Website Services
Website design can be a simple or complex affair, depending on what your requirements are. Below we will explain and walk through the steps required to bring your website vision to reality.
Domain Name
The first thing you will need is a domain name. This is the address where people will find your website. To use a convenient example, the domain name of this website is www.windcompanionwebdesign.com. Usually your domain name will be somewhat descriptive of the content of your website. It may be your name or your company name or it may be a short catch phrase or logo. But whatever name you choose it must be unique.
Domain names can end with the following suffixes: .aero, .arpa, .biz, .com, .coop, .edu, .info, .int, .museum, .net, and .org. People are most familiar with .com, but .net and .org are also very common. Does it matter which suffix you choose? Somewhat, though there are no hard and fast rules for domain suffixes. Usually you choose a suffix that is descriptive of your site. For example, if you are building a website for your school, .edu would be your first choice.
Domain names must be registered (for a fee) with ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers which is responsible for managing and coordinating domain names to ensure that every address is unique and that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses. Domain names can be registered through a variety of third party sources, most commonly through your Website Host Provider. The fees vary but are usually between 10 and 20 dollars per year.
Wind Companion Web Design can help you choose a unique domain name and get it registered.
Website Host Provider
So what is a website host provider? This is a company that stores your website files on their servers. Servers are computers that "serve" your files when requested by visitors who typing your domain name into a web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Actually, any computer hooked up to the internet can act as a website host, but companies that specialize in this service offer a lot of value to their customers such as a guaranteed percentage of up-time, automated file back-up services, site specific email address, etc.
Choosing the right host provider depends on the services you require. There are no shortage of providers to choose from and their fees range from 50 dollars per year and up. Wind Companion Web Design can help you choose the most cost effective host for your website requirements. Click here to see our hosting recommendations.
Your Website Goals
Now that you've registered your domain name and have selected a host provider, all you need is a website for your visitors to see! Before we start on your website design, you should consider what goals you have for your site. Do you want a blog site for posting your thoughts and accepting visitor comments? Or perhaps a site to show off your amateur photograph? Maybe a site to sell your hand-crafted jewelry? Or are you interested in a professional site that will inform customers of your company's products and services? Do you want your site to have video, photo galleries, animated flash elements?
Having a clear set of goals for your website will streamline the design process and keep your website within your budget.
Your Website Design
So you know what you want your site to do, but how do you want your site to look? Maybe you already have a logo, some images and text and a solid idea of how you want your site laid out. If that's the case, we can start right away! If not, a great way to get ideas for website designs is to hit the internet. Look at other websites similar to what you have in mind. After googling ten or twenty sites, you should have a lot of ideas to consider.
You will also want to consider how your site will be divided into various pages. Most sites have between 3 and twenty pages, some less some much more. It's important that your visitors readily know where they are in your site and can easily find what they are looking for. This is what we call site navigation. Are your menu buttons easy to find and uncluttered? Are the button labels clear and intuitive? A well laid out website will make it easy for your visitors to find the content that you worked so hard to get them to see.
The Site-Building Process
After consulting with you on your website goals and design ideas we will offer a bid. Once a price is agreed upon we will ask for a 50% deposit to begin work. We will complete two front page design mock-ups that incorporate all the design elements you requested. After we get the design just right we will proceed to create an actual home page and a sampling of the inner pages. These pages will be uploaded to the hosting provider you have selected. Upon approval of these pages we will ask for the remaining 50% payment before we proceed to complete the remaining pages.
How Much Will My Website Cost?
It all depends on what your needs are. Every website is unique. How much a website will cost to develop will depend largely on a number of factors and desired features.
For instance, how much custom programming will your website need in order to come to life the way you envision? Will the site need e-commerce features like a shopping cart? Will the site need a database? Will the site need Real Audio / Video capabilities? Is Flash animation a desired feature? What kind of budget do you have for on-going website maintenance? These are just some of the things to consider.
Ballpark... a simple, beautifully designed nonprofit website consisting of between 5 to 7 pages would probably average out to between $650 and $1,000. A professional e-commerce business site, complete with state-of-the-art shopping cart system, would cost between $1,500 and $5,000. These are rough estimates. The cost for your own website may be less or more, depending on your needs and desired features.
Unlike some other web design companies we do not churn out cookie cutter, template-based websites. We work closely with you to ensure your website design matches your vision and target market. Our designs are fresh and unique, just like each and every one our clients.
For more information please Contact Us or visit our Free Quote page and send us an online quote request. We look forward to hearing from you!
Nothing lasts forever. Even the best site design needs to be renewed from time to time to keep the site looking modern and fresh. Reworking the site design with new graphics, a new layout and up-to-date content will keep your visitors and clients coming back for more.
Many sites designed in the last few years were made for older, smaller computer displays. The standard site layout for these displays was 780 pixels wide. Today's standard display size is 1040 pixels wide which leaves older sites looking small and cramped. Wind Companion Web Design can re-work your existing website to take advantage of the wider displays and the extra content "real estate" they afford.
Keeping your site ranking high in search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo requires a comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO) plan. Part of any good SEO plan is to keep site content fresh, and one of the best ways to do that is to add a blog page to your site. Even sites that aren't "blog-centric" can benefit from a blog page that enables the site owner to easily add and update the page content.
For more information please Contact Us or visit our Free Quote page and send us an online quote request. We look forward to hearing from you!
Keeping your website content current can be a time-consuming and often technical affair, but adding new photos, copy and even new pages is necessary for letting your site visitors know what's going on.
From simple page content updates to on-going site maintenance, Wind Companion Web Design can be your partner in maintaining a fresh and dynamic internet presence.
For more information please Contact Us or visit our Free Quote page and send us an online quote request. We look forward to hearing from you!
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