So far, the following have been discussed:
- The target audience for the web site
- The source of the content
- Organising and preparing the content for the web site
- Converting it to web format
- Uploading it to the web server
- Establishing procedures for maintaining the content
- Establishing procedures for reviewing the content
- Considering the web site's structure
- Considering the web site's look and feel
Which leaves two easy bits to think about:
- What is the web site called, and
- Where is it going to be hosted?
The web site domain name is the online identity for your organisation,
business, etc. A good domain name will score well with a search engine,
convey a trust factor and adds value to the organisation. A long complex
domain name will cause problems, mostly with peoples fingers. Too short
a domain name, the organisation's initials perhaps, is possibly ambiguous
and the best ones are probably already taken. A .com domain is desirable
for a company trading internationally, but not for a local not-for-profit
organisation for which a .org or .org.uk domain name would be more appropriate,
and cheaper. To check whether your chosen domain name is available, use one
of the several on-line domain checkers, some of which also permit domain
registration. Don't sign up just yet.
And, finally, where is the web site going to be hosted? You could host
the web site on your own PC, and connect it to the Internet, but that
makes you responsible for ensuring it is always available, is secure and,
if heavily used, would hog the Internet connection. A web hosting service
is a service that offloads the responsibility of individuals and organizations
for making their website accessible to the Internet. Choosing a web hosting
service can seem a bit daunting - there are so many to choose from, each
offering many options, and it makes sense to enquire locally for advice,
to browse the Internet to evaluate the options and create some sort of
evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria could include the availabilities
of features such as:
- Web space provided
- Bandwidth provided
- e-mail support - redirection and aliases
- ftp access
- Database support sql/msql
- PHP or ASP features
- Perl, Python, Ruby support
- CMS facility
- Internet connection bandwidth and resilience
- Redundant power supply, UPS and generators
Once a decision has been made, the company chosen will probably be
able to also administer the domain name registration.
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