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Internet Web Site Design - |
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1) What is the Internet all about? The Internet is actually an entirely new worldwide, communication system. E-mail, Web Sites, File Transfer, Telnet, Audio, Movies, Chat Areas, Telephone Voice Communication, Teleconferencing, Virtual Reality and more are all features of the two way communication, available through the Internet. For the business man, this means an entirely new, huge playing field. A Web Site is a collection of HTML pages, similar to the one you are currently viewing, stored in a specific place or address, called a web server. This web server can be reached by any computer in the world, with an Internet connection. It is from the Web Site that the various Internet features are delivered: e-mail, text, graphics, telnet, ftp, movies, audio, etc. There are over 80 million web sites hosted by different Internet servers all around the world. Each web site has its own unique IP address, which can look something like this (203.205.124.63). In order for one to access a particular web site, they would have to remember it's particular IP address. A domain name is used to mask this, by assigning a name which can contain letters and numbers to replace the IP address. Which means that either this (203.205.124.63) or this (http://www.anything.com) can be used to access a particular site on the Internet. Benefits of the later would be a name which is more easily remembered and a professional image for your site. Domain names are handled by Domain Registrars like Bulk Register and others Depending on the type of business the extensions of your domain name can vary. For example, (.com for most individuals or companies), (.org Non profit organizations), (.net for Internet related businesses or ISP's), (.edu Educational bodies like schools etc) and (.gov for Government related web sites). Depending on the country you are in and your preference, you can add your country's code behind your domain name. A US business could have a .us and a Singapore business could have a .sg attached at the back. 4) How would creating a web-site benefit my company? There are over 600 million Internet users worldwide and this number is growing at a tremendous rate. Most of these users are professionals who use the Internet for business, trade, gaming, shopping, news and information, etc. By having a web site about your company, information about your company and its products, would be made available to these users upon request, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This is the perfect opportunity for any business. Just imagine closing sales or receiving orders while you sleep. 5) What information should my company's site contain? Company Web Sites can have anything from five to thirty or more pages. They might include pages on the company's products and services, history, special promotions, customer lists, personnel contacts, articles about the company, etc. Pictures and graphics about the products, facility, plant area, personnel, etc., would be appropriate. Navigation bars, reciprocal links to other complimentary businesses, fax, forms registration and feedback help the visitor get around the Web Site successfully. A Full Service Web Site could literally mean putting an entire company on the Web. Web Sites such as those of Netscape , AT&T, Microsoft , etc., have hundreds of pages with technical specifications, product conferences, FAQ's, downloaded products - both free and for sale with a secure server, and a host of other services. 6) What are the other uses of a company's web site? Marketing Customer Service Web Sites may tie into the client's data bases for specific operational information. FEDERAL EXPRESS will give you the status of your shipment with the input of an airbill number on-line. Other companies do an automatic stock check for product availability. Still others will give back on-line quotes for their products or services. Any Web Site linking back to the Client's computer files, or requiring extensive on-line programming is obviously more expensive. Usually such Customer Service Web Sites are second stage Web Sites, designed and developed after the Client is satisfied with the results of an initial Web Site. Point of Presence Today, we no longer ask if a company has a fax machine, we simply ask for the number. Within a few years, or sooner, we will no longer be asking if a company has an e-mail address and a Web Site address, we will simply ask for them. Communications This area offers big potential for growth on the Web. E- mail is already used extensively by many companies to cut down on phone, fax, and other communications costs world wide. File transfer, audio, movies, on-line telephone conversations, and teleconferencing are already in use in limited applications and are growing quickly. 7) Would I receive orders and enquiries the moment my site is online? Designing your site and getting it online is just the beginning. This is comparable to opening a retail store and waiting for customers at the door. If you do not give your address out, nobody knows where your shop is. There are many ways to create awareness of your new site. The first one (Online Advertising), is described below in FAQ 8 . Online Advertising or submitting your site to various search engines and directories, is a slow process and can take between 4 to 7 months before results are shown. Other ways to promote your new site would be to have your web site address printed on your business cards, invoices, brochures, etc.. 8) What isthe difference between Web Site Submission and Guaranteed listings? Remember that there are over 40 million web sites all around the world and some of those might be of your direct competitors. In order to enable users find the information they need, the Web has a number of Search Engines and directories. Some of the more well known ones are Google , Yahoo , Lycos , Alta Vista , and Web Crawler . Web Site Submission is actually the registering of your Web Site with these and many other Search Engines. Registering your site once is never enough as Search Engines, occasionally change the way they index pages. We will monitor these changes and update your pages and re-submit them in order to maintain your site's ranking. Another part of our ongoing service is to develop reciprocal links for your Web Site. Your vendors, and perhaps some customers may have Web Sites and may be willing to set up a reciprocal link with your company. 9) How do you work with overseas clients? We suggest that you send us as much information as you have available about your company. We will conduct an in-depth consultation to assess your objectives. With that information, and with your approval, we will design and program a preliminary Web Site for review by you and your management team. Looking at a completed Web Site, specific for your company, will allow you to intelligently make changes, recommendations, additions, etc. 10) What is Self Build Web Site Package ? What we offer are a range of basic services needed to get your web site up and running. You have a choice of selecting the required services and making your own package. Every web site is designed base on a template, so templates are required. Other than this, you are free to select and build your own web site design package. You can add other services at a later time. 11) What are meta tags and how does it help me? Meta tags are actually the coding of your web pages with information that would be displayed, when someone searches for your site, by using a search engine. Information that is required would be the heading, description and keywords. Heading is the heading that would be displayed, description would follow the heading and keywords are words that a client might use when searching for your products or services. Selecting the right keywords is extremely important as it can either send the right or wrong traffic, your way. Fortunately, we have the skills and tools to assist you in this task.
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