Development Website

Website design is the result of an evolution in the technology of the web. When I started with the Internet in the early 1990′s, the World Wide Web didn’t exist then. In fact browsers barely came into existence. My computer at that time was a 386 motherboard, with 80 megs of memory. It was considered to be a lot at that time. I was operating a DOS platform. When I login to the Internet, it was with a modem over a telephone line. Once my connection was made, my computer became what they called a dumb computer.

A dumb computer meant that my computer became the extension of the computer that I was connected to, which was a server. In another word, I was literally working with the server. The server language was not DOS, it was UNIX, a whole different language. At that time it was totally impossible to design a website.

So I had to learn UNIX as well because in order to use the Internet, you had to write UNIX sentences which were the instructions to the server to do whatever you want. The Internet at that time was a bit boring, even appearing as a fad. What one could do was very limited.

Generally the Internet was a massive network of computers in Universities, Governments and in private enterprises, all linked together. They were operated for the needs of those institutions. The general public had only limited access to them. And in many cases, access was not allowed. HTML did not exist, so it was not possible to do a website design.

The most renowned service on the Internet was email. At that time, most electronic business communications was done through fax. Few people and few businesses had email. But to those who had, then you could send them an email. That was a great way of communicating especially if you wanted to write to parties overseas. Then instead of sending a fax which would cost an international telephone charge, you would send an email. That would cost you nothing.

Another service that was available was Groupnet. There were many various groups of people organized by interest. You could join those groups and dialogue with the members. I would say, that was the forerunner of the present forum. Those groups were very active.

Finally, another available service, was information inquiry. There were different addresses or protocols to query depending on the information you were looking for. Basically these information would have been located in either University database or Government database. Either you could have obtained the information you’re looking for or you were not allow to access them.

What kind of information would you be looking for at that time? Well, for example, at that time, I was doing research on airlines. So you could obtain information and data on the airline industry. At another time I was doing research on telecommunication. So you could obtain information on international agreements between the telecom of different countries or some data on the telecom industry in some specific countries.

Nothing like now, but at the time, things looked so wonderful. For instance, you could do research, then send an email to a Government official and ask further information on your topic. That was really progress at that time.

There were no websites existing at that period. Everything in the Internet was written in one font. No colors, no designs, no pictures existed. The whole Internet was writing only. If a company would have an advertisement on the net, it would have been black background, white letters, one font, that’s it.

Few businesses were advertising in the Internet. By the mid 1990′s a browser of the name of Mosaic came around and a few World Wide Web sites began to appear. I had gotten a Pentium 1 at the time. It is still working up to now. Not able to make many contemporary applications, but it works well for what it’s capable of doing.

With my Pentium 1, I was able to run Windows 95. It was a world of change compared to DOS. By that time, people began to develop and create websites. Ever since Windows came in, the Internet has been going through an exploding evolution.

Copyright © 2010

WordPress as a Content Management System

In my opinion, WordPress is the easiest tool to use to build a small business website. WordPress is very easy to customize, is search engine friendly and is available for free. Learning WordPress can be time-consuming. But what most people do is have someone set-up a basic WordPress website, then they learn how to edit and add new content. This spares them the burden of learning how to actually develop a WordPress website; rather it enables the owner to take control of their website by focusing on learning the elements that they will need to run their business. Learning to use WordPress after a developer has set one up for you is pretty easy. There are a lot of videos on YouTube that teach WordPress and there is even a WordPress.tv website that you can reference. Of course, your developer can provide you with a brief introduction. If this still is not enough, there are several books available at your local book store or public library. As far as costs, a typical WordPress website set-up should run you anywhere from $500-$1,500 depending on how customized you want your website to be. Once the website is developed, you then can then take control and learn how to manage it yourself.

