Websites on a Budget

Posted by admin on September 16, 2010

Like so many things in the information technology (IT) world, web development has undergone significant changes since the early days of the internet. Of course for small and medium size businesses, who may not have dedicated IT staff, the trick is to actually know what options are available to you. When it comes to developing your website the technological advances, software offerings and ever improving hosting services have bought the cost of launching your basic web site from the thousands to the hundreds of dollars.

Introducing Content Management Systems
Today open source (to SME’s this basically means “Free”) Content Management Systems have made redundant the teams of developers who’s labor contributed significantly to the overall cost of the project. Today one clever designer / developer supported by a reliable Website Hosting service can have your website up and running in a single day. Of course this is a basic web site but one that you can be proud to present to your customers.
The efficiency delivered by these systems are only part of what they have to offer, as their popularity grew add-on services or modules came about. These include:

• Product Catalogues
• Shopping Carts
• Newsletter Subscriptions
• Community Management Tools
• Forums
• Payment Gateways, and
• Industry Specific Software

How it works
A website built on a Content Management System (CMS) consists of four components
1. Site Hosting
Hosting refers to the actual computer server, attached to the internet, that stores your website. Most of the leading web hosting companies have responded to the extensive use of Content Management Systems and provided all the necessary tools to host websites built on these technologies as part of their standard package. If your host cant provide these services, you are definitely in with the wrong crowd.

2. Software
The software required includes the CMS itself and a database, which should always be provided by your sites host. In addition this may also include add-on modules and applications previously mentioned.

3. Design Template
The design template is the look and feel of your website, the color, layout, background images, style, size and type of font used. These are replicated across all your pages giving it a consistent appearance, common menus and make it easy for your customers or users to navigate your site.

4. Content
The content refers to the text and images that make up your site. The details about your company, your products, how to contact you and other pertinent information that you want to present.

Bring these four components together and that’s your website.

Engaging a Designer / Developer
When engaging a designer there are a number of points to keep in mind

1. Which CMS will you be supplied with

• Make sure its a popular one like Joomla, if you need to make modifications in the future you want to be sure that other firms can pick up and maintain their work quickly and efficiently.
• The more popular ones are likely to have a range of useful add-ons that if not now may in the future add additional value which further improves the return on your initial investment.

2. Think about your content

• Although a designer can put together the page layout, no one knows your business better than you. You know the lingo you know what your customers ask for. Not only does this add to the professionalism of your site but it also improves the chances of being found when your customers search through Google or Yahoo.

3. Have a rough plan of what you want

• Having a rough plan of what you want enables your designer to quote more accurately and reduces the risk of dispute over price or scope of the work you engage them for.

4. Ensure your Meta Data accurate

• At risk of loosing you here I must introduce the importance of meta data. Most important of all meta data are Titles, Descriptions and Keywords. You designer needs to ensure that the meta data which exists behind the scenes in the web page code is in place and accurate. Otherwise your sites appearance in Google and other search engines will be severely inhibited.

5. Other services

• Professional firms should be able to assist you or at least advise you on a range of other related activities be it support in setting up the email which is attached to your new domain name, advice on how to improve your sites visibility on the web (often termed Search Engine Optimisation) or general computing advice.
• Its always better to form a long lasting mutually beneficial relationship with a single provider than haveing to shop around and take risks with a new provider everytime you need a new service.