Business of the Web - CPNT 265 Module 1 Planning a Web site Instructor s Guide

Transcription

1 Business of the Web - CPNT 265 Module 1 Planning a Web site Instructor s Guide 1 P a g e

2 Contents Module Objectives... 3 Training Materials / Resources P a g e

3 Module Outcomes After completing these modules, participants will be able to: Outline the steps and strategies involved in planning a web site. Identify the goals of your web site and the intended audience Conduct research for initial plans including a comparison of your competitors strategies Identify the skills, technologies, software and people you need to build a web site Create content for a specific purpose, including images and text. Choose a web hosting company Create a web maintenance web monitoring plan for your site Create a backup plan for your web site and any data stored Determine security needs for e-commerce and a privacy policy Develop a marketing plan to promote a web site Training Materials / Resources Materials required for this module include: Access to the Internet, Internet Explorer, MS word, Photoshop, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat, LCD projector, White board or flip chart. Resources: Day1_website planning slides show, Canadian Privacy Regulations eguide.pdf, Assignment1_rubric.doc, Assignment2rubric.doc, linksandresources.pdf, Generic_websiteplan_proposal.pdf, Textbooks 1 and 2. Module Timing Timing Lesson 3 P a g e

4 Planning and Designing a Client Web Site Instructor Notes for Day 1 Introduction Over view, Objectives, Text book, and Assignments After planning and building a web site the final phase is to launch a web site onto the Internet so that the intended audience can access the information and a business or organization can offer a variety of products and services online. Launching a web site involves choosing a domain name, choosing a web hosting company, search engine optimization, developing a marketing and promotion plan, web maintenance, implementing a backup plan, and evaluating the web site's success on an ongoing basis. Students will create a design document where they plan, design and develop a web site proposal for building a prototype. The final web site is to include a blog, site map, alt tags, meta-tags, Google map, privacy policy, PayPal shopping cart, targeted keywords, descriptive hyperlinks, unique page titles, based subscription (Constant contact), social media sharing icons and Google analytics. The web site will be uploaded to a server and registered with several major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing). Objectives: Plan the development of a web site Outline the steps and strategies involved in planning a web site. Identify the goals of your web site and the intended audience Conduct research for initial plans including a comparison of your competitors strategies Identify the skills, technologies, software and people you need to build a web site Create content for a specific purpose, including images and text. Choose a web hosting company Create a web maintenance web monitoring plan for your site Create a backup plan for your web site and any data stored Determine security needs for e-commerce and a privacy policy Develop a marketing plan to promote a web site 4 P a g e

5 Why is it important for students to learn these concepts? Launching a web site involves choosing a domain name, choosing a web hosting company, search engine optimization, developing a marketing and promotion plan, web maintenance, implementing a backup plan, and evaluating the web site's success on an ongoing basis. Having an effective web site is just the start, today clients want to have their web site show up on the first web page of major search engines for specific search key words and because of this SEO is now an important element in the design and planning of most business web sites. How students will be evaluated Students will be evaluated on the basis of two assignments each valued 50%. The assignments will be carried out in teams of 4-6 students. Students will elect a team leader who will coordinate and assemble the components from each member of the team. See Assignment1_rubric.doc and Assignment2_rubric.doc. Instructor option If the class size is small and\or students in the class have strong HTML and web design skills the instructor may choose to make each student carry out the assignments individually. A team based component is a good exercise as larger web development companies will often work this way, but it depends on time available and skill level of incoming students. If student. First Assignment is a web design document 6 pages, typed and professionally prepared. The Design document should include: 1) Cover sheet with web site name, date, members of the team 2) Introduction page of the web site Goals, Audience, Delivery method and technologies required 3) Site map showing navigation layout and box prototype and if possible a possible interface design this could be screen shot of another web site modified 4) Web site promotional plan 5) Budget Software required; MS word, Acrobat and Adobe Photoshop. See sample document provided Generic_websiteplan_proposal.pdf. 5 P a g e

