Website Design: what you need to know

What is a website?

A website is a collection of web pages that go together. For example, let’s say you go to a website called hashtag99.com. When going directly to the website address like this, the first web page you’ll typically reach is the home page of that site. Let’s say from there you have the option of going to other pages e.g About Us, Our Services, Contact Us, etc. Those other pages are referred as sub pages, which make up the whole website. Sometimes people use the term website when they mean web page and vice versa.

Hashtag99 is a web development and website design company based in Johannesburg South Africa. Hashtag99 has provided cost-effective, high quality and reliable Website Design & Development services to 591 clients.

Our Web design

Hashtag99 designs professional websites that loads fast. They design Dynamic websites with easy navigation. They create User friendly Web design that attracts high traffic, beautiful, award-winning websites and convenient-to-use web based systems on a very affordable price.

Hashtag99 website design’s main objective is quality traffic since their web design’s main objective is your sales. Hashtag99 completes projects in a given time and integrity is important to them. We deliver services within the committed time frame.

Because of experience we know what works and what doesn’t work, but trust me they made a lot of mistakes on the way to perfection – where they are today.

Types of website design

Not every company needs a website… But more do than don’t! Below are a few types of businesses that benefits from a website.

Do I Really Need a Website?

Not every company needs a website… But more do than don’t! Below are a few types of businesses that benefits from a website.

COMPANIES THAT NEEDS A WEBSITE

Companies with Low Cash Flow

If your income is very low or very sporadic, it may make sense for you to invest in a website. A website will work for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week to bring in more business.

Companies Desiring an Enhanced corporate Image

A professional website can showcase your work and present an image that boost and lets people know you are serious about your work.

Companies desiring more money

The best website design boosts the company’s cash flow.

Companies Desiring More Customers

More and more people use the Internet to find the products and services they want including you. If you want more customers, the only way is to have a website.

Businesses Desiring Streamlined Business Processes

If you staff spends time faxing or emailing information to clients, or repeating the same information on the phone, then offering an useful and informative website can save you time.

Companies that doesn’t need a website

Companies with lots of money

If your company cannot handle adding any more customers, adding a website may not be a wise investment. Unless the point of the website is to provide information, it would be better to focus on your management first, so you can be prepared for more customers in the future.

What’s Involved in Getting a Website?

So now you have a basic understanding of what a website is, and now I assume you’ve decided your business needs one. Next I’ll talk about the basic steps involved in getting a website.

There are five main steps to a website namely:

1. A Domain Name

A domain name is a website name/location where your site can be found, such as hashtag99.com or hashtag99.net or hashtag99.org etc. A domain name is not something that is bought; it’s actually more like a lease. If you fail to renew it, your lease will be terminated so that someone else may use it later.

The most common endings for website domain names are as follows:.com for international commercial use .net fro net working .org for non profit organization .org.za for non profit use by a local south African organization .info fro an information website .biz for a general business .co.za for south African business

2. Web Hosting

Every website in the world has to be hosted somewhere for it to appear when you visit it. There are tons of web hosting companies. Some are very reliable; some unreliable. Some of them are very expensive while some are very cheap. Our web hosting is very reliable, with greater than 99.9% up time, seo tools, web editor, auto responders, free traffic statistics, unlimited traffic and 24-hour technical support.

If your customers clicks on the link to your website and finds nothing, they assumes your company is out of business and places her order with someone else, never to return. Now you understand why your website should always be available make sure your web hosting company provides technical support, even after hours.

Disk Space

This term just refers to the amount of space your website is allowed to take

up on the server.

Bandwidth / Transfer / Traffic

This refers to the resources your website uses when people visit your site. You can imagine a telephone line that has information passing across the line as people talk. Each time someone visits a page on your site, the data on that page gets passed to them, using a little bit of your bandwidth. If your website is mostly just text, each visitor will use very little bandwidth. If your website is full of videos, music, or large graphics, each visitor will use more bandwidth.

4. Getting Traffic to Your Website

You could invest tons of time, effort, and money into creating the most wonderful website you can imagine, but if no one is going to your website, it would all be a waste. That’s why you need to ensure you have a plan to get traffic to your website. There are companies out there that do nothing but offer services to help get more traffic to your website. These are called seo companies.

5. Updating or Maintaining Your Website

It doesn’t reflect well on your company to have out dated information representing you. Content Management Systems is the best if you would like to be able to update your website yourself. A website design company charges you every time you want to make any changes.

Professional website design checklist

1. Speed

A. The website must load fast. No one wait for a slow loading website.

2. Home page

A. The homepage must be attractive, has strong eye appeal.

B. You must easily tell where you are immediately (clear title, description, image captions, etc.)

C. There is an index, table of contents, or some other clear indicator of the contents of the site.

D. Information/method for contacting sponsor/provider is readily available.

E. Copyright date or date site was established is easy to determine.

3. Ease of navigation

A. a user is able to move around within the site with ease.

B. Directions are clear and easy to follow.

C. The links to other pages within the site are helpful and appropriate.

D. Internal and external links are working properly (no dead ends, no incorrect links, etc.)

4. Use of multimedia

A. Each graphic, audio file, video file, etc., serves a clear purpose.

B. The graphics, animations, sounds clips, etc., make a significant contribution to the site.

5. Browser compatibility

A. Site is equally effective across all browsers such as Mozilla, Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer etc.

6. Content Presentation

A. There is sufficient and useful information to make the site worth visiting.

B. The information is clearly labeled and organized.

C. The same basic format is used consistently throughout the site.

D. Information is easy to find (no more than three clicks away).

E. Lists of links are well organized and easy to use.

7. Currency

A. The date of last revision is clearly labeled. Date last revised ______________________

B. Out-dated material has been removed.

8.Availability of further information

A. A working link is provided to a contact person or address for further information.

B. Links to other useful Web sites are provided and are working.