Planning your website
It is important to take the time to plan what you want in your website before you
start approaching firms for quotes. The more information you have on what you want
your website to achieve then the easier it will be to get accurate quotes and ensure
you get what you want.
Content Management Systems
In today's day and age, it is absolutely essential that businesses and organisations
have the ability to update their own website by adding, editing and removing sections
and having full control over the content of their website.
You should ensure that your website has a
content management system so you do not need to rely on your website designer
to make changes to your website on your behalf (which costs money and takes time).
A good content management system will allow you to easily make updates to your website
and add new information by using a special 'administration area' of your site.
Ecommerce Websites
If you are planning on selling products online then you will need an
ecommerce website. Ecommerce simply means 'electronic commerce' and gives
your website the ability to sell and take payments automatically.
When planning an ecommerce website, you should ensure you prepare the following:
- You will need to decide which payment gateway to use with your website.
Here is an article on choosing a payment gateway.
- Ensure you get good product shots for your website. The photos used on your website
will be selling your products so it is important to use professional photography
to ensure you have the best possible photos. Many suppliers will be able to supply
you with photography for your website but please be aware that content on other
websites may be copyright and you should therefore get permission before copying
content or photos off other websites.
- Ensure that your website will be able to handle credit card payments, direct deposit
and cheque payments. If you only accept credit cards you will lose out on a percentage
of your potential market who may not have credit cards or not trust the internet
for credit card transactions.
Custom Built Websites
If you are looking for a custom built website, you need to ensure you have put down
on paper exactly what you want the site to feature. The best way to do this is by
creating a 'site map'. This can be as simple as a list of pages you want your website
to have (such as a home page, about us page, contact form, etc.) or as complex as
a flowchart showing all the pages, sub-pages and how each page should link to each
other.
Another important aspect is deciding on what you want the site to look like. The
best thing to do here is to have a look around the Internet and write down a list
of sites you like and what you like about them (eg. you may like how a certain site
does its menus and how another site has an animated introduction). You should also
do the same for sites you don't like so your designer knows what things to avoid.
If you take the time to do this, you can save a lot of time, money and frustration
when getting your website designed.
Domain names and hosting
In order to have your website running on the internet, you need two things.. a domain
name and a hosting package.
A domain name is the actual 'address' of your website (eg. www.mantistech.com.au).
A domain name is necessary for a website and you can register one at http://domains.mantishosting.com.au/store/.
When you have your website up and running you also require 'hosting'. This is where
your website and domain name is placed on a server so that it can be accessed 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. There are quite a few options when it comes to hosting
and prices can vary but you should also look for hosting providers that supply daily
backups, website statistics and good backup service. We can provide top level hosting
at competitive pricing at www.mantishosting.com.au.
Getting Started
Select an item below for information on getting started with your new website: