisfactory.

Dedicated hosting means you are renting the whole server so you get exclusive use. This is more likely to be the choice for bigger websites, online shops and so on. Email is unlikely to be included and will need to be dealt with separately.

Shared website hosting can be obtained for almost no cost but the penalty for this is reliability, speed and support. Most business class web hosting starts at around £10-£20 per month - www.1and1.co.uk is a good choice, I think they provide reasonable support and quite a lot of extras built in to allow you to develop extra features on your website as you get more experienced (like newsletters, surveys etc).

Hosting can also be Windows or Linux based -the choice affects the programming languages and database tools available to use on your website so I would seek advice from your website designer.

Email?

Do you need email associated with your Domain name? - this is often provided with a Hosting package for small organisations.

Email comes in 2 parts:

• POP (or POP3) which is email delivery and
• SMTP which is sending email.

So you collect you email from a POP box and you send your email through a SMTP service.

Basic email services just provide you with POP (or just email forwarding to another email adress) and you have to send email via another route such as your ISP.

website maintenance

Content Management Systems (CMS)

"CMS - great or more trouble that it is worth?"

You can have a Content Management System (CMS) built into your website to allow you to make (limited) changes yourself in a friendly interface that doesn't require much understanding of the coding behind websites. This can add significantly to the initial website design cost, ties you in to the software used and imposes a lot of restrictions on the website. This can work well for people who have some web experience who want to make frequent straightforward updates to their site - it is not for everyone however.

You can read more about the Content Management Systems options available if you wish.

Website maintenance done for you

Web designers will often offer a monthly fixed cost basis, or a pay by the hour as required. If you are likely to several significant updates a month a monthly fixed cost option might be better. If you are likely to need less frequent updates - a pay as you go option might be more suitable.