Whether an individual or a business, in today's digital world it is important to have a web presence. The first step in this journey is the choice of a domain name.
Domain NamesA domain name uniquely identifies a site on the web. An ideal domain name will be a single word, however, some established professionals prefer to use their full names to make their sites easier to find. It is best to avoid hyphens or clever spellings, especially if the site is related to business. The average cost for a UK domain is £10 per two years for the common .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk. A business may have need for .eu or .com and those names can be had for £16 per year. Domain names can be registered on sites such as ukreg.com.
HostingNext is the search for a web host. There are different types of web hosting and it's quite important to match the hosting to a site's particular needs. A small personal blog will do well with entry-level, budget hosting, while a business may need to start on a VPS or dedicated server.
Basic shared hosting starts at £3 per month and includes enough disk space and bandwidth to start a blog or small site. cPanel is the standard control panel on shared hosting. It automates such tasks as installing software, creating mailboxes and uploading files. It also keeps track of disk and bandwidth usage so the user doesn't go over the allotment.
A VPS, or Virtual Private Server, is the next step after shared hosting. This type of hosting is a server that has been partitioned, or divided, into smaller spaces that run their own particular environments. This type of hosting offers much more in the way of disk space and bandwidth and is ideal for a site that has outgrown shared hosting or simply needs more resources. A VPS can be managed, where the hosting company takes care of upgrades and security, or unmanaged, where everything is left to the user. VPS hosting averages £18 per month.
The most elite type of web hosting is a dedicated server. This means one web site is on a single server, using all its resources and is usually reserved for large companies or very successful blogs and news sites. Like a VPS, a dedicated server can be managed or unmanaged. The average cost of a dedicated server is £75 per month.
While all hosts allow for file uploading through cPanel, many users prefer to use an FTP client to upload large amounts of material. An FTP client is software runs on the computer desktop and connects to the user's hosting account (remote server) with the account name and password. A good free FTP client is FileZilla.
CMS SystemsMost sites on the web today run on a CMS, or Content Management System. A CMS is an excellent way to keep a site fresh and organize large amounts of text and media.
The most popular CMS system currently is Wordpress. It is free and usually available as a one-click install on most web hosts. Wordpress is mainly used as a blogging client but it is also capable of having non-blog pages. It has an easy to learn interface, many themes and plug-ins which can be installed through the administration area and automatic updating. Wordpress also has excellent SEO and indexes quickly into large earch engines, such as Google. This is the CMS of choice for starting a website.
A CMS that is less blog-oriented is Drupal. Drupal is more complex than Wordpress but has a large support community and plenty of documentation. It is more suited for company websites and large online communities than personal web presence. As with Wordpress, Drupal is offered as a one-click install. It can host text, pages, media and a forum right from the start and has many modules and extensions for just about any need. Drupal is open source and completely free.
Joomla is a free CMS that is similar to Drupal. It's used mainly for portals, e-zines, company intranets and e-commerce, so is geared more toward the business end of the spectrum. It is easy to install and maintain and often has the most stunning themes to choose from, as many web developers like the framework.
A commercial CMS solution is ExpressionEngine or EE. EE is available for personal or business use with a £130 license. EE is a great out of the box CMS for users that need high end design and functionality. The backend offers fine tooth control over every aspect of the site and makes it simple to duplicate templates for multiple sections. There are a few plug-ins for EE but there are many modules, such as forums and MSM (Multiple-Site Manager) that greatly extend its basic functions. EE is best for users who have some coding or design experience or are willing to hire someone to do those things.
Tracking VisitorsIt's important to keep tabs on the visitors a site is receiving. These stats can reveal what is or is not working and basic demographics. A tracker is placed on a web page by copying and pasting in a small piece of code or scripting. The code needs to be placed on the page somewhere before the closing body tag.
Google Analytics (GA) is the most popular tool of choice for tracking site visitors. It works with all referrers, such as basic advertising, search engines, links, email and pay per click. Data is displayed on a dashboard in the user's Google account and can help pinpoint problem areas within a site, or how well an advertising campaign is going. GA is more oriented toward business users than personal websites and is also limited to 50 sites with less than 5 million page views per month.
A free service geared toward personal site owners is Statcounter. Statcounter provides basic visitor information, such as location, IP address, hostname, referral link and exit link. It keeps tabs on repeat visitors and maps how they navigate the site. There is a choice of using pageloads or unique visitors on the counter and different counter styles. One very nice feature is the ability to add an invisible counter, which is usually not possible on free counter services. Statcounter does not add adverstising to its counters.
Another free counter service is Sitemeter. It offers very basic visitor information and is for site owners who are only interested on who visited and not the details.
Basic SEOSEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is very important for the success of a business site or monetized blog. How well a site uses SEO determines its placement in the big search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Better placement means more traffic from searches.
The first thing to do is make sure the site isn't heavy with images, frames, Flash or hidden pages and content, because the search engine "spiders" that crawl sites can't see those things. Text and links work the best for visibility.
Meta tags and keywords are also important. These are placed at the top of the page before the closing head tag. This is the part of the page that is read first by a spider. Meta tags basically tell a spider what it is allowed to do on a page, such as index it, crawl its links or take a snapshot for the cache. Keywords are a description of the site's contents and help determine the site's weight in the search engine. It's best to use 8-10 words that are directly associated with the site. Too many keywords may be ignored by the crawler.
Backlinks, also known as trackbacks, are used by bloggers to determine who is writing about them and linking back to their site. This kind of linking can increase a blog's popularity. It's not popular anymore due to the abuse by spammers.
A business site owner is well-advised to hire an SEO specialist or company. The company will do an analysis of the site and determine the proper SEO techniques to make it a success.
Building a website can be a daunting process, but with a few simple techniques anyone can be online in no time.