Untangle your way to the Web

You can create your own Web site if you know your goals and audience … and where to look for a little help.

by Joe Poole   So you’ve decided it’s time to venture into the e-world and put up your own Web site. But there are so many questions. Where do I start? Can I handle this myself? How do I get a dot-com name? What should I put on my site and what should it look like?

Creating your own Web site isn’t rocket science–unless you’re a rocket scientist. (Even then, it’s still just a Web site about rocket science.) You can do it yourself–if you’re pretty comfortable with technology–or you can hire someone to see your vision through from idea to finished site. Another option is to tackle some of it and pay someone to do the rest.

You can tap into all kinds of resources, including Web sites, courses, books, and, best of all, software packages that will help you learn how to create and maintain a site. Tons of companies specialize in Web-site creation, hosting, and maintenance if you prefer a hands-off approach. But whichever route you take, you should answer some questions first.

What is the purpose of this Web site?

The most important question you must answer is what you want your site to do for you. Your decision will impact the rest of the site and its design. If your only goal is to have a Web page to introduce yourself to the public, you can probably put up the site yourself at minimal cost. However, if you want an interactive, database-driven, e-commerce, property-management site, your costs just shot up, and you will probably need some help.

Spend some time with this question. Consider your audience. Be specific about whom you want to communicate with. This will drive the look of your site. If your property-management Web site is aimed at college students, you will want a modern, flashy site. If your target audience is "Winter Texans," you may want a site with larger print, and content and design targeted at a slower-paced lifestyle. You must define the purpose and audience for your Web site before moving on.

What about a dot-com name?

If people can’t remember your Web address, you will have wasted your money creating a site. For that reason, you should register an Internet domain. Otherwise, people can only get to your site if they can recall an impossible-to-remember string of words, characters, and/or numbers.

An Internet domain is your Web address–your piece of the Internet. The ideal Web address is your company name or your name followed by the popular dot-com extension (e.g., joepoole.com). Most people would try these names if they wanted to view your site.

There are several ways to register your domain name. Since the government opened domain registration to entities other than Network Solutions, many companies offer both registration and hosting as a bundled service. Your current Internet service provider may offer this service. Going with your ISP may be the quickest and least complicated way to own your own domain.

You can also register your domain yourself at the Network Solutions site (www.netsol.com), but you have to know the technical information for your Web-site host. Specifically, you need to know the technical contact information, the host machine’s IP (Internet Protocol) address, and the DNS (Domain Name Service) server for that host. For a simple Web site, Web-based registration and hosting is an option also.

Web sites such as Register.com also offer to register domain names and host sites for a very reasonable fee. Again, the purpose of your site will determine the type of registration and hosting service you need.

What content should be on the site?

Now you have to decide exactly what to put on your Web site. If you carefully defined your purpose and audience, the content and style will flow from that. The look and feel should be consistent throughout every page of your site. Make sure to include your Web site name and a link to contact information on every page. You want your visitors to know they are on your site, and you want to make it easy for the public to contact you.

Also, remember that graphics take time to download. Use smaller, simpler JPEGs or GIFs to minimize download times. (See page 28 for information on deciding between JPEGs and GIFs.) For larger images like photos, use a thumbnail of the image as a link to the full size image. Keep in mind that the more efficient and informative the Web site, the more people will view it.

Can I build my own site?

Sure you can! But remember the purpose of the site. As your Web site becomes more complex and requires security, your best bet is to hire an experienced Web designer to build your site. If you are building a less complex site, there are several Web-development programs on the market today. Tools like FrontPage and Dreamweaver enable you to build Web pages without knowing HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) using what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) interfaces. These programs are fairly easy to use, and there have been volumes written on how to use them. Also, many community colleges offer classes on these popular programs. If you know one of these programs, you get the benefit of being able to update and maintain your Web site yourself.

What about maintenance and updates?

Visitors may view your site and like it. However, if you never update the content, visitors will not return. You must also maintain current pages. An example of Web-site maintenance would be changing your address on your Web pages because you moved to a new office. If you can do your own updates and maintenance, you can make changes immediately without any extra hits to your Web budget.

How do I get people to visit my site?

Once you have posted your site, you have to let people know about it. You can submit your URL to search engines like Yahoo! and Google, but the best way to reach your target audience is to place your Web address on everything. Put it on your letterhead, e-mail signature, business cards, yard signs, and all other marketing items. The idea of "build it and they will come" only works for ball fields and casinos–not Web sites.

As you can see, you better do your homework before creating and posting a Web site. Start with the site’s purpose and target audience, as these factors affect every aspect of Web-site creation from choosing the hosting service provider to deciding who maintains the site. Actually, defining the purpose and audience in specific terms makes selecting content pretty easy. And it will certainly influence how you market your Web site.

Study other Web sites to get ideas. Try to determine their purpose and audience. Soon, you will distinguish what makes good sites good and bad sites bad. Use this research to develop your site.

And if none of this makes any sense to you, did I mention that you can hire people to create your Web site from scratch?

Photo © Corbis Images.

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