6 Assignment 1 will be due at the end of the 2 nd or 3 rd day (instructor option). See Web Design Document Assignment handout for detailed requirements. Value 50% Demo document will be provided as a guide line of what is expected from the students see Generic_websiteplan_proposal.pdf Assignment 2 will be due at the end of the last day. The 2 nd Assignment will be for the team to create a small web site and implement a variety of strategies and tools aimed at optimizing the site for search engines and employing techniques to facilitate search engine optimization with the goal of getting the web site on the first page of major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Value 50%. Grading sheet to be handed out to each student with an explanation as to how the final assignment will be assessed (Assignment2assesmentrubric.doc) Textbook 101 Ways to Promote your Web site (101) Ways series by S. Sweeney $19.77, 392 pages, Maximum Press; 8th Revised edition (September 15, 2010), ISBN-13: this is the best of the book for anyone new to SEO. Well presented, doesn't go into too much depth, but covers the essentials. This book is a good introduction to web site planning and various methods that can be used to promote a web site and is recommended for any business owner that has a web site. The text is easy to read and the entire book can and should be read over during the course. The book contains numerous links to web site and resources that students should investigate. 6 P a g e

7 Optional Reference book The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice) $37.40 by E. Enge, S. Spencer, R. Fiskin, J. Stricchiola. 608 pages. O'Reilly Media; (2010) ISBN-13: The Art of SEO is the most comprehensive book on search engine optimization currently available. The book is 556 pages and technical in nature. I recommend this book for students wishing to become web developers and anyone in marketing that wants to specialize in SEO. The book serves as a reference for in depth analysis of SEO techniques and strategies and provides an understanding of how search engines work. Both books should be available in SAIT s bookstore if not they can be ordered online at The first book is a recommended required textbook and should be available to students on the first day of class. There will be assigned readings for each day in class from the first text book. One or more copies of this book should be available in class for use as a reference and I would recommend the book store also bring in several copies. Web site links provided as HTML page or in PDF format Currently links are available at: and this resource is updated regularly Links resources page is also provided as PDF file instructors may choose to augment or select links from this page. Additional links are found throughout the text book and reference book. 7 P a g e

8 Instructor outlines and demonstrates main components and uses the web to illustrate specific web sites and tools that can be used in the planning process. There are four main phases in developing and launching an effective web site. 1. Research and Planning 2. Development and actual construction of the web site 3. Launching a web site, search engine optimization, and online promotion. 4. Evaluating the success of the web site, maintaining content, responding to visitor needs and improving the web site based on feedback. While the aim of this program is to focus on the steps involved in launching and maintaining a web site, this process cannot be covered without a discussion and understanding of the steps involved in planning the site, who the intended audience is and what the purpose of the web site is. How involved the steps are in launching a web site depends on the scope and size of the project, the budget, the size of the team involved, and the stakeholders. Outline the steps involved in planning a web site. 1) Define the goals of the web site -Objectives, Target Markets, Products and Services 2) Define the audience 3) Determine budget 4) Identify technologies required, PayPal, database, HTML, software required 5) Gather content, tech, pictures, and multimedia content 6) Design, colour scheme, storyboard and create an organizational chart 7) Identify Domain Name 8) Identify who will host and maintain the site 9) Research competitors sites 8 P a g e

9 Readings Chapter 1 and 12 of Text book 101 Ways to Promote your Web site PDF Slide Show - students need to have computer connected to the internet and will be required to visit specific web sites during the presentation. The slide presentation is intended to be delivered with frequent interruptions where the instructor and students visit specific web sites and carry out certain activities or watch web demonstrations. Slide 1 Review: Web site objectives on slide 1 Explain: The many different purposes a web site can have. Ask: What things make for good or great web site. Possible answers: Attractive web design Interactive components Easy to navigate Consistent look and feel Relevant graphics, photographs and video Simple to use shopping carts Clear and simple privacy policy Wow Factor Flash or interactivity Frequently updated with new and valuable content Easy to find contact information Quick customer response to questions Innovation Ask the class to nominate some spectacular web sites and show them and discuss what makes them special or spectacular. Instructor may also suggest some sites. It may also be valuable to look at a few bad sites and point out some of the problems they have. 9 P a g e

