Building a business website, ideas?

Life Technology
1

Interested to hear advice/suggestions on setting up a website for a business. I’m not planning on constructing it myself, but I am interested to know what issues I should be aware of when getting someone else to do it.

I’m particularly curious on how to ensure more hits from a web search; If there is anyway of increasing your “presence” and how this can be down in multiple languages?

I envisage the initial site appearing in English, but I’d like to add more languages, like Chinese (simplified and full form), later.

I’m also curious if in the initial build, room can be left to incorporate more details or features (painlessly) at a later stage. If so, how easy is it to edit the website myself once it’s up and running, or do I need to get the person who build it initially to get involved?

Also, what’s a fair price? I’ve had some expensive quotes from Thailand, but given the involvement of a farang, that’s hardly a surprise.

Basically I know nothing, so any advice/suggestions gratefully accepted.

The business relates to tourism in Thailand.

HG

2

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Interested to hear advice/suggestions on setting up a website for a business. I’m not planning on constructing it myself, but I am interested to know what issues I should be aware of when getting someone else to do it.

I’m particularly curious on how to ensure more hits from a web search; If there is anyway of increasing your “presence” and how this can be down in multiple languages?

I envisage the initial site appearing in English, but I’d like to add more languages, like Chinese (simplified and full form), later.

I’m also curious if in the initial build, room can be left to incorporate more details or features (painlessly) at a later stage. If so, how easy is it to edit the website myself once it’s up and running, or do I need to get the person who build it initially to get involved?

Also, what’s a fair price? I’ve had some expensive quotes from Thailand, but given the involvement of a farang, that’s hardly a surprise.

Basically I know nothing, so any advice/suggestions gratefully accepted.

The business relates to tourism in Thailand.

HG[/quote]

HG, to my mind the biggest issues,having built a website or two, is design and structure. How do you want the site to look and how do you want it structured, ie what pages in what sections, make sure you allow for the expansion you think you will need. Design it now for how you think it should look in a year or two.

Editing a site later for updating contents etc is no major hassle, editing to change basic structure can be a real pain in the ass and very time consuming, sometimes it amounts to an almost complete rewrite with all the costs associated therewith.

Adding languages if allowed for in the original structure is no major issue, and what i normally do is to take the page that is being translated copy it and rename it with the country extension as the last two letters in the file name, ie index.html for simplified chinese would become indexcn.html. This not only keeps all the files together, but is obvious which file is for what language.

With regard to cost, almost impossible to say without having a much more detailed understanding of what is required. A basic html site with up to 20 pages each one having some pictures and text, should be relatively cheap, but if you are looking at needing server side scripting and applications, use of php and sql then the cost raises very significantly and very quickly, plus who will build the databses etc.

Just my 2c.

3

The most important is that visitors to your site find their way around easy, that it loads fast and that it fits on the screen without to much scrolling. Don’t add music, it’s annoying. Build it that every browser on the market can read it and prepare for the mobile world.

As been said before, first make sure that your layout is ready and can used for at least a year or two three without major changes. Before putting it on a host server try out and try out again to weed out bugs. Oh, and put it with a reputable hosting service, don’t host it yourself … it’s a hassle and it needs to be there 24/7.

For search engines to find your pages they need to be in HTML not in Flash or something else. And tweeking you pages as cloaking and dummy pages to get the first rankings don’t work for long because the search engines are smarter nowadays, Google will just kill you by putting you somewhere in the back of the listings.

It’s important to have a good content and try to be popular, popular pages get the best rankings. Different serach enines have different ways of looking through the web (spidering), some need to be told your there. To be found you need to be within the first 3-4 pages. Try also to get a listing in some trade pages (tourisme related). Advertise in field related magazines and by doing promotions. Life is not only on the web although it’s getting close. Link up with other popular sites as much as possible because links to your site are looked for by some search spiders.

I’ve done several sites some years ago and got #1 rankings on Google and other search sites but it’s difficult to keep it. Make your site as easy as possible without to many bells and whistles … have good content, interesting and relavant to your business.

