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Getting Online - Designing your site

Page 5 of 6: Designing your site

So now you have your domain name, and we have it hosted. Next is the fun bit, as SoftForge take your ideas and turn them into a website.

Only you understand your vision completely, so PowerPoint presentations, drawings and designs on the backs of envelopes are all welcome and helpful means of getting your idea across to us.

We will need to scope the idea, i.e. to decide whether it will be, at one end of the scale, a small static site with content that seldom changes, or at the other end of the scale a larger complex of multiple pages that will need regular updating

Some examples of a static site –

  • an online curriculum vitae
  • a site marking a particular event
  • a pamphlet site promoting an idea or ideology
  • a basic business site showing your place of work, how to get there and a little about what you do

Alternatively, you might want modest regular updates, e.g. a change to the services you offer or a change to your personal information, but would like SoftForge to do them

Some examples of a static site that would require occasional updating –

  • a school, nursery or college.
  • a club, association or social organisation.
  • a high street shop offering services but not online sales.
  • a site for an accountant, musician or other independent professional

The third option is to be in total control, making changes and additions whenever you feel like it. This way you can tweak the content as much as you like, and grow your site organically as your business changes.

Any site could be managed this way, but here are some examples of the kind of site that benefits most from frequent updating by the client -

  • Businesses offering online sales
  • Recruitment consultants who frequently list new vacancies
  • Churches or other organisations holding regular events

For these a full content management system (CMS) would enable one person to be in charge of the quality of the content, but allow others to add and amend material, thus spreading the workload.

Building your site
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