Posts Tagged ‘web design’
In fact, web design is that kind of process which actually utilizes developed content that is provided to the surfers or the readers in the internet and also makes usage of many different web supporting programs. Besides, the internet has certainly evolved as one of the most popularly utilized mediums to obtain and search for important information.
Of course, this is the main reason why exactly web pages must be user friendly and also offer only high quality information. And thus this will not just allow individuals and businesses to really maintain a quite successful web presence, but will also assist them to earn clearly increased virtual revenues.
Well, some individuals may obviously find it quite hard to believe, but the truth is that before actually turning to your computer to really start to experiment with many different web programs to try to design web pages, your time must be invested in proper planning all the important aspects of any web page.
In addition, this certainly includes defining your target audience, main purpose of your own site, communication tools to be added and some other related issues, and web pages to be added. Besides, it is quite essential to be able to surely test the effectiveness and design of any website, making usage of your private server, before any person actually buys a domain.
And finally, there are many different free software websites that are available out there which certainly allow all of us to test any designed website. Moreover, in order to be quite successful at designing a proper website, you need to have the main knowledge of programming language. And thus when you are placing the developed content in your web pages, it is advisable to make sure that you really utilize those fonts and font sizes which are quite easily readable. You need to remember all that!
Currently the Internet technologies are very popular. The Internet network is not only a place to entertain but also a spot to earn money. Whatever the reason is, to be presented in the Internet one needs a site. And this is when web design company can appear helpful. Website design and structure are very significant issue that’s why it is better to use professional web designer. Moreover using the online network it is very easy to search for website design companies and compare everything to choose the best.
Well, do you actually know that knowing some important things about web design is certainly an essential piece of knowledge that any person can really make usage of? But this is definitely true! Besides, many different companies out there clearly prefer to hire experienced internet employees over those candidates who obviously have only a limited set of skills.
Of course, knowing how exactly to design your website can surely assist you in many various ways. And thus you can actually design a website for your own business, company and only for your personal usage. However, the main concept of web design may obviously seem to be quite difficult for some individuals. Moreover, you may possibly think that in order to really make any website, you need to go to that class which can clearly teach you how exactly to do it.
For sure, it is not necessary for you to do this, because there are many different websites out there which can definitely provide you with effective web design tutorials and tips just from the comfort of your own house. And thus you should not spend a big sum of money in enrolling to that class which will certainly take up your valuable time.
In addition, learning how exactly to design any website can be done quite simply during your free time. Besides, you can also learn some web design tips only by looking for them in the internet. This way, you will surely discover those tutorials which can actually assist you in making that kind of website which you personally want. In fact, it is quite accessible, fast and also affordable.
And finally, you can become an expert employee by really adding web design to your set of skills. Moreover, you can become a wise business owner by designing a website of your services and products. You should remember that!
Today the online technologies are very popular. The web network is not only a place to entertain but also a spot to earn money. In spite of the reason, to be presented in the Internet one needs a site. And this is when web design company can be of help. Site design and structure are very important issue that’s why it is better to use professional web designer. Besides using the online network it is very easy to find website design companies and compare everything to choose the best.
Do you know basic web design principles? Creating a website is not just putting up your content in a few minutes when you know nothing about overall look of the site. Never forget that first impression is very important and people usually judge the quality of your website by the first look at it. When you are making a new site, you should keep in mind some basic principles of a good web design.
First think about easy navigation because if your site has more than one page, it needs clear links that tell visitors where to click next to read and know more of your content. It is called usability and makes it easier for users to go from one page to another. If your navigation is hard for them, they will leave your site and go on to the next site where they can get the information they want.
Consistency is the next important principle and it can pertain to many things of your web design. For example, it can be about the color of your background as all the pages of your site should be of the same color scheme so that visitors know they are still viewing a part of your website. It can also refer to your logo placed on your header: do the same to the rest of your pages.
