1. Planing
Defining your Customers and their Mission
You may think this goes against common sense, but the essence of your Web site isn’t really about you. What? It’s true. Sure, it presents your business face to the world and you’ll carefully make choices later on to put that together.
But your Web site is a specialized tool, one that enables you to reach countless new customers and, if it’s a retail site, sell to them and process their purchases.
Here, your primary purpose is to know your customers so well that you answer any questions they might have before they ask, then make it easy for them to buy what you’re selling. This bedrock principle applies whether you’re creating a one- or two-page site that simply tells who you are and where you can be reached by e-mail, snail mail and phone; or a fully functioning retail site with hundreds, even thousands, of pages and a “shopping cart” that let’s your buyers collect products and pay for them, comfortable that their financial and other personal data are secure.
Exactly who are they and what do you know about them, what they want, what they need, what they don’t know they need, what gives them the willies on the Web?
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How old are they? Are they men, women, kids?
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What do they expect when they come to a company like yours?
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How smart are they and what specific talents or skills do they have?
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Where do they live? What are those places like?
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Are they Web savvy or are they just beginning to use it? In either case, what are their concerns about doing business on the Web – what scares them off?
Answer those questions, and any others that suit the specific customer you’ve now identified, and you’ll know how to go forward in writing your raison d’être, your reason for being – your mission.
You’ll tell them why you’re qualified to do what you do, and why your company is unique and better than the competition. You’ll tell them exactly how you’ll serve their needs right here, right now, on your Web site. You’ll sell your company as one that knows they, too are unique, and that you’ve tailored your goods, services and shopping experience to these special people.Now, draw a simple diagram of your Web site, starting with the home page and proceeding – as your customer would – from page to page to page. Keep it simple – more detail comes later.
2.Choosing the right domain name
Choosing a great domain name takes careful consideration
It is suggested that you do brainstorming sessions with friends as a way to come up with creative options for your unique domain name. You’ll want plenty of choices on the chance that your first, second, third, even fourth picks have already been registered by someone else.
Wilson also recommends the following when selecting a domain name:
1.
Keep it short.
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Put two words together (combinations of short words often work well).
3.
Make it easy to say and spell.
4.
Use the .com or .net extensions.
5.
Think about relevant keywords and incorporate them into the domain name
However unlikely, someone might already own the domain name www.passionatepigfeet.com. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a Web site by that name; some people buy up endless variations on domain names hoping to cash in later when somebody wants to use one of them.
But your domain provider’s Web site will have a simple method to check almost instantly. Web hosts – those with the computing power to “host” your site and all its inner working on the Web – commonly offer domain names as part of their basic package.
To find one that meets your needs and budget, search online for “domain hosts.” Or start with one of these:
•Microsoft Office Live Small Business
•HostingReview.com
•NetworkSolutions.com
•GoDaddy.com
•5Hosts.com
•TopHosts.com
•HostingChecker.com
Text, Images and other Graphic Elements
You might as well get going now on writing copy – the text – for your Web site, and how you intend to use images.
If your writing skills are sharp, follow your diagram of Web pages and decide what you want to say on each. This is a rough draft, so don’t sweat over it too long.
Writing effective Web copy is a special skill, and you need to edit and rewrite your draft along some specific guidelines. The broader ones:
Don’t make your Web site look or read like an ad. You may be planning to attract and sell online space to advertisers, and you’ll confuse visitors dismissed if your content looks like ad material.
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Keep your copy concise and use bullets
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If you refer to your company as “we” in your copy, be sure to address your customer as “you.” Engage them in this personal experience.
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Keep it simple and kill jargon. The point here isn’t to show your mastery of insiders’ language, but to make your customers feel welcome, at home and included.
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Write like you’re talking face-to-face, using contractions if it sounds natural.
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Be succinct. Don’t write: “If you happen to encounter anything that raises questions, we are prepared to address them.” Do write: “Questions? We’re here to answer them.”
As a start, look to these resources for more detailed guidance:
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Power Words and Phrases
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UseIt.com
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e-Gineer.com
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WebDesign.com
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About.com
You’re not done until you spell-check your copy, then print it out and proofread, proofread again, and do it a few more times. Bad grammar, misspellings – especially proper names – and other basic errors will make you look like an amateur, not the world-beating pro you really are.
Invite others to read over your text and point out errors, or hire a freelance copy editor. You’ll find them all over the Web, but check their references. It won’t cost much and will be money well spent.
