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What do I need to create a website?
If you are not sure what you need, or what questions to ask, this should help.
If you want to have a website, you need three things to get you started. You need
a domain name (e.g. yourcompany.com), you need a website (the actual web pages that
people will see), and you need that domain and website hosted (this is essentially
hiring part of a computer to store your web pages to everyone can see them).
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Hosting and domain purchasing
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We offer a full domain purchasing and hosting service. If you are not sure what
domain you want, let us have a look to see what's available and then you can choose.
We can then set up an appropriate website hosting package for you or your business.
As part of the package, you can also see statistics about the visits to your website.
For example, what websites people were on before they came to yours, what pages
they looked at on your site, even things like what geographical location they were
in and what sort of web-browser they were using!
We offer a full website design and programming service.
The technologies used when creating websites can range from the very simple to the
very complex. For example, a simple website (also known as a 'static' website) with
text and pictures that has no user interaction will have very different technological
requirements to a website requiring users to log in, search a database for results,
display results in graphical formats and provide a more interactive and richer experience
for the user.
A website requiring data to be captured, or results from a search to be displayed,
or different text to be displayed based on a user's preferences is generally known
as a 'database-driven' website. A database is simply a method of storing information
on a computer that allows that information to be retrieved and updated quickly (think
of an Excel spreadsheet, and you're heading down the right road...).
At Streamline, we tailor the technology we use to meet your requirements. If you
don't need all the whistles and bells on your website (let's face it, sometimes
too many whistles and bells confuse people and force them to move on to your competitor's
website), we won't try & talk you into using them.
However, if you need a more interactive website that affords your customers greater
freedom to search for and interact with your products or services, we have the technology.
Using the latest technologies (such as Microsoft .NET, SQL Server, PHP, MySQL) we
can create a bespoke solution that will exactly match your requirements. If you
want to discuss the technologies we use and why we use them, just ask and we'll
explain exactly what we are doing. However, if you are happy have an overview and
would rather not have all the techno-speak, we'll protect you from it and give you
a plain English explanation.
Sometimes the functionality required in websites can be broken down into core modules.
Examples of these are:
- Logging in and then limiting the areas of the website visible depending on the user's
level of authority
- Searching for a product, person, place, service etc.
- Showing more detailed information about a particular product or service from the
search results
- Allowing your Customers to participate in an online questionnaire, be it about the
service you have given them, what they may want in future or a lifestyle-type questionnaire
- E-Commerce functionality (basket processing, online payments etc)
- Allowing you to take control of the content of your website (a Content Management
System, or CMS for short). Here, you could upload new text/pictures for your pages,
upload the latest products into your catalogue, change who is allowed to log in
and what they can see in your website - the possibilities are endless.
- Multi-language websites. If you have, or are hoping for, Customers from around the
world, you can make your website display it's text in any language you want. s
- Provide online reporting. You can view your company data online in a variety of
formats, for example in tables like Excel, or coloured bar graphs.
If your website performs some of your business functions, helps with your business
processes and stores some of your mission-critical business information, we like
to call it a web-based application. You've put a lot of work into it, and it's no
longer just a website to you or your company or perhaps even your customers. It
is a software application that happens to be on the web, hence the name.
The beauty of a website (and especially a web-based application) is that you don't
have to be sat at your desk in the office to access it. More and more people are
now enjoying working at home days. Just think, you could access your latest sales
figures, your latest customer orders, or the number of people who have completed
your customer questionnaire from the comfort of your home. And that doesn't just
apply to you. Your customers and clients can also use the web-based applications
whenever they want.
Obviously, data security is a key issue at the moment, and we are acutely aware
of people's concerns. To this end, we only use the most secure hosting and data
management centres. Again, we will only employ these measures when they are necessary.
If you have a simple static website that is only there to let people know you exist
and to encourage them to pick up the phone to you, you don't need an ultra-secure
website and database. However, if you are storing Customer details, sales details
or any other sensitive information, you will.
Google is part of our culture now. People want information, and they want it now,
and an awful lot of them are using the Google websites to find it. As well as providing
links to information, people use Google to find products and services. If you want
people to find you on the web, you need to be listed on Google. If you want to be
listed on Google, you need a professional to design your website so it gets 'noticed'
by Google. There are many, many things you can do to a website to ensure it is ranked
highly by Google (this whole concept is called Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO).
At Streamline, we stick to what we are good at. We are not experts in the field
or SEO, but we know people who are.
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