Whether choosing a design firm, laying out your site for the first time, or optimizing it for better performance, these foolproof Web-design strategies can help you avoid common — and costly — mistakes.
 
• Building a Budget Web Site?
We're planning our company's first Web site right now, but we don't have any idea of how much it's going to cost. Is there any way we can hold down costs at least at the beginning?

How much a Web site costs depends on how much you want it to do. You can put up a basic "billboard" site for practically nothing if you use one of the homesteading sites offered by services such as GeoCities. There are a number of services that will help you build a simple, templated business Web site for less than $100. A world-class e-commerce site for a big company, on the other hand, can cost $1 million or more, according to Gartner, and it can require ongoing maintenance costs to match.

But there are always options to cut corners. If you're willing -- and able -- to do much of the work yourself, you can save a fortune in labor costs. You can use freeware and shareware Web building tools instead of spending thousands of dollars on full-blown commercial image editors, HTML authoring programs and other niceties. And you can host your site with your regular Internet service provider instead of a dedicated hosting service.

There's nothing wrong with the low-cost approach, but if you're really serious about growing your business on the Web, I don't recommend scrimping on your site. While you don't want to waste money, investing in a clean, fast, well-designed Web site that's always up and running for your customers is probably one of the best ways to spend your money.

 
• Building a Global Web Site?
I think my company's products would sell well around the world, but my Web site is designed primarily for the U.S. market. How difficult is it to redesign my site for an international audience? Going

 I think my company's products would sell well around the world, but my Web site is designed primarily for the U.S. market. How difficult is it to redesign my site for an international audience?

Going global on the Internet is easier than it is in the physical world, but there's still plenty of risk and uncertainty involved.
Language barriers are the biggest issue. Unless you're focusing on the Canadian, British or other English-speaking markets, you can't expect many locals to be interested in a site written in English. (Even then, regional differences in "proper" English can be a problem.)
Your first step is to translate your site into the local languages of the countries you want to address. Free online translation services such as LanguageWare will do some of the work, but these services are not good enough to use by themselves. You'll also need to pay a human translator or service to truly customize your site. (Most automated translation services also offer human translators.)
If you really want to reach a particular overseas audience, you'll need localized content -- not just the stuff you wrote back in Toledo translated into Portuguese. That means hiring local writers and producers and working with them to create content -- everything from articles to product descriptions -- appropriate to their culture.

Obviously, this can get expensive, especially when you're trying to penetrate a dozen new markets at once. You may be better off partnering with a local content provider -- a major newspaper, for example -- or with a Web building agency experienced in creating multinational sites.
Start small with a single target country and see how things go. While the rest of the world is catching up to the U.S. in Net usage, they're still a relatively small part of the total online audience. You may find that the returns you get from smaller overseas markets don't yet justify the time and expense of creating a truly localized site.

 
• Building a Web Site for Your Home-Based Business
A home-based business can benefit greatly from having a Web site. It is a good idea to plan your Web site strategy in advance and launch it at the same time you start your business. Include your domain

Building a Web Site for Your Home-Based Business?

A home-based business can benefit greatly from having a Web site. It is a good idea to plan your Web site strategy in advance and launch it at the same time you start your business.

Include your domain name and email address on all of your sales material, business cards, advertising material and letterheads. That way, your Web site can provide information to your clients on their schedule. It can also function as a member of your sales force, allowing you to expand your possibilities and appeal to more customers.

Below is a checklist of some important things you will need to remember while you are setting up your Web site.

1. Purchase a domain that is catchy and easy to remember. If your company name does not evoke instant recognition, try purchasing a domain name that describes what you do or what you sell. For a sample Domain Name Purchase Agreement, check out the Forms & Agreements Center at AllBusiness.com.

2. Find an e-commerce Web hosting package. There are many hosting companies that offer Web site packages that are geared toward businesses. These packages often include a shopping cart, mailing list software, and site promotion tools that will allow you to save time and money by having these services at your fingertips ahead of time.

3. Apply for a merchant account. If you need to sell your items online, you will need to make sure that you have a merchant account. This will allow you to process a variety of different credit cards on your site and may increase your business significantly as opposed to accepting only check or money orders.

4. Purchase Web site design software. You have enough to do without having to learn HTML to design your site. A WYSIWYG — "What you see is what you get," pronounced wizzy-wig — software program will allow you to visually put your site together, saving you time and effort. If you are not confident that you can design your own site, you may need to hire a professional designer to take care of this for you.


