Starting up a website... advice pls

montydorito

Ask to do this by my boss Lookin at this for while now dosent seem to get any easier ...so i decided to look for advice from boards all advice much appreciated
info:its for a small business needs a home page a contact page,about us page,past jobs photos maybe a little slide show,then a our policy pages, our future goals pages, wont be getting much traffic just to ensure we have a website that represents the company.

so this is what i know (feel free to comment)first get a ie and com domain,then selcted a hoster(touchy subject on boards)then probaly a template (correct me if im wrong) then done?
questions how to ensure your site is found easy in the search engines?,how many pages does this website need?,should i use an irish hoster?and finally what will the final cost be?

thanks in advance for all comments

DJB

You might want to post your question again. It seems to have lost most of what you were asking.

montydorito

sry using the touchpad off the laptop not to good with it..

DJB

Hello again,

The first thing you should do is secure a domain name. Then you need to decide who is going to do your website. You should contact a couple of companies/freelancers with your spec and request quotes for the work. When you have these in, compare portfolios and what you are getting, and see what suits your needs best.

The design company should provide hosting or recommend a host for you. Usually they have their preferred hosts so no need to get hosting just yet. They will also set up the whole site on the host and configure everything to work.

Regarding templates, personally I believe you should stay away from them. The designer should provide a custom design based on your existing corporate identity (logo, colour scheme, etc) and your brief. From there they will create your site with all the pages and style the content.

If the site is coded correctly (valid xhtml/css), your SEO work is done. Although it will take time to build up your ranking with the search engines, e.g. link building, etc. You'll also need to do some keyword/content evaluation so that your content reflects what your target audience is searching for.

Your designer should be able to tell you about SEO/SEM techniques or recommend a partner who specialises in it. It helps if you host your website in Ireland if you are targetting Irish customers but at the same time, it's not neccessary anymore.

The cost of designing a site like this "professionally" will depend on the designer. Prices ranges vastly from 1.5k to 10k. I'd recommend getting quotes in, comparing portfolios and choosing the designer that you feel most comfortable with that's within your budget.

HTH,

Dave

montydorito

thinking of going D.I.Y on the website ,read the debate already on pro vs noob (me) but ill still give it a go ...
would twenty pages be enough for the website im quite lost on that?

ths for the speedy reply

ntlbell

montydorito wrote: »

thinking of going D.I.Y on the website ,read the debate already on pro vs noob (me) but ill still give it a go ...
would twenty pages be enough for the website im quite lost on that?

ths for the speedy reply

One page is enough, if it has all the required information..

forbairt

montydorito wrote: »

would twenty pages be enough for the website im quite lost on that?

I'm lost by what you mean here ?

Its your site ... if you feel that is enough to give a good overview of your company then thats enough if not .. add more ... the amount of pages shouldn't matter that much. Though in terms of SEO having good content that is getting linked to would.

a 3 page site will do some people .. others it'll be 1000 pages ...

montydorito

ntlbell wrote: »

One page is enough, if it has all the required information..

mmm dont think the boss would be happy with a blog looking website ,ths for the idea thou

montydorito

forbairt wrote: »

I'm lost by what you mean here ?

Its your site ... if you feel that is enough to give a good overview of your company then thats enough if not .. add more ... the amount of pages shouldn't matter that much. Though in terms of SEO having good content that is getting linked to would.

a 3 page site will do some people .. others it'll be 1000 pages ...

good comment looking at some packages they give you on a hosting packages ,they give you a certain amount pages to work with that was the immpresion i got any way :eek:

i would like the site to be spread out and easy on the eye(not too much reading)

forbairt

from the sounds of it your bog standard hosting package with any of the irish providers will do

go irish ... (its good for seo as well)

It should have 1 database ... scripting language of some kind ... (php / asp)

That should be enough ... then check out the various Content Management systems.

from the sounds of it you'll want one .. or else its going to be a nightmare adding / updating the site and so on if you're having 20+ pages

ntlbell

montydorito wrote: »

mmm dont think the boss would be happy with a blog looking website ,ths for the idea thou

the point is the amount of pages doesn't matter be it 20 or 100

what you need is all the information on the site and the site to do what it's suppose to do whatever amount of pages it takes there is no set number

montydorito

[It should have 1 database ... scripting language of some kind ... (php / asp)

That should be enough ... then check out the various Content Management systems.

from the sounds of it you'll want one .. or else its going to be a nightmare adding / updating the site and so on if you're having 20+ pages].....forbairt

excelllent comment ,what CMS would you recommend (if your allowed to say or you could pm if thats ok )
im not to technical so which is the most user friendly

forbairt

well I'm a freelancer and I've dealt with various as well as creating my own home grown affair once or twice ...

from the sounds of what you're after cmsmadesimple would be ideal for you.

montydorito

forbairt wrote: »

well I'm a freelancer and I've dealt with various as well as creating my own home grown affair once or twice ...

from the sounds of what you're after cmsmadesimple would be ideal for you.

