Web Design Checklist
From Training
Contents |
What do I want to do with my website?
- Post information occasionally
- If you only post things like the location and hours of your business and you don't want a lot of traffic then a static website may be in order. However, this is not the best solution for most businesses.
- Post articles regularly (blog)
- If you mostly just post a journal or blog then consider one of the great and easy blog applications like Blogger or WordPress. They are simple to set up and use.
- Let people contact me
- Any technology will let you post contact information. However, if you would like to interact with your clients through comments, chat, or even allowing them to post content and have an identity on your site consider Web 2.0 technologies such as Joomla, Drupal, or Wiki.
- Post pictures and movies
- Static and dynamic sites both allow you to create picture galleries and post media. Most of the technologies allow this through add-ons or additional applications which integrate into the main application.
- Let people form a community
- Static are typically not designed for two-way communication. If your business involves people and word-of-mouth is important consider technologies which allow people to communicate through and on your site and foster community-building.
- Let people post information
- Most Web 2.0 technologies allow users to post information and files if they have sufficient rights. Wiki's, Joomla, and Drupal are all wonderful ways to allow users to post content.
Purchase a domain name
- Make it meaningful, make it simple
- Your domain name must be simple enough to be memorable (and correctly spelled)
- Should be your business name
- People should remember your business name. Keeping your business name and your domain name the same makes life easy for your clients.
- Use hyphens (e.g. Sawyer-Daycare.com)
- In cases where your domain name has multiple words it is sometimes beneficial to use a hyphen. This is usually done to improve your find-ability in search engines.
- Get all three TDL's (com, org, net)
- Once you pick your name get all three TDLs (Top Level Domains) including .com, .net, and .org. Even if you don't think you will use them it is important for your business to own them. If you cannot get all three then consider changing your business name if you can. Consider what would happen to your business if you own Daycare-by-Mandi.com and someone puts up a porn site at Daycare-by-Mandi.net.
- Get common misspellings
- If there is a chance of misspellings get those TDLs as well (or at least .com). Consider plurals.
- Purchasing
- It is often easiest to purchase your domain names from the company you choose to host. Even if you stop using that hosting service you still own your domain names. Price can vary but not by much. Plan to pay around $6-9 per name.
- Email too
- Your domain name will also be your email address. This adds credibility to your business. gsawyer@SawyerTraining.com looks much more credible than hotmama86@yahoo.com. I hope it does anyway.
Choose your technology(ies)
This is the big topic. We now live in a Web 2.0 world. That is great in that we have all kinds of possibilities. It is also great in that setting up a web site is vastly simpler now than it was in the Web 1.0 world. However, it now means you need to know what some of these technologies can (and can't) do for you and how to pick the right one(s).
- Blog (WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, etc.).
- Blogs are the simplest way to get up and running on the net. WordPress, in particular, is frightfully simple to set up. There are reviews and ideas on WeblogMatrix.org you may wish to look at in making your decision.
- Community (Joomla, Drupal)
- Building community is one of the great advantages of Web 2.0. For a business this can be important. If you can get your clients not only coming back to your site for information but contributing to your site and taking ownership in it that is a win for your business. Technologies such as Joomla, Drupal, and MediaWiki make this relatively easy to set up.
- Wiki (MediaWiki)
- MediaWiki is always in a category by itself. Most everyone has used Wikipedia by now. However, how many have contributed to it? Wiki markup language can be a bit intimidating. However, it is a great way to post large quantities of text, allow feedback and editing, and foster collaboration.
- Social Networking (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, TwitterPlaxo, etc.)
- These technologies will be constantly changing. Popularity (and thus business usefulness) will wax and wane. Making use of these technologies is usually very simple but can be time consuming to keep up with the chit-chat that is required. However, if used judiciously, these can be great ways to foster word-of-mouth business growth.