If you don’t think you can handle the copywriting yourself, you’re probably right. Hire a professional with Web experience. There are thousands of freelance writers online offering to do the job at a wide range of prices.
Graphics Content: Your only task now is to decide what photos, charts and graphs, illustrations and other visuals you need to help tell your message and show who you are.
Note what they are on each of your Web page diagrams, but not necessarily where they’ll go. We’ll get to that later. And keep these rules in mind:
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Use only as many images or other graphics as you need to bolster your text and make your pages attractive. Here, as in nearly anything on the Web, less is more. Don’t visually assault your visitors.
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Good pictures can speak a thousand words. If a photo or other image will save a lot of explaining, use it instead of text.
If your purpose is just to put candid snapshots on the Web, your visitors will understand why they’re not slick, crisp and professionally done. For everything else, be sure your photos and graphics are all three.
Budgets, and Who Does What
Setting smart budgets saves money – period. Get your planning done now, and you won’t waste precious cash on things you don’t and won’t need. Set your Web site budget so you can comfortably handle the costs with available resources.
One of the great things about Web sites is their changeability. You can add bells, whistles, services and other enhancements later, as you need them and have more cash to spend.
It’s impossible to tell you exactly how to divide the pot in building a Web site. There are many factors in endless combinations, and countless ways to handle them. But think about these things and you’ll be in great shape to work out the details:
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How many products or services are you selling?
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If you’re a retail operation, how will you securely process orders?
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Do you need professionals for writing, editing, photography, Web design, even budgeting?
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How many marketing functions do you want? Newsletters? Surveys? Blogs?
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How much can you spend on hosting, your domain name, your Web design package?
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Does a free, all-in-one Web site service like Microsoft Office Live Small Business cover you, or do you need more flexibility, an e-tail “shopping cart,” an original look, detailed analytics?
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How will you drive traffic to your Web site after it’s built?
DIY Web Site Packages
Before you decide to build your own business Web site, be brutally honest in judging your own creative abilities or potential. This is tricky, because a lot of it is a matter of taste, and facing certain realities.
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When creating anything, do you have the ability to do it in a fresh or novel way?
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Do you have a sense not only of what appeals to you, visually and functionally, but to a wide audience?
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Are you color blind? (Many people don’t know the answer.)
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When involved in a creative task, are you persistent enough to work through the rough spots until you get it right?
If the answers to these questions add up to limited creative abilities, many DIY (do-it-yourself) Web site packages, including site-builder software, will fill in the gaps for you.
Most include customizable templates – fill-in-the-blanks Web page designs that provide the visual look and feel of your site and have basic functions built in.
Some DIY packages include your choice of domain name, hosting, add-ons, search-engine optimization (SEO), Web site traffic reporting and other basic but vital elements.
Before you choose:
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Be sure it includes 24/7 customer support. If one thing is certain in building and maintaining your own Web site, there will be bugs and you’ll have questions.
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Even with assurances of around-the-clock support, choose a provider in your own time zone. If they’re asleep while you’re awake, you can easily end up waiting 24 hours for the answer to even a simple question.
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Try it out. Most reputable DIY Web site providers now offer the option of downloading and trying their software free for a limited time.
Choosing a Web Design Professional
If you don’t have the time, interest or ability to design and go live with your business Web site, hire a pro – or at least someone with enough knowledge or experience to assemble a simple but professional site that meets your needs.
One way to get this done, and a good choice if you’re on a tight budget, is to contact your local college and ask how to find a student designer. Many of them already have enough experience to handle fundamental Web site design; some of them much more.
If your budget allows some elbow room, hire an established, experienced and proven pro. Just don’t do it the way old Aunt Gert picked her horse bets – by sticking a hatpin in the racing form. There are resources all over the Web, like Website Pros (www.websitepros.com) that can help guide your research and sort out the field.
But before you hire any Web designer or team, there are some questions you need to answer:
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Do they have experience with business Web sites?
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Can they meet the needs of the plan you carefully laid out in Step 1?
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Will you be working with one designer throughout your project, or passed around to different team members? The more personal attention the better.
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Does the designer or firm have references? If so, call them. If not, move on. Ask about your candidate’s record of meeting or missing deadlines, ability to collaborate with clients and their work ethic.
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Are examples of their designs at work on the Web? Carefully look over those sites, not just for quality and range, but for styles that agree with your own.