4

Great advice, many thanks!!

Pondering, pondering . . .

HG

5

My advice is to pick a vendor wisely and be willing to pay a little extra for a partner who really knows what they are talking about. One of the benefits of working with a good vendor is that she will be able and willing to answer these questions for you. She will allow you to focus on your strengths, like perhaps growing your business, while she focuses on the minutiae of building you a great site.

I would suggest you not host the site in Thailand - many vendors there try to offer it all by throwing in hosting into their service offering. Hosting in the US (or HK) is a better option.

Hiring Thai. designers/developers has cost advantages but as is to be expected there are some disadvantages as well. I enjoyed the times I worked onsite in Bangkok but working with them remotely was less “fun”.

If you have your heart set on hiring in Thailand I can help you wade through the BS in the quotes and/or send you the contact info. of a few places I know of.

6

Cheers kelake.

The quotes we had from Bangkok were stupid to say the least. I think the problem was, as you suggest, they were offering absolutely everything.

I do have a friend who happens to be a web designer here in HK. I’m seeing him tomorrow. I think it will be more practical to host the site here in HK, as although the business deals with tourism in Thailand, my partnmer and I live here in HK.

Cheers.
HG

7

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I do have a friend who happens to be a web designer here in HK. I’m seeing him tomorrow. I think it will be more practical to host the site here in HK, as although the business deals with tourism in Thailand, my partnmer and I live here in HK.

Cheers.
HG[/quote]

HG, are you looking at using a thai domain as in .com.th or using a standard .com address. With the recent changes brought about for using country specific domain names then these are controlled by the countries concerned, and in that case you might be forced to use a thai hosting company. not sure how this works if you already had the domain name though.

8

This is a very useful thread. I’d like to hear any more about the practical details, especially on this point:[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I’m also curious if in the initial build, room can be left to incorporate more details or features (painlessly) at a later stage. If so, how easy is it to edit the website myself once it’s up and running, or do I need to get the person who build it initially to get involved?[/quote]I was thinking of posting exactly the same question, as I’m considering setting up a commercial website. (Teaching, not tourism-related).
Can anyone give details of what editing the content only (not the basic format) would involve? Would it require skill with Dreamweaver or some similar application?

Thanks in advance.

9

[quote=“Dottie”]This is a very useful thread. I’d like to hear any more about the practical details, especially on this point:[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I’m also curious if in the initial build, room can be left to incorporate more details or features (painlessly) at a later stage. If so, how easy is it to edit the website myself once it’s up and running, or do I need to get the person who build it initially to get involved?[/quote]I was thinking of posting exactly the same question, as I’m considering setting up a commercial website. (Teaching, not tourism-related).
Can anyone give details of what editing the content only (not the basic format) would involve? Would it require skill with Dreamweaver or some similar application?

Thanks in advance.[/quote]

Dottie, if the website was going to use only html code, then assuming you know html code, then something as simple as notepad can be used. If you have no knowledge of HTML or need something extra then a web design tool would be appropriate.

Skill level will be determined by what it is you are trying to do. Dreamweaver is one of the high end web design packages, and is capable of doing some very neat stuff for you, all of which is code compliant, but it is expensive, think it is about 40k NT.

Also worth remembering is to view your site during the development stage using as many web browsers as possible, do not stick to just one. Firefox is one of the more compliant browsers, the likes of IE one of the least compliant, and this could effect how your site is seen from within each browser.

10

[quote=“Traveller”]Dottie, if the website was going to use only html code, then assuming you know html code, then something as simple as notepad can be used. If you have no knowledge of HTML or need something extra then a web design tool would be appropriate.

Skill level will be determined by what it is you are trying to do. Dreamweaver is one of the high end web design packages, and is capable of doing some very neat stuff for you, all of which is code compliant, but it is expensive, think it is about 40k NT.

