Websites 101

Overview: What is involoved in having a website?
How do I find out if a domain name is available?
What is content management?
How do I get on page 1 of Google?
Search engine optimization (SEO)
What will Hot Designs do to help me with SEO?
In conclusion about websites

Overview: What is involved in developing a website?
First, is the purchase of the domain name. (www.mycompany.com) You will pay about $11 per year to own the name. Some domains sell at a premium. As the internet matures, names will be harder and harder to own. The shortest names are not available, common names are bought by companies to make a profit by reselling them, etc.

Second step is hosting. You will pay a yearly fee to a hosting company, which breaks down into monthly fees of anywhere between $6-50 per month. Some large companies such as GoDaddy host many sites, and for basic Linux sites they are very inexpensive. A basic site will cost between $50-80 per year to host. For more interactive sites that need .asp or more complex (interactive) programming support, you will pay the upper range. When choosing a host, make sure they have 24/7 PHONE tech support! Nothing is worse than a host with no way to contact them other than an email address. With the larger companies there is virtually no down time of your site.

Third is the design of the site. Hot Designs can create a complete website for your company, and can also assist in domain purchase and hosting setup. Hot Designs will serve as a consultant and liason for this process. According to your needs, a host can be recommended based on our experience and, for a small fee, we can set it all up for you. The domain name will be put into your name, as will hosting, so that you are always the contact, have the passwords, and everything you need to stand on your own if later needed.

Last but not least, everyone's question is "how do I get ranked on Google?" This is a changing, not-so-easy task. Read more about Google and other search engines ranking below

How do I find out if a domain name is available, and purchase it?
Domain names are purchased through a registrar. (ie: godaddy.com or networksolutions.com) Finding out if a site name is available is very simple. Just type the name you want into your browser. If you get a message like: ADDRESS NOT FOUND or CAN'T FIND THE SERVER, it's available. If you visit a registrar, you can search from their site also. If the name is not available, they will suggest other names close to the one you want. It's a very helpful tool. Once you've found the name available, GRAB IT! Put it in your own name and use your own contact information so that you own the name, not your designer or host.

What is a Content Management System? (CMS)
Content Management involves designing a website so that can make your own changes to it. Programming is designed to lock you out of certain structural areas, allowing you to change content without damaging the look of the site. You only change the content, or text, photos or whatever else is predetermined. The more access you need to it, the more programming needed to allow you access without requiring a lot of knowledge of web development.

Advantages: If you run a constantly changing, content heavy site, this may be the solution for you. Frequent implies daily or weekly changes and lots of text.

Types of companies that will benefit from content management:
- Member-based organizations that need to add and delete member information frequently
- e-Commerce sites
- any company that makes weekly changes

Disadvantages: Developing the site will cost more. The more access you need to the site yourself, the more that is involved in setting it up for your specific needs. Since the idea is setting it up so you can't change the design, well, then you can't change the design, just the content.

In some cases you may need to purchase software such as Contribute or other ftp software. There is a learning curve to using it. You also may need to purchase Photoshop or other photo editing software to be able to size and crop photos properly. Another learning curve if you don't already know how to use it and understand how to optimize photos and other things that make it better for the web.

Website development requires knowledge in different areas as a whole, which is why many people prefer to let an expert do the job. The bottom line, web developers exist for a reason. They are experts. However, some companies do benefit from having access to their content.

How do I get on the first page of Google?
Everyone's question eventually. Entire SEO (search engine optimization) companies have formed to help you do exactly that. SEO is the work that goes into constantly monitering and improving your success.

The ability to rank on the internet requires attention, time and money. If your expectations are extremely high, your costs will be too. The bottom line is that you don't end up on page 1 of Google or other search engines for free. That is not even remotely realistic.

Clients have said, "I want my customers to type in keywords and find me on the first page of Google." Generic keywords are things like "mattress" or "coffee." Broader terms like "furniture" or "drink" have even more results pages, in the millions. The more generic the term, the more results pages there are. Narrower phrases like "mattresses in Pittsburgh" or "coffee bars in Seattle" still have hundreds of thousands of results pages on Google.

So do this test: Let's stick with Google. Type in your keywords or phrases. Notice somewhere above the result page, the phrase: "About 413,000 results" or "About 6,210,000 results." This is how many websites you are competing with. Now, how much you think it will cost YOUR company to rank on top?

Search engine optimization (SEO)
There are bascially two categories or ways to help your outcome. Organic ranking includes programming things into your site such as key words, description, proper page titles, H1 and H2 tags, content verbage that consistent with your key words, using meta tags, and "alt" text (typing key words in behind each image), back-linking (other sites linking to yours) and submitting your site to search engines. Organic listing results are ranked based on search engine algorithms listed above and more, and those are constantly changing. There are no guarantees for being ranked at all with this type of SEO, and there is a waiting period before you start to see things happen, if at all.

Payed listings are something else entirely. SEO companies have formed to help companies with this and it can be costly. There are pay per click options and a large variety of ways to be ranked and they can help you with that, but expect to pay monthly. It will cost more than the design of the site itself.

What will Hot Designs do to help me with SEO?
Hot Designs will do the organic ranking items listed above in the process of designing a new website. Again this type of SEO doesn't guarantee anything but there is one guarantee, that no one will ever find you on the internet if these basic things aren't done.

In conclusion about websites
The internet has grown up. It's still growing, and fast. Websites are a necessity for business. A well designed and programmed website is a great marketing tool. Every business needs a website. It can be the best investment you ever make.