What Kind of Web-Site Suits Your Business?

It's now widely accepted that web-site is essential for any kind of business over Internet. However, before embarking on website design spend some time on planning. Why do you need a web-site? What are your expectations from it? What is the target audience? How do you blend your organizational goals with website goals?

To help you in your thinking process - here's a checklist of issues and considerations that could be helpful in your planning. This is a general checklist, there may be special issues related to your business. You may add or subtract from this list to construct your own website design plan.

There are essentially four issues - that you should address before starting work on your web-site. These are:

• What is the purpose of this web-site or, to put it differently - ask yourself 'What exactly am I expecting from it?
• What kind of hosting solution should I consider
• What will be the content and how to manage it
• How to promote the web-site

Purpose of Web-Site

Design of web-site is critically dependent on your business goals. Web-sites are used for various purposes, such as:

• Pure Dissemination of information. For example, web-sites of very large corporations, Newspapers, Government organizations, Educational institutions, Business associations etc
• Extension of existing services, such as banks using web-sites for on-line transaction processing. Customers can enjoy many services from home without physically visiting bank premises
• Marketing products and services - where it acts as online brochure. Most companies use web-sites for this purpose
• Selling Products on-line - where it not only markets products but also acts as store-front for selling products and services, popularly known as e-commerce.
• Customer service where customers use web-site for troubleshooting, lodging complaints, request information etc. Examples are web-sites of hardware, machinery, equipment manufacturers.
• Facilitating interaction among a group on subjects common to all group members - such as discussion boards, consumer activist forum etc.

Above is merely an illustration - there are many other applications (such as BLOGS) and more will emerge in future. Important point is to decide the purpose of your web-site - which may be one of above or a mixture. A helpful tip is to write the purpose clearly on a piece of paper and discuss it with your design team. Use feedback from your friends, colleagues, technical team and customers to evaluate and if necessary, change your web-site plan. It is better to develop a plan first as mid-course changes are always expensive and time consuming.

Hosting Solution for Your Web-Site

Web-Site is composed of html files, computer programs, databases, Java Scripts etc. Once this stuff is placed on a special kind of computer called server - your web-site becomes part of World Wide Web (WWW), visible from any part of the world. Such servers are called 'Host' in Internet lingo and the process called hosting. Hosting Solution means zeroing on a suitable server that will host your web-site. There are two broad issues that will largely determine the nature and extent of your web-presence - one is technical and the other financial.

Technical Considerations

Apart from technical specifications of host - you need to consider following

• Over 90% of servers that constitute WWW are either Windows or Linux/Unix based. Windows and Linux are a kind of computer software called "Operating System". In internet lingo - they are called platforms. So, your first job is to select the platform for your web-site host.
• While static html files will work perfectly from both kinds of servers, computer programs and databases are largely platform-centric. So, if you are going to use databases and software - better select the platform first.
• Linux is considered more robust and faster than Windows. Besides, it is far more capital-inexpensive as most databases and software for this platform are available free (called open source in Internet lingo). However, it is easier to find a Windows programmer than Linux, as most teaching schools use Windows. So maintenance cost of Linux software may get higher than that of Windows.

• Your web-presence is part of a larger web-site - like a rented room in a building
• Hire a Virtual server - like owning an apartment in a high-rise building
• Dedicated Server - like owning a house or bungalow

Part of Larger Web-site

Like a rented room, in this mode you hire some web-space from a larger web-site (not host). Your internet address (URL in Internet lingo) looks like

http://www.large-website.com/your-humble-presence

or

http://your-humble-presence.large-website.com

The later (also called sub-domain or micro site) is little more prestigious and may suit some businesses. While such web-presence is inexpensive, convenient and maintenance free, it may not suit your purpose in long term for following reasons:

• Like rented office, the address is temporary. If large-website.com decides to throw you out or closes down its business - you will have to look for another place and consequently another URL. This could be suicidal as your customer will not be able to locate you and all your money spent on search engine promotion will go down the drain
• You will never be able to use business e-mails like sales@your-company.com
• There may be severe restrictions on bandwidth usage

There are many other reasons against such web-presence, but the most important is poor cost benefit ratio. This kind of web presence might have been cost effective during initial days of Internet when web-hosting was a costly affair - but is no longer so today. Falling price of web-hosting has made this option mostly redundant.

Virtual Server

This is perhaps the most popular and cost-effective option today where you enjoy fair amount of independence and a permanent Internet address (URL) for a moderate price. Like apartment in a large mansion - you get space earmarked for you in a server or host along with many others like you. Unlike apartments - you will never lose your Internet address (URL) as domain name remains same even if you change server or hosting provider. You will enjoy almost all facilities that a dedicated server or bungalow owner gets like business e-mail, own programs, databases etc. Your web-site will look and act like independent of anyone though in reality it is not (it is part of a se rver) hence the name virtual server.

The disadvantages of this mode of web-presence are

• Beware of cheap service providers who cram hundreds of web-sites in a single server choking processor efficiency and bandwidth. Your web-site in such a server will be slow to respond, resulting in lose of customers. Research has shown that a typical website visitor does not wait beyond 20 seconds for a web-site to load. Make sure your web-site does not keep visitors in a queue - else all your investment goes down the drain.
• Stingy service providers may not invest in server resources or user-friendly web-administrator software resulting in slow server and time consuming web site administration
• Over enthusiastic hosting service providers may impose unreasonable service restrictions
• One can not grow beyond a certain limit. An apartment owner can not build extra rooms.
• Like apartment owner - you should not do anything that might cause inconvenience to other apartment owners such as too many visitors, too much use of common facilities etc.

All said and done - this is an excellent option for all "Small and Medium Enterprises" who take necessary care to select a suitable hosting service provider. True, there are limits in such web-presence but in reality - it may take quite some time for you to reach that limit. Till that time - it is cost effective to use virtual server.

Dedicated Server

As the name indicates, you get a whole server to host your web-site - no sharing of resources. There are almost no limits in usage and everything is good in this mode except cost. You need to spend quite a lot for a dedicated server and hire highly skilled technical professionals to maintain it. Normally, a small or medium enterprise may not need a dedicated server, not at least in the beginning. Conclusion Apart from above basic issues, there are others relating to content and promotion. Nature of content determines, to a great extent, internal working of a web-site. For web-sites where content changes rapidly (such as newspapers, commodity prices etc.), static html files may not be sufficient. Databases may be required in such cases for storing dynamic content. Promotion in search engines is another issue that will surface once basic issues are resolved. One should be aware of all these issues and considerations in the design phase and earmark resources accordingly.

Conclusion

Apart from above basic issues, there are others relating to content and promotion. Nature of content determines, to a great extent, internal working of a web-site. For web-sites where content changes rapidly (such as newspapers, commodity prices etc.), static html files may not be sufficient. Databases may be required in such cases for storing dynamic content. Promotion in search engines is another issue that will surface once basic issues are resolved. One should be aware of all these issues and considerations in the design phase and earmark resources accordingly.

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