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Website Design
Planning and Promoting Your Website
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History of the Internet 1958 - Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is founded by the US
government in response to Sputnik launch. Network to ensure military could keep running by being decentralized
1969 – Birth of the Internet – The physical network was constructed in 1969, linking four nodes: University of California at Los Angeles, Stanford Research Institute (SRI), University of California at Santa Barbara, and University of Utah. The network was wired together via 50 Kbps circuits. (Today’s backbone – 13.271 Gbps or 111,325,216.76 Kbps)
1972 - First e-mail program was created.
1973 - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) was developed.
1983 - The University of Wisconsin created Domain Name System (DNS).
IP Address = Domain name, 146.186.157.8 = www.psu.edu
1992 - Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CERN) releases World Wide Web, created by Tim-Berners Lee.
1993 – Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina at NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) release Mosaic, the first Web browser.
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Reasons for being online To Establish a Presence
1.73 billion Internet users in 2009. 13% in North America. 42% in Asia. 24% in Europe. Approximately 20% growth per year. Many new users coming from cell phone and smartphone usage.
To Network
“If you are ever need of my services, this is how you can reach me.”
To Serve Your Customers
Making business information available is one of the most important ways to serve your customers.
Release Time Sensitive Materials
To Answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
No longer answer the same questions over and over again on the phone.
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Benefits … Updated Information available instantly
Electronic publishing changes with your needs. No paper, no ink, no printer's bill.Your website can grow and change as your business grows and changes.
To Reach more people with less effort and cost
The media is the most wired profession today, since their main product is information and they can get it more quickly, cheaply and easily on-line.
Easier communication, 24x7 An instant e-mail response can be built into Web pages and can get the answer while its
fresh in your customers mind, without the cost and lack of response of business reply mail.
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Do You Really Need a Web Site?
Online alternatives: Classified Ads (Craigslist) Email/e-Newsletter Newsgroups Online Auctions (eBay) Blogs Twitter, Facebook, etc…
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Stages ofWeb Site Development Determine budget Register domain name(s) Select web host Create a plan, on paper Select web designer Create a dynamic site
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Domain names What is a domain name?
| Your address on the Internet
Why do you need one?
Users can’t find you on the Internet without one Generic/free: www.geocities.com/mycompany Personalized: www.mycompany.com
How do you get a domain name?
Registrar services like GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com), Register (www.register.com), Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com), and many others.
How much does it cost?
Free to $35 per month.
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Criteria for Finding a Web Hosting Service
Products and services (what packages are available)
Start up costs vs. ongoing fees
Local hosting vs. national or regional hosting (who should you select and why)
Connection to the Net, redundancy, server reliability (T1, T3, OC-48, 56K modem in garage?)
Reputation, Customer service, tutorials, FAQs (ask friends, research,
review the hosting service’s web site, phone vs. email support)
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Monthly Web Site Costs Web hosting fees
$0 – 100+ / month
Domain name Once a year cost, not monthly.
Web page content updating $0 - $50 / hour
Online marketing/advertising (depends upon vendor/package)
Credit cards: Merchant account:
monthly fee
$15-50+ / month discount rate
2-5% of amount transaction fee
.15-.30 / transaction Web host transaction fee
0-.05+ / transaction
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“Free" Web Hosting ServicesDisadvantages:
Forced Advertising (no free lunch) May or may not be able to use own domain name Search engines may not index Hidden or upgrade fees
Advantages:
Templates for page design Beneficial to those with a very limited budget Easy way to get started
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Examples of “Free" Web Hosting angelfire.lycos.com
www.fortunecity.com/free
www.doteasy.com
www.freeservers.com
free.prohosting.com
www.webs.com
www.freewebspace.net (search engine for free sites)
Google?
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Basic Web SiteDevelopment Costs Domain name registration
Free (advertisements / limited space) $8.95 - $35 per year
Web page design
$50-$150 / page $250 - $2,500 / entire site
Web host setup fee
$0 - $50+
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Should I Create My Own Web Site?
Software Editors
Adobe Contribute CS4 / Dreamweaver (www.adobe.com)
Microsoft Expression (www.microsoft.com)
Kompozer (www.kompozer.net) – free, open source
Pure HTML editor
Textpad (www.textpad.com) UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com) BBEdit (www.barebones.com)
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Should I Create My Own Web Site?
Web-Based Content Management Systems
WordPress -- (www.wordpress.org)
Joomla – (www.joomla.org)
Mambo – (www.mamboserver.com)
Cushy – (www.cushycms.com)
Drupal – (www.drupal.org)
CMS Made Simple (www.cmsmadesimple.org)
Wix – (www.wix.com) – Flash-based
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Hiring a Web Site Designer
Give your business a professional appearance
To find a designer:
Interview customers Evaluate web sites Compare services Site maintenance services (you or them?)
What do these mean to you
HTML XML CSS ASP PHP EAR, WAR
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Web Site Template Examples
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Web Site Templates Quick way to deploy a web site Professionally designed site with files, pictures, animations, sounds
included Tons of categories and styles to choose from (thousands of
templates available) Economical: $30-$100 for 6-10 page complete web site or free! Vendors: TemplateMonster (www.templatemonster.com), AllWebCo
(www.allwebco.com), Open Design Community (www.opendesigns.org) and Open Source Web Design (www.oswd.org). Over 8,000 templates combined from these sites.