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What payment plans do they offer? Beware of any that require full payment up front. By the time you discover they’re not as good as they looked, it may be too late to cut your losses.
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What are their verbal and written communications skills? Can you understand them when you discuss your Web site needs?
It all comes down to using the same due diligence you would in hiring any member of your business team. If you wouldn’t hire them for a staff job, don’t hire them on contract.
SEO and Red Flags
Visibility on the Web, especially ranking high with major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN on relevant keywords, is essential to online business success. Be sure to look for search engine optimization as part of your Web design package. (See page 40.)
SEO is arguably the biggest single challenge in designing, building and maintaining an effective business Web site – or any other sort – because the “rules” keeping changing,the Web landscape never stops shifting, and new technology regularly adds its own wrinkles.
It needs constant tending to stay competitive, and whether you have the time and patience to take on the challenge yourself, or pay a pro for SEO, you should be aware of some warning flags.
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When someone says they’ll “submit” your new Web site to one, 10 or 100 search engines, it’s more sales pitch than substance. As long as your site has solid SEO built into the design, you’ll be found by search “spiders” – automated programs that constantly crawl the Web looking at sites to include in search results.
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If a designer or team promises SEO but doesn’t say which search engines they will optimize your site for, ask. While “submitting” a site is a mostly myth, your SEO must meet the requirements of at least the Big Three: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.
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Don’t believe anyone who “guarantees” top search engine rankings. Nobody can back up that claim.
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Don’t believe any claims of immediate results. It can take weeks for the spiders to find you and add your site to the search results roster.
Now it’s time to move forward with the hands-on work of building your new business Web site. In Step 3, we’ll explain where and how to begin.
Tip
Ways to stand out online
O
nline marketing now offers so many cost-effective options that it’s hard to know where to focus. Plus, recent studies estimate that a staggering 6 million documents are posted to the Web every day. You can’t simply launch a site and sit back. You must take action to get noticed.
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Make it easier to find your site. Much of search engine marketing is complex and time-consuming. But there are three fast ways to improve the odds of prominent placement.
The right keywords. Top rankings come from having content on your site that matches the keywords or (better yet) specific phrases customers use to search for what you sell.
Affiliate links. To find effective links, search for the phrases or keywords associated with the product or service you offer. In your search results, skip competitors, and choose marketers that support what you do. For instance, a kitchenware company might link to a table linens shop. Then send an e-mail or call to ask about exchanging links.
Vertical search engines. Besides the broad horizontal engines, harness the targeted power of engines specific to your industry.
2
. Reward customer error. Countless numbers of potential customers input a wrong address or misspell the name of the company when searching. Make sure they end up on your site anyway.
3. Offer e-learning. The technology to create online courses or solo Webcasts is now relatively inexpensive. By investing in producing online courses, you can reach out to remote and large groups of prospects on an ongoing basis.
4. Use offline ads to trigger a search. Offline and online marketing is increasingly blurred. You see a roadside billboard, a trade journal ad, a URL on a coffee mug and, bam! Next thing you know, you’ve pulled up the browser.
5. Get friendly with Web 2.0. The rise of online social networking has been fast and furious. Real-time and peer-to-peer outlets, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, and the ballooning blogosphere directly reach thousands of customers for mere pennies. You can use these outlets to start online conversations, post editorials or product data and to announce news or products that build your reputation and expertise.
Unless you own or plan to invest in a server – a powerful computer that’s always online, and “big” enough to store all your Web site files, as well as the content and operations of your company’s network – you need to find and hire a reliable Web host.
Just like someone who accepts you into their home and tends to your needs, a Web host accepts your site into its computers, securely stores all of your files and data, and ensures that it will be available every day, around the clock, to you and your customers.
The host also handles most of your other technical needs, including up-to-date backups of your entire site; properly tuning the software; and giving you enough bandwidth to keep from slowing down your site’s functions, and how fast the pages load.
Because there are a whole lot of hosts, all trying to get your business, most keep their prices low (some are even free), for any size business and budget.
Hosts commonly offer other necessary Web site services, either with all-in-one discount packages, or individual low-cost add-ons.
Just remember, you will be placing your entire Web site and all its functions in the host’s safekeeping, so don’t be tempted to use anything but a well-established outfit with a proven track record. There’s plenty of comparative information, user reviews and other critical material online to provide this confidence.
