PLANNING YOUR WEBSITE. By Prof Harman Mangat

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1 PLANNING YOUR WEBSITE By Prof Harman Mangat

2 LESSON PLAN LESSON TIME DISTRIBUTION REFERENCE PAGES ASSOCIATED CASES Designing of website 5 min Steps for developing the website 8 min Basic layout 15 min Website development Hosting website Site visibility Website evaluation 8 8 min 9 min 7 min 2

3 OBJECTIVES OF THE UNIT Learning to design your website Know the steps required for website planning Make the basic layout of a website Choose the content,colour,art and font of a website

4 DESIGNING OF THE WEBSITE Identifying the goals of the website Identifying the audience of the website Create a list of content Divide the list into pages Draw a chart of links between pages Create a navigation scheme

5 BASIC PRINCIPLES THAT ARE REQUIRED Create a consistent visual theme Align various elements on the web page Use colour contrast and text weight effectively Group similar elements togther Make intelligent use of images on web pages

6 FOR TYPICAL WEBSITES THE BASIC DESIGN ASPECTS Content Usability Appearance visibilty

7 STEPS FOR DEVELOPING YOUR SITE First, think about the audience, their need this can be an effective marketing tool of your company Organize the content in a way that it is easy to navigate Ensure that your site is visually pleasing,fast to download, has interactive elements and is relevant to your audience. Anticipate the changing needs of people and update your site accordingly

8 STEPS FOR DEVELOPING YOUR SITE Incorporate your website into your overall marketing plan and goals Monitor your sites performance by the use of detailed monthly site statistics Try incorporating interactive elements like e- newsletter, streaming video, surveys and contests if they are appropriate for your audience Determine your budget and remember that it should be broken into the following: The initial design fee The ongoing monthly hosting and maintenance

9 STEPS FOR DEVELOPING YOUR SITE Carefully screen and select a web designer that understands your goals and considers the marketing impact of a website. Select your designer and after discussing with him start developing your site.

10 IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF THE WEBSITE Page size a key to successful web page. Webpage s size must be set as per the web guidelines to properly shape and design the entire text within the set page limits Broad pages should not be used, specially the ones that need to be scrolled to the right to read the complete line. While designing the page keep the significant objects on the first screen, for eg. key navigation

11 SCREEN SIZE Resolution access limitations should be avoided by the sites. As frames cannot be resized,some sites with frames are completely unusable

12 SCALING CONTENT While working with fixed or set page sizes,format your text to the centre of the page so that the empty spaces cannot be reduced for huge displays To avoid the perception of empty space in fixed width designs,utilise background tiles that set up boundaries for pages or fill up any extra space with nice pattern

13 SCALING CONTENT Do not use designs which can be stretched on pages if the content is less If possible the content should be arranged in vertical order upto 3 or 5 screens

14 PAGE TYPES Content page Navigation page Task page Some mixture of types

15 NAVIGATION ORIENTED TYPES Entrance Exit page

16 BASIC LAYOUT OF YOUR SITE Website is set up by foll imp elements: Domain registration of the site Home page An attractive home page has the foll: About page Press page Contact page Security and authentication

17 BASIC LAYOUT OF YOUR SITE Login pages should be encrypted Data validation should be done in server side. Manage website through encrypted connections Website must be connected to secured network Login credentials must not be shared Maintain passwords as well as key authentication Use redundancy to protect the website

18 WEB HOSTING SERVICE A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called collocation. 18

19 HOSTING A WEB SITE Many large companies who are not internet service providers also need a computer permanently connected to the web so they can send , files, etc. to other sites. They may also use the computer as a website host so they can provide details of their goods and services to anyone interested. Additionally these people may decide to place online orders. Free web hosting service: offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes supported by advertisements, and often limited when compared to paid hosting. 19

20 WEB HOSTING SERVICE Shared web hosting service: one's website is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.

21 WEB HOSTING SERVICE Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a collocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and provide the technical support themselves.

