Guide to Website Development
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Congratulations! Your decision to build a website is an excellent move for your company! We realize it can be a bit of an overwhelming process so here's a guide to help you through this step by step. Domain Name What is a Domain Name? A domain name is a label for your website that replaces a stream of meaningless numbers (an IP Address) with a word or expression. Imagine if you were to identify yourself to your friends with your social insurance number how easy would it be to forget or get it wrong! You cannot "own" your domain name; you can pay to reserve the right to use your domain name - it's a license. Renewal of your domain name each year is very important in order to not lose that domain name to someone else. One of the most important keys to choosing a successful domain name is something easy for your target audience to remember. For example: www.exampleofmyworkforyoutolookat.com is too long, subject to spelling mistakes and hard for people to memorize. www.example.com is a far more effective name. Domain extension is also important and there is much to choose from. You can decide if you wish to reserve several different domain extensions. For example, you may reserve www.example.com, www.example.ca, www.example.net and we will point all of these domain names to one website. Here's a summary of the most popular domain extensions: COM - Domain Name for Commercial EstablishmentsNET - Domain Name for Network Service Providers ORG - Domain Name for Non Profit Organisations BIZ - This is new TLD. This is for Business Firms INFO - This new TLD is for Informational Sites CA - Domain Name for Canada US - Domain Name for United States There are many Domain Name Registrars to choose from and most of them try to upsell you on services. We have found www.godaddy.com to be an easy place to register your domain name affordably - just Skip or Answer NO to the variety of "extras" they offer and you'll be throughtheir secure checkout in no time! Goals Identify the goals of your website. Do you wish to manage your own website or parts of your website? Are selling a product, are there shipping charges or freight considerations to include in your pricing options? Are you simply displaying your product or selling an idea and wanting potential customers to contact you? If you are offering a service, do you have photos of your completed work? What about a testimonials page? Are you offering quotes? The goals of your website need to be identified in the beginning as many options exist for service or industry specific software that are designed for such uses. If you want people to contact you, we need to provide an easy to use form for them to fill out which will transmit their information to you in a meaningful, useful way. If you want to send out newsletters, having a guestbook can help you build your contact list. If you want an interactive site, we can set up several different software options that encourage people to join & communicate. Member options, blogs & forums are just a few ideas of what we offer. These specifics goals will help you target your website and make it work effectively for you and your customers. Content Understand that websites are built page by page, idea by idea and this process is unlikely to occur overnight. If you aren't sure what you should put on your website, consider researching similar products, services and information on the internet which may help give you some direction on whether you want to provide similar information or something totally unique. Stale websites lose traffic & customers. Provide need-to-know information & details, sell your company, product or information with clear & concise content it can be expanded upon at any time! Establish a list of web pages you think you will need.......and do not get overwhelmed, we will provide you with plenty of support & guidance in this area. Content Research Packages VP Graphix also offers research packages if you are concerned with not having the time to build the content of your website, we can help. Our researchers can develop dynamic content to suit your website needs you review, edit and publish when it's complete! Images Better to have no images than bad images. Pictures are worth a thousand words and one poorly displayed product will not sell well. Internet marketing is a visual experience - do not expect your customer to use their imagination or take your word for it! They won't. Instead they will search for another product or service that displays what they want to see. In many cases, the more photographs the better! VP Graphix can help you with professional images and photography just ask! When it comes to displaying images, it's simple - the sky is the limit! During the initial website development we will choose image display based on your level of computer skill, comfort and available time to manage & update this aspect of your website. If you want the keys to your new website when it's finished, the complexity of image display will be considered based on those criteria. If you would like us to update your images allowing for more complex design, we can do that too for a nominal fee. There are plenty of options to choose from and we'll help you through this process!
Colour & Logo What are your company colours & logo? Or would you like to develop these along with your website? If you already have this developed, please feel free to incorporate this into your website design. Marketing VP Graphix has partnered with the Cool Group, one of Canada's largest internet media based companies. Let VP Graphix and Partners help set you up with Traditional Press Release and Social Media Marketing with Local to Global reach!
Our Marketing & Media Partners have contacts with over 8,000 media outlets around the world - outlets that WANT your news. Your news release can be local within your community, National or even international. You choose.
We hope this document has helped provide you with the basic steps of website development.
Contact us anytime This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 250.215.7463
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