Also worth remembering is to view your site during the development stage using as many web browsers as possible, do not stick to just one. Firefox is one of the more compliant browsers, the likes of IE one of the least compliant, and this could effect how your site is seen from within each browser.[/quote]Traveller, thanks very much. I don’t know HTML and would much prefer to use a kind of intermediary web design package, provided that such as package was user-friendly and the basic features did not take too long to learn. Are there any cheaper and more basic packages available than Dreamweaver? I’ve used Frontpage in the past, but that’s not too flexible and will soon be obsolete and no longer supported by Microsoft, I believe.

Trouble is, either with HTML or a software package, I’d be worried about messing up all the good work that the original builder of the site had done.

The ideal thing for me would be to use some kind of a template or form-based system so that I could easily add in new pages to the basic structure, maintaining overall design features.

11

Two main pieces of advice: “Don’t make the user wait” and “Don’t make the user guess”.

Don’t use a cryptic spalsh page where the user has to guess how to enter the site or where navigation is not apparent from the get-go. Don’t use Flash; if you must, use it sparingly. The homepage should load fast. Wasting precious seconds of the user’s time can result in lost customers.

Don’t make the site appear cluttered. Less is more. Make it easy for the user to find what he is looking for without having to jump through hoops. Make it easy for him to get to the information he needs.

Provide a way for the user to contact you. And be sure to respond to questions in short order.

12

No, very much trying to avoid tying it down to Thailand. We have the url and it is a .com. Ooh! If only it was sometime back before that levvy burst!

At the moment I’m looking at a range of websites and basically liberating some of the characteristics I like or think work, but inserting a series of changes so as not to be an absolute plagiarist.

Thanks again.

HG

13

[quote=“Dottie”]Traveller, thanks very much. I don’t know HTML and would much prefer to use a kind of intermediary web design package, provided that such as package was user-friendly and the basic features did not take too long to learn. Are there any cheaper and more basic packages available than Dreamweaver? I’ve used Frontpage in the past, but that’s not too flexible and will soon be obsolete and no longer supported by Microsoft, I believe.

Trouble is, either with HTML or a software package, I’d be worried about messing up all the good work that the original builder of the site had done.

The ideal thing for me would be to use some kind of a template or form-based system so that I could easily add in new pages to the basic structure, maintaining overall design features.[/quote]

Dottie, the basics in Dreamweaver can be picked up quite easily, or at least i found this to be the case. since you have used Frontpage before you are at least not going to it totally blind.

In regard to screwing up what has been done before, then you should be doing any changes on a local copy of the site on your pc, not directly to the website itself, that way when you check it out, and something is wrong, you have not buggered your online site. Only upload once you are happy.

14

No, very much trying to avoid tying it down to Thailand. We have the url and it is a .com. Ooh! If only it was sometime back before that levvy burst!

At the moment I’m looking at a range of websites and basically liberating some of the characteristics I like or think work, but inserting a series of changes so as not to be an absolute plagiarist.

Thanks again.

HG[/quote]

HG, one thing i did, was also to view the templates available, either to buy or for free, some have some good design ideas and there is a huge number to look at.

But Chris has hit on one important factor, make it a simple as possible for the user to get around etc.

I would also avoid using framesets, whilst htey can be useful, in general the minuses outweigh the plusses and what you are achieving can be done in other ways via CSS etc.

Also remember that not everyone - depending on your potential client base - has ADSL access, so loads of large photos taking ages to download can be a real turn off.

15

Dottie, the basics in Dreamweaver can be picked up quite easily, or at least I found this to be the case. since you have used Frontpage before you are at least not going to it totally blind.[/quote]Traveller, thanks again for the help. Just one more quick question and then I will stop hijacking Huang Guang Chen’s thread.
One of the best things about Frontpage was that it checked all the hyperlinks for me. I just had to create the new page in the site map and that was that. All the links were taken care of. Does Dreamweaver do this? And is there really no other cheaper package that can do a similar thing?

16

Dottie, the basics in Dreamweaver can be picked up quite easily, or at least I found this to be the case. since you have used Frontpage before you are at least not going to it totally blind.[/quote]Traveller, thanks again for the help. Just one more quick question and then I will stop hijacking Huang Guang Chen’s thread.
One of the best things about Frontpage was that it checked all the hyperlinks for me. I just had to create the new page in the site map and that was that. All the links were taken care of. Does Dreamweaver do this? And is there really no other cheaper package that can do a similar thing?[/quote]

Dottie, not sure about other packages as i had Dreamweaver and knew it could do everything i wanted and some.

