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Web Design - part 2 of 1 2

Published 01/10/2002

What Happens Next?

Some people believe that once the web site is up and running the phone is never going to stop ringing! This is NOT so. For starters people have to know you are there. At the beginning of the web site "index" page you let the world know what you do by means of meta tags. These tell the search engines that are used to look around the web what the content of the web site is about. Obviously if you are a wedding photographer you would make "wedding photographer" one of your tags. You might usefully mention where you operate so you don't get besieged by requests to pop round to Alaska to do a wedding next week (although you might go if they paid!).

The sad fact is that the phone does not automatically start to ring after you launch your site. You might consider the launch as a reason to mail shot your clients or invite them to an opening though. In addition if a prospect phones you and asks to look at your portfolio you might point them to your web site as a first port of call. This is why your site has to be good. If it is poor, slow or un-professional that will reflect upon you and the second call may never come. Today many people plan their weddings without moving away from their computers so web presence can be a significant bonus.

What does it cost?

You need a domain name (e.g. www.mousepushers.com) by which you can be identified. These cost about £20 for a .com, a little less for a .co.uk. With your domain name registration you are usually provided with a number of email addresses and a certain amount of space on the host computer to put your web site. This enables anybody in the world with internet access to email you or go and look at your web site.

Hosting costs about £20 per year although you can get free web space. Like everything else in the world there is no such thing as a free lunch; if you pay for your hosting you get better, faster service and don't have horrible little adverts popping up in front of your prospective clients to annoy them!

And the Images?

You pay for your space on the host computer or you have a very limited amount (sometimes both). You do not, therefore, plonk any old image on your web site. It has to be sized carefully and compressed. This also means that the viewer spends less time waiting to see your site; they tend to go away very quickly if you keep them waiting more than a few seconds. The subject of optimising web images is a subject that needs several pages to itself so we will leave it there for the time being.

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1st Published 01/10/2002
last update 09/12/2022 15:00:12

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