10 Slide 2 There are a number of web sites that will run analysis and examine its strengths and weaknesses Student Activity: select one or more web sites and visit: Enter the web site and run an analysis and generate a report. Discuss the reports and their potential value Slide 3 Web Site Objectives secondary objectives Creating a search engine friendly web site ask students what they think this means. A more in depth discussion will be covered on Day 2. Ask students what they think viral marketing is? Show students examples of web sites that use viral marketing tools and how they achieve this. Have students visit 2 web sites that offer viral sharing icons that can be embedded in a web site: and Students will be asked to select one of these sites to register with and set up a free account in order to add to their final project. Show a web site that uses permission marketing i.e. subscribe to a mailing list. Ask why this type of feature can be helpful in getting return visits. What type of businesses would this type of business not be valuable? Activity: Have students search the Internet for a review of the top 10 best permission based marketing software. Discuss how permission based is different from SPAM. Visit: a permission based company that offers a 60 day free trial. Get students to set up a free trial account. Later in the day or at home students could create a simple based newsletter and send it to each other. 10 P a g e

11 See textbook 101-Ways Chapter 12 page Ask students how they think a web site might encourage feedback and loyalty? Write down the suggestions on a white board or flip chart. Explain why it is important to update a site frequently from a visitor perspective and from the search engine perspective. Slide 4 Client Interview and Assessment An important part of a client interview to assess their web site needs and listen. Ask lots of questions. If possible your team should do some research before meeting with your client if possible. Collect as much information as possible about the clients needs, products, services, target audience and their expectations. Find out what other marketing strategies your client uses, print, TV, radio. Do they have already have a web site but want a new one, or is this their first web site. Sometimes a client may have a budget in mind or they may not know what the costs are. If possible you want to determine how much they can afford or expect to pay. If they don t have an idea then you may have to educate them on some of the costs whether it is an hourly fee or for specific services. The size of the business will give you some idea of their potential budget. There is no use in spending a lot of time creating a detailed proposal if the client doesn t understand the costs they might be required to pay. You might break down their web site project into; 11 P a g e

12 1) Absolute needs 2) Wants, but may not be able to afford 3) Identify things they absolutely don t want Discuss with your client resources they might already have: copyrighter, photographs, video, in house web skills etc. Slide 5 Client Audience & Target Market Review: objectives shown on this slide Understanding the target audience is critical to the design process and will influence the font size, choice of colours, the amount of text, and use of multimedia. For example web site aimed at kids might include bright primary colours, web sites aimed at teenagers might include bright fluorescent gradients or appropriate background music. Does the audience have any special needs? This may refer to the requirement for some web sites to offer larger font sizes, more than one language (e.g. English and French), audio for individuals with visual handicaps. Ask students to identify several web WOW factors and write them down on a white board or flip chart. WOW factors might include: Flash animation Interactivity Virtual reality pans or VR objects Real time engagement with others Video Design Interactive Avatars Ask students to suggest some WOW sites Some websites to start the discussion 12 P a g e

13 Slide 6, Slide 7 Ask students if they think interactivity and Flash are necessary to create WOW web sites? Analysis of Competitors, Researching Competitors Sites If your client has no competitors that makes your job easy, but most businesses today have many competitors. Ask your clients for a list of competitors and their web site URLs. Visit these web sites and assess their quality. Visit Google, Bing and Yahoo and carry out a keyword search and determine where your clients competitors show up i.e. search engine ranking. You may also want to check out the meta-tags from the competitors web sites in your browser select View>Source code. You may even borrow keywords from these sites that rank in the top ten so long as the keywords are not proprietary. When examining a competing web sites ask yourself: What content do the web sites have? Do the websites offer a blog? How fresh is the content and how often is it updated? What type of content do they have, articles, videos, images, music? Does the site engage users? Does the site generate sign-ups? Examine the competitor s internal link structure, links from home page may indicate their priorities. 13 P a g e

