Planning a Website
A website is developed by anyone inclusive of organisations, business enterprises, individuals and voluntary organisations, which want to tell the world about themselves or their businesses or their products or services.
There are various types of websites such as individual website, commercial website, entertainment websites, government and non-government websites, blogs or social networking websites. In order to launch a website, Web hosting is required, which is a rented space on a server where your website resides.
Websites are stored and hosted on exclusive computers, which are known as servers. These servers provide storage space and access for the websites. A Web hosting can be paid or free. Web hosting is the rented space on the Internet to publish your website over the Internet.
Table of Content
Types of Hosting
Free Web Hosting Services
As compared to paid hosting services, free Web hosting services have limited functionality. These are advertisement- supported Web hosting. Some of the free Web hosting websites are Netfirms (www.netfirms.com), 50megs (50megs. com), Freewebs (www.freewebs. com), and Freeservers (www.freeservers.com).
When various websites reside on a single server, it is known as shared Web hosting services. For those who build their websites for the first time or have a limited budget, shared Web hosting service is the best and economical option.
Dedicated Web Hosting
It is the paid form of Web hosting services, where the user leases the entire Web server. The user will have full control over the Web server, but he does not have the ownership of the server. It is an expensive Web hosting plan.
There are various Web hosting service providers, such as Hostgator (www. hostgator.com), Blue Host (https://www.bluehost.com/), Reseller Club (https:// india.resellerclub.com/), and Liquidweb (https://www. liquidweb.com/), Hostinger (https://www.hostinger.in/), Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com, BigRock’s (www.bigrock.in/)
In order to select a good web hostings, one should look for various factors such as high reliability and uptime, low down time, proper security and certification, good bandwidth and storage, solid customer support, domain management tools or reasonable pricing.
Creation of Website
A website is the most essential thing for a business nowadays. It is the starting point of digital marketing as it provides a way for people to connect with your business. A website is the foundation of digital marketing as all the digital marketing efforts are executed to bring people towards the website.
Website is a collection of several Web pages created in the HTML code (eg HTML5)for an individual or for a business or any other type of organisation. A website can also be created using a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress.
A website connects the online audience with your business. It helps in selling goods and services online. In order to create a professional image over the Internet, website creation is the minimum effort required to be performed in order to reach new customers and markets. It is a shopping window that is open round the clock.
There are two types of websites:
Static Website
This type of website is developed using the HTML code. It is simple and easy to create as it does not require Web programming. It contains static information, and the content of the website cannot be manipulated or modified as the codes of each Web page are fixed. The content in static website remains the same most of the time.
Dynamic Website
This type of website is created using a server-side scripting language such as PHP and ASP. There are various web designing languages like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Personal Home Page (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP). The content of dynamic website can be changed easily.
It optimises the content using a database or Content Management System (CMS). The content changes as per the requirement and behaviour of users. Examples of dynamic website are facebook. com, quora.com., etc. A website has various components that have to be understood in order to optimise a website appropriately.
Basic Components of Website
Let us study the basic components of a website:
Domain name
It is the identity or the address of your website on the Internet. It comprises a word or phrase (for example, mybusiness) and an extension (for example, .com, .net, .co.in). Hence, a domain name could be geektonight.com.
Web hosting
It is a rented space on a server where your website resides. Websites are stored, hosted on exclusive computers, which are known as servers. These servers provide storage space and access for the websites.
Home page
This is the introductory page and default start-up page of the website. It displays various navigations to other content on the website, similar to a table of contents for the website.
A roadmap for all the features or information contained within a website. Menu navigation helps us locate the content of the website.
Look and feel
It delineates the overall appearance, visual or design of a website which involves the colour, graphics, text, etc. It also includes the media contents, such as videos, images, etc. All such value addition can help in creating a consistently styled website.
Content
Content is the king of the digital marketing. It also plays a pivotal role in a website. Every website optimises its content using optimisation tools on the search engine.
Logo
It is the symbol which acts like an identifier of your brand.