22 WEB HOSTING SERVICE Virtual Dedicated Server: also known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS), divides server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualization may be done for a number of reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container between servers. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. Customers are sometimes responsible for patching and maintaining the server. 22

23 WEB HOSTING SERVICE Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.

24 HOSTING A WEB SITE Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client. 24

25 HOSTING A WEB SITE Collocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes. 25

26 HOSTING A WEB SITE Cloud Hosting: is a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. Removing single-point of failures and allowing customers to pay for only what they use versus what they could use. 26

27 HOSTING A WEB SITE Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for highavailability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution. A cluster may separate web serving from database hosting capability. Grid hosting: this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes. 27

28 HOSTING A WEB SITE Home server: usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more web sites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PCs. Some ISPs actively attempt to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the user's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A common way to attain a reliable DNS hostname is by creating an account with a dynamic DNS service. A dynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP address that a URL points to when the IP address changes. 28

29 Website Visibility Internet is the gateway to get information on any matters. Today, this incredible medium is also used to sell and buy the products. Internet is the optimal resource for achieving success in ultra competitive world one problem continues to hinder the online presence of so many companies of all sizes.

30 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE VISIBLE 1. Accessibility 2. Friendliness 3. Navigation 4. Site maps 5. Linking

31 ACCESSIBILITY Accessibility means that your site is available to the visitor and to search engine spiders

32 FRIENDLINESS The site is friendly to search engine spiders and provides them with enough information to properly index and rank website for your desired keyword phrases. This includes integration of proper meta-tags, like the meta description tag, meta keywords tag and meta copyright target. It is also very important to include the keyword phrases with enough frequency and density in the text content of your web pages

33 NAVIGATION Navigation is basically the linking structure of your website. Most sites should have one set of plain text links as navigation, usually at the bottom of every page. Include links to every page of your site or at least every key page of your site, regardless whether you use a JavaScript, DHTML, image map or other linking structure in your pages.

34 SITE MAPS A sitemap in the website is to help the search engine spiders crawl all the pages of website without having to travel to them link via embedded links on the page. A proper sitemap will include links to ALL the pages of your website, clearly marked with what the page is about.

35 LINKING Once your website is ready, friendly and accessible to search engines, you need to let the search engines know about it

36 HOW TO MAKE YOUR SITE VISIBLE Online visibility Over 90% of e-commerce transaction are initiated through search engines like Google, Yahoo, msn, AltaVista etc. because of this in order to receive a healthy return on a website investment, it s imperative to build or optimize your with search visibility in mind. Online visibility Search engine optimization Pay per click

37 VISIBILITY ON SEARCH ENGINES The visibility of a website is its market reach and in particular this is determined by how well your web pages are positioned on search engines and how other sites link to yours.

38 Cont d. Search box Sponsored Listings PPC Organic Results SERPs

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40 WEBSITE EVALUATION Involves a thorough assessment of your website. To provide the person with a measurement of their website s performance when compared to an accepted National Benchmark, and consequently its performance in line with their original strategy. It is also an effective tool to assist with highlighting the strengths and weaknesses that the website may have.

41 S How web site visitors evaluate content criteria: 1.RELEVANCE (applicable, related, clear) 2. TIMELINESS (current, continuously updated) 3. RELIABILITY (believable, accurate, consistent) 4. SCOPE (sufficient, complete, covers a wide range, detailed) 5. PERCEIVED USEFULNESS (informative, valuable, instrumental) EXPLANATION Concerned with issues such as relevancy, clearness,and goodness of the information. Concerned with the currency of the information Concerned with the degree of accuracy, dependability and consistency of the information Evaluates the extent of information, range of information, and level of detail provided by the web site. Visitors assessment of the likelihood that the information will enhance their purchasing decision.

42 6. ACCESS (responsive, loads quickly) 7. USABILITY (simple layout, easy to use, well organized, visually attractive, fun, clear design) Refers to the speed of access and the availability of the Web site at all times. Concerned with the extent to which the web site is visually appealing, consistent, fun and easy to use. 8. NAVIGATION Evaluates the links to needed information. 9. INTERACTIVITY (customized product, search engine, ability to create list of items, change list of items, and find related items) Evaluates the search engine and the personal features ( e.g.-shopping cart) of the web site.s

43 USABILITY Usability refers to the overall quality of a user's Web site experience. Did the page load quickly? Was the person able to find everything he was looking for? Were all links "live" that is, did they actually access other Web pages? Were all the more involved processes, such as order forms and shopping carts, functioning properly? Was the site's navigation scheme logical and easy to follow? In short, does the site do what it was intended to do, and could the user figure out how to use it?