14 External link Attraction analysis who and how many web sites are linking to your competitor? In bound links are one of the most important elements Goolge uses to rank sites. The more inbound links, the higher the site ranks. However, Google also looks at the ranking of the sites that are linking the site. External Link Attraction Analysis A number of web sites provide information on inbound links coming to a web site. Activity: Get students to select a web site and run a link analysis. Visit: to do this (this site is now part of Open Site Explorer). Enter the URL of a web site into the form box and select Run Report. The site will provide information on the number of other sites linking to the site you entered and also provide information on Domain authority and Linking Root Domains. On the competitors site also examine anchor text on the hyperlinks on various web pages. Hyperlinks with read more, click here are not good. Google reads the text associated with hyperlinks those which contain valuable information are considered better. Links with Read more or Click here suggest the competitor is not SEO-savy. For more detailed discussion of Competitive Analysis see book The ART of SEO pages , Slide 8 Choose a Domain Name Carefully Suggestions for Domain Names Make the domain name unique Select.com as first choice 14 P a g e

15 Make the name easy to type (avoid q,z,x,c,p) Make the name easy to remember Keep the name as short as possible Avoid trademark infringement Avoid hyphens and numbers Include important business keywords Once you have narrowed down some possible domain names you will need to search for whether those domain names are available. Activity: Have students create several domain names using their own names as a base and have them search whether the names are available at: 1) 2) Discuss the pros and cons of having alternative domain name extensions e.g..net.ca.org Some businesses may choose to purchase several domain names or domain names with different extensions in order to protect them. Generally speaking you may not purchase a domain name that is part of another company s trademark e.g. even if it is available at the time. For more information on Domain Name Law visit: Cybersquatting: refers to those who buy a domain name with the intention of selling it at an inflated price. For more information: If the domain name you want is available you can purchase it and move it to any hosting company, 15 P a g e

16 however it is often easier to configure or set up if you purchase the domain name from the same company you intend to host your web site with. See The ART of SEO pages , 101 Ways to Promote page 28 Slide 9 Identify Skills and Resources A small business may not be able to bring much more than their specialized knowledge of their products and services. A large company, however, may have IT department to manage their servers, network, and web site. They may also have a marketing department which may or may not have some web development skills. If are web design company, once you assess your client s needs you will need to assemble a team with the skills required to build the web site. Often a project manager is assigned to keep the team on track and to meet specific milestones. The size of the team will be determined the scope of the project and the budget. If the web site assignment will be developed by a team it is important to assign individuals with specific duties and assign a team leader or project manager to keep the team on track. Slide 10 Create a Web Layout An important part of the planning process is to create a layout diagram of the site. It can be done using software like Powerpoint, or simply a pencil and paper. When creating a web layout keep in mind that the most important web pages should be linked from the 16 P a g e

17 home page. The greater the number of clicks required to access a web page, the lower it will rank on the search engines. Slide 11 Choosing a Web Host Often a client may already have a hosting company and so long as it offers the features your client needs it is as simple matter of working with them. If a client does not have a web host they may look for you to recommend one. Look for companies that offer the services you require at a reasonable cost. Support is an important issue do they offer 24 hour phone support and when you do call them, are you put on hold for 20 minutes or do they use a multitier answering service. Small business owners often look for the cheapest solutions not realizing that this may be more costly in the future. If your client needs to collect confidential information e.g. social security number for reference checks be sure to use a company that offers secure servers where the form data can be encrypted. Slide 12 Web Maintenance Plan Some businesses may have someone that can update or maintain the web site or they may have several people involved in writing for a blog. Some web hosting companies offer Content management systems that allow users to modify and update certain pages. Some web companies charge a monthly fee to update the web site and others charge an hourly rate and track the time. What is important is that if you customer wants their web site to rank highly on the search engines there must be a commitment to update the web site and add new content on a regular basis. 17 P a g e

