Content
Content of the website is just as important to the design and the functionality,and well written content can put you in with the higher ranks on Google. The small business site developer, however, usually will rely on the client to put it together. When doing the initial sales call it is important that it is understood that development and content are two separate tasks. Get as much information about the business as possible to create a final product that stands out from the rest. In the sales stage, give the client a rough estimate of the number of pages he/she has to work with primarily to give a cost estimate. When the contract has been signed that gives a cost to the client and a completion time for developer, the work begins. Give the client an outline of what websites normally include such as a background on the company, where The location of the business is, and contact information. Ask what they want the website to convey to the people visiting, etc. The text should be submitted to you in a .txt file, but always be willing to work with the client to get the site up as soon as possible. Keyword and rich content gets the search engine rank up and promotes a click through.
CSS
Images
There are a few rules to adhere to when creating and publishing images on the web. Speed , format, and colors. Speed is a function of the size of the image. There is no need to have an image for the web any more detailed than 72-100 ppi(pixels per inch). There is a tool in most photo editing software to save the image for the web. This is one of the best features for optimizing an image. The formats that are compatible with all browsers are JPEG, GIF, and PNG. Images that have vivid contrast and large areas of a single color are better in GIF, and images like photographs that use continuous tones are more suited to JPEG. Most monitors today conform to true color which can display 16 million colors. 16 million colors gives the developer an ability to use any type of photography.Strict xhtml will require text alt tags for photos. It's always a good idea to include keywords in the alt tag to increase searchability.
Menus
Menus can make or break a site. There needs to be a flow to the information that keeps the person visiting interested in what information there is and where to find the information. A totally CSS,javascript menu system makes good sense because there is cross browser compatibility. There are plenty of sites that offer templates or tutorials for navigational menus and most are fully customizable. If time is precious in getting the website functional there is the option of a buying and downloading a ready to go navigational menu creation software. There are many support forums throughout the internet that provide access to many problem solving techniques for CSS menus. Using frames can isolate the menu from the main content but this system has pros and cons. There is the benefit of not rewriting the navigation code to every page, but can get complicated if there are several frames being used,or the person accessing the site is using a browser that is not frames compatible. For example, the index page consisting of a main frame and a navigation frame would be alot less complicated than one with a header, footer, navigation and main frame.
Mobile Development
The mobile browser is gaining momentum and developing web content for a mobile browser becoming a necessity. Now more than ever people are accessing the internet through a mobile device. There are about as many opinions on how to approach development for these miniature browsers as there are different versions. One approach is to literally ignore them. That's right, some developers are just crossing their fingers and hope rendering is acceptable. For a totally mobile website , W3Schools has a WAP, Wireless Application Protocol, tutorial that seems like a good place to start. WAP uses WML, Wireless Markup Language, in a similar way that a regular browser uses HTML. WMLScript is used in WML as a scripting language that is comparable to a light version of Javascript. WMLScript can be used to validate user input and generate content. Content can be stylized for different media using one stylesheet with a media specification, but not all browsers will recognize CSS in the mobile platform. Smartphones are here to stay and development is in a stage of transformation. Like the early days of the browser, general standards will develop over time.
Special Characters
Html contains special characters that need to represented properly to show up correctly on the web page. They are reffered to as character entities. Each character entity begins with and ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon(;). Both the amersand and the semicolon are absolutly necessary to be interpreted properly. Some are interpreted with numbers, some with words, and some numbers or words. For example, the copyright symbol(©) can be represented as © or ©. Googling the phrase "special characters html" will bring up a number of sites that have quick refrence.to most of the symbols. W3Schools is has a nice list and because they set the standards for web code, the list can be considered reliable. A cheat sheet is always nice to have on hand for quick refrence.
Browsers
The top browswers include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Chrome.There is conflicting data about which browser is most widely used. Explorer has always been number one but Firefox use has graduated to a near tie in popularity. The changing useage makes it important that proper testing is done before a site is launched. Internet Explorer renders certain CSS and HTML differently than Firefox. If you test your pages in Chrome and Firefox, then it should be ok with Opera,without many differences, but certain versions of Explorer may be different. One way to work with the differnt style rendering is to publish different CSS files for each browser. Specify in the head tag which CSS to load in relation to the broweser accessing the page. The code that tells the page to load a specific CSS is a conditional comment.
Templates vs Originality
There are two basic foundations in the structure of websites, style and functionality. The developer who can logically flow through lines of code without stopping very often to see what it looks like could be classified stronger in the area of funcionality. Those who take into consideration the color scheme and layout without regard of how it will fit programmically into the implementation are stronger in aesthetics. For a balance, logical thinker will benefit greatly from templates. Any search engine will bring up a multitude of choices to consider. Usually the person purchasing the template can choose between a one time use fee and to purchase the template outright. The aesthetically talented will know what they want the site to look like, and can breeze through css layout and color coordination but may face a hiccup when it comes to elements like data access and javascript. There are a multitude of programming discussion sites with everything from asp to Ruby on Rails. The choices are endless, just Google what your looking for whether templates or code snippets to get impressive balanced results.
Business Cards
As an individual selling services, which is what someone designing and publishing websites for small businesses does, there will be a fair amount of marketing to keep the job inquirys coming in. A business card can go a long way for a small cash outlay. There are several online vendors that allow designing remotely over the internet. A few thing to take into consideration include color, graphics, and what informnation to include. Always have a website, phone number, and email along with the name of yourself as well as the company represented. A basic statement such as "We sell for less" or "Quality is our focus" is fine. Color and graphics play a role as well. By Googling "how to choose a business card", a list of business card printers as well as tips and tricks will be available. For as little as $5.99 for 250 cards vistaprint.com can get the process started.
