The side-bar of any webpage is a good place to put repeated content such as links to specific services, sub-sections of your website, adverts and call-outs.
The side-bar of any webpage is a good place to put repeated content such
as links to specific services, sub-sections of your website, advertisements
and call-outs.
The side-bar of any webpage is a good place to put repeated content such as links to specific services, sub-sections of your website, adverts and call-outs.
Somewhere like this is ideal for links to special reources, other
pages, subsections of this page, you name it...
The side-bar of any webpage is a good place to put repeated content such as links to specific services, sub-sections of your website, adverts and call-outs.
As you will probably have noticed by now this is not
the website of a real company but an example of a typical website intended
to give you some idea of the possibilities.
However the FAQ questions here are all valid questions, all relating
to website setup using this or other designs.
GWC FAQ Page...
The 'Frequently Asked Questions' page is a very effective way to pass basic information to your visitors. The obvious queries and confusions are anticipated and answered. Questions may often be grouped according to specific criteria, invariably dependant on the nature of the website.
- Getting your organisation or business online...
- Q: How useful is a website?
- A: For small businesses or hobbyist groups a website is a very cost effective way to advertise. Unlike printed advertising, your information is widely available, infinitely updateable and most importantly there are no limits on content or volume. Internet search engines will display your pages to those who look for them, thus to a degree the targeting of your advertisement takes care of itself.
- Q: What are the basic elements required?
- A: You need four things; A domain name, a host, the code for a website and a good understanding of how these relate to each other. It also helps to have a good general knowledge of how websites and the Internet work.
- Q: What is a domain name and how do I get one?
- A: All websites have a name which is unique to them, something like www.mywebsite.com. Domain names can be obtained from third party suppliers at relatively low cost.
- Q: What is hosting, how do I obtain this service?
- A: Hosting is the storage of your webpages on a remote server, connected to the Internet where the whole world can see it. Hosting space on the server is purchased from third party suppliers. Domain names and hosting can often be obtained from the same supplier.
- Q: How do I get the code for a website?
- A: The website content needs to be created in HTML and structured ready for hosting. You can do this yourself using the relevant software, however this requires some skill and knowledge of the technologies used. Unless you already possess these skills you have just two choices here; learn them, or get someone else to do it for you.
- Having a website made for you...
- Q: How do I get started?
- A: First find yourself someone who has the required skills on offer and get in touch with them. Give them an outline of what you want, the nature of your business or interest and they will usually come back to you with some practical suggestions and ideas. Once you have agreed the details, work can begin.
- Q: How much control will I have?
- A: It's your website so you have total control over the content and general structure. Depending on what arrangement you come to with your designer you can either supply the text and image content for the website or have it produced for you. Obviously having the designer produce it will take longer and therefore cost more.
- Q: Will I need to arrange the domain name and hosting?
- A: If you already have a domain name and hosting then these can be used. You will of course need to provide access to the host server for the designer. But most designers will be more than happy to set all of this up for you.
- Q: What about future maintenance?
- A: Once a site has been designed and handed over to you it is yours to do with as you please. If you want to take over the maintenance then you are free to do so. Most sites will require occasional changes over time. Most designers are happy to come to an arrangment for future maintenance.
- Choosing a design...
- Q: What sort of layout and style can I have?
- A: There are infinite possibilities here, sometimes this can make the choice very difficult. Initially you are advised to keep it fairly simple, gimmicky features usually add little except cost!
- Q: How should I indicate my chosen style to the designer?
- A: Unless you have very specific ideas of your own your best bet is to look at as many examples as possible, this set of pages is such an example with a variety of layouts and styles. None of these are rigid, you can mix and match any element of these and substitute your own chosen colour schemes and fonts, you decide the aesthetics and the designer will take care of the technicalities.
- Q: Choosing a style?
- A: This can be a difficult choice, unless you already have a clear colour scheme in mind your best option is to surf the Internet and find a selection of websites that you find aesthetically pleasing. Give these to the designer who will pick out the relevant elements.
- Q: Can the style reflect an existing corporate branding?
- A: Businesses especially often have their on logos and colour scheme already. These can easily be woven into the design, you will of course need to provide the relevant images.
- Still interested?
- Q: Can you do this?
- A: Look around this site and the portfolio, judge for yourself...
- Q: Can you do this for me?
- A: There is always room in the portfolio for more sites, ask me!