• Developing a Professional Web Site with Templates
You don't have to be an HTML whiz to create a sleek, professional-looking business Web site. Many companies offer Web site templates you can use to design a great site in a fraction of the time it would

We're planning our company's first Web site right now, but we don't have any idea of how much it's going to cost. Is there any way we can hold down costs at least at the beginning?
How much a Web site costs depends on how much you want it to do. You can put up a basic "billboard" site for practically nothing if you use one of the homesteading sites offered by services such as GeoCities. There are a number of services that will help you build a simple, template business Web site for less than $100. A world-class e-commerce site for a big company, on the other hand, can cost $1 million or more, according to Gartner, and it can require ongoing maintenance costs to match.
But there are always options to cut corners. If you're willing -- and able -- to do much of the work yourself, you can save a fortune in labor costs. You can use freeware and shareware Web building tools instead of spending thousands of dollars on full-blown commercial image editors, HTML authoring programs and other niceties. And you can host your site with your regular Internet service provider instead of a dedicated hosting service.
There's nothing wrong with the low-cost approach, but if you're really serious about growing your business on the Web, I don't recommend scrimping on your site. While you don't want to waste money, investing in a clean, fast, well-designed Web site that's always up and running for your customers is probably one of the best ways to spend your money.

 
• Eight Top Web Site Design Issues
By Robert C. Potter Does your Web site keep people captivated, or does it send them fleeing as soon as they get to your home page? Do you offend your visitors with the following annoyances? 1. Automatic

Does your Web site keep people captivated, or does it send them fleeing as soon as they get to your home page? Do you offend your visitors with the following annoyances?
1. Automatic audio. Always give people the option of listening to any music or recorded information you have on your site. Don't automatically assume that your visitors will be captivated by your voice or your music. Always give them the option of turning it off.

2. Spinning, flashing, or blinking ads. Flashing banner ads are the equivalent of a carnival barker trying to lure people into a sideshow. You don’t need to shout to people to get you message heard. Keep you ads limited and your content abundant.

3. Unnavigable sites. Do not expect visitors to jump through "link hoops" to get to your information. They won't. Make your product, price, or service, clear, precise, and easy to find. Design your content so that even elementary school children can understand your site.

4. Excessive pop-ups. In this day and age, pop-ups are inevitable. But if visitors have to close multiple pop-ups to get to your site, they may leave and never come back. The same applies for "fly-in" or "hover" that bounce across the screen. If you have to use anything, incorporate a pop-up that loads when a visitor leaves your site.

5. A page full of dead links and 404 error messages. Keep your links up to date and take down the links that are no longer active.

6. Dark text on a dark background. Don't expect your readers to work to read your content, because they won't. They will leave and find the information they need elsewhere.

7. Use Flash judiciously. Unless you have a film site or a product that requires a detailed visual description, resist using Macromedia's Flash for e-commerce. If you are using your site to sell a product, use high-quality, fast-loading photos and creative descriptions of each item. If you must use Flash, make your files as small and fast-loading as possible.

8. Solid blocks of text with no breaks between paragraphs. That may work in print, but it will not fly on the Web. People don't read online content the way they read offline -- they skim. Imposing blocks of dark text will put off your readers. Make your content clear and concise. Break up your paragraphs, and use plenty of white space.

If your site makes any of the mistakes enumerated above, it is not too late. Make the necessary changes as soon as you can. In fact, if you haven't redesigned your site in the last 6 to 12 months, you may be due for a redesign anyway. And make sure that when you do redesign that you don't fall afoul of any of these rules.

 
• Web Site Developers for Small Businesses
There are many individuals out there who will offer to develop your Web site for you. The trick is finding someone who will do what you want. To find a good Web site developer, look at other Web sites.

There are many individuals out there who will offer to develop your Web site for you. The trick is finding someone who will do what you want.

To find a good Web site developer, look at other Web sites. Contact the names of developers listed at the bottom of the sites that you like. You can also ask for referrals from other businesses, providing you like what you see on their sites. Shop around and find someone who is easy to work with and comes highly recommended.

Depending on the complexity of the site and the need for business transactions, detailed graphics, etc., the costs will vary greatly. Keep in mind that no matter what you pay, the Web site developer is working for you, which means:
You call the shots.

• All content, graphics and everything else on the site should be owned by you (and your contract should spell that out).
• The developer (as stated in the contract) is responsible for all functions on the site and making sure that they are in working ordered.
• You should draw up a contract with the developer, which is a "work for hire agreement," specifying the start and completion date of the site’s creation and the costs.

