Web Site Design
Most small businesses and many individuals want a web site to sell merchandise, services or ideas - or just to sell themselves in order to get a better job.
Here are a few tips I have found useful in setting up my own web sites. I hope you'll find them useful too.
Although these tips are aimed at UK visitors, they are also of more general interest.
Keep it Simple
Of course, you're not a dot-com entrepreneur, misguidedly thinking that your fantastic money-making idea must have the latest and coolest web applications.
Instead, I'm assuming you simply want a web site that's easy to use, easy to maintain - and downloads quickly.
The most important thing to remember is to keep it simple.
Keep it Consistent
Each page should follow a similar layout. For example, if you spell your name using only upper-case letters then keep it that way if it re-appears on other pages.
Capitalizations, spelling, the use of hyphens, etc., etc. should be consistent.
Keep it Secure
If you are selling from your web site then use a well-known and trusted merchant service, such as for example
Paypal.
Do not forget to include a Privacy Policy and a set of Terms and Conditions, with links on every page.
Things not to do
Do not use British hosting companies
They will charge you VAT, and their prices in general are usually stupidly high compared to hosting companies based in North America.
You might not be able to use domain names like co.uk - but so what.
I use Netfirms (see the banner on the right) and have found them to be excellent. They are a Canadian company but bill in US dollars.
Certainly, there is free web-site hosting available on the Internet, but you cannot usually choose your own domain name and you have to display advertising banners for which you do not get paid.
Do not even think about using Flash
It's a waste of bandwidth and often takes forever to load.
Remember, not everyone has a fast Internet connection.
Also, many users regard Flash as annoying and have switched the application off at the browser.
Users of Firefox can do this easily.
Do not provide only MS-Office Documents
It may be hard to believe, but not everyone uses Word, Excel, etc.
Offer your users the choice of downloading pdf documents. This is the internationally recommended format.
It goes without saying that the size of your documents should be small - up to a couple of 100 Kb.
So if you provide a downloadable brochure, for example, then please do not put a glossy graphic on the front cover.
It may look wonderful, but it can easily increase the size of the document to 1 Mb or more - particularly if the document comes out of Adobe distiller.
Do not provide only uncompressed photographs
It's amazing the number of web sites that will think nothing of putting up pictures of more than 1 Mb in size.
Photographs should always be compressed to below 100 Kb at the very least - and preferably to below 50 Kb. That way, they load quickly and easily.
You don't have to go out and buy something like Adobe Photoshop to compress pictures.
There are plenty of free applications that do an excellent job.
For example, Irfanview for MS Windows and Gimp for Unix-based computers.
If you must have a high-definition picture on your web site then make a link to it from the compressed picture. Give your users a choice!
Building your web site
Get someone to do it for you
Many hosting companies provide complete web sites for the business or personal user. They can be excellent and many come with full merchant checkout facilities.
Be careful, however, about employing a friend to build a web site for you, unless you trust him and you both have a good working relationship with each other. It could be that your friend is a great graphics designer but hopeless on the technical side.
On the other hand, if he knows about computers he may be hopeless at design.
Build it yourself from scratch
This is perfectly possible, even for the beginner. It may be the cheapest way. It certainly ensures that you know everything about your web site and how it fits in with your
corporate identity. This is important even for a small-business owner.
You need to be able to use a very small amount simple html code.
It's not difficult to learn and there are plenty of free guides available on line.
A good one is available here.
Look out for one or two simple web sites that load quickly and whose layout appeals to you.
Then modify the source code for your own web site. Providing the layout is pretty standard, no one can claim ownership to source code that is generic.
Of course, you will want to use your own words and graphics.
You are very welcome to use my site as a template. Modify my css script for your own use.
It would be nice if you put a link to me somewhere, either a text or banner link, but you don't have to.
Employ us to advise you
Please contact us to see how we can help you. We have built
this web site and
this web site.