Hyperlink checking can be done in dreamweaver if you are talking about your own site hyperlinks, ie from one page to another, if hyperlinks go to other sites, then not sure. In creating new pages, then yes, dreamweaver can do it, but maybe not quite a simply as Frontpage, which was aimed more at the small site developer and people new to web design. Dreamweaver is much more of a professionals tool, so it requires the user once they have finished doing the changes they want to actively utilise the checking facilities.

For me the cost is worth the extra benefits, especially if you start to need using php, sql and server side scripting, then its features are invaluable.

17

While it takes some effort to get it going… using PHP-based content management system is a good way to start. There are a number of packages out there. You can try them out at…
opensourcecms.com/

The advantage of PHP-based systems is that all your contents are in databases, and changes to styles can be done without having to copy all contents over to your newly coded site… just link up the database, and you’re set!

18

I love Wordpress right now, and use that on some websites.

But its ecommerce features are VERY weak. You’d need other packages as well, though that wouldn’t be difficult.

Kenneth
Affordable, flexible and superb hosting

19

These threads belong to no one and everyone Dotie. Your questions are great. Please don’t feel you have to sit it out. Beauty of the net, it’s a public domain and forum.

And excellent responses chaps, I feel like I might even be able to sound a little like I know what I’m talking about when I see the proposed designer over the weekend, or at least have some bloody good questions.

I hear the simplicity thing. I hate waiting for some wanker’s fancy flash to die so I can proceed. I also had the awful experience of trying to access those outrageously busy Taiwanese (Chinese language, usuallY) websites from an Australian dial up some years back Yuurrrghh!! I wanted to kill all tech-heads.

Probably sound stupid with this, but can you not basically lift someone’s website via the view source function/download thing and then tweak it to how you want it? Understand that requires understanding the code, but if you did . . . ? (Or maybe I’ve been living in this part of the world too long :blush:)

HG

20

Take a look at a free Opensoure CMS (content management system) site called www.joomla.org It is a easy to manage web portal application. It comes with many options/plug-in modules for features such as wiki, blogs, chat, auctions, ecommerce, elearning, forums, photo galleries, helpdesk, etc. (all free).

There are a hundred other CMS packages out there too, the other top contenders are: www.e107.org is also cool. I did some (limited) research on this last year and found joomla to stand out from the rest. Documentation is ok, plus it is all menu driven. It comes with several templates as well. (plus many more can be bought cheap, if you go to the homepage you will see some links). Microsoft has a CMS package called Sharepoint, but I have not really looked into it and I think it is more for company group management.

Joomla is a fork(seperation) from another CMS package called Mombo which was one of the most used content managment systems on the market. The owners/programmers had some squabbles about what was considered opensource and after that, all the top programmers left (with the source code since it is opensource) and started joomla.

There is a good hosting service as well that is geared to hosting this package (and just about all the cms packages) which means they preinstall all the files to get the site up for you, free. check www.siteground.com. I think it is only like US$5 a month (very cheap) and has high bandwidth, lots of storage, emails accounts, search engine optimization and free domain name registration.

Hosting now is very cheap and there are 1000x of hosting sites and it’s hard to choose which one is better. This one seems to be pretty established, is setup specifically for portals sites, has great prices, good amount of storage/bandwidth/unlimited mysql database support. I think they charge a one time fee of $15 for domain transfer. (plus you get one free too, so you can have two names~ maybe good for emails).

Here is a new user’s manual i just found for joomla if you want to take a look.

Also www.templatemonster.com has alot of good design ideas/colors, etc. You can buy their templates for about $50 bucks including all source code/royalty free.

If you (or anyone else) needs help, i’ve designed over 300 sites in the past. I’m taking a break from the daily grind at the moment and have some free time to develop some content sites.