 
• Globalize Your Web Site
The Web may bring the world to your storefront, but you won't get much global action if your entire site is geared toward residents of Terre Haute, Indiana. If you're serious about doing business outside

There are many individuals out there who will offer to develop your Web site for you. The trick is finding someone who will do what you want.

To find a good Web site developer, look at other Web sites. Contact the names of developers listed at the bottom of the sites that you like. You can also ask for referrals from other businesses, providing you like what you see on their sites. Shop around and find someone who is easy to work with and comes highly recommended.

Depending on the complexity of the site and the need for business transactions, detailed graphics, etc., the costs will vary greatly. Keep in mind that no matter what you pay, the Web site developer is working for you, which means:
You call the shots.

• All content, graphics and everything else on the site should be owned by you (and your contract should spell that out).
• The developer (as stated in the contract) is responsible for all functions on the site and making sure that they are in working ordered.
• You should draw up a contract with the developer, which is a "work for hire agreement," specifying the start and completion date of the site’s creation and the costs.

 • Hosting Your Web Site
The first (and most important) step in putting your pages online is finding someplace on the Web to put them on display — a host. In general, you have two choices for hosting your pages: Host them yourself.

The first (and most important) step in putting your pages online is finding someplace on the Web to put them on display — a host. In general, you have two choices for hosting your pages:

• Host them yourself.

• Pay someone else to host them.

The word host is used in the Web industry to mean a Web server set up to hold Web pages (and related files) so they can be accessed by the rest of the world. This chapter uses host as both

• Noun: The physical machine that holds the Web pages

• Verb: The act of serving up the Web pages

You aren't stuck with your hosting decision for life. If you find hosting your own pages overwhelming, you can move your files to a service provider (or vice versa). To decide which hosting option is best for you, consider your needs for the next year, but plan to review your needs in a few months.

You can set up your own Web server and host your Web pages yourself. To do this, you need:

• A computer designated as your Web server: Web servers are often dedicated to this task, leaving word-processing and other activities to a different computer.
  
  
• Web-server software: Common Web-server software packages include Apache and Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS), called Internet Information Services in Windows 2000 and later.

In the Web world, the term Web server refers to both
A dedicated computer (the actual hardware)
• Web-server software
You can't use one without the other.

A dedicated Internet connection: Your Web server isn't useful or reliable if it's connected to the Internet only when you fire up a dialup connection.
If hosting a Web site yourself sounds a little complicated and expensive, you're right. Not only do you have to pay for the equipment and dedicated Internet connection, but you also must know how to set up and administer a Web server and keep all the pieces working 24/7. Consider using a hosting provider.

• How to Choose a Web Design Company
Once you decide you need a Web site, it's time to decide who will build it. If you have the technical know-how or the money to hire a full-time Web staff, you can develop the site yourself. But if you're

Once you decide you need a Web site, it's time to decide who will build it. If you have the technical know-how or the money to hire a full-time Web staff, you can develop the site yourself. But if you're like most small businesses, you'll want to outsource the work.
Be careful who you hire, though. A poorly designed Web site can cost you money, drive away customers and hurt your reputation. Follow a few basic steps to increase your odds of hiring a creative, technically savvy and cost-effective design firm.
1. Assess your needs. You can hire contractors to create, implement and maintain your site. If your site will serve only as an online brochure, consider outsourcing the creation and implementation, while handling future maintenance -- like fixing broken links -- in-house. Be realistic about your own goals and growth plans so you know whether to hire a long-term or a short-term contractor.
2. Research each candidate's work. It's essential that you research a Web developer's work so you can evaluate their potential. Once you've found a few developers you like -- through recommendations, Web directories or competitors' sites -- evaluate their online portfolios and fees. A site doesn't have to be flashy to do its job, but you must appreciate the developer's design sense. Also, consider hiring a firm familiar with your particular industry.
3. Evaluate their services. Decide if the developer meets your needs. If you want to sell your products online, look for proven e-commerce experience. If you're considering a one-person firm, does the developer have the skills necessary to create everything you need? On the other hand, will you get lost in the shuffle at a larger firm with lots of other clients? Determine what extras the firms offer, such as copywriting, marketing and other services.
4. Meet face-to-face. Your Web design firm, whether a one-person shop or a multinational company, is going to present your Web persona to the world. You must be able to work collaboratively. Ask yourself these questions and rely on your gut reaction:

• Do they listen to my needs?
• Do they explain issues in ways I can understand?
• Do they know my industry?
• Do they share my vision for the site?

