JME Designs
Steps For Building a Web Site
Get a clear idea of what you want to say to your visitors about you and/or your company. What would your visitors expect to find on your web site?
Decide who will provide content to the web designer(s) and approve each step in the web design process
Ensure that your designer receives content in a timely fashion
Budget extra money for interactive features (calendars, forums, chat rooms, surveys, database searches including product catalog and ordering)
Budget extra money for monthly maintenance of your site once it is on the Internet, for:
- additions and/or corrections
- moving outdated information into an archive directory (folder)
- ensuring against "link rot" (the annoying "404 error–page not found")
Choose a web-address name (a domain name), such as "yourname".com, "yourname".net, or "yourname".org
Check, with Whois at corenic.net to see if that domain name is available
Can't think of a name? NameBoy generates names based on a keyword input in its search engine and also tells if the names are available
Choose a DNS Registrar. Pay up to $35 each year for use of a domain name (some DNS Registrars offer discounts if you pay for more than 2 years at a time). Check out my Price Comparison Chart for select Registrars. pairNIC.com registered my domain name for $13/year.
Select the way you will connect to the Internet (modem or cable, DSL, satellite, etc.)
Select your Internet connection Service Provider (ISP)
Select a web space provider. If web space unavailable through your ISP, use a host search service (such as HostSearch or CNET Web Services)
Decide how your web site will be organized:
- folders for your main sections
- an "index.html" page in every folder
- pages within folders for sub-topics
- folders for your images and other media
- an "archive" folder for outdated pages
- a site map (list of links to all pages, showing where they are located in the hierarchy of the site)
- folders for your main sections
Decide on a design for your web site that will be consistent on all pages of your site (your web designer should provide you with alternate designs, based on your input)
Use web-design features that will ensure cross-system compatibility:
- operating systems (Macintosh, Windows, Amiga, Unix, Linux, etc.)
- browser viewing area (width and height of 600x480 pixels on a 13" monitor screen)
- same colors available to all computers (216 "browser-safe" colors)
- browser interpretation (PC-specific, Macintosh-specific, WebTV, DreamCast, text-based browsers such as Lynx, AOL browsers, etc.)
- Internet connection (Your page will display more slowly when visitors are connecting with 14.4kb, 28.8kb, or 56.6kb modems; faster with DSL or ADSL, cable, or satellite)
- audio/video capabilities requiring hardware, software, or browser plug-ins
- scripting capabilities (java, javascript, etc.)
Use only web-optimized photos that add to the written content—and append to them descriptions so that visitors who don't have graphic capability on their devices can understand why the photo or graphic (or audio or video) has been added to your page
Be aware that "counter hits" refer to objects on a page, not to visitors who view your page. (If you have text on a page with 10 images or photos, that'd be 11 "hits" from one person. If that same visitor goes to 9 more of your graphics-laden pages, that'd be 111 "hits" by the same one person.)
Obtain FTP (file transfer protocol) software, so you can upload your web site files from your C drive to your space on the web host's server computer—unless your webmaster or web design firm will be keeping your files and will do this for you.
© JME Designs, 1999-2004. ·
WbM: Jackie Engle (englejm(at)excite.com) · Fight for your right to web standards!
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