Now that you have registered your Domain Name, and signed up for a Web Hosting service, it is time to think about putting some content onto your web space for visitors to your web site to see. A good analogy would be that you have a book with a title, but no pages yet!

In this section we discusses the creation of the actual web pages and resources (e.g. Images, Video etc.) that make up a fully functional web site. Includes information on Web Design & Development, additional content for your web site, plus tips and tricks for building a better web site.

Important Things To Consider

Can I Do It Myself?
In the case of a personal, or very small organisation, we would encourage a have a go attitude as it can help save you some money, and can also be fun! However in the case of a business or commercial web site, unless you are proficient in the workings of the web and a dab hand at HTML and other languages such as Javascript, we would recommend in the very least that you have your initial web site designed by an expert. There is nothing to stop you making minor modification later as you learn how the parts go together. In this case you should use this guide to prepare you to accurately brief your Web Design service as to your exact needs.

Web Design & Development Services
The services you require will largely depend upon the size and nature of the web site you intend to have built. A simpler web site may only need the help of a web design service to help design static web pages, whereas a more complex, interactive or database driven web sites may need to enlist the services of a web developer to write back end scripts and program databases. Some companies may offer both services, and some companies like ourselves offer a Full Web Site Service where we take care of everything including registering your choice of domain, setting up your web hosting, designing your web pages, coding required scripts, and testing the final web site. Many of our customers have found this single point of contact for all web site issues advantageous.

Producing Your Own Web Pages
Traditional web pages are produced using a language called HTML. It is a relatively easy language to learn and there are some very good HTML Tutorials available on the web. There are also software packages available that will allow you to place objects on to a page and arrange them in an easy to use user interface and then create the HTML code for you. The down side to the use of these HTML Editors is that they often add numerous tags and other codes to your page making your files larger, in turn taking them longer to download to a users browser. We would also suggest at least a base knowledge of HTML in order to take full advantage of these packages.

The Structure Of A Web Site

What is a Web Page?
As mentioned previously, a web site is made up of one or more web pages. Web pages are usually written in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which allows mixed elements such as text and images to be formatted and placed upon a single page to be displayed within a web browser. Web pages can also contain Hyperlinks which allow the user to click upon an item and be taken to a new page or resource within yours, or even another web site.

Web pages may also contain other content that requires the use of a Plug-in, a special program that works in conjunction with the users browser to allow small programs to run within a web page. Examples would include Java Applets, Flash and ActiveX Controls. Some typical uses of these types of plug-in would be allowing access to chat rooms, animated menus, embedded video players for streaming media and more.

Your First Web Page
In the example URL; http://www.example.com/test.html a specific file is being requested from the web server, namely 'test.html'. When a user types your domain name on its own, e.g. www.example.com, as no specific file has been requested the web server will return the Default Page. This is often named index.html but can vary from one web host to another. This page should be considered your index page and all other pages should be linked from this page, or a page linked from it etc. This first page is usually referred to as a web sites Home Page.

Create Additional Pages
Whilst you could cram all of your content onto your home page, it is usual to split your content into sections and place them on different pages on your web site, E.g. create pages that contain contact information, product details, company or organisation information etc. You would then link to these additional pages from your home page. In the case of your contact information page, you could have a 'Contact Us' link on your home page that directs the users browser to the relevant page on your site.

Additional Content For Your Site

Third Party Providers
A number of third party service providers exist that offer extra content for your web site. Some content providers offer free services, often funded by embedded advertising, and others offer paid services aimed at larger web sites that can be fully integrated into your site using your own colours, logos etc.

Free services are often over subscribed which can cause the service to become unreliable, slow to respond, and in the case of advertising based services can become an annoyance to your visitors - numerous pop up advertising windows for example. Paid services tend to be more reliable, advertising free, faster loading and offer better customer support.

Adding Third Party Content
Adding third party content to your web site depends upon the nature of the content you wish to add. In some instances you may have to download items that you install on your web server, in which case you should check your web hosting service can support such items. For example if you wish to add ASP or PHP scripts your web server must be capable of running these types of scripts.

In other cases the service is run from the service providers web server and you add it to your site using simple HTML code. Our Chat Room services are a good example of this. You simply add a small snippet of HTML code to your web page in the location you wish the chat room to appear. When a user loads your page a small Java Applet will be downloaded to the users browser from our server and allows the user to send and receive messages in real time, again using our servers.

Types Of Content Available
The different types of content available for your web site is vast and is growing every day. Some of the more common examples are shown below:

Real Time Chat Rooms
Adding a real time Chat Room to your web site allows your visitors to chat to one another within a virtual room where all messages typed are echoed to all users of the chat room. Some systems also allow private one-to-one chats.

Chat rooms can also provide a useful way to provide support for your visitors, with some systems designed especially for this online Customer Support task. Chat rooms usually require the use of a Chat Server and so tends to be a third party service that you bolt on to your site.

Message Boards / Forums
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion area and is the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board. Discussion will usually centre around a particular topic for which forum users will add comments in the form of posts.

Forums differ from chat rooms and instant messaging in that forum participants do not have to be online simultaneously to receive or send messages. Messages posted to a forum or message board are publicly available for some time, which is uncommon in chat rooms that maintain frequent activity.

Forum software packages are widely available on the Internet and are written in a variety of programming languages, such as PHP, Perl, Java and ASP. Each package offers different features, from the most basic, providing text-only postings, to more advanced packages, offering multimedia support and formatting code (usually known as BBCode).

Calendar / Event Planners
Ideal for organisations that hold regular events, a Calendar or Event Planner is a bolt on to your site that allows for adding and updating events on a virtual calendar. They would usually allow a user of your site to select a month and view a list of dates. A date containing an event can usually be expanded to show the details of the event. If this is something you need to do often then a system like this could save you hours editing and uploading web pages.

Games, Quizzes & Puzzles
A huge variety of games, puzzles and quizzes are available to add to your web site to provide your users with hours of fun! Usually based upon Java or Flash technologies. The range spans from simple trivia quiz systems to full blown arcade action games like pacman and space invaders!

Animated Information Displays
Adding some animated effects to your web pages can really bring them to life. The simplest form of animation used on the Internet are Animated GIF files. These files consist of a number of image frames and data to specify when the next image should be displayed and whether to loop the animation or not. Many software packages are available to create animated GIF files in addition to a multitude of Online Gif Creation services.

For more extensive animations a plug-in may be used such as 'Flash', often used for web site introduction screens and menu systems, or 'Java', often seen used for ticker type displays etc. The technology you use will depend upon the functionality required. Flash is presentation centric whereas Java is a full blown programming language.

Streaming Audio & Video
Streaming live or recorded content, be it audio or video, will usually require the use of a Media Streaming Server. This is NOT the same as your web server and wont be part of any web hosting package although it may b available if you have your own dedicated server. If you do not have your own server a variety of services exist that will allow you to stream media content to your viewers.

An example scenario: In the case of an Internet radio station a DJ would use a Media Encoder to encode his live audio into a computer readable form and then transmit it via the Internet to a media server which in turn echoes this out to all the registered 'listeners'. You can then place a media player on your web page to allow your users to 'tune in'.

Third Party Advertising
Another good use of your 'web space' is to advertise related products and services. Banner brokers will pay you a commission on sales for placing banners and other advertisements on your site, or you can partner with some companies directly, like our own Partner Program for example. Products and services related to your own will perform best in most cases, E.g. A web site selling make-up would probably do rather well partnering with a site that sells make-up bags or other fashion items etc.

Building Your Web Site - Hints, Tips & Tricks

	Graphics - Try to avoid using images as backgrounds as thy distract from your actual content. If you must use a background image try to keep it very light. Plain white or black backgrounds are suitable for all occasions.
	Text - Make sure you include plenty of plain text on your web site. Apart from loading faster than images, search engines need to read text on your site in order to rank you, so be sure to include your keywords!
	Navigation - Getting around your web site should be a breeze for your users. Use clear and concise links, best placed at the top of the each page. Common practice is to have a main menu area linking to each major section of your site.
	Consistency - Use the same colours and logos on all of your pages. Try to place common elements like menu bars in the same location on each page. Also keep your link text consistent by not calling your home page the index page if you have referred to it as your home page in other areas.
	Top-of-fold - Place your most important links and information at the top of the page so that it is visible immediately without the user needing to scroll the page down. Also avoid making your web pages too wide causing users with smaller screens to scroll horizontaly.
	Comparability - Be sure to test all elements of your final design with all popular browser platforms and different system configurations. Bare in mind at design time that your users may be using a vast array of platforms with different screen sizes, colour depth etc.
	Professional - Consider your web site as you would any other professional document by ensuring all pages are spelling and grammar error free and be sure to include company/organisation contact details in addition to any other unique identification such as company registration or charity number etc.

Part 1 - Location       Part 3 - Promotion