What's Involved in Setting Up a Web Site
We have listed the basic steps involved in setting up a web site with the aim of providing you with a good understanding of the work involved and what input is required from you.
Pre Web Site Creation
Prior to development of the web site you should consider the following:
Site Functionality
Decide on the functionality of your site. What is it's purpose? Is it promotion, sale driven or information based or a mixture? We recommend listing a breakdown of what you would like to get out of the site to assist you in determining your requirements.
Site Content
Determine what pages you would like on your site. Generally a web site will include at minimum a home page, an about us page, a product or services page and a contact us page.
Site Material
Once you have determined the site content, you should gather material (text, photo's, images etc) for these pages. Your text should contain key words your audience would look for when searching the web.
Domain Name
A domain name is your unique address on the Internet e.g. www.yourbusiness.com.au. To assist you in deciding an appropriate domain name for your business please review our Choosing a Domain Name page.
Site Branding
Site branding is the look and feel of your website. As a business you may already have a logo and key colours. This will become a core piece of your web design. We recommend you look around on the web and create a shortlist of sites that have a look and feel that interests you. This will assist us in designing a site that will appeal to you.
Web Site Creation
The usual process is as follows but may differ based on your individual requirements:
- Interactive Drive will visit you and discuss your objectives, ideas and options for the web site.
- Once Interactive Drive is supplied with the material from the Pre Web Site Creation section we will then design a custom mock up to your specifications. This will be sent to you for approval (in the form of a screen shot). We welcome any suggestions or changes and upon approval we will then start development.
- Register your domain name
- Develop your web site
- Place your site on a staging url for you to review
- Make appropriate changes to the web site based on your feedback
- Publish your site live
- Submit your site to key search engines and directories
Post Web Site Creation
After your web site has been developed you will need to consider the following:
Hosting
All web sites require hosting. Interactive Drive offers it's clients flexible, affordable and generous plans. All hosting is on Australian based servers housed in state of the art data centers to ensure maximum availablity. Plans start from as little as $15 a month.
Maintenance
It is important to keep your site updated for a number of reasons; To ensure your customers/audience returns to your site and also search engines tend to favor sites that are update reguarly.