Extend WordPress With Plugins

What makes WordPress so easy to use is the amount of plugins they have available. Plugins are features that can be added to your website to increase its functionality. For example, if you want to do ecommerce and have a check-out page, there is a plugin for that. WordPress plugins take about 5 minutes each to install, activate and customize. Here is a list of WordPress plugins to install on your website, or, ask your developer to include them.

The All-In-One-SEO pack – This plugin makes WordPress search engine friendly by reminding us to include the proper Title, Meta and Keyword data to each page we create for the website. Using this plugin routinely will increase your websites ranking. Contact Form 7 – This is the second plugin I install when I create a new website. This plugin makes it simple to create a form on a contact page that will allow people to email you a question or request a quote. Sexy Bookmarks Plug-In – This plugin makes it easy to install social bookmarking buttons on your websites pages and/or blog posts. These buttons can then be clicked by your website visitors and instantly shared on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Digg; there are over 40 social media platforms that can be added, these are just a few and many of them are in multiple languages if you need to add that functionality. Google XML Sitemap – This plugin will make it easy to include a sitemap page on your website. A sitemap is basically a map that includes all of the pages and blog posts that are included on your website. This is helpful to have because when Google crawls your website looking for pages to add to its index it can easily find your sitemap and run through all of the pages that you have. This speeds up the process to get your website include in search iEngine results. You can also add your sitemap to the Google Webmaster Tools section and notify Google of its existence further increasing the speed with which your website will get noticed. Twitter Tools – This plugin will allow you to link your Twitter account with your WordPress website; making it easy to automatically share the content you create with your Twitter followers. By doing this all new content that is created, be it a new page or blog post will automatically get “tweeted” and shared with your followers. Easy Privacy Policy – This plugin allows you to install a basic, generic privacy policy on your website that can either be added to and modified to your liking or left alone in its basic form to explain some of the fundamental privacy policy laws that govern the web. Having this page will help your websites credibility with both your website visitors and search engine like Google.

There are literally hundreds of WordPress plugins that can be used to increase the functionality of your website. Think of them like apps for and iPhone or Droid; chances are no matter what you want to do with your website there is a plugin for it. To learn more about WordPress here is a link to a page on our website where you can download resources, find links and how-to guides to learning and maximizing WordPress as a do-it-yourself website development tool.

Website development is a broad term the is used to cover many different aspects of designing and creating a functional and successful online website. The term success in this context refers to both meeting the functional and application needs of the business owner as well as the informational and navigational needs of the end user or customer.

It is the starting point of establishing an online presence for your business. Many people make the mistake of under estimating the importance of having a well thought-out and professionally created and managed website development plan. This often leads them to believe that this is something that they can handle along with all of the other tasks and responsibilities of running an online business.

As a comparison, that would be like starting a traditional brick and mortar business and deciding to handle the task of building the business store yourself instead of having it professionally done. You could choose to go into business like that, but why would you? The same can be said for creating a successful online business, you could choose to do all of the work of creating everything yourself, but why would you want to do that?

Website development is a skill area that can best serve a business owner, his or her business needs and the needs of their customers when everything is properly throught-out, planned and then executed correctly.

This will often include many of the following key elements:

1.) Website design – identifying the different structural design needs for different types of sites i.e. ecommerce stores, a static website, website with a blog, stand alone blog, etc, etc…

2.) Content Management System (CMS) – Selecting the site platform to be used, based on the business owners vision and needs for the business.

3.) Hosting Issues – Identifying the best type of hosting for the business owners hosting needs, i.e. Shared, Virtual Private Server (VPS), Dedicated, Cloud based, etc, etc…

4.) Security – Which would include the responsibility of the physical server if locally hosted, otherwise this would include providing ongoing protection against malware or online hackers that could access and steal or tamper with your data.

5.) Database backup and recovery – This can be handled manually or automatically depending on your particular website platform.

These are just a few of the key areas that are included in website development. By properly covering each of the different areas involved you will be able to have a website that will be appealing, secure and functional for your visitors as well as easy to manage, maintain and profitable to you as the business owner. The best website development plan will be geared towards creating your website in such a way as to

1.) Maximize its ability to market your product or service effectively.