The fact is that most people are only scanning the text on the websites that is why your articles should not go beyond a thousand words each. Your copy should be as short as possible. Your visitors will only stop and read carefully if they found something interesting. A wise choice is using bullets to enumerate the key points in your article.
And you should never over complicate the features of your website because users like simplicity. Do not make your potential customers work harder to learn about your product. Do not use a mixture of color, keep it simple and silly.
Nowadays the Internet technologies have become very popular. The Internet network is not only a place to entertain but also a space to earn money. Whatever the reason is, to be presented in the Internet one needs a site. And this is when web design portland oregon company can be of help. Site design and structure are very significant issue that’s why it is better to use professional web design portland services. Besides using the Internet it is very easy to search for a web design seo portland oregon companies and compare everything to choose the best.
In any way, it wouldn’t be smart not to use this opportunity given to us by digital technologies. Google and other search engines, social networks and forums, blogs – all of them could assist to find information on the topic.
If you are going to do business online, you should learn web design. Setting up a website is one of the best ways to earn income online. Your website can promote your own product, or the products of some other companies that will pay you a commission if you refer customers. But often the necessity of designing an attractive site stops people from going forward and making money online.
One of the solutions is to hire a good web design professional and let them do the work instead of you. If you are going to sell a lot of different products and need a complex design and shopping cart, then it is a good idea to hire an expert to do the initial work for you.
But even if you want to hire professionals, it is better for you to learn the basics. Why? If you know nothing about HTML, you must pay a professional to make the changes to your website. And any website needs changes in the future. Never mind if you are going to do the work yourself or hire someone, it is still extremely important for you to understand basic web design.
First of all, you need some experience dealing with computers and common computer programs. Otherwise designing, developing and maintaining an online marketing process will be impossible for you. There are many basic computer courses and you can find a lot of information on this subject online. So, your first step to get a website online is to be a good PC user.
Once you clarify everything about computers, you can start learning web design. You should start researching HTML, CSS and Javascript. These are the three basic web design languages. You need a basic level of understanding of these three languages. You will be ready to try your hand at designing a website if you know something about image editing and how images enhance the site.
You should also consider one of the numerous website design programs to help you in your work. By the way, most of the design programs include website templates that you can modify and use for your own website.
Currently the online technologies have become very popular. The Internet network is not only a place to entertain but also a space to earn money. Whatever the reason is, to be presented in the Internet one needs a site. And it is the time when web design portland oregon company can be of help. Site design and structure are very significant issue that’s why it is better to use professional web design oregon services. Moreover using the Internet it is very easy to search for a web design seo portland oregon companies and compare everything to choose the best.
In any way, it wouldn’t be smart not to take advantage of this opportunity given to us by digital technologies. Google and other search engines, social networks and forums, blogs – all of them could help to find information on the topic.
In Advanced mode, the Remote Info category of the Dreamweaver Site Setup dialog allows you to supply details for accessing the remote web server. This will be used by Dreamweaver to connect to the server hosting the site so that files can be uploaded and downloaded.
For internet sites, Dreamweaver uses the file transfer protocol (FTP) standard to connect to the server. For intranets and sites being developed on a local server, the Local/Network option is used.
The FTP host is simply the host name or IP address of the FTP server associated with your domain. The name usually takes the form ftp.yoursite.com or www.yoursite.com. If in doubt, consult your internet service provider (ISP).
On a typical web server internet files need to be uploaded into a specific sub-directory if they are to be visible on the web. Check with you ISP to see whether files should be uploaded to the root directory or into a sub-directory.
You web hosting company will have allocated you user name and password. Usually all, you need to to do is to copy and paste from the email they sent you straight into the login and password boxes. Note that Dreamweaver activates the option to save the password. If you think this feature represents a security risk then click the checkbox to deactivate it. Once again, this information will be available from your ISP.