Some good starting points:
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Web Hosting Review
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Hosting Review
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ConsumerSearch
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
So you don’t get confused, understand that “FTP” is both a noun – referring to the software that transfers or “uploads” Web site files from your computer to your host’s server – and a verb – referring to the actual transfer: “I’m going to FTP these files.”
That also pretty well takes care of explaining what it does.
While hosts commonly include an FTP tool as part of their service, there’s often a limit on the size of the uploads it can handle. No matter. Plenty of free downloadable software on the Web can easily transfer your files to your host. A few that we like:
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FTP Navigator
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FileZilla
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CoffeeCup Free FTP
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Core FTP Lite
With some hosting packages (such as Office Live Small Business), no FTP software is required. You can just find your document, image or file on your desktop and easily upload it.
Merchant Accounts
To do retail business on the Web, you need to set up a merchant account to deal with credit card companies, banks and other financial services used by your customers.
You can do it yourself, often through your company’s bank, but you’ll have to do the hands-on work of processing every order. A better choice is one that grows easily with your Web business and does all the sensitive processing work for you automatically – a commercial merchant account provider. Although it actually refers to only part of their function, they’re also sometimes called “gateway” services.
Your customers enter their information in your “shopping cart” (we’ll get to that in Step 7), the merchant account service processes it securely, makes sure the money gets in your company bank account, and sends you an e-mail notice of the transaction or why it was refused.
Be sure, when shopping around for yours, that the provider handles all major credit cards and debit cards, e-checks, bank transfers and any other buying methods your customers will expect.
One of the best known is PayPal, and many of your customers may already have an account there to connect with yours. If they’ve ever bought anything on eBay, it’s likely.
PayPal makes its money by taking a small cut of the sale, and charges nothing to set up your service.
Fees will vary among merchant account providers, so shop around for one with a reliable record, the services you need and at a cost you can handle.
Managing your Web Images
Unless you plan to hire a designer to take care of all the photos and other graphics on your Web site, you’ll need a tool to do it yourself.
Basic digital photo and graphics editors are available for free whereas sophisticated top-end programs like Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Digital Image Suite, pretty well recognized as the professional gold standard, can cost into the hundreds of dollars.
What you’re looking for is editing software that can resize and crop images; repair problems with color and contrast; set their resolution, which controls how sharp your graphics are on the Web page; and save them using color modes and formats specifically for the Web.
The photo organizer built into your operating system, like Windows Photo Gallery packed with Microsoft’s new Vista, might even take care of your needs. Unless you really want to get into graphics editing and creating your own unique images and photo illustrations, you don’t need to understand the technical ins and outs. But you should be sure that your choice of software supports all standard graphics formats for the Web, mainly JPEG (jpg), GIF, Bitmap (bmp and others) and Ping (png).
Here’s a few good choices at a range of price points:
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Microsoft Digital Image Suite
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CoffeeCup Flash Photo Gallery
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Adobe Photoshop Elements
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Corel Paint Shop Pro
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Quick Web Photo Resizer
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PhotoPlus
Now you’re ready for Step 4, where we’ll explain some important design choices you should make before going any further.
General Design Principles
Don’t be a showoff. That’s another way of saying what we’ve stressed before, and will again: When it comes to Web design, as in so many other things, simple is better.
Of course you want photos and other graphic images to tell your company’s story in the best way. And without some eye candy, any Web page is blah.
But use only what’s needed to enhance your central message and tell it quickly and clearly in an attractive setting. Never make your customers work to get the information they need.
As you move ahead in building your site, stick to these basic design rules:
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Keep it clean. Empty white space on your Web pages is itself a design element. Use enough to keep each page uncluttered and uncramped. Do the same if you decide to use a dark background.
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In the dark. Never use dark text on dark backgrounds, or for that matter, light colored text on a white background. Black-on-white is a safe bet.
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Gray blocks. Because you’re already keeping it simple, make your text as concise and straightforward as possible. Don’t waste words – they waste your customers’ time. And break up long paragraphs. What the eyes see in a split second – about all it takes for a Web user to split from your site – is a big, challenging block of gray text. Give it some air.
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Choose colors carefully. You wouldn’t wear red plaid pants with an orange striped shirt (we hope!), and you should use the same design sense in picking the color palette for your Web site. There are even free tools to help. (See page 25.)