2.) Provide the best possible content management system based on your companies needs

3.) Provide consistent and reliable uptime hosting.

4.) Provide onsite security so that your customers feel that their transactions will be handled safely and securely, along with protecting their information.

5.) Regular data backup measure to ensure the ability to recovery any loss data in the event of a unforeseen disaster.

To maximize your ability to compete online effectively it is important that you allocate the time and resources needed to ensure that every area of your website development plan is properly handled.

In the modern world of online business and Internet marketing people try their level best to seek as much information as possible about the product before they make their mind to buy something. If you are also planning to enter in the market of online business, it is of utmost importance for you to have a website. A website helps you and your business to interact with the customers, share information about the product and let them know about your business, the kind of product or service you are offering and generate a healthy and long lasting relationship with your customers.

Here are mentioned the top five business benefits of website development:

1. GLOBAL APPROACH: This is one of the most important benefits of developing a website for your business. It allows you to reach your target customers on a global basis as it is not confined to any specific area. People around the world can access your website and get any information which they want to get about the product or about your company.

2. INCREASED OPERATIONS: If you open a physical store to sell your product, for how many hours can you open your store, maximum 10 to 12 hours. A website functions 24 hours a day, so the customers can know about your product at any time they want.

3. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND RELATIONSHIP: Through your website, you can interact with your customers and get respective feedback about your product as well as your company also. It helps you to maintain an intimacy with your customers and improves your relationship with them.

4. EFFECTIVE MARKETING TOOL: Online marketing has turned out to be the most cost effective tool of marketing as it allows you to advertise for your product and services and give your customers an opportunity to avail maximum facilities from your website. The more customers you offer your services, the higher becomes your revenue also; therefore, it is profitable to adopt a website before you start with your online business.

5. PAYMENTS ON-THE-SPOT: If you are new comer to the online industry, nothing can be more beneficial for you than to receive an instantaneous payment. You just need to contact a bank who can receive payments on your behalf through credit cards.

See how effective and advantageous is a website if you are thinking to start with online business. Besides all these things there are many factors to be considered like from whom to design a website, how to search the best web design company and how it should look like. So for this, a proper planning and a little market survey will help you to know about the latest updates of online business world.

The process of software development is a time consuming, complex process that involves several aspects from planning to implement and maintenance. For proper implementation of software development, it is necessary to learn the essentials that are important for successful software development. The essentials for successful software development involves 5 important aspects namely,

* Quality Assurance

* Information regarding the latest technology

* Requirements Analysis

* Experience

* Efficient Management

* Proper channels of communication

Proper quality assurance is very important for software development. Adoption of an internationally accepted standard like the ISO would be very important in this regard as the certification speaks for the quality assurance standards adopted. Providing a warranty and support during the initial stages would go a long way in establishing the reputation of your business.

The knowledge regarding the latest technology that is available would put you in a position wherein you are able to provide a perfect custom made solution to the client. Understanding the needs of the client or requirements analysis would be very helpful in devising a solution that would serve the requirements of the client. A successful business would be one that perfectly understands the requirements of the client and is in a position in terms of availability and knowledge of latest technology to meet the requirements of the client.

Experience in the field of custom software development and the reputation of having worked on a few projects would go a long way in providing the perfect solution. An efficient management plays a very significant role in the formulation and implementation stage. An efficient management would ensure that proper coordination is maintained between the various work groups thus, ensuring overall efficiency in the project.

The proper communication with the client is the final and one of the most important elements to be considered. Communication with the client would help in understanding the needs of the client and providing the appropriate solution. With proper and regular communication, you would be able to incorporate the required changes at each stage so as to perfectly match the requirements as a software company

All the factors or elements play a significant role in the software development and it is important to give due importance to each and every factor so as to achieve success in your efforts. Adequate importance to each of these essentials would ensure success in your software development.

