The Nitty Gritty of Websites
In the previous two blogs we discussed the goals of your website, what is the purpose, who is your audience, etc. and then we talked about the visitor’s experience - the look and feel of your website. Now it’s time to get down to the details that seem minor, but are just as important.
First off, you need a domain name. In order to establish your presence on the web, you have to reserve the name you would like to use. This is an annual expense, typically paid to a domain registration company such as JubileeDomains.com. Once you reserve the name, it is exclusively yours and will become your address on the web.
The second thing you need to think about is website hosting. In order to be live on the web, your site needs to be "hosted" somewhere. This means that your web pages will be stored on a special computer system that is hooked up directly to the web in order to broadcast them. A hosting service can also offer additional items such as email addresses, space and software for things such as a blog, and many other services.
When you have the details taken care of and the website is starting to look good, it’s time to be thinking about being found by search engines. It’s not enough to just put your website up and cross your fingers that you are miraculously going to get traffic. You need to plan for optimization of your site. This means transforming your site for Google friendly search engines. To start the process, think about keywords or phrases that someone might use to search for you. What would they type into the Google search box? It’s keywords like these that will help people to find you on the web.
As a last thought, start thinking about how you would like to maintain your website once it is finished. A website is never done, it is always growing, changing, and evolving. Do you want to have full control over your website and do every task yourself? Or do you want to have someone else take care of all the changes for you? Naturally these decisions will influence whether you decide to use a platform with a built in content management system (CMS) that allows you control or perhaps you will want to rely on someone else’s expertise in making changes if you are not 100% comfortable doing it yourself.