• Learn HTML programming and code your own website
  Many people also choose to learn HTML (hypertext markup language) and code their own website. By learning HTML, you will gain the most control over your site design. HTML is not a difficult programming language, but there will be a learning curve, which may or may not fit in with your website launch date.
• Purchase a software application/editor
  There are many WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) webpage editors on the market, such as Microsoft® FrontPage®. These editors typically have pre-built templates and themes that you can use to quickly create a website. The WYSIWYG functionality allows a non-programmer to develop a website through dialogue boxes, wizards, and drop and drag features. The software will contain help documentation and there are many online resources and books out there to help you in website design.
• Use web-based site creators (portals)
  There are services that allow you to create websites right through their browser so there is no software to buy or programming to learn. Many portals offer this service for free; however, because these publishers are advertiser supported, you should expect your visitors to be shown advertisements. In addition, because you create your site through the web on the service's remote servers, you will most likely not be able to take your site with you if you decide to change services. Depending on your web presence strategy, this option may or may not be desirable

• Hire a company that designs websites
  This option can give you a complete solution, and it doesn't have to be expensive! What is your time worth?
  
  Saving Web Site Development Costs - Other Issues you need to address before meeting with a web site builder.
   

• The more work that you do before outsourcing, the more money you will save.
• Research your competitors. Have a list of competitor websites you can give to your designer.
• Find website designs that you like. Be able to provide examples of websites whose look and feel or navigation your site will resemble.
• Collect all graphic assets. Make sure that you can provide any logos, fonts, pictures, etc. to your designer. Going back and forth to collect these assets will cause delays and frustration. It's probably best to have these graphic assets as digital files. If the designer has to scan or take digital photographs, your costs will likely rise.
• Complete a site map. Unless you want to pay your designer for consulting work, have your site map ready ahead of time. This means a map of your entire site laid out as a tree. Show which pages link to which page so that there is no confusion. Any changes to the site map may cause delays and a redesign.
• Plan for growth. It is best to anticipate growth. If you want to add new sections later, let your designer know of your plans so that, for example, there is ample space in the navigation to add more links. The worst situation is to have to redesign the entire site when you add new content. You can also include all the navigation links you see adding in the future; the designer creates the layout based on the total and you can take away pages that aren't ready for launch. You will then be prepared for future growth without having to contact your designer.

Other Issues To Consider
 

What kind of look and feel do you want?
A consistent look and feel is important for a website. Will it be corporate? Will it be fun? What kind of image will you portray?

Who is your audience?
What is the makeup of the audience that you are trying to reach with your store? Will this segment of Internet users find what they are looking for easily on your site? Will they connect with your website's look and feel? Will they connect with your website content?
 

Will your site work with or without special software plug-ins?
Certain technologies will require users to have special plug-ins installed in order for them to experience the site. Does this enhance the user experience or will you lose potential clients?

What level of interactivity do you require for your website?
For example, do you need form submission, a site search engine, a bulletin board, a guest book? Many of these enhancements to the website involve using cgi (common gateway interface) scripts. There are many free scripts out on the web, or you can program or modify scripts yourself, or hire a programmer to build a custom solution for your site. More recent webpage editors may allow you to add some interactivity without programming.

The above considerations will also help determine where you will host your store. For example, if you use FrontPage® to publish your website, then your hosting company must install FrontPage extensions on its web server. Is there a cost for this service? Does the host support FrontPage extensions?

Have you optimized your search engine positioning?
It was recently reported that 80% of web users find content through search engines. There are many things you can do on your site to help you get a higher position in search engines. We have developed a guide for search engine registration to help you. In addition, you should consider visiting each search engine for suggestions on gaining better positioning. To start with, brainstorm which keywords should be used for visitors to find you?

Are you going to submit to search engines yourself?

For best results it is currently recommended this should be done on a monthly basis. Does your web hosting company do this? Does your webmaster? Discuss these options with your web builder.

Do you have a website maintenance plan in place?
This is an often overlooked issue when websites are first created. A successful website will typically have changing content and the most up-to-date information. You should also consider the ease with which you can update your website. This will impact your cost of being online.

In addition to updating content, you may also wish to utilize an online website maintenance service to provide website diagnostics and repair. ontact Us for Free Consultation Appointment