44 USABILITY TESTING (OR USER TESTING) Involves watching typical site visitors attempt to complete realistic tasks on your website, to measure the ease with which they do so. The results of the analysis are a huge eye-opener and their implementation often leads to: Increased sales and task completion, as well as a high rate of return site visitors A greatly improved understanding of your customers' needs A significant reduction in call centre enquiries A much more user-focused in-house development team

45 WEB SITE USABILITY ISSUES - EFFECTS ON BUSINESS The lack of optimal usability was hardly confined to a few unprofessional sites. A study in 2000 that found serious usability flaws on thirty leading e-commerce sites, including e-tailing giant Amazon.com. Forrester Research reported that 27 percent of all Web transactions were abandoned when users reached the payment Web page, while BizRate.com found that fully 75 percent of the respondents to their survey said they had abandoned their online shopping carts without completing a purchase. The main culprit for these lost revenue opportunities was a lack of usability on the Web site. According to a study by Redwood, California-based Zona Research, U.S. Web sites lost an estimated $25 billion in revenue due to slow Web site performance alone.

46 WEB SITE USABILITY ISSUES - LOW-END USERS A site's usability, first and foremost, must be measured in terms of the customers' capabilities, not those of the firm itself. Specifically, designers must remain cognizant of their lowest-end users those users and potential customers with the least advanced browsing capabilities. It's extremely common for corporations to maintain cutting-edge technology, but more important is the technological capacities of the customers. For example, a designer may wish to include fancy, intensive graphics and advanced search mechanisms to offer the bestlooking and shopping-optimal site, but if a segment of the company's customers still operate on low-end browsers, they may be unable to utilize the site at all, in the process driving those customers away.

47 WEB SITE USABILITY ISSUES - COMPATIBILITY ACROSS SYSTEMS Sites must be rendered equally useful across different platforms. That is, designers must be sure to crosscheck their designs on various computers running different browsers. A site that was designed for a personal computer running Internet Explorer may function differently on a Macintosh using a Netscape browser. The most important precaution for designers to take, then, is to test their sites on all possible systems, correcting errors as they arise and making their sites as cross-compatible as possible.

48 WEB SITE USABILITY ISSUES -CONTENT When you open your page in a browser, what do you see? If you've created a usable Web site, you should see 80-90% what your customer is looking for. However, with most Web sites usually what your customer is looking for only constitutes between 50-60% or less of the main portion of the page. The rest is ads, confusing navigation, and extraneous graphics. Content should be interesting,relevent,easy to understand.

49 PAGE LAYOUT: Closely related to content is how that content is displayed on the page. While studies have shown that people are willing to scroll to read through Web pages, if they don't find relevant content quickly, they will be more likely to leave. Keep your pages clean and simple. Try removing elements, and see if your page needs them, if the page functions without them - take them out.

50 COLORS Colors can affect the usability of your Web site. Web browsers have standard colors that are used for links (blue for links, violet for visited links, and red for active links). When you use other colors, you run the risk of confusing your customers. Also, colors of other elements of your page can affect your readers.

51 DOWNLOAD SPEED Web usability studies continue to show that the speed a page downloads is very important. After 10 seconds, your customer has lost interest in your page, no matter how interested they were in the topic. How many times have you gone to a Web page and given up before it finishes the download? If you are like most Web readers, you have hit the stop button many times. Why then, do you expect your readers to wait for your pages to load?

52 Images Optimizing your images is the best way to improve the download speed of your Web pages. A good rule of thumb is to strive for no one image being larger than 10 Kb. Page size If you are striving for a speedy download, limit your page total size (including images) to about 30 Kb. You'll still be on the high side if you're at 30 Kb, but 50% of the pages on the Web are 32 Kb or less. Tables Nested tables are a common cause of slow pages. It's not that the page didn't download, but with multiple tables in tables, the browser has to work harder to display the page.

53 ADVERTISEMENTS Many advertisements are served from a different Web server than the Web page. If that server is down or slow, it will impact the loading of any page they are called from

54 WEB SERVER If you've optimized your graphics and HTML and kept the page size to a minimum and it still takes forever to load, check out your Web server. Is it getting more hits than it can handle? It might be time to upgrade the machine or the connection between it and the world, if it isn't showing the bandwidth you want.

55 GUIDELINES Anybody who visits your site should be able to understand what it does within a few seconds. Be mindful that the majority of your visitors will probably not enter via the home page. Write a good tag line explaining what your website does, include it next to your logo or somewhere prominent, this will help get your message across to new visitors. Who gets it right: Twitter.com

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57 REVIEW QUESTIONS What are the steps for Designing of website What is the Basic layout needed for the website How will you Host a website What are the steps in Site visibility How will you evaluate your website