What do I Need for a basic Website

What do I need for a Website?

So you’re a small business owner or someone with an idea and thinking about owning a Website but don’t clearly understand the technical lingo and are not sure how it all works.

Web Site Options

One option is to hire a Website developer or Web designer to build and manage your Website, clearly this is the more expensive option up front. Small business owners or individuals on a tight budget do have a second option to keep the cost of a Web site at a minimum, build your own Website.

Build My Own Website?

Sea N Sun as well as most Website design companies would prefer you hire us to build and manage your Web site for the obvious reason; we make more money, but if you can figure out how to use Facebook® or similar you can build your own professional looking Website with little or no experience.

How can I build a Web Site

Sea N Sun offers over 1,500 templates to choose, so pick a design, type your content, add pictures and publish your new Web site, it’s that easy. As you learn you can use formatting and advanced features to enhance your new Web site further.

Web Designer or Build a Website

Step 1 – Web designer or Build my own

· Decide whether you will hire a Web designer or build your own Website.

There are many major differences doing it yourself verses a professional Web designer and a professional will likely produce better results in search engines giving your site more visibility to people searching the Web. But if you have a desire to build your own site don’t let this discourage you, with a little effort and learn as you go attitude you too can produce satisfactory results.

Develop Ideas for Website

Step 2 – Develop a clear idea

· Develop a clear idea what you want or need on a Website.

You need to have a clear idea what you want on your website whether you build it or need to relay your ideas to a Web designer.

What do I need on a Web Site

Think about how many pages you need to cover basic information you want to relay and publish, expanding the site can be done later. The landing page (some call it Home page) should outline all your services or products with links to the other pages. If you offer two types of service then you might want a page on each to detail those services. Other pages might include an about us, contact or meet our staff etc., also think about forms, social networking or affiliations you might want to display on the pages.

Domain Name

Step 3 – Purchase a Domain Name

· You need to search for and purchase (register) a Domain Name

A domain is a name you use to identify the address of your Website. A domain name is like your home address; just as a letter addressed to 52 Main Street, City, State, and Zip Code allows the post office to find and deliver your mail, a domain name allows Web users to find your Website.

What is a good Domain Name

Example: John sells used books and thinks it would be cool to have www.johns.com but a better name would be www.johnsusedbooks.com. Why is www.johnsusedbooks.com better? It will produce better search results with search engines like Google®, Yahoo®, and Bing® to name a few.

Hosting

Step 4 – Purchase Hosting

· You need to purchase hosting

Now that you own a domain name you need a place for the Web Site to live and be found. Hosting companies provide a Web server and private folders that store the files (pages) that make up the Web Site.

Ready for a Website

That’s all you need to get a basic Web site up and running. Please contact us with questions or for information on a more advanced site.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011