Tips and Terms for Your First Website

If you are ready to design and launch your first website for a business, organization or personal project, you need to have a basic understanding of the terminology and some tips to help you get started.

The purpose of your website is to communicate a product, service, charitable mission, or provide information and updates. Many clients get stalled on the design side of the website and forget the primary purpose is to lead the site visitor to a goal point. For your site the goal may be clicking the buy button, joining the organization, attending an event, or requesting more information via the contact form or calling your toll free number. The site design should never slow down or interfere with getting your visitor from the homepage to the goal.

Web Design Step 1: Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is the first step. A domain name is a universal alias which will point your visitor to your website. Once created, your website files, pictures and database will be stored on a computer someplace on the internet. Each computer on the internet has an IP number, its address on the internet. At the time of this article, you can type http://74.125.113.103/ into your web browser and it will take you to Google’s homepage. 74.125.113.103 is the IP address for Google. Since you don’t want your visitors to have to remember a string of numbers, you choose an alias name, google.com, to help them remember your site address.

Domain names are inexpensive, costing under 15 US Dollars annually. You can choose a domain name in advance of building your website at any time, even if you have no immediate plans to use it but want it reserved for you until you put your site online. Many domains are already taken, so you may have to settle for your second or third choice. Use a bulk domain search tool, I recommend GoDaddy’s bulk domain search, as you can type in as many domain ideas as you want and it will tell you which are still available. Keep the domain name as short as possible. Also, pretend to give the domain name over the phone, as you want it to be easy and short to spell out. If your business name is long, go ahead and register the domain name for it, but consider a secondary domain that is short and easy to pronounce via phone, radio, advertisements, casual conversation and for use as an email address. You can set up multiple different domain names to point to the same website. For example, if client’s business name is Russel Ross Moss Specialists, having a domain name “russelrossmossspecialists.com” will be impossible to spell out on the phone, radio, or marketing media. Just imagine giving someone your email address: russel.ross@russelrossmossspecialists.com! We would advise a few alternatives be considered such as rossmoss.com, rrmoss.com, mossspecialists.com, mossremoval.com. One of the four would be chosen as the primary site and for use in all email addresses.

CAMBIO advises our clients to purchase their domain names themselves and just set up the annual renewal payment on your credit card. This way, you will always have full control of where your domain name points to, should you have difficulty with your hosting company (see below).

Web Design Step 2: Find a Hosting Company

Your domain name will point to a computer connected to the internet. This computer is called the “host computer”. Typically they are computers specially designed for speed and redundancy, called server computers. Just like your computer at home may run Windows for an operating system, these host servers run Windows Server operating systems or a Linux operating system. Hosting companies often have hundreds or thousands of server computers all in one room or building called a datacenter.

If you are running a basic website for your business with less than 25 pages regular pictures, and non-critical data, research a host that will host your website for less than 15 US Dollars per month. CAMBIO offers full service hosting for all our web design clients. If you need to host more than three email accounts, store secure files, store critical data to your clients or if you plan to stream video or store large graphics files on your website, speak to your web design company for further suggestions as you may need to purchase your own server or lease a dedicated server for your website. CAMBIO web design services include reviewing all of our clients web design specifications and recommending the proper hosting setup.

Lastly, deeply discounted hosting companies may not have a technical support phone number or quick turn around service should you run into technical problems with your website. Before making a decision on hosting company, research their customer support as well.

Web Design Step 3: Build Your Website

Your website has a job to do: get your site visitor from the homepage to the goal point. Well designed sites get visitors to the goal point efficiently and aesthetically. Consider your favorite shopping mall. If the natural light, open spaces, lounge chairs, and architectural features do not help sell items at the stores, then they are wasted and unnecessary. The design elements of a website work the same way. Do not begin designing your website until you have determined the goal point of the website.

Seek out a website designer through referrals of friends, local organizations, and trusted business network contacts. Do not hire relatives or close friends as it will be uncomfortable to tell them you don’t like something, their price is too high or they need to hurry up and meet a deadline. Review the sites in the designer’s portfolio of previous projects. Ask your referrals how long the designer took to get their site online. Clients often have an unrealistic expectation of how much time it takes to create and launch a website. Typically, the first 90% of a website gets built fast and then the last 10% takes the longest as details and finer design/functional aspects are agreed on. Many CAMBIO clients tell us their previous designer started off strong until it came time to put the finishing touches in place and launch the site, at which point they stopped returning calls and meeting commitments.

At your first meetings with web design candidates, bring them examples of websites that you like. These examples may be sites that are unrelated to your project or similar. By reviewing these examples, your designer will get a clear impression of your design style, preferences on color palettes, and desired website functionality. Ask the designer to explain how your sample sites function, why the graphics and colors are appealing, what would a similar site cost, and have them show you sites in their portfolio that are similar. Agree on how often you will receive a written status update or maintain an action item list. After this conversation you will have a better understanding of the professionalism, style, competencies and price of the designer.

Creating a website for your business, organization, or personal activities will be an exciting and positive experience that results in a site that compliments your products, services, or project. A skilled and competent designer will keep you well informed of progress, stay on schedule, and create a website you are excited to launch.