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There are four simple steps in the development of a website:
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A domain name is a "humanly-memorable" name for those accessing websites over the Internet. A domain name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) address. The most important function of domain names is to provide an easily recognizable and memorizable name to a numerically addressed Internet resource. |
Not so long ago, we suggested to our clients that the ".com" extension was essential. Now, with the proliferation of different extensions and the recent expansion move of top level domains allowed by ICANN, we believe that a meaningful name is more important than the extension. One suggestion we do make is that if an extension different than the ".com" is chosen, that the full domain name including extension be liberally used in any advertising or marketing. The downside of not having the ".com" is that whoever does own it may profit from your efforts, but that is a decision best left up to the site owner as buying the name may just not be economically feasible. |
The site design is the actual layout including fonts, colors, positioning of elements, navigation and general look and feel. The site development is the actual buildout of the site so that becomes functional and accessible from the Internet. Think of the process as being similar to construction. You may have an architect design a building and then a contractor build it or you may choose a "design/build" contractor to provide both services. Here at Moore Tech Solutions we can take a design provided by others and then develop the site or provide design and development services as a package. You make the choice! |
Your logo is the first thing people see and your initial opportunity to impress. If you like your existing logo we suggest incorporating into your site design for consistency. If not, we have a number of resources to provide you a first class logo. |
It is very important that you have the rights to use the images that are on your website. You can use existing images or photos that you own, MTS can help you with a photographer to create your own unique photos, or there are a number of stock photo sites where photos can be economically purchased. In all cases you should not incorporate photos or images that you do not have the rights to use. |
| Electronic commerce, commonly known as "e-commerce" refers to the buying and selling of products or services over the Internet. Online shopping is a form of e-commerce where a purchaser buys goods or services from a seller over the Internet.An online store is analogous to buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar store. |
| E-commerce that takes place between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. E-commerce that takes place between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. |
There are a number of ways to receive payments for goods or services online. A number of our clients use PayPal for its ease and simplicity. Others choose to set up a payment gateway through a provider such as Authorize.Net. In any case you should provide a method that is secure and that your customers will trust. |
This will depend on a number of things including:
The good answer though, is that as the e-commerce industry has matured there are non-proprietary shopping carts which can meet most any requirement. |
| Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website via the "natural" or un-paid "organic" search results. In general, a site that employs good SEO techniques should appear higher in search results than a site which has not utilized good SEO practices. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe website designs and elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure. |
| A Web crawler is a computer program that browses the World Wide Web in a methodical automated manner. This process is called crawling or spidering. The search engines use crawling as a means of providing up-to-date data on each page on the web so that they may index the pages and provide fast search results. |
| The leading search engines use crawlers to index pages for their search results. While your site will ultimately be found and indexed we suggest submitting sites to the major search engines and submitting XML Sitemaps to ensure that all page are found. |
| A variety of methods can increase the prominence of your website in search results. Cross linking between pages of the same website to provide links to the most important pages may improve your visibility. Including content with frequently searched keyword phrases will tend to increase traffic. Fresh or updated content so as to keep search engines crawling back frequently can give additional weight to a site. It is also important to have meaningful title tags and descriptions, which will tend to improve the relevancy of your site's search listings, thus increasing traffic. |
Short anwer - It depends! Longer answer - We find that the type of business our client is in is the determining factor as to how much they need to embrace social media. For those who are providing business to consumer products or services the answer is more likely yes. For those who are in business to business products or services, social media may not play quite the role, but should still be considered as part of the online strategy. |
Social media includes web-based and mobile technologies which turn communication into interactive dialogue. Social media takes on many forms including forums, blogs, microblogs, podcasts, photographs, and videos. Examples of different social media types include: Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Social networking now accounts for 22% of all time spent online in the U.S. |
If your website is the hub of your online presence, then consider social media and e-mail marketing to be the spokes. Effective use of these tools will enhance your online presence and be of great help in meeting your online goals. Social media includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. MTS can help you create a presence with each of these media tools, tie that presence to your website and help you brand your social proviles around your business. There are a number of e-mail marketing programs available to meet most any need. They provide a low cost and highly effective method for you to communicate with your prospects and customers. Our experience with these programs has been extremely positive.
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| Bandwidth is the amount of data traffic that is allowed to occur between your web site and the rest of the internet. Your hosting provider will have plans which allow for varying bandwidth requirements. Hosting providers will generally provide a certain number of gigabytes(GB) of bandwidth per month. A gigabyte is roughly 1,000 megabytes(MB) with megabyte storing one million characters. So, for example, to transfer a 4MB MP3 movie would use 4MB of bandwidth. |
For a website to be accessible via the World Wide Web it must be on a server which has Internet connectivity and that is configured as a Web server. There are a number of hosting options available and if your site is an important part of your business, your hosting decision should be carefully made. Depending on the hosting provider a number of features may be available to help you manage your web environment. |
There are several types of hosting services available including:
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This answer can be very broad depending on the type of organization and its goals. In our case, we cater primarily to mid-size organizations who are looking for a reliable host with good support. That said, we look for a host who:
If you notice, we didn't include price as a main consideration. Although that is a factor, the least expensive host will normally cost a website owner more in the long run due to downtime, poor response, and less than desirable service/support. |
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