When copying files to and from a server, you may occasionally find that, because of the way FTP works, your firewall is continually attempting to interrupt FTP transfers causing constant delays. Activating the option Use passive FTP (a system whereby the FTP connection is initiated by the client rather than the server) may cure this problem.
Many companies use firewalls to block access to intranets and to control how their own workers access the Internet. If your company uses a firewall then you must enter the relevant information in Preferences. Once you have done so, the Use Firewall option will be automatically selected.
Adobe Dreamweaver’s useful Check-in/Out feature can be used when several team members are working in collaboration on the same site. When a team member is working on a particular file, Dreamweaver will place a check mark next to the file in the remote listing in site files view as well as the name and email of the person editing the file, so other users can email him or her. If you activate this option, you must enter your name and email in the appropriate boxes.
Becoming fluent in Adobe’s Dreamweaver CS4 is a good move for any IT specialist. Looking to master Dreamweaver? We offer Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 training courses in London and all over the UK.
A corporate website is more than the face of a corporation. It’s the market assessment of a firm. Remarkable Anchorage, Alaska Web designers turn your selling objectives into a gripping case for relationships on the Web.
Company website development not only requires a technologically skilled team of designers but also marketplace savvy group of pros who understand the business objectives and the strain of the market. A winning Internet design requires a conceptual intelligibility and a capability to visualize the solution inside the margin of explicit trade domains and their business activities.
Technological teams operating at talented Alaska Web designers are seasoned teams of professionals who can envision the foremost complex consumer needs and will interpret them into a unsophisticated and visual solution. Corporate websites help pronounce a new business’ appearance on the field.
The simplest Web designers with database skills deliver product that produces your company the head in its market segment while carving a niche for itself within the web world. Anchorage, Alaska Web designers strive to make the method simple yet broad and offer a way out which is perfect for your corporation.
The simplest Anchorage, Alaska Web designers labor for your establishment, therefore you’ll achieve something. This translates into a utterly unique and custom solution personalized to your organization and promoting requests.
In most Anchorage, Alaska Web designers’ file area, you will realize “true custom one of a form” design and development projects from not solely Alaska, however also from round the world. The majority Anchorage, Alaska Web designers’ commercial web site portfolio includes a number of the most important to the littlest company and small businesses with all forms of budgets.
A large number of Alaska Web designers and developers’ corporate design specialists style all projects from scratch and code all applications to custom fit the necessities of the commercial clients.
Great Alaska website designs are fashionable and contemporary that instantly appeals to business customers to retain their interest. A large number of Alaska Web designers are specialists in making and communicating a sturdy, clear and compelling brand. Corporate sites require options to specific meaning. The present business setting demands a site that is each deliberate as well as conversational.
The web site ought to function as a public relations portal for the company.
The following features are an basic part of the foremost Anchorage, Alaska Web designers’ corporate web site design.
Blog: Corporate blogs opens the doors for exchange with your budding associates and clientele.
Discussion Board/Chat Area: Web designers with database skills integrate discussion boards that offers 2-way communication for customers with support teams. Discussion topics and threads can be created by members and gives a way for customer support representatives to debate problems, provide support and answer several questions clientele might have concerning merchandise or services.
News & Articles: A content managed news center with content syndication (RSS) abilities.
Knowledge Base/Resource Center: Knowledge and resource center allowing dissemination of varied documents together with PDFs, Word documents, image files, and most alternative document types.
Web site Search: Allowing web site visitors to rapidly and simply find information they are trying for.
Events Calendar: Full control of an events calendar that permits web site directors to form and post events with produce custom event forms allowing site guests to enroll online.
If you want to make your business successful, it is important to have a web design that would market and promote your company to the world and help you build a relationship with your current and prospective customers. To create an effective web site you need a plan. You need to think about what exactly is the purpose of your site. Are you going to use it to dispense information to your prospects and customers and create awareness for your brand and products? Or is it an online store that you are considering to sell merchandise? If you have clarity about the purpose of the site, you are off to a good start!