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Use successful models. The things you like or hate about other Web sites are probably the same for most other users. Take notes on what works and what you’d like to imitate. Better yet, save a screenshot in your design file. It’s easy:
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With your cursor anywhere on the Web page you’ve chosen, hold down the Alt key and press the Print Screen key.
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Nothing happened? Don’t worry, you just couldn’t see it.
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Now open a blank document page in your word processor or Microsoft Paint, right click anywhere on it and choose Paste. An exact duplicate of the Web page you selected will appear!
Getting Around on Your Web Site
Easy navigation through your site is absolutely essential to a successful design. If the path you lay out for your customers to follow is long, twisted and forks off without reason, they’ll get lost – and you’ll lose the sale.
As part of planning in Step 1, we asked you to draw a simple diagram of all the pages on your future Web site, beginning with the home page, then connect them in the order you expect customers to follow.
Did it get messy? Too complicated? That’s your draft. Now you’ll refine it.
Try the same exercise by starting with the last page on your site diagram and working back to the home page. A lot of designers find that much easier.
Now, is every page linked directly to the home page like spokes on a wheel? That can work, but it requires your customers to go back to the home page every time they want find more information, more page links. Do you have patience with that kind of back-and-forth?
7 Pages every Web site should have
D
on’t look now, but your Web site might be missing a few pages—very important pages.
Y
ou’re not alone. Most small-business sites are a work in progress—constantly being revised, improved, and updated. So invariably, something is always missing. But some pages are so important that not having them could hurt your bottom line.
H
ere are seven pages every business Web site must have, and where they need to be:
1
. Contact Us. Every small-business site should have a Contact Us page and it should offer visitors a complete list of ways they can contact you – from e-mail addresses to toll-free numbers to a physical address.
2
. Testimonials. Many companies skip the Testimonials page because they consider it too self-serving, While having a page like that may seem self-promotional, people will look for it. And when they don’t find it, they might begin to make assumptions.
4. FAQ. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are frequently forgotten, too. Why is an FAQ page so important? Mostly, they’ll ensure you won’t have to answer the same questions over and over. But it also is a convenience for site visitors.
5. A “gimme” page. Want readers to sign up for your newsletter or regular special offers? Add a section where users can be persuaded to give up some of their personal information (such as their names and e-mail addresses) in exchange for … well, something else. In many cases, this is an informative report, a keychain, a chance to win tickets to a ballgame, or a cash prize.
6. About Us. But just because you can do business with people you might never meet doesn’t mean they don’t want to know about who they’re doing business with. The most effective About Us pages are succinct and use no jargon.
7. Confirmation. A decent confirmation page that acknowledges an order and thanks the visitor for his or her business is essential—and often lacking.
Every one of your Web pages should have an obvious link back to home, and many companies use their logo (with an embedded link) for that purpose. But it’s not enough.
Persistent navigation is much better. As long as one or more of the following elements appears exactly the same way in the same place on every one of your pages, your customers will be able to go wherever they want from any page on the site without first heading back home. Here’s how to do it:
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Menus. Every Web user is familiar with menus and how they work. Often found on the left side of Web pages in vertical format, they may include clickable buttons linked to products or categories, blog pages or glossaries, size charts or shipping tables – anything that appears on the site’s other Web pages.
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Tabs. Amazon.com was the first to use a horizontal row of “file folder tabs” at the top of its Web pages to give users an easier way to find popular content on the massive Web site. The fact that you now see tab-navigation everywhere on the Web is proof of its usability.
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Site map. This can a simple text list or a more visually appealing diagram that shows where everything lives on your site. But if you have a large site, the diagram can become unwieldy. Just be sure your site map includes everything on your Web site with links to each page. You don’t need to put the map itself on every page; just link to it from your menu. This can also help you with your SEO efforts.
‘Seniors’ and Special Needs
As a businessperson, you should already be well aware that the Baby Boom Generation is here, it’s clear – get used to it.
This gigantic market segment not only is a consumer wonderland, but Boomers know what they want and how to throw their intimidating collective weight around to get it. When they were coming of age, they turned this country – and much of the world – on its head. Now they’re doing it again.
They’re older, of course. So they’re changing the definition of age. When one of the icons of Gen-Boom, feminist Gloria Steinem, was asked how she felt at age 50, she replied, “Exactly like I did when I turned 40,” or words to that effect.
The point is that 50, 60, 70 ain’t what it used to be. Unlike their parents, among other things, Boomers aren’t afraid of new technology and are flooding onto the Web. But they want it the way they want it – easy to read, especially with eyeglasses; mellow instead of jarring; and definitely free of (how would they put it?) crap.