Cons: “cookie cutter” design, others can purchase and use for their site as well, must know how to manipulate files (HTML, Photoshop, Flash) or know someone who knows how to work with them, must purchase necessary tools for manipulation/configuration.
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Web Hosting Service Templates Using tools provided by the web host themselves
Yahoo -- http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting(Click on “See How It Works” to review their web site tool, SiteBuilder)
GoDaddy --https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/website.asp(Their tool is called WebSite Tonight)
1 & 1 -- http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/FeatureSite-buildingWsb (Their tool is called WebsiteBuilder)
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Databases: The Power Behind E-Commerce
Databases are used by: Online calendars TV schedules Web forums and listserv discussions Online greeting cards, quizzes, and surveys Online newspapers and magazines Online Shopping
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Web Site no-no’s Vanity (We’re the best!) Stale content (Last updated May 5, 2003) Stale site design (hasn’t been updated in years) Shoddy workmanship (misspellings, bad grammar) Hiding the good stuff (too many layers of content) Graphicus horrendous (image takes up whole screen) Contact info where? (should be on every page) Lack of promotion (not listed on business cards,
letterhead, invoices, vehicles)
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Do a “Check-Up” On Your Web Site
NetMechanic (www.netmechanic.com)
Checks for HTML errors, broken links, load time, spelling errors, browser display/problems
Web Site Grader (www.websitegrader.com)
Measures marketing and search engine optimization effectiveness.
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How Usable Is Your Site?
UseIt.com
Site is run by Dr. Jakob Nielsen, preeminent expert on web site usability
www.useit.comSign up for his Alertbox column via e-mail.
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Promoting Your Web Site
Tell Everyone About It Search Engine Optimization Social Networking Decide about Banners Consider Affiliate Programs Send a Press Release Web Analytics Deal with Business Email Your Email Signature
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Tell Everyone About It
Help search engines find you Use meta tags Register with search engines Pay for search results or keywords
Exchange links Include URL (domain name) on all materials Use traditional media
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How Internet Consumers Find Web Sites
Method % Mentions Search engines 81% Link from another site 59 Word of mouth 56 TV 48 Guessed URL 41 Online advertising 20 Radio 19 Direct mail 10
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Use META Tags
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>My Company Name(800)123-4567 and keywords
that describe company</TITLE>
<META Name="description" Content="My company makes this or that. Put your 200 character maximum company or product description here">
<META Name="keywords" Content="company_name, industry, keywords, "search phrases", approximately 500 characters / 20 phrases maximum "></HEAD>
<BODY>...
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How Search Engines Find Your Site
1. Keywords2. TITLE tags3. Description4. Descriptive URLs5. Keyword-rich links6. Headings7. ALT tags8. Inbound/Outbound links (page rank / web rank)
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Consider Paid Search Programs like Google AdWords, Yahoo Sponsored Search
http://adwords.google.com
http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing/
Use WordTracker’s Free Keyword Suggestion Tool to select keywords for your site. (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com)
Tool will provide you with multiple keywords (word stemming) and the results for a previous full calendar month.
Allows you to set an overall budget or price per keyword Example: Bid of .10 for “Pittsburgh shoes”. Budget is $100. Placement in paid search column depends on bid amount for each keyword. Each time someone clicks on your link in the ad, your bid amount is
deducted. After 1000 clicks (.10/click x $100), your ad will disappear from the paid
search area.
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Social Networking Facebook – www.facebook.com
Set up a page for your business Invite your friends to become a “fan” of your page Place a “Become a Fan” link on your web site
Twitter – www.twitter.com
Set up an account for your business Place a “Follow us on Twitter” link on your web site
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com
Encourage each of your employees to set up a profile Make sure list your company web site on your profile.
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Decide about Banners
Free banners from banner exchange programs or charitable organizations
Paid banner advertising
Free tools like AdButler (www.adbutler.com) and phpAdsNew (http://www.phpadsnew.com) can be used to rotate banners and track click-throughs.
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Affiliate Programs
Your website advertises others Pay for performance, not clicks May generate a lot or next to nothing Can be time consuming
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Send a Press Release
Attract free publicity for your website and business products and services.
• www.refdesk.com/paper.html
• www.onlinenewspapers.com
• http://www.prwebdirect.com/pressreleasetips.php (tips for writing press releases)
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Web Analytics
Learn how your site is being utilized Record of every time a webpage is accessed Measure progress and potential Identify strengths and weaknesses of a site Should you use a counter? Counter Programs: Site Meter (www.sitemeter.com),
StatCounter (www.statcounter.com) Web Analytics Programs: Google Analytics (
www.google.com/analytics), WebTrends (www.webtrends.com), Mint (www.haveamint.com), Webalizer (www.webalizer.org) and AWStats (www.awstats.org)
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Deal with Business Email Business email is big business Email tips & tricks (HTML templates, aliases) Handling the flood of mail (set up filters/folders) Using auto responders Starting your own email newsletter
MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com) Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) Campaigner (www.campaigner.com) Your Mailing List Provider (www.ymlp.com)
Creating an email signature for marketing
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Your Email Signature
Jane Doe, Sales Manager
Fine Products: http://www.fineproducts.com
(507) 123-4567 or (507) 123-4568 (fax)
Rated #1 widget distributor by Gadgets Today! (or) Be sure to ask about our Internet widget special! (or) Download our award winning "Widgets in Motion"
screensaver now.
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Web Site Assessments
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Thank You!