Choose your Hosting Service
- Do NOT choose based on price
- The cost of hosting is often where people try to save a penny. Avoid the temptation. It really isn't worth it. Support will eventually be essential, up-time is important for both your site and your email, backups anyone?.
- Read reviews and get recommendations
- Like anything else you buy or any business agreement you enter into, do your homework. Read reviews. Reputable hosting services should be easily identified by a Google search or positive reviews. Ask the opinion of people who have experience.
- Do they have your applications (don't see it? Ask)
- Most hosting services provide the basic Web 2.0 applications as a part of their service. The applications they host will be listed among their features. If you don't see the one you are looking for send them an email. It may be it just got over looked or they may be willing to add it to their list. If a host can't support a common technology then go to the next host. This is a bad sign that they are probably not keeping their back-end up-to-date.
- Your hosting service will also be your email provider. This should be smooth to set up. If you have been using a web-based email service like Gmail, Yahoo, or MSN, welcome to the wonderful world of POP3. Now you will want to get a good email client for your computer. I strongly recommend Thunderbird by Mozilla (same folks who developed Firefox. Any hosting service will have a page on their support site explaining how to set up email using any given client (like Thunderbird or Outlook). If you are out-and-about a lot you may also want a web based service. You can have both. Use Thunderbird at home and use Gmail when you are out. If you use Gmail in addition, set your POP3 account in Gmail to "Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server." That way your email will all reside on your home computer and be in one place.
- Personal Recommendation
- My personal recommendation here (and there are lots of other opinions) is MyHosting out of Toronto, Canada. I have used them for about 15 years and I am still amazed at the quality of the service and support. The price is competitive. I would avoid GoDaddy I have found their management console to be be completely unusable and impossible to learn, the service is spartan, and they nickle & dime you for every little feature.
Designing and Building
- DIY or Outsource?
- Just like remodeling the bathroom. Sure, you would like to do it. Sure it seems like it would save some money. But do you really know how? Do you really have the time?
- Consider the value of your time (it ALWAYS takes longer than you think)
- What is your time worth? Get a few bids for what you want to accomplish. Consider your time to do the same thing.
- Can you barter?
- If you have friends, co-workers, relatives, clients perhaps you can barter your services for some design work. IF you go this route make sure the person you are bartering with has the skills to do the job. Or make sure you have the patience to allow them to learn on your site.
- Ask for references and samples
- It used to be that anyone who had a copy of FrontPage was a web designer. The expectations have risen dramatically over the past several years. Even for simple work ask for references and samples. If you are paying make sure they can complete the job. Don't wind up with your bathroom torn apart and no running water.
- Can you learn?
- Consider learning what you need to do. The initial design work may be more than you can do but you don't want to pay someone just to change your office hours on your site. Once you choose a technology look into a class or, at least, a good book on the topic. Most Web 2.0 technologies do an amazing amount of stuff but are surprisingly easy to maintain once they are up. Some technologies (WordPress for example) are so easy to set up you would be robbed if someone charged you to set them up.
Maintaining and Growing
- Keep it current!
- To keep people coming back you need to give them a reason. New content, a place for them to collaborate or form community, a monthly recipe, contests, etc. Your site is your image. Are you stale?
- Make it grow (add content, add technologies, expand your networks)
- Constantly look at ways of growing. Add RSS, Google integration, AddThis, Add a Facebook company page, add chat, add Twitter, etc.
- Make this important
- Above all, make this important. Make your website THE means of communication for your business. Put the time and effort into it. Your clients will see that and will respond.
Must have tools
If you aren't on the Google search results you don't exist. Sad, but real, rule of business these days. Learn all you can about SEO and how to improve your site's standings. Read all that Google posts about improving your site. In addition to improving your ratings it will just generally make your site better.
- Google Analytics Register your site and start watching the statistics.
- Google Webmaster Tools Get your site registered and gain important feedback to help improve your site and your ratings.
- Firefox Web Browser is a must have. Period.