As a business owner when you decide to go online and have your website developed, search engine optimization is one of the last thing that comes into the mind. But website development is not just about designing a site & making it live on the internet, you want the website to bring in business for you and work as a place to showcase your products and services. This is where SEO comes into picture, properly SEO optimized website design development can go a long way in promoting your business & online presence.

Here we will look at some of the important aspects of web site development and how taking proper care of search engine optimization features can benefit your website.

Using appropriate heading & bold tags: Web developers while creating the site should properly use heading as well as bold tags at important places to emphasis important sections of text to search engines. Image optimization: Search engines such as Google and Yahoo can not read text which is written in a image. To let search engines what the image is about you need to add correct ALT text for the image and help with better visibility of your images in search results. Canonical URLs: It would be hard to believe but search engines treat site.com, http://www.site.com & http://www.site.com/index.htm as 3 different pages, creating duplicate content issues for you. Solution to this is to do a 301 permanent redirection of the URLs to URL with www, i.e., http://www.site.com. Session IDs in PHP based websites: In PHP sites, unique PHPSESSID variable gets added to URL’s end in case cookies are not available and looks like this: PHPSESSID=24487890. This creates problems for your site in search engines as every time a webpage is visited they see a unique session id in the URL & think of the page as a different page, thus creating duplicate content problems for you. As a solution to this you can use url_rewriter.tags. External files for JavaScript & CSS: Nowadays all sites use CSS & JavaScript; if you put all the code on the page itself then it will increase the page size as well as page’s load time & thereby affecting how search engines rank your site. The solution to this is to put the code in external files & include a reference to them on the page. Page Titles & Meta Description: It is of vital importance in website design development to make certain that all the pages on the site have unique Meta description & page titles. In many CMS based system a mistake is done of keeping a default description & page title for all the pages which should be corrected to make them different for all the pages.

There are countless different types of websites across the Internet, all with varying degrees of quality and usefulness. What distinguishes the successful sites from their unsuccessful counterparts can be expressed in a single word: planning.

The importance of taking this critical first step of website development cannot be overemphasized. Yet, it is astonishing how many people overlook it when launching projects of this magnitude. The result, invariably, is what we call a “misbegotten site”-work which may (or may not) have a certain visual appeal or possess some compelling piece of functionality, but which at the end of the day, can best be identified as fatally inept. Such a site simply does not do what the client expected or what users would want it to do. Repairing poorly planned, misbegotten sites is often more expensive than tearing the entire site down and starting from scratch. Do not let this happen to you. Whether you are considering ecommerce website development or content website development, take the time to plan before writing a single line of code or sketching even the most basic design concept.

A site that is well planned-down to the most acute detail-ultimately results in work that is attractive, user-friendly, and utilitarian to the extreme. Best of all, such sites tend to be highly flexible with a modular framework that allows for future expansion and content development without limiting the vision of the site owner or necessitating a great deal of costly reprogramming and redesign. In short, a properly planned site gives the client an outstanding product at what amounts to a bargain-basement price in the long run.

A typical website development and design plan should lay a solid foundation for the execution of the new site. The project should include the following key stages:

Brainstorming
In this phase, the website owner should meet with the team or designer who will be implementing the site in order to hammer out precise details governing the site’s true business goals, functionality, appearance, and options for future development. Brainstorming or planning sessions are key to keeping the project on-task and heading in the right direction.

Research
Extensive online research should be performed with a formal feature-set survey of comparable websites within the targeted industry. This phase of website development will help determine the ways in which competitors have succeeded and/or failed in certain aspects of their own online presence. With this information you will be able to avoid mistakes and see what the “best of the best” are doing to achieve their success.

Strategic Brief
Before actualizing the website development plan, a formal, written “Strategic Brief” should be compiled. This document should lay out in substantial detail the manner in which the project should and will unfold in terms of project management, deliverables, timetables of start and finish dates, functionality, design considerations, possible future needs and expansion options, etc.