5. Check references. Browsing a company's work is helpful, but you also want to know how they work. A Web design firm can be the most creative in the world, but if it never finishes your site, it won't do you much good. Call past clients and ask if the design firm:

• Adhered to deadlines.
• Met their requests.
• Was responsive to suggestions and questions.
• Fixed problems promptly.
• Worked within the original budget.

6. Think ahead. Over the past year, hundreds of Web design firms of all sizes have merged, cut back their operations or simply closed. Although it's impossible to know for sure whether or not a firm will be around in the future, you have a right to ask questions if you expect to build a long-term relationship. You should also ask whether a design firm will accept payment in stages or whether they'll demand most of their payment up front. Firms that aren't willing to link payment to their own ability to deliver might not be worth the risk you'll take to deal with them.
 

• Top 10 Business Web Site Mistakes
Today, it takes more than just having a Web site to make the Internet work for your company. Sites are highly competitive and proper site design has become an area of concern to businesses that want

today, it takes more than just having a Web site to make the Internet work for your company. Sites are highly competitive and proper site design has become an area of concern to businesses that want to use the Internet to the fullest. Below are 10 common Web site errors that occur.

1. Inappropriate domain name. Pick a domain name that is memorable and relates to your business. Since people are likely to forget very long names, shorter domain names are typically better, but not always. A name like "Peter.com" can be too vague and says nothing about the content of the website.

2. Poor design and functionality. Why have a Web site with content if no one can access it? Good design is largely based on consistency. Menus should appear in the same place on every page, links should all be the same color/typeface, and a logo of some sort should be clearly visible at all times.

3. Too complicated or too slow. Although flash animation may look amazing, it may be too complex for casual Internet users. Though aesthetics certainly matter, it must be in balance with functionality and ease of use for the typical user. Also, a more complex design takes longer to load on many computers.

4. Stagnant site. Not only is content time-sensitive, but so is format and design. There will always be new tools available to make Web sites better looking and better performing. It is not cost-effective to create a Web site and let it sit. Update content regularly and take advantage of (appropriate) new technologies to make the site look better.

5. Broken links and 404 error messages. Make sure every link on your site works. You'll lose users quickly if they see a "404 file not found" error message, find broken or incorrectly labeled links. If you have a large site, consider adding a form so users can "submit a broken link," which lets users know you are on top of any problems they discover.

6. No contact info. Users need to be able to contact you with questions, complaints, and suggestions. A "contact us" page, like an Internet business card, should be available from any part of your site. Also, be sure to actually answer these messages either personally or through an auto-reply.

7. Ignoring statistics. Detailed reports of visitor traffic are available for your Web site. This service may be offered by your hosting provider, or obtained data through a third party. By monitoring your statistics (like visitors turned customers, users on broadband, and so on) you can tailor your marketing and design toward those who visit most, or find weak spots based on who you are not attracting.

8. Free or cheap hosting. As attractive as some of these services are, realize that the reliability of your business depends on the reliability of your hosting. A good host service should have minimal downtime, offer services like shopping cart systems, and have good customer support. Be sure to read reviews and apply for free trials (if possible) before you commit to anything.

Avoiding spiders. Spiders are what search engines use to find your page. You want to make sure your page are designed so that you show up high on search engine rankings. This process is called search engine optimization (SEO). There are, however, ethics and strategies to SEO. Some practices (like hidden text, redirects, and so on) will result in your being banned from search engines.
Not hiring a professional. Search engine optimization is complex. To move up in the listings on Google and other search engines, you may want to hire a professional, especially if your business relies heavily on generating business from the Web.

• Keep visitor on your website for longer time
Over the years newcomers to web design tend to focus excessively on the appearance of a website Appearance isn't the most important thing to look at when planning and creating the site

Apperance:
 
Over the years newcomers to web design tend to focus excessively on the appearance of a website. Appearance isn't the most important thing to look at when planning and creating the site. It doesn't mean that appearance is of no importance. Site can still survive (or even thrive) if it is a plain-looking site like Google. This is not necessarily the case if someone overlooks the other important issues in web design.

Usability:

All sites are created for a particular purpose. Some were created so that owners can sell something. Others are information resources. Still others are designed to showcase their owner's talents (such as sites displaying the resumes and portfolios). The usability of the site is very important to help you to achieve that purpose. The basic questions that need to address when dealing with usability is: can the visitors easily access the information they need so that they can do the stuff that wants them to do?

Information Availability

Is the information that the visitors need to make informed decisions available on the site? For example, before they can buy a product, they will want to know more about that product. A brief one-line summary about the product's features may work for the main page.