Following are some of the key questions to get started with creating a plan for your web site.
* Who is your target customer? If they fall in several segments, do you want to create a site that is one size fit all or do you want to narrow your focus and cater to a smaller segment instead?
* What do your customers want from your business and the web site?
* What is the end goal of your business and the web site? How does that match up with what your competition is doing?
* Do you have a time line to create the website and make it operational?
* How are you going to promote your web site? Unless you go out and tell the world about it, you may not get much traffic to your site.
* What is the best way to use the web site to distribute information about your business?
* If you want to sell products on you web site do you have a plan for inventory management, shipping and for processing returns.
* Websites can be a great way to feel the pulse of the market and get feedback from your customers. Have you planned for that?
Fortunately, creating an extraordinary web site is not so difficult if you are prepared to let it evolve over a period of time rather than create one in your first attempt. First step is to develop a basic site plan that covers the most important features you want in your site. If you aspire to be the next eBay of the world, you have to start small and then build on your vision as you go by continuously learning and correcting any mistakes.
Building the best site is not enough. You must market it well to build awareness and tell the world about it. Think about the tools and strategies you will employ to generate traffic. Some of the common strategies are search engine marketing, search engine optimization and email marketing. You obviously do not have unlimited marketing budget. Consider the strategy that can get you the most bang for your buck.
Once the traffic starts to your site, it would be time to analyze it and see what is working and what is not. For example if users are not clicking further than the home page then you need to rethink the home page design. If they are placing products in the shopping cart but then abandoning it, you need to review the purchasing process. Regularly review the traffic reports, page views, bounce backs, and click through rates to improve the content and navigation of your site and to add new features.
Your website is a reflection of your business and the products and services you are providing to your customers. However, remember that Rome was not built in a day. Start small, let it evolve over a few months as you keep your eyes, ears open for feedback from your customers, and use it to refine and renew the site.
Before you hire a vendor, compare price quote from multiple website design companies.
If you want to be a successful web entrepreneur, you must learn to attract customers to your website on a regular basis. Design your website in such a way that it compels users to re-visit your site, and keep refreshing it weekly to ensure that each visit by your customers is meaningful and valuable. Outdated and irrelevant content can upset users and give them a reason not to return.
When creating and updating content on your website, remember to keep it simple. Do not overload your web pages with high bandwidth-consuming audio, video and animation features as that can considerably increase the time your web pages take to load. Delay irritates customers and discourages usage of your website. Here are a few effective methods for content creation and update.
Polls and surveys
Internet users look for instant gratification and interaction when they visit a web site. Polls and surveys is an excellent way to fulfill that desire and allow your customers to express their views and opinions. Ask them questions about the latest topics related to your website. For example, a fashion website design can ask customers to rate celebrity outfits on red carpets. To encourage greater participation in surveys, you can offer visitors small rewards like discounts and vouchers.
To include a poll or survey on your website ask your web-hosting provider for easy to use tools. Alternatively, look for a free website service that can generate the HTML code for you. For advanced surveys, hire a survey provider who will take care of setup and reporting at an affordable price. Keep your polls and surveys short for the greatest impact.
Blogs
Use blogs to connect with your customers on a more personal level, to highlight your expertise and enhance your visibility and credibility. A combination of interactivity, collaboration and community makes them excellent virtual marketing tools. A blog with its many links can be very useful in directing traffic to your website.
RSS (Simple Syndication) Feeds
RSS feeds allow you to instantly receive and publish pieces of text, making them great tools for innovative marketing and content building. Add RSS feed from blogs and news articles to regularly attract customers to your website. You can also use RSS feeds to notify subscribers about updates to the website content. To test RSS feeds download and install an RSS reader or look for an orange button on your favorite sites. Most browsers also have built-in tools for viewing and using RSS feeds.