Steps Involved in Website Planning
While conceptualising the design of a website, there are certain things that have to be kept in mind in order to derive the desired results and traffic on the website, for example, deciding the primary and secondary keywords, placement of the components of the website, service section, placing testimonials on the website.
All these factors add value to a website. Therefore, it is crucial to plan a website design strategy to ensure a user friendly website. There are two ways to conceptualise a website. One is to use a predesigned theme for your website and the other is to use custom design. Customisation is possible in WordPress CMS through which one can edit the home page design and theme.
Various functionalities can be added on the website using plugins or java script. There are various Web page builder tools available over the Internet such as Elementor, Beaver and Siteorigin. A website design comprises content, usability, appearance, style and visibility. Website planning plays an essential role in website creation and development. For building a proper website, proper planning is quintessential.
Various steps involved in website planning are as follows:
Decide the objectives for your website
The first step is to decide the core reason or primary purpose of developing your website. The aim of the website is to educate the audience, promote a product, entertain the audience, etc.
Such objectives or aims help in finding quantifiable measures to access the success of a website. All further steps will depend upon the objectives. For example, a website for a toy shop should have the look and feel that attract or induce the children or parents to make a purchase. Therefore, the website’s overall appearance should be vibrant, playful and creative because the objective is to drive the potential traffic to the website.
Decide the target audience
It is important to know who your target audiences are and what are they looking for on the Internet. It is important to plan your website design and content as per the interest and taste of your target audience, their past searches and previous experiences, age group and the reason of their visit on your website. Your target audience’s reaction to your website can help in assessing the success of your website.
Create a site map for your website
A site map is the list of pages in your website or a directory structure that states the number of pages available on your website. Site map is a way of telling search engines about the content available on your website.
It is a file where you provide information related to the pages, videos or other files on the website. If a website contains a few files, then one directory is enough to store them. But, if a website is very large and complex, then separate directories or subdirectories are organised. While planning a website, a logical directory structure should be developed.
Create a blueprint of your website
A blueprint of the website is a rough diagram that represents the components of the website. There are various pre-designed templates and themes available on the website-designing tools.
The blueprint illustrates the navigation menu and placement of various components on the website. It involves the home page design, navigation of your website, additional facility and webpage design.
Blueprint of a Simple Website
Apart from using programming language, such as HTML and PHP, or hiring a Web designer or Web designing company for website creation, nowadays, with the advent of Content Management System (CMS), such as WordPress and Web development can be done within minutes with minimal cost.
It is the simplest way to create a website with plethora of free and paid themes and templates. One can create a website without any technical know-how of programming language or Web designing.
The following are the steps of website creation by using a CMS:
- Buy a domain name.
- Rent a place to host your website.
- Connect your domain name and hosting to each other to create a website.
- Log into your c-panel with credentials provided by the hosting company.
- Install WordPress on the domain name.
- Access the backend of your domain name by typing www. domainname. com/wp-admin.
- Design your website using WordPress free or paid themes.
- Create engaging content and promote your website.
Buying a domain name is the basic or primary requirement to create a website. The online address of your website is the domain name. The users can navigate the optimised content stored on the Internet. A domain name is brand name + domain extension. Domain extensions are .com, .co, .in, .org, .in, .au., etc. One of the most popular websites to buy domain name is godaddy.com.
A Web address or URL is typed, while accessing a website by using the Internet. A domain name is used when you type a Web address. For example, http://www. quora.com is a Web address. In this Web address, the domain name is “quora. com”.
Domain name is registered by a domain name registrar. In India, the Accredited Domain Name Registrars can be Government Registrars or Private Authorised Registrars.
Examples of Government Registrars are:
- National Informatics Centre (NIC), which is the exclusive registrar for gov. in and mil.in domain names
- ac.in and edu.in are the exclusive registrars for academic domain names. Examples of private authorised domain registrars are:
- IndiaLinks Web Hosting Pvt. Ltd.
