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Design Process

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Simple 13 point guide to our Design Process and Website Setup:

Consultation
Choice of Type of Site
Choose Hosting Option
Domain Name
Account and E-mail Setup
Design of Website
Upload of Unique Content
S.E.O.
Go Live
Final Approval and Adjustments
Important Articles to Read
Fill in the Application Form
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1. Consultation:

To initiate the entire website design process, first read this entire article, then fill out the application form:

Fill in the form as thoroughly as possible. After we have received the form we will contact you to setup a personal obligation free consultation. During the consultation we will discuss all the points in this article in detail.

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2. