website.qxd  4/9/2003  11:52 AM  Page 8

Website Development & Hosting

Procedure for Building a Web Presence

Choose a Domain Name for Your Site and Register It

The first thing you need to do when establishing a web presence is decide on a Domain Name and

register it. Choosing the right Domain Name is very important, as it directly affects how easy it is

for  potential  visitors  to  find  your  site.  Try  for  something  that  is  easy  to  recognise,  easy  to

remember,  and  to  easy  to  guess.  .or  example,  if  your  business  is  Children s  Toys  then

childrenstoys.com would be a good Domain Name since it is logical, easy to remember, and easy

to spell. It is also a good idea to think of alternate Domain Names in case the first one you think

of is taken. 

If  you  are  not  planning  on  building  your  website  right  away,  you  might  still  want  to  consider

registering your Domain as soon as possible. Thousands of Domain Names are registered every

day, and there s no guarantee that yours will still be around when you decide to build your site.

See the section on Domain Naming later in the manual.

Build and Publish Your Website

Building your own website can be gratifying, but does not have to be difficult. Currently, a lot of

software  packages  are  available     such  as  Microsoft  .rontPage  2000     that  make  creating  and

publishing your website relatively quick and painless. Others include Macromedia Dreamweaver,

HotDog Web Editor, CofeeCup software, Stone Studio, and Adobe Golive.

Promote Your Website

To really succeed on the web, you need more than just a website. You need  traffic    a steady

stream of visitors coming to check out your products, services, information, and everything else

you offer online. In order to draw people to your site, you need to be listed in the web s most

popular search engines and web directories. Services like www.netannounce.com can help you get

traffic to your site by listing your site with search engines and giving you tips for making your site

easier to find online. 

Analyse the Results

The  success  of  a  website  is  generally  measured  by  how  many  visitors  it  gets.  Your  web  server

automatically logs each time someone accesses one of your web pages. Looking at these logs can

tell you how much traffic your site gets, how popular different parts of your site are, and when your

site is the busiest. Analysing your traffic can even give you an idea of which parts of your site may

need to be improved or expanded. 

Most  web  hosting  companies  have  built-in  tools  such  as  Urchin that  you  can  use  to  help  you

analyse your traffic. Once you become a customer, it is easy to log into a custom control panel and

access current site statistics.

Copyright  NESIS 2002

8