Bonus Tip
5 Mistakes every Web site should avoid.
But let’s go beyond bad font choices, graphics, and animation. What are the biggest usability mistakes that aren’t as obvious? Here are five, with tips on how to avoid them.
1. Having a confusing or counterintuitive site structure. Nothing drives users away faster than a site that forces them to click around aimlessly until they stumble upon the right page. An expert user should be able to get where she wants to be in no more than three clicks.
2. Making the menu too complicated. Menus are the rough equivalent of a Web site’s spine. You want to keep them clear, straight, and strong. Navigation is normally found running horizontally across the top of a page in a tab-like orientation or stacked vertically along the left side of the page. No funny coding. No funny scripts.
3. Lapsing into industry jargon. An overabundance of marketing-speak and technical or industry jargon is a very common mistake. Your goal should be striking that balance between efficient search engine optimization and easy-to-read copy.
4. Overpromising, or even under-promising, what you can deliver. A Web site becomes unusable, and thus irrelevant, when it tells users that it will do something and then does not do it. That will drive those visitors away. Permanently.
5. Not closing the sale. If the site doesn’t call the user to some sort of action, whether it be phoning, faxing, e-mailing, or forming an order or at least a question, the user won’t be drawn to jump through the hoop.
As you design your Web site, also think about customers with impaired vision, hearing loss or other disabilities, and their special needs. The Web site Accessibility Initiative is a great source of tips and design techniques for doing this.
Some high points:
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Audio and video. If you intend to use either to assist your customers – instructional videos, product tutorials, testimonials – be sure transcripts, captions and video descriptions are also available.
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Clarity. Pay attention to contrast and sharpness, not only in your images, but throughout your Web site.
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Color. Important for “décor,” but don’t use it to convey your message. A portion of your potential customers may be visually impaired and will miss the point.
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Flicker. It amazes us that so many big, professional and otherwise good Web sites intentionally assault their users with flashing, flickering, strobe-speed
touch off seizures in some people with epilepsy.
Before moving on to Step 5, where you’ll get into the guts of a Web page, be sure to check out these design-related resources:
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Web site Accessibility Initiative
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SitePro Color Scheme Chooser
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Barry’s ColorChooser
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Wheel-Color.com
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eFuse Navigation Basics
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SmartWebby Navigation Tips
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Bravenet Web Tools
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MF&A’s Boomer/Senior Market Report
What is Hypertext Markup Language?
Yes, it’s a new language to learn. But HTML has been the basic framework of all Web design for as long as it’s existed, largely because it’s easy to understand.
It’s just words. Plain text, common words mixed with some special but simple “punctuation” marks.
You may be surprised to learn that every Web page, no matter how many slick tricks and graphics it has, is built on nothing but text. It’s like that old wizard behind the curtain: You don’t see him – unless you know where to look.
Go to a Web page you like and right-click your mouse on an empty space. When a menu appears, look for “View Source” or “View Page Source” and left-click it.
A new screen appears, filled with plain English text and familiar punctuation marks – but arranged in a different way. (If it’s one long unbroken block of gobbledygook, pick another page. Whoever wrote the code didn’t bother to break the text into lines and sections for easy reading.)
This is HTML and it controls everything on that page – every sentence, every graphic, every link and form, every sound, all of it. Your Web browser reads this text and translates it into the visual, functional Web page.
It’s as user-friendly as code gets, and you don’t need anything more than a word processor or simple text editor – like Notepad – to write or manipulate it. And it works on any kind of computer with any operating system.
How Does It Work?
Text alone is just a collection of words. Once strung together in a sentence or paragraph, punctuation makes them understandable and gives them meaning.
In HTML, the punctuation marks are called “tags.” Here’s a simple example:
Say you want to add the line, “Is HTML really so easy?” as its own paragraph on your Web page. In Hypertext Markup Language, it looks like this:
<p>Is HTML really so easy?</p>
To give emphasis to a word using italics – “Is HTML really so easy?” – add another pair of tags:
<p>Is HTML <em>really</em> so easy?</p>
Now, to put the same word in boldface, add another pair of tags:
<p>Is HTML <em><strong>really</strong></em>so easy?</p>
When a Web browser reads that code, this will appear on your page:
Is HTML really so easy?
