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This Page: How long will it take my site to download? What range of systems will be ok for my site? If I pay for my own domain name, who owns it? Will I be able to form my own links? Will I be able to get feedback from visitors? Will I be able to update my site? Will my site contain other people's advertising? Will you do anything to promote the site? What will be done to attract search engines? Related Pages: The Internet? Why Bother? net-cymru's Answers The Sites Your Own Site Home Page |
Thinking of a website? Ask these questions! In order to be useful, a website has to be seen and to be visited by people who are potential customers. It has to impress and inform. Many websites have the appearance of being business cards floating about in cyberspace. They have only basic contact information, have no links and no meta-descriptors which will bring them to the attention of search engines. The chances are they will be visited only by people who are familiar with the business anyway, who will be none the wiser when they leave. There is nothing magic about having a website. How effective it is will depend on how it's constructed and how effectively you use it. How long will it take my site to download? Probably not the most obvious question to ask, but it's really important! You may have the greatest website in the world, but if your visitor moves on before the page downloads, the opportunity is lost. Most people looking arount the internet don't hang about. Fractions of a second are important! Unfortunately some web page design and graphics software produce files which are much bigger than they need be. Moreover a site can be demonstrated working at a satisfactory speed on a stand-alone computer, but it may be unacceptably slow using a modem. What range of systems will be ok for my site? You have to compromise between having a site which uses the latest jazzy stuff or something which is very plain, but can be read by almost everybody on the net. You need to think about who your likely visitors will be. You need to decide who you can most afford to lose - visitors who will reject something because it's not as flash as something they've seen elsewhere or people who have not upgraded in the past few years. Above all don't leave it to find out that your web designer has lost you customers in ways that you were completely unaware of. If I pay for my own domain name, who owns it? This one is absolutely crucial! If your web designer owns the domain name, then it becomes very difficult to move on. If you are using your site correctly, then you will have spent a considerable effort (and perhaps money) promoting the address. You don't want to have to lose that to get out of an unsatisfactory arrangment. Will I be able to form my own links? In business your contacts are all-important. One way of getting visitors to your site is to form links with other sites. Of course they will probably want a link in return. This is a sensible way of businesses helping each other. But of course if you can't form your own links, then you are excluded from this advantage. Will I be able to get feedback from visitors? Communication is a two-way process! You want to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to contact you. This is normally achieved via an email form on the site, which can be filled in and clicked. Will I be able to update my site? Northing stands still in business and the chances are that the messages you were putting out last year will not be appropriate for this year. If you can't change what's on your site, then you are stuck. Will my site contain other people's advertising? When you purchase a site, you want it to work for you, and other advertising is either a distraction or could even lose you business to competition. Carrying other peoples' advertising is best avoided if you can. Will you do anything to promote the site? It is important to establish the nature of the service. Some designers may consider their work done as soon as the the site is in cyberspace. Others may be able to help with links, submission to search engines, etc. What will be done to attract search engines? There are two types of search engines. The first contains lists of sites which are usually reviewed by humans. Not surprisingly these are usually difficult to get on without payment. A second type is a so-called "web crawler" which visits and indexes sites automatically. To help web crawlers, sites contain additional information which is invisible visitors, but very important from the point of view of bringing your site to the attention of web surfers. A good website will have a title, summary and list of keywords appropriate to every page. An considerable number of websites have nothing at all. If you're still interested, then the obvious thing is to look at net-cymru's Answers if you are thinking of the Electronic Gateway as a possible home for your website. |
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