:)perfect:).. mmm
could you tell me where i could buy templates like this one ______
and if there a name for this type of lay out ..:D:D:D

forbairt

Name would be a bad template ?
Its a table based template so thats a no no ...

template monster or similar if thats the way you want to go but you get what you pay for.

montydorito

funny guy how about this one ______ wat r ur views on this layout;)

forbairt

am .. I don't think you understood what I meant by table based design

and I'm not really here to help you pick your style of website.
Thats what I get paid to do / make ... go over with customers

montydorito

I was wondering when you were going to turn this into a sales pitch:rolleyes:..thanks for the tips and advice it has gone a long way,

pls feel free to leave comments

forbairt

montydorito wrote: »

I was wondering when you were going to turn this into a sales pitch:rolleyes:..thanks for the tips and advice it has gone a long way,

pls feel free to leave comments

Wasn't actually a sales pitch or maybe I'm going crazy ?

montydorito

Wrong jugdement so ....if you dont want to me to use table based format the only other choice i see will be use to CsS and then im screwed cus that is impossible from i have read so far or does CMS sort that out ???

forbairt

Its css ... and the template you get should be CSS based ... the content management system you use .. will make use of this template

montydorito

So whats wrong with table based design?i just thought it was a template like the rest

kodmuffin

hey i dont know if this helps or not but il give it a go anyway!

I recently set up a diy website for a local organisation-it was more a token site but it meant the name was out there etc!

anyway i used Frontpage for mine (the actual design) il be the first to say it looked amateurish (due to my limited knowledge!)but it done the job!

i designed it by using each page as a link of another as there wasnt that many pages (approx 8) and tables were too messy for my amatuer ways!

i used filezilla to upload the stuff and got a company to sort out the hosting/buying the .ie domain name-that worked out at aprox a 100 euro in total

in my opinion it all depends on what you want-you pay for what you get realy!but thats just a suggestion!

forbairt

tables = bad for design

if you've got tabular data its fine if not ... its considered to be a bad thing.

Why .... originally load times could be hidious having 20 nested tables... makes updating horrible ... load times could be bad as well ... and so on WAY too many reasons to go into ... check out google tables vrs css design


Why do I need to pm this ?

heggie

bet u regret this one forbairt!

forbairt

heggie wrote: »

bet u regret this one forbairt!

I just laughed out loud reading that

Liam Byrne

kodmuffin wrote: »

anyway i used Frontpage for mine (the actual design) il be the first to say it looked amateurish (due to my limited knowledge!)but it done the job!

Frontpage :eek:

Does it work in Firefox/Opera/Safari ?

kodmuffin

"Does it work in Firefox/Opera/Safari ?"

I used internet explorer so cant say for sure!

heggie

ah grand so, why worry then

T-max

I suggest that if you have been given the task to develop a website, you should set a challenge by starting small with a microsite (Single page).

If you can design 1 page and implement it well, then it will be far more effective than many pages badly designed on CMS.

There are plently of Irish Hosting providers who also offer Domain Name Registration and I advise that you start with registering your .com domain if available. Then you can google some simple HTML & CSS templates that should be easy to customise. If you also want to incorporate images (Logo/Products) beware of filesize and best to optimise your images to minimise download time for users (GIF for graphics, and JPG for images/photos work best).

Your hosting provider will also recoemmend a FTP client to you so you can get your site online. Best of luck with it !!!

smemon

digitalpoint, rentacoder, elance, sitepoint etc...

$50 tops get you exactly what you're looking for. Simple but unique design, a few pages and valid coding.

Go with an American host - you'll get one for the first year at about $40 for the year... roughly $100/year after that.

It'll save you time plus probably save you some headaches getting your head around new technology and of course, it'll most likely be done by an experienced 14 year old which will mean it'll be decent quality -v- an adult trying his hand for the first time :pac: