The tentacles of the internet are now reaching each and every corner of the globe. Having a website is becoming an important part of the modern marketing mix. Now any business needs to be worked out on two flanks simultaneously; one flank pertains to the conventional operations while the other flank concerns the website operations through the internet.
Earlier people thought of the website to be a sort of advertisement. The technology and internet application have brought tremendous changes in the utility of the website; so much so that a website can now be compared to a business representative working 24/7 without any overtime wages to be paid to the workers.
Equipping the website and optimizing its utility is not very easy, especially if you do not think of availing the services of a professional web designer. First of all when a new business is to be presented on the internet, the website owners need to clear their mind of some commonly used terminologies such as website, website design and website development and know the difference between them.
Website is the about what the business identity does and what it offers to the market through the internet. Website design is about designing the website in such a way that it appeals to the visitor and facilitates the search of the visitor. Website development is about developing the website to optimize its functions so that it invites maximum traffic and converts maximum visitors into buyers.
There are different phases of a website. They are as follows.
Creating: This is the first phase of website wherein the product or service offered through the website is studied, research is conducted on the buyer behavior and based on this the website is created. This phase includes domain registration and IP address registration and the space that is allotted for the website.
Designing and Developing: This is about managing and embedding the visual and text content on to the website so that it is downloaded in the least possible duration. The design should be appealing and the visitor should feel comfortable at navigating through it. Visual are more effective than the text, but there are some drawbacks of using visuals. So the proportion of the visuals used should be limited to some extent.
Search Engine Optimization: This is about strategies to haul up the ranking of a website in the search engine list. Research has revealed that the URLs that feature on the top of the search engine list receive the highest number of clicks. The more the traffic, more is the number of clicks and consequently more visitors can be converted to buyers.
Website Maintenance: Time especially with reference to the IT industry is changing drastically. One needs to use the latest technical developments made in the field of Internet and website applications. The website design layout of the yesteryears may not have the charm that it had earlier. Constant updating of the website facilitates the visitors and catches the attention of the search engine crawlers too.