Resources
Getting started
7 Essential First Steps in Getting Your Website Started- List all of the subjects that your website will cover.
- Choose which of these subjects are your most important or main subjects and mark them as primary pages.
Example: Credentials (primary) - OPTIONAL - Create a diagram similar to the one bellow, starting with the home page and arranging your primary pages, each with a path beneath it. (Credentials, Services, Current Projects, Completed Projects)
- From your subjects list, choose any subjects that fall under your primary page subjects as subcategories, and mark them as such including their category.
Example: Project 4 (sub,"Current Projects") - OPTIONAL - Arrange these subcategories underneath their primary category page. (Project 4, 5, and 6 under Current Projects. (Project 1, 2, and 3 under Completed projects)
- OPTIONAL - The remaining categories will be arranged separately with a path from your home page.
These steps are to instruct you in successfully planning a website. Upon completion of these steps you will have a thorough and organized project outline enabling you to determine your goals and communicate those goals to accent45.
The first step when planning your website is to determine the goals that you want your website to achieve; this is referred to as design intent. The design intent affects how your website will be constructed and maintained and also makes the following steps easier.
Examples: a veterinary office’s website could be, “To promote our services, increase our clients, and educated pet parents;” a website for a gardening club, “Allow communication between members and make gardening information available;” a hobby shop, “Increase customer traffic to our location and begin online sales.”
It is a good idea to register your domain name early, you never know when someone else might decide to register it, and they only cost around $10 per year, depending on the domain name host. Your domain name should be descriptive of your organization, be simple and easy to remember, and spelled correctly.
Availability is the critical path in this step. Often your first choices have been registered already. Make a list of several suitable names then check their availability at a domain name host’s website such as mediaTemple.com or contact accent45.
Once several suitable names are found available, get some fresh opinions. The more opinions the better, but be sure to make the decision and register a domain.
Make a list of all the key words and phrases a user may enter into a search website attempting to find subjects covered by your website. A key word list can be invaluable for developing your website. A glossary can also be made with the help of this list.
Content is the information contained in a website including written material and images. Depending on the goals of your website this may be a continuing process because content is the key to a successful website, so you can never have enough.
Your most important written content must be created. This can be written by yourself, members of your organization, or written or edited by a professional writer, bringing an extra level of professionalism.
Images also need to be obtained. Quality photos, graphics, logos, and illustrations bring a great deal of elegance and friendliness to a website when incorporated tastefully. For photographs, a professional photographer can be helpful. Accent45 will edit your images to be properly displayed online, and design and create custom graphics and logos.
Often, much content already exists and only needs to be gathered. Articles and images can often be found available for free, for purchase, and already created within your organization. Think of past projects or promotions that included the creation of writings and images.
The difference between an effective website and an online maze is an organized structure. Often people see this step as difficult; however, it is very simple if you follow the steps bellow.
The optional steps are not necessary for you to complete. They are simply helpful with visualizing the your website's future structure.
Using this same method, a more complex structure can also be organized. Also, this does not represent your entire website.
The most important page in a website is its homepage. The homepage serves as the main entrance to the website and introduces the website to the user. The introduction is important; it should clearly and quickly inform the user as to what your website is for. The more apparent the value of your website is to the user, the more likely that user will stay.
Budgeting for a website can be tricky. For one, a person shopping for a website is unlikely to understand website development and may have little idea what makes a good website. Also, the price range for website development is very wide and price structure can be very diverse.
The total price for a website can range from a few dollars to tens of thousands, just as the quality can range from a manufactured amateur work that will never be found by a search engine to a finely crafted, user friendly, highly effective, work of art. The important thing is to find a website developer who is more concerned about your website’s success than turning out work with the goal of requesting payment.
Another key to remember is that a website is not just a cost, especially if your organization is a business. Whatever productivity you are doing now will be increased by your new website.
When developing a professional website there are upfront costs for the initial construction; often you can split these into payments. After construction there are continued costs for web server hosting and domain name hosting. These costs range from around $50 to $300 per year or more depending on the size and needs of your website. A budget should also be made in anticipation for updates and continued additions.