18 Slide 13 Some web site will add a blog which is then maintained by someone within the company. Blogs can be powerful marketing tools, but they also require considerable amount of time and 82% of blogs have been abandoned. See Chapter 18 page 101 Ways to Promote your web site E-commerce solutions Compared to 10 years ago, adding shopping carts to a web site is now simple and easy thanks to web sites like PayPal. Anyone can set up a free account and start an online business within a few minutes. The E-commerce solution you implement will depend on client s needs, whether or not they require custom programming and the number of products they want to sell. Instructor Demonstration: instructor logs into PayPal shows some of the main features, client tracking, Merchant area and creates a shopping cart for unspecified amount of money (Buy Now and enter $00 for the amount) and install the cart in a web page and test. Instructor should also show the secure component. PayPal is also subject to target fraud attempts (Phishing) and students should be cautioned to never provide their passwords to any or phone requests. Students will be asked to set up a PayPal account and create a simple shopping cart. All of the final web sites are required to have at least one shopping cart. Additional Links to other E-commerce solutions 1 Shopping Cart Internet Secure Professional Cart Solutions ProStores 18 P a g e

19 Slide 14, 15, 16 Develop a privacy policy A privacy policy is a requirement of any business that collects information using forms or . In brief it must specify what the information will be used for. Most visitors want to be assured that the information will not be shared with other without their permission. A privacy policy can be a short statement at the end of a form or it can be a complete web page outlining the company s policies. It is a good idea to link to the company privacy page on every page to establish trust. Students should read Canada s privacy legislation available as a PDF supplied they may also be interested in reading information on these additional web links. Canadian Privacy Policies and regulations - PDF Children s Online Privacy Protection Act US 1998 Children s Online Privacy Protect - Canada 1998 Slide 17 Copyright Issues All Web development companies should include a liability waiver clause in their web contracts. Clients must sometimes be educated as to what types of content they may or may not include on their web sites. With respect to photographs, either they should be specifically contracted for the web site or purchased from an online stock agency. Pictures of people unless purchased through a stock agency (even then they may not be properly released) should always be accompanied by a release or the images purchased as royalty free but read the fine print on many web sites. Also beware that just because 19 P a g e

20 Google images shows you photographs many of these images are copyrighted. Creative Common license FAQ Copyright and the web CBC news Canadian copyright issues on the web - blog If you include Flash animations or video with music be sure to use royalty free music. Two music web sites that sell royalty free music for the web, and videos are: Beware that if you include certain keywords that are trademarked by your competitors you may be asked to remove them or you could receive a lawsuit. Slide 18 Develop a Backup Plan 1) Does the host company create backups of the site content 2) Will you have a backup copy on site Never assume someone has taken care of backing up your files and data, if you lose the data or files due to a hardware problem or attack by a hacker how valuable is the data? Slide 19 Develop a Web Marketing Plan There are 2 components to your marketing plan, one is offline and the other is online. Offline marketing tends to be more expensive and online marketing tends to be more time consuming. Online marketing also tends to take more time to develop and maintain. Slide 20 Summary of Key Points Ask students if there are any outstanding questions about the presentation. 20 P a g e

21 Student Projects Assignment 1 Web Site Planning Document Web design proposal instructor may choose to organize students into groups of 4-5 students or may choose to make each student complete the assignment. If the assignment is completed as a team then it is reasonable to have the assignment due at the end of the second day. If the assignment is done by individuals then it might be more reasonable to make the assignment due on the end of the 3 rd day. The plan is for a web site for a real or fictitious company that the students will build upload and optimize. The Assignment requirements include: 1. Professional Looking Cover page with Company, names, and date (Students can use free word template covers available from word or from the Internet or they can design their own). 2. Introduction, Client Goals, Objectives, Target Audience, Look and Feel, Delivery requirements, Content Analysis. 3. Web layout plan or chart showing the main pages students can include more than 5 pages in the layout, but the web site prototype they build will be limited to 5-6 pages due to the limited time available. 4. Students should include a box diagram showing skeleton diagram of a potential web layout with navigational features. 5. Students should also include a prototype design for the web site they will build, this can be created in Photoshop, if students do not have strong design skills they can create something simple, or use a downloadable free template. They should include a screen shot of the design in their document. 6. Students should include a well thought out Marketing and search engine optimization plan. 7. Finally a budget should be presented based on an hourly rate of about $60-$100\hr. Students should look at the sample Generic_website_proposal.pdf to understand the assignment expectations. Students will also be asked to present their proposals in electronic format to the class. 21 P a g e