Site Map
A detailed, written “Site Map” document should be created giving a bird’s eye view of the site’s planned structure, navigation schema, and the inter-relation of content.

Content Creation
‘Content is King’ when it comes to a website’s effectiveness and its ability to convert customers while also being recognized by search engines. During this stage, content will need to be gathered, refined/reassessed and authored where necessary. If the website development and design team does not have an SEO (search engine optimization) writer on staff, it may make sense to outsource one. Most SEO copywriters are experienced in all forms of direct marketing writing, and writing for search engine visibility is an advanced skill set. An experienced search-marketing copywriter will view the product or service’s benefits from the customer’s perspective and communicate that excitement to prospective buyers-all while still gaining the search engine ranking the website requires.

Additionally, SEO copywriters will seamlessly weave crucial keyword phrases into new marketing text without sacrificing a conversion flow, and they will strategize how new pages should be structured for maximum keyword saturation. Especially for time-challenged marketing departments or individual entrepreneurs, finding SEO expertise outside of the immediate website development team can significantly help increase the site’s return on investment and search engine rankings.

As soon as the content has been authored and refined, the new site should be populated with the content and launched as soon as possible.

Beyond Website Development
Like any business model, website development and design is a cyclical process of monitoring, assessment and redevelopment if necessary. However, if substantial time and effort is invested into a website’s initial planning, the website development team’s work will be minimized greatly during the monitoring phase.

Web Development is a specialized area of work which involves the knowledge of computer languages to build an attractive website. The advancement in technology has brought many easy to use techniques to create a web page. Even a layman can learn these computer programs and create a website for himself. The web development can be performed not only by a web developer but also by the user. Developers or users can even fashion the web page according to their desires and requirements.

In the early days of the web, the idea of creating website was purely at an academic level. The main purpose was to share extensive information through site among the students. Within two years of time duration, the web began gaining recognition in the public. As a result, both professional and personal websites started proliferating. A user could even upload his personal photographs and introduce himself or his business to the world. Gradually businessmen started finding potential in this medium. They started developing their business sites introducing their companies. The strategy of online promotion of products and services became popular among the entrepreneurs.

How can you develop your own website?

A computer user or the developer should be well aware of the computer languages. These languages are XML, Flash, HTML, CSS and much more. It is not necessary to learn all these languages. You can learn one or two languages thoroughly for the implementation of accurate knowledge to create a website. HTML language enables the user to create web pages without the use of graphics, images or flash. This language creates a simple and plain site. Flash is comparatively advanced and modified language. You can use this language when you want to use images, graphics or flash in the site. The images and other visual effects should be created in vector-format. XML and Java Script allow the site to be more user-sensitive. These languages do not hamper the download speed of the website. You can use the Sign Up or chatting processes with these languages.

Web development has become convenient in today’s modern world. The beneficial uses of web development services have tied the whole world together through smart way of information exchange.

Software development and software engineering go hand in hand when it comes to the implementation of software. Software development deals more with the creation of the software and when this is complete, software engineering takes over with the creation of software systems. Both of these disciplines are at times interchangeable and without much difference to the layman. If you just want to have one specific piece of software designed, such as database software that will keep track of your bird watching hobby, then you’ll just need software development. If, however, you want your bird watching database to be able to support multiple functions, such as delivering a report with statistics and results, then you’ll more likely need the expertise of software engineering.

Software engineers will implement and design software applications through the use of many mediums. These software applications will then be used for a variety of purposes that include business practices to entertainment purposes. It is these software applications that allow users to make their time on the computer as functional and productive as possible. Types of software applications include language applications, office applications, entertainment packages, and applications for education.