Customer driven content
Another excellent way of creating and refreshing content is to ask your customers to write it. The excitement of seeing their names on a website will greatly encourage them to contribute content to your site. This also saves money that you would have spent on hiring professional writers.
Daily or Weekly tips
Providing a tip, daily or weekly, is an easy way of refreshing content, attracting customer attention and facilitating repeat visits to your website.
Relevant and fresh content is crucial for the success of your website. Use these web design tools to develop effective content and give your customers a compelling reason to visit your website repeatedly.
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The best way to attract customers to your business is to make them understand what sets you apart from the competition. Home page of your website is a great place to start by listing your company’s strengths and why you are better than your competitors. Back up your claims with evidence on rest of the website.
There are several things you can include in your web design to highlight your story and credibility.
Customer Testimonials
Testimonials are the best way of establishing your credibility and to tell the world that your products and services work as promised. Include testimonials from satisfied customers about how their lives were improved by your product or services. Personalize these messages with customer names, locations and photos. If you can get testimonials from known sources such as magazines and newspapers or industry leaders, you can have an even greater impact on potential customers. Remember to display the best testimonials on your home page and the rest on a separate testimonials page.
Testimonials have a considerably positive effect on visitors because they have been written by a third party and provide an unbiased view about your company and its products.
FAQ and ‘About Us’ Pages
On your FAQ Page, list the most frequently asked questions and answers. This page helps you save time and resources that would otherwise be spent on answering common queries on the phone or via email.
The purpose of an ‘About Us’ Page is to give your visitors an idea about you, your business, its goals, and the company staff. Add personalized messages and photos of yourself and your staff on this page to assure your customers that they are dealing with real people.
Full Contact Information
An important step in establishing your credibility and genuineness is to provide visitors with your full contact details, including phone number, fax, address and e-mail address. This information should be available in an easy-to-find place on your site. Even better, include your phone number and e-mail address on every page.
News and Announcements page
On this page, include press releases and news information about your business and industry. Displaying positive news from third party sources helps establish credibility. Show an abstract of the news and provide links to the source. Alternatively, you can seek permission from the media source to display these articles. Also get permission for displaying their logo, so that customers can easily identify the source of the story.
Newsletters
You can send out emails and e-newsletters to your current and prospective customers. Give a brief write up about the news and a link to see the full article.
Offline Publicity
In addition to promoting your business and website online, use offline advertising methods as well. For instance, get your local newspapers to publish an article about the coverage you got in national media.
Video
Online video is a great way to highlight your company’s strengths, conduct virtual tours, and demo products and services. If the videos are good, other sites may also agree to host them thus increasing your reach. To have the greatest impact, make sure the videos have a professional look and feel to them.
Use these website design tools to establish credibility, educate your customers about your business, and make a connection with them. Tell them an interesting and credible story, back it up with great products and services and they will start to spread the word about your business.
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Custom Database Software Development Hiring Critical Success Factors
Software Design And Development – To Proceed Or Not to Proceed
Sometime in the life of a successful company you may arrive at the crossroads of continuing forward with the manual processes you have perfected, or hiring a custom database software design company to write an application to automate these processes. The decision isn’t easy. You can see the clear benefits, but the costs can be significant or downright harrowing.
There are many potential benefits and cost savings to taking the leap, but your decision must consider all factors in order to avoid a project failure that can break the bank. Failure is usually not an option. A good roadmap to success is invaluable in making the right decision.
This post discusses many important factors in hiring a software development company to ultimately increase the chances of success and reduce your risk.
First Research Off-the-Shelf Applications
You should first consider that someone else has possibly already written this application. Research off-the-shelf (OTS) applications before undergoing the effort and cost of a custom software application.
Going the Custom Software Development Route
If you have tried OTS applications and they don’t fill your needs then you need to prepare for future discussions with software development companies.
Gather Requirements
Before you begin discussions with software development and database design companies you need to gather your requirements. This can be anything from a short but specific punch list of features to a document with all details of software features, reports and algorithms that you require.