Information  Accessibility

Not only must the information be available to the visitors, it must be easily accessible. A page that gives a detailed description of the products is not going to help the visitors if they have to work hard at finding it. If visitors have to work at finding something on the site, they are not going to find it. Either put the information right under their noses, or put a link to it in that place.

Navigation

A good navigational system for the website is crucial. A navigational system is one by which visitors can move from one page to another. For example, on thesitewizard.com, one way to access the main pages on the site is to use the navigation buttons on the left column of the page. If using navigation bar or panel, standardize its location on all the pages of the website. Don't make the visitors feel as though they are embarking on a treasure hunt every time they reach a new page.

Search Engine Visibility is Site’s Lifeline

Sites redesigned will no longer appear in search engine results even when relevant terms were used for searches. The problem was that the site relied exclusively on a JavaScript navigation menu. Apart from the links generated by the JavaScript menu, there were absolutely no other links on the site pointing to other pages within the site. Since search engines can't interpret JavaScript they could not follow any links and could thus only index the main page. As a result, the pages were not listed in searches for keywords, leading to a drastic drop in visitors.
This is a problem which can be easily fixed: create a site map and add a normal link to it from the main page, but it illustrates one of the most important issues a real-world website faces: search engine visibility. If the site is not listed in the search engines visitors will not use the site efficiently and they ignore in going for that site.

• The Famous 80 - 20 Rule
When looking for a hosting service, besides reliability, reducing your overall costs over a period of time is something you should think about

When looking for a hosting service, besides reliability, reducing your overall costs over a period of time is something you should think about. In order to reduce your expenses there are several things to consider before signing up with a provider. For the purposes of this article, I am going to focus on hosting providers with shared hosting plans as they are suitable for home business people and small businesses.
Here are just a few tips to help you on your way:
-Multiple domains

One of your first considerations is to notice your own plan. If you intend to build multiple websites for AdSense, you need to check how many domain names are allowed in the hosting package you are considering. Multiple Domain Hosting allows you to host multiple websites without having to open a separate account for each domain. But keep in mind that some providers place limits on these. They allow you to host several domains under one account as long as the number of domains hosted no more than five, for example http://www.pickledesigns.com.au

-Additional Features

There are providers that offer a hosting service plus some additional facilities such as a sequential autoresponder service and a website builder. Unfortunately very often the price offered is as high as the price for using a virtual dedicated hosting. Everytime you meet a hosting plan like that, try to calculate the overal costs you will have to pay if you use similar facilities provided by other companies. For instance you may consider to use the autoresponder service provided by GetResponse. Also now a days there are few features which count a lot in hosting like:
1. Downtime.
2. How much bandwidth they have.
3. They should have dedicated server.
4. There are also many free softwares on the website if you go for linux based hosting.
These features are now a day’s very important and so when you are going for a hosting take some time to see what are the features they are giving and then decide to go for that.
-Supports

Make sure that the support is included in the cost of the hosting plan. There is no use in choosing a provider that put extra charges for setting up your new account or upgrading. Some web hosts charge extra fees at start up to put FrontPage on your site. If you use FrontPage, look for one that does not. Read the company's TOS carefully.
-Overuse

Before contracting with any web host know what they charge for overuse as normally web hosts charge for extra bandwidth and disk space. To ensure access to your site is always available without having to spend extra money, choose a provider that provides large bandwidth and disk space.
-Money Making Programs

Don't fall for this one. There are hosting companies that offer money making programs in order to attract customers. While these may be beneficial for you in the future, they can prevent you from thinking logically. What I mean here is don't put the programs as your priority in order to get a reliable hosting service with the best price.
The last thing you should remember is that high cost does not always mean high quality because there is a competitive market for web hosting. On the other hand It has been seen many times that a consumer signs up for the least expensive provider putting himself in many technical difficulties and in the end he/she may have to decide on changing his web hosting provider. As any other things in this life, very often the answer lies in the middle. In other words choose the one that offers normal price for what are being offered. Research and explore what hosts will work best for you. You will find that you can shave costs in this market without shaving quality.


• The Web Design Practice
Your website is where your business resides -- it's like the head quarter of an offline company. Hence, it is important to practice good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number

Your website is where your business resides -- it's like the headquarter of an offline company. Hence, it is important to practice good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible.
Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.
Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size.
Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into separate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.
Make sure your website complies with web standards at www.w3.org and make sure they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors.
Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.

Use CSS to style your page content because they save a lot of work by styling all elements on your website in one go.