The cost of hiring a software developer will be significantly less than hiring a software engineer. Before you make your final decision about what you want the software to do you need to plan you budget, your timeline, and determine what you want the end result to be. The industry of software development continues to grow each year as more and more businesses are having their own software developed for them that is specific to what they do and what they want the software to do. Most companies will already be using some type of software application, such as Office Suite, and most likely won’t need another application developed for them. For most intents and purposes you’ll be fine hiring a software developer for you and your business needs.

If you’ve got a small business, you’ll probably want a website. Many consumers now have a broadband Internet connection and leave their computers on all the time. It’s a lot easier for them to do a simple search on the Internet than to locate their Yellow Pages, flip through them to find the heading where your business is listed.

And, even if they did remember where their Yellow Pages book is, and found the heading where your business is listed, would your ad stand out? Would it have a description of your services or products, a map of your location, along with your current hours, and your phone number and email address?

You can add all this information, and more, to a simple small business website.

So, having a website can lead to more business–and more profit. After all, a basic purpose of a small business website is to allow a potential customer to find you fast and call you first.

=== Building a Small Business Website ===

So, let’s suppose that you want to work with someone to build your small business website. How do you choose a good website development provider?

If you use one of the major search engines to find a provider who can do “small business website development” you’ll probably come up with hundreds of sites. Some sites will provide instructions for you to develop your own website. Other sites will offer to develop your site for you.

Most business owners are pretty well occupied with the day-to-day process of managing their business. They don’t want to learn a totally new skill.

If you are in this category, you’ll want someone else to develop your website. But, there are still lots of choices.

After using a search engine to find a “small business website development” provider, you’ll see sites that promise inexpensive or economical development. Some sites offer development for under $200 while others offer development for under $100 plus $10 a month for hosting.

Sure, some of these rock bottom prices don’t include much more than a single page site. And there are add on services like an online merchant account (for selling products on the web), extra web space (for more pages), increased bandwidth (for more accesses and downloading), domain name registration, email addresses, and so on.

So, the actual price for your small business website development effort will depend on the purpose for your site. And, once you decide on a purpose, you will negotiate with the website development provider for all the features that support your purpose.

=== Your Website Must Be Found in the Search Engines ===

Now, here is the real catch. You can get a very pretty website from a number of providers. But, the question is: “Can your small business website be found when a potential customer is searching for services?”

I live near Royal Oak, Michigan in Oakland County. If I needed to find a furnace repair company I might use a search engine and look for a “royal oak furnace repair” company, or even an “oakland county furnace repair” company.

If my back was hurting, I might look for a “royal oak chiropractor” for help.

If I don’t know the name of a particular business, I’ll search using a generic term that describes the type of business or service I’m seeking.

Now you should see that a goal of your small business website is to be found when someone does a generic search for a local business that offers the goods or services you provide.

One purpose of your website is, after all, to allow potential customers to find you fast and call you first. If your website doesn’t work hard to attract new customers and add to your bottom line, your money for website development was not well spent.

=== Good Search Engine Placement is an Ongoing Cost ===

Good placement in the search engines requires attention nearly every month. If someone is not updating and fine-tuning your website monthly, it’s likely it will not be at the top of the search engines. While your website may look nice and give you a good feeling, it will not be working hard for your business like it should.

I spoke with a local chiropractor about his existing website. He indicated he thought it was at the top of Google for his name and his business’ name. Yet, when I actually did the searches on Google, I found his site was not in the top 100 sites for either search phrase he mentioned.

Yes, he had a fine website. But nothing was being done to promote his website. His website needed fine-tuning to emphasize certain keyword phrases and it needed incoming links from other websites. Both of these activities require an ongoing effort.

So, do not think that just because you have a small business website that it is working hard for you. Just like any other employee, you have to keep paying month after month for it to be productive.

So, along with simple website development, you should ensure that ongoing efforts will be made to enhance the placement of your site in the search engines. And you should keep track every month of where your site is found in the major search engines.

This way, potential customers searching the Internet actually will find your site fast and call you
first.