There are many books on software design requirements so we won’t go into it in any detail here. It is, however, worth noting that you can’t get quality costs and schedules if you don’t have adequate project details.
Here is a minimal list of items to gather:
Features listed in a simple punch list
User groups and permissions descriptions
Reports – the number of reports needed and ideally examples in hard or electronic copy
Once you have this information you’ll be prepared to talk to software developers.
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
Before you discuss your proprietary information with anyone you should have them sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). This legal agreement assures you that the information you divulge in your discussions with the software companies is proprietary and protected, and if they release it to anyone else then you have legal recourse.
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Once you have a your requirements finalized, prepare an RFP that can be presented to contractors. Create a list of recipients for your Request for Proposal and provide the companies a reasonable timeframe to complete their proposals.
Don’t consider any company that won’t promise required costs and schedules. If you don’t find an acceptable company to design and build your custom software system then review the requirements and RFP, create a new list of developer companies and re-issue the RFP.
Selection Factors
Below is a discussion on the factors that you need to consider when making a hiring decision.
Years of Experience in Software Development – there are a lot of fakes
Who Will Do The Work – make sure key personnel will remain involved throughout the life of the project
What Technologies Do They Propose – use the interviews to learn about the technologies and make an intelligent decision
Designer/Architect vs. a Programmer/Developer – compare apples to apples – architects are different than developers
Risk Management – what is their plan?
References – get at least 3 from similar projects
Cost not always the first priority
Schedule – will they meet your required delivery schedule?
Prioritized Selection Criteria
If you just select the lowest bidder you can be making a huge mistake. You need to weight each of categories below based on your company’s priorities, score each company for each of the categories then select the development company based on their total score. The category list is below with the typical priorities first:
Your opinion of the company’s probability of completing the project on schedule and under budget
References feedback
Their technical expertise in the selected technologies
Their developer and management experience in the selected technologies
Demonstrated management processes like source code control, quality assurance, cost control, offsite backups, etc.
Credit rating and general financial stability
Their past performance on previous projects similar to your project
Quality and organization of their proposal
Cost
schedule
Availability of resources
Overall responsiveness and their general project interest
Results of resume review and interviews
Agreements
Once you have selected a company you start the engagement process. The following items protect your company and it’s assets. We strongly recommend that you hire an attorney in your own city and state that specializes in your particular type of business and one that is familiar with software companies and agreements.
NDA Agreement
As mentioned above, before you provide proprietary information to a software development company you should have them sign an NDA to protect your company’s assets and Intellectual Property (IP).
Non-Compete Agreement
When you engage the company to create your custom software application you should have them sign a Non-Compete agreement. This ensures that they can’t take the information you have provided to them and use it in a competitive environment against them.
Custom Software Development Agreement
This is the contract to do work. This agreement is the most important of all as it lays out the specifics of your relationship with the software development company. It should contain both parties’ expectations like:
Payment rates and terms
Who pays what expenses
Licensing information
Any expected warranty’s
Termination terms
Statement of work. The statement of work should be specific and ideally in terms of milestones so you pay as you see progress. Make sure that the statement of work is detailed enough to ensure you get all features you need for project success. Items omitted from the statement of work can be costly if they are added in later phases of the project
Changes to the Software Features
The cost of software changes goes up as the project progresses. If new features are added during the brainstorming phase then the cost may be negligible. If they are added after the requirements are complete then you may have to spend the time reviewing the requirements again to make sure change doesn’t affect them.
The thought to take away from this is that once you sign a contract you’re committed to exactly what you signed off on. Changes can be costly so make sure your statement of work is complete and accurate.
Engineering Change Order
If you do make changes after the process of specification or construction have begun then use a change order form that allows the requester to detail their request and have managers in both organizations sign off on it.