By purchasing a few holders and setting them in a business you frequent it is a good way to get your name out,and leads will slowly trickle in.
Abbreviations
When it comes to IT acronyms and abbreviations,these may help.
BLOG - Web Log
CGI - Common Gateway Interface - Scripts are processed serverside, can be used with a few different languages. Used with HTML forms.
CIO - Chief Information Officer - Head of IT for a company.
COBOL-Common Business-oriented Language
CONFIG - Configuration
CPU - Central Processing Unit
CSS - Cascading Style Sheet
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format (image file name extension)
HDD - Hard Disk Drive
SaaS - Software as a Service
ICANN - International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol
RoR - Ruby on Rails
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
SQL - Structured Query Language
AVI - Audio Video Interleave
Small Business Statistics
It's always a good idea to stay on top companies and individuals who work with web development.Velvet Blues,a web development company, posted in their blog that "According to a joint study conducted by Nielsen and WebVisible, 44% of small businesses do not have websites". That is and incredible statistic. They go on to name 4 of the biggest myths that are primarily to blame. I agree with Velvet Blues that these are myths and would like to consider Myth#4, Traditional ads are more effective. Traditional ads are considered newspapers and phone books. Consider phone books for a moment. They sit in the closet, get dusty, and sometimes may be utilized as a boost to an office chair facilitating use of a computer to search for a business.Consider the ads themselves, not just the container the ads are distributed in. Advertisements contain websites. A good reason to have a website address in your ad is content. To publish half of the information most websites deliver in a newspaper or phone book would involve full page ads with astronomical rates. Thank you for posting these myths and proving them bogus, Velvet Blues. Hopefully it will help business owners to stop advertisement budget bleeding. Maybe a few trees will be saved in the process as well.
.doc ? .txt ? wysiwyg?
Plan it Out
Organizing and planning a website thoroughly is essential. By keeping a dedicated flash memory, it reduces the risk of loosing files. A theme tablet is useful for recordings ideas, hours spent on the job and resources.For a small business website, even a one gigabyte flash storage will usually suffice, and Amazon has two gigabyte USB flash drives for under eight dollars with shipping included. Keep the flash drive in a clasp type folder with a notebook. By keeping good notes in a centralized location it makes updating the website much easier in the future.Commenting notes in the actual code is good too but all the text loads when a page is requested and it may not be wise to let the comments get too large. When it is time to invoice for the job, the hours will already recorded and can serve useful for compiling estimates on similar projects. Organizing and planning properly will ensure that one project will be a foundation for another.
Personal Web Server
Next Post we will learn a bit about FTP transfer to get your files from your computer to your host server.
From Your Computer to Your Virtual Host
Search Engines
Your Bit of Real Estate on the Internet
Websites are connected by a network of larger networks of networks. Websites are published on a computer connected twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to that network. You can rent space on computers that will stay connected with your website all the time. The process of renting the space is called virtual hosting. There are quite a few companies that offer this service but the best thing is to go with an established, well rounded one. I prefer Network Solutions. They have been around for awhile and offer nice combination plans for start ups. If you host with them for a one year contract, ask about how you can get your domain registered free. Another nice perk is their customer service. If tech support can't answer your question, they get someone who can. Most providers of hosting packages will include an email account (or 100) so that you can receive email with the format of yourname@yourdomain.com. Network Solutions offers 300 Gigabytes of space for $10 a month. That includes 25 email addresses and free registration of your domain. We will review a sample of hosting providers in another post and should you decide you were not happy with your hosting, it is not difficult to switch.
In our next post we will discuss how to setup a virtual server on your desktop
Register Your Dot Com
The address of your website is registered with a domain name server to allow user friendly names. ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a non profit organization that oversees the registration of top level domains. Those registrations for names can be done through companies with more well known names like Yahoo, Go Daddy and Network Solutions. I personally like the service at Network Solutions and would recommend them for domain registration and server space. There are several suffixes to choose from and are not limited to .com. Organization is represented by ".org", network ,".net", and governmental agencies by ".gov".
The name you want to use is subject to availability and may require a creative thought process to find a name that is not taken with the suffix you want.
Trial and Error
A good way to approach trying name availability is with ten names to try at first instead of just one. For example, if you want autoparts.com, make a list that would include variations of that like easyautoparts.com, ezautoparts.com, netautoparts.com.
Once you have a list you can try it out at Network Solutions for free. They will also let you know what is available in .net, .org, .biz and others.
Free School
In the last post we talked about setting up a work space with a computer, internet access, and a filing system based on paper. Here we will discuss a learning option that is thorough and free of charge. There are many different ways to approach publishing a website, but all are based on the cornerstone of HTML. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML can be formatted on the screen in different ways but the universal approach is with CSS. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee the international organization that standardizes the World Wide Web is the WC3. WC3 stands for the World Wide Web Consortium. The WC3 offers free tutorials that are well constructed and are useful to both beginners and seasoned developers alike.
W3C Schools are step by step. You do not need to have any knowledge before you start the HTML, and you do not need any special tools. They have quizzes where you can test what you have learned at each level. In addition to the quizzes they offer an application where you can test out what you are being taught. Once you know the fundamentals of HTML, CSS, and XHTML you’re given an option to take an exam and get certified as an HTML Developer. There is a $59 fee to take the test but all the learning materials are free of charge.
Next post we will look into registering a name for the website.