Market your Web
Considerations for Building a Website
1. Why build it?
What's your goal in building this web site? If it's just ideas - selling widgets online - you need to be focused as to why you are building it. Don't do it because everyone else does, “I’ve gotta have a website to get business”, or because you want something pretty. On the other hand, this doesn't mean that you have all the nitty gritty details sorted out.Your objective in building this site, will obviously affect its design. It will be evident in the Look and Feel, the navigation structure, style and tone of copy and graphics and other functionality of the web site, such as using a database.
Bear in mind, that all web sites should permanently evolve. New technologies arise, your company changes, or your marketing plans change and your branding should be periodically refreshed. You aren't about to create the definitive web site.
2. What's it going to Cost in Time and Money?
Naturally the size of your project will affect the timeline and price. When we provide a quote, we also include the time anticipated to complete your job. Have a look at some sample costs here.You are better off starting with a complete strategy in hand and spending more time upfront, than to add and change pieces as the project evolves. As mentioned in the previous article, be certain of the purpose for this web site. It will be easier for you to focus on the details. If this is in place, there is less likelihood that you will need to make substantial modifications as the site is put together. Not surprisingly, this could result in more expense and a longer time to complete. The initial cost may be higher, but total cost will be lower, in money, downtime and personal stress!
3. Why thinking short term about your web site will cost you more money in the long run.
As mentioned in the first article, web sites always change. As a result you need to make sure that your web site will be able to evolve with minimum interruption. Key elements that will enable this are being scalable and having a flexible design.For example, if your system is scalable, you can easily accommodate the increase in volume when you add 100,000 new clients to your database. As mentioned in database management, there are several elements you need to consider before starting. Some options cost more short term and are cheaper in the long run. So it's more advantageous to invest in your potential growth upfront.
With these 100,000 customers you're also getting a whole lot more traffic on your site. Are your web site and server(s) robust enough to handle this increase in traffic? Yes, you can always move to new servers, but usually there are "teething problems" when you move a site. The larger the web, and the more complicated the coding and functionality, the bigger the teeth!
Is your web site flexible enough? Say a new piece of software written in some proprietary language comes available and you want to incorporate it in your web site. It may be simply a matter of adding a few lines of code to a web page. Alternatively it may require something more involved, such as altering your
business logic. The structure of your web site will determine how simple the modifications will be. Even though the following link is related to databases, it applies equally in the above scenario. Look at
this article in data management to better understand the issue.
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