You’ll notice that for every tag, like <p> for the start of a paragraph, there is also a closing tag – in this case </p>, for end of paragraph – that includes the slash mark /. The italics tag <em> means “emphasis,” and <strong> means boldface. (Old school HTML uses <i> for italics and <b> for boldface, but working with the newer tags will prepare you for using CSS – or Cascading Style Sheets – for even more flexibility and functions). Of course there’s much more to this language than three pairs of tags – far too much to cover here. But if you want to keep going, these are great places to start:
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HTMLGoodies.com
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Web siteTips.com
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PageResource.com
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EchoEcho.com
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Jukka Korpela’s HTML Primer
Understanding HTML Tools
As we mentioned earlier, you really don’t need any special software or programs to work with HTML. Plenty of Web designers use nothing more than Microsoft Word to create HTML content.
Let’s decipher one more techie acronym here in case you run across it:
ASCII – say “ask-ee” – stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the most common standard for handling text on computers. ASCII documents are basically text files, easily viewed and managed.
Because HTML works with any operating system – Windows, Mac, Linux – saving your HTML files in ASCII text format is the easiest and most effective way to go. In Microsoft Word, just choose “Simple Text,” “Text” or “Text Only” when it’s time to close and save your file.
Text editors are simpler than word processing programs, but cover your same needs for writing HTML. On PCs running the Windows or Vista operating system (or OS), you’ll find Notepad or WordPad built into all but the oldest versions; on Macs, it’s SimpleText.
There’s a big advantage, however, to getting an inexpensive program like the CoffeeCup HTML Editor, because it lets you easily switch between a text screen and a visual editor so you can see how your HTML looks on a Web page.
Hope we’ve taken the mystery out of this universal code.
It’s a language anybody can learn, there’s no secret handshake to join the worldwide society that uses it, and “speaking” even a little will give you more power over your new business Web site.
Maybe more than the competition.
Tip
What’s the buzz about AJAX?
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technology is the new buzzword in Web site design. So what is it and what makes it so cool. Simply put, AJAX is a Web development technique used for creating interactive Web pages and applications.
The intent is to make Web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change (e.g., changes the font or inserts a block of text).
This is intended to increase the Web page’s interactivity, speed, functionality, and usability. AJAX has been incorporated into Office Live Small Business Small Business’s Site Designer tool to gives users immediate, or dynamic, feedback as they develop their Web site pages.
WYSIWYG vs. HTML Software
The two most common types of design software are WYSIWYG and HTML, which is used to build a Web site with Hypertext Markup Language (see Step 5). Better software combines both, automatically converting your visual design to HTML.
WYSIWYG (say “wiziwig”) makes Web-building a lot easier for those of you new to the whole thing. It’s an acronym for What You See is What You Get –you watch your site come together on the screen while dragging and dropping its pieces into place.
But if you’re building anything more than a basic Web site with limited functions, HTML is the way to go.
The code isn’t hard to learn, if you have the time, and gives you endless flexibility and options, and better control over every element of your new site and how it looks online.
A blend of both is best and usually offered in higher end – more expensive – design software
Some Tips on ‘Deals’ to Avoid
As you shop around online for business Web design software, be careful about certain great looking “deals.” Here are some to avoid:
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Software that allows you to use both WYSIWYG and HTML, but not at the same time. While you can switch between them, you can’t use them simultaneously. That’s a big disadvantage if you’re managing your own Web site, want to do it right and are pressed for time.
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Packages that play up design templates, graphics elements and images, but downplay functionality – because there isn’t much.
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WYSIWYG software with little or no HTML editing ability.
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Many ISPs – internet service providers – like Verizon, Quest and Earthlink, and giants Yahoo, AOL and Google, offer free tools and server space for personal Web sites – but not enough for even basic small-business needs.
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Avoid programs that aren’t aimed at small business owners.
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Avoid software that doesn’t let you make easy changes quickly and easily.
Top-of-the-Line Design Software
As you might expect, top-tier Web design software is much more sophisticated – and costly. It’s harder for novices to control, and even if you learn to use their professional design tools, you may still need a pro to put it all together, make it work and maintain it.
But it will serve you well as your business grows, and your Web design needs grow with it. Here are some of the most popular examples:
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Microsoft Expression Web, $299, free trial
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Adobe Dreamweaver, $399, free trial
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NetObjects Fusion 10.0, $199
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Microsoft.com/SilverLight, free download