Once the software development company receives it they will put cost and schedule numbers to it. When both parties sign the document it becomes a legal document and an addendum to the main contract.
Web-Based Application Considerations
There are many considerations over and above those of a desktop system if your software will be deployed on the Internet. The largest of these is security. If the data in the system is mission critical then you must protect it. If the information in the database contains credit card or personally identifiable information then you must take even more precautions.
There are laws that govern efforts of Internet-based web design companies like HIPPA and Sarbanes Oxley. There are also standards put in place by industries like the PCI-DSS standard created by the credit card industry to ensure safe and secure eCommerce transactions. A discussion of these topics is beyond the scope of this paper, but if you are going to have sensitive or critical data and information on the Internet then you should investigate the potential laws and risks of having it online – and your developer should point them out.
Internet Application Security
This is a huge topic that is beyond the scope of this paper. Having said that, below are several factors that have to be in order when you create an online application.
Hosting
Self Hosting
If you host a web application yourself then you must concern yourself with all security issues of maintaining a safe network, application and database. You’ll need to continuously scan the server and network for vulnerabilities and keep all applications on it up to date with their security patches. If you are not prepared and capable of doing this then you should not host the application yourself.
Using a Hosting Company
Hosting companies are many times a very cost-effective way to get your web application online and ensure all security issues are covered.
Server Security
The server that hosts your application must have up-to-date security patches for the operating system, the databases and all applications installed on it. If this is not done regularly then you’ll be vulnerable to all of the miscreants that scan the Internet for weak and vulnerable websites that can be used as zombies to send their own messages of peril.
AntiVirus and AntiSpyware
Solid antivirus and antispyware applications must be run on the servers and their databases kept up to date.
Web Servers and Application Development Tools
The web server is a software application that serves the web pages to the browser. You need to patch the web server and all application development tools on the server.
Database SQL Injection
If the application doesn’t specifically write code that prevents Internet users from injecting database commands into the application that can change or delete data in the database them the system will be vulnerable to this type of attack. Needless to say, this can be disastrous.
Cross-Site Scripting
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a vulnerability where malicious code is injected into web pages which are then used in browser exploits and phishing attacks. This must be considered and thwarted in all web applications as it accounts for (currently) 80% of all website security breaches.
Secure Protocols
Secure protocols ensure that the data entered by you in your browser is encrypted between your computer and the web server that is hosting the application. This stops people from reading important login, financial or private information as it progresses through the Internet.
Technologies
There are many technologies and languages that play into an Internet application. If you want your application to be rendered consistently by web browsers and indexed by the search engines then you have to write the code so that it is error free and compliant with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards, as they are the organization that defines the languages themselves.
HTML, XML and XHTML – we recommend using error-free XHTML 1.0 Strict
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) – use CSS to control your websites look and feel
Server-side Languages – for database interaction. There are many languages to choose from. The most popular are PHP, ASP.NET.
Content Management System (CMS) – allows you to manage your website content yourself instead of paying a developer.
Marketing
There are multiple ways to market your website.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of structuring your site and it’s contents so that it will be found at the top of the search engine results pages (SERP’s) for your selected keywords.
Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is the process of promoting your website after you have SEO-optimized it.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing – get quick traffic and sales to your website
Professional Branding – present a professional front to the world if you are serious about business
Benefit-Oriented and Persuasive Copywriting – your site visitors are looking to solve their problem, not read about you. Be sure your content focuses on this.
Calls to Action, Conversion Funnels and Landing Pages – guide your visitor to the logical endpoint – a conversion
Code Structure and Integrity – make sure your code is clean and error-free for consistent cross-browser rendering and fast page loads.
Conclusion
If you consider the topics listed in this paper you’ll reduce the risk involved in hiring custom software development companies. If you don’t then you may place your company at a significant risk or incur inordinate costs. It is simply a matter of being prepared. If you start the process of talking to software development companies armed with this knowledge then you’ll be better prepared to ask the right questions.