Website Ownership Basics

A few points to consider when you decide to have a website

What is it for?
The range of websites currently available on the internet is vast, and almost equally so the range of reasons for their existence. 

From a simple page to introduce an individual, to a massive corporate or government portal with thousands of pages and , the World Wide Web can provide the opportunity to present the required message.

Give some thought to the purpose of your proposed website, what it should (and should not) contain, and what you expect from it.  Examine similar sites to see how their designers have approached the project, and decide what you like (and what you don't) about their solutions.  If you can, seek the opinions of your potential users about what they require - you mighht be surprised!

My Tip: Remember that well-designed small websites can later be expanded incrementally as your skills and experience increase.  This can have the added benefit of keeping down ownership and maintenance costs until the extra facilities are required.  If you think that your site may expand in the future, find a hosting agreement which will let you add extra webspace, tools and facilities later on when you need them.

Attracting Visitors
Owning a website is not enough to ensure that anyone will ever visit it.  To attract traffic to your site you will need to decide on a promotional strategy.

This may include both offline elements for promotion of your domain name (such as business cards, press advertising etc) and online activities such as link exchanges, and adjustment of your site content to attract the attention of the search engines (known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO).

My Tip: There are many means available for collecting information about who is visiting your website, which sites they have come from, and how they use your site once they've arrived.  Use these techniques to better understand your visitors and adjust the site accordingly.

Costs
There are various costs associated with site ownership in addition to the design and development of the site itself, incliding domain name registration, hosting, maintenance and promotional activities.  Even if you choose to do your own site design work, these costs will still need to be met.

Remember that the more hosting facilities you require, the higher the cost is likely to be.  Try to find a hosting package which meets your needs without offering extra facilities that you will never use.

My Tip: Cheapest is not always best (or worst).  Shop around for prices by all means, but also seek recommendations from other users, read reviews, and try to decide whether you can 'work with' the suppliers you contact.  Try to consider the cost of your site as a whole, and remember that your time has a value too!

Stay within the law
Although you may have no intention of breaking the law with your website, it is still possible to do so inadvertently.  Depending on where in the world you live, you will be subject to a whole range of legislation, perhaps including (but not limited to) laws regarding copyright, accessibility, obscenity, blasphemy, libel, data protection and privacy.

Remember too, that your web host will have rules concerning the content of your website.  You can contravene these rules, and thus have your website removed by your host, even though your content may be quite legal.

My Tip: Investigate the laws pertaining to your website, and if possible find and bookmark the websites of the relevant governing bodies.  Check the rules regularly and make sure that your site complies.  If in doubt, seek professional legal advice BEFORE you get into trouble.

 

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