- BiznetIndia Dot Com Pvt. Ltd.
- Data Infosys Limited
- PDR Domain Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Deciding on the Number of Pages
It is important to decide the number of Web pages and the objective of each Web page as a website is the creation and arrangement of various Web pages. The first page of a website is the home page. After creating a home page, other Web pages are developed. These pages are linked together with the help of hyperlinked navigation menu.
Creating Blueprint of Each Page
From Home page to ‘Contact us’ page, it is important to develop a blueprint of every Web page for your website. The architecture, design and content of every Web page should be conceptualised appropriately. Architecture is the layout of the website.
The elements of architecture of a website comprise main navigation buttons, main content area or space, image sliders, header and footer, and the right and left sidebars. These elements are fairly consistent in all the Web pages. However, on an e-commerce website or in a blog, these elements may vary from one Web page to another.
The second factor that plays a pivotal role while conceptualising a website is the content that is going to be published on each Web page. Conceptualising, engaging and providing informative content is very important. Every Web page should have search engine optimised content to drive more traffic. Usage of primary and secondary keywords in the content is a good search engine optimisation practice.
Primary keywords are those words or phrases that define the business, and secondary keywords are those that define the services. One should not overstuff the content with keywords as it is an unethical practice.
Next is website design. This is the outward appearance of the website. It is the most important element that catches audiences’ attention and helps in building good impression among the audiences. It is important to decide a theme for your website.
For example, if you are planning a website design for a flower store, then visuals of beautiful flowers and gardens should be used. Website design involves the colour of navigation button, design and placement of site logo, images and website colour.
Best Practices of Website Design
A website should be easy to read, easy to navigate and easy to find. Planning and designing a website consist of various steps that help in simplifying the website development. It is important to find the purpose of website creations, target audience and their interest and taste.
A good website design involves form and functions wherein form involves look and feel of a website and functions involves how your website performs and converts.
Let us now shed some light on the best practices of website design which are as follows:
- Every Web page of your website should have the company or brand logo placed prominently on the webpage such as the left corner.
- Important content should be on the top right corner. Any Click To Action(CTA) button should be present on the top of the website.
- The navigational structure of a website should not be too complicated. It should be in a logical manner that makes sense to the visitors. The website owner should keep in mind the customer search behaviour findings.
- The color of your website should be pleasant and appealing to eyes. Also, it should have certain significance in the overall theme of the website. The color scheme plays a pivotal role in drawing the attention of visitors for longer time.
- The load time of a website should be fast. One can check the loading speed on ‘Google PageSpeed’. A fast loading website is beneficial for both the users and SEO.
- It is important to publish crisp and informative content on your website along with good and clear visuals such as photos, illustrations and videos in order to make your website attractive for the visitors.
Website Experimentation and Testing
It is important for website owners to experiment and test various things on the website regularly in order to become aware about the loopholes and what needs to be improved. Every business that has website must allot one day of the week for experimentation and testing.
Various elements of a website involving homepage, CTA, value propositions, creative-color, size, images, font, promotion, etc., need to be tested in different versions in order to know the best version which would provide better result and traffic.
The following are the most common tests that are performed by digital marketers in order to keep up with the pace:
A/B Testing
The most commonly used tools to perform A/B testing are Optimizely, Maximiser, SiteSpect, etc. It is also known as split testing wherein two versions of a Web page is compared in order to know which performs better.
A/B Testing is a cost-effective way of assessing the various ideas or versions of website elements by having control on them and making them live only for a few users. It can offer competitive advantage if one constantly test new ideas.
Multivariate Testing (MVT)
This test involves testing of multiple variants concurrently. For instance, if a digital marketer wants to test the heading, CTA and form of a website, then there will be eight variants as each has two variants. These eight variants will be tested concurrently to identify the winning variation.
The formulae of finding out the total number of variations in a multivariate test will be:
Total no. of Variations = [No. of Variations in Element A] x [No. of Variations in Element B] x [ No. of Variations in Element C]
