Essential Guide to Build a Website

Sun, Jul 20, 2008, by Santiago Stoetzel

Web Design

The guide is created to accompany you and let you achieve a profound understanding of the dynamics of Web Hosting. When buying a web host, there are an array of processes and activities one must follow. The steps below hold significant value and provide the fundamentals of a potential website.

Step #1 Define Website Goals

The very first proponent of developing anything is to have clear objectives of the project. A good way to start is by having a brainstorming session and then filtering important points that give an idea of where you’re headed. Some businesses already have an objective; they just have a need to be online. Even if this is the case, the internet is a very distinct channel that requires an addition effort. Defining website goals require the alignment of three primary users:

  1. The Business owner
  2. The Customer
  3. The Web Developer/Designer

Having a competitive advantage requires a firm to see its audience better than its competitors. So the website goals should be a synthesis of segmenting dimensions of a target audience such as behavioral (needs, benefits sought, thoughts, rate of use, purchase frequency, brand familiarity), geographic (Region of world, country or city) and demographics (Income, sex, age, family size, occupation, education, race, social class). Once you have known your clientele, the information acts as a catalyst in the whole development process. Business and web developer goals should yield to any customer needs.

For Example: So I want to start a local dating website. I know there are four more websites that offer the same service and I know there is potential for a niche audience. In the following table, I have dissected my audience, and I have written down my ideas which relate to my target audience:

Target Audience:

  1. Age range 26-58
  2. Majority are females
  3. Area is lower-middle class
  4. Live in the southwest side that has many restaurants, clubs and Movie Theater.
  5. Have affordable high speed internet
  6. Crime is relatively high

Business Goals:

  1. Have an age limit.
  2. Web design that attracts women.
  3. Offer free service.
  4. Charge members only after dating.
  5. Video support and multiplayer games.
  6. Offer inexpensive background checks.

Step #2 Identify Website Needs

Once you have achieved the specifics of your website, you should begin the website development process. Sit down with your web developer or if you are the developer, I recommend reading the goals as a developer and not as a business owner. In this stage, the developer should fulfill the demands of the business goals and engage in an active construction of your website. Developer’s primary objective here is to envision your ideas and make them live on a web browser. Easy as it sounds, the process is the most comprehensible and painstakingly long. It may take up to several months for a developer to identify and test scripts, applications, software, etc. You will find below how a web developer shapes their objective.

Define Web Developer goals that satisfy business goals:

Business Goals:

  1. Have an age limit.
  2. Web design that attracts women.
  3. Offer free service.
  4. Charge members only after dating.
  5. Video support and multiplayer games.
  6. Offer inexpensive background checks.

Web Developer objectives:

  1. Create JavaScript form validation.
  2. Design a red and black color CSS theme.
  3. Have a MySQL maintained database
  4. Incorporate credit card transactions
  5. Develop ASP.net dynamic web pages
  6. Third party application integration

Step #3 Search for a Congruent Web Host

The last part of beginning website development is to find a feasible web host. A feasible web host is a company which carries out your website objectives successfully. Here we are looking for congruencies in a web host which satisfy the web developer’s aim. Before lurking around, Hostingberg.com offers web hosting companies and user provided reviews.
Depending on your website needs you should be aware of the following important features of a web hosting services:

  1. Disk Space refers to the space you are allowed on their server hard drive
  2. Bandwidth refers to the amount of data transfers and traffic volume of your website
  3. Cost The most important factor. Buy annual plans for a discounted price.
  4. Maintenance see if the host offers server or website maintenance
  5. Customer Service should absolutely have a phone number
  6. Scripting Support- if they support s your web developer’s programming language
  7. Database Support- if they support database driven websites
  8. Application Support- many companies offer open-source applications for content management
  9. A money-back guarantee- look for a trial offer or a money back guarantee if you are not satisfied
  10. Statistics and marketing tools- all plans should have at least a statistics program.
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2 Comments For This Post

  1. Daniel, New Orleans LA Says:

    thank you for the info…very clear on how you laid it out!!!

  2. Andrea Says:

    Where is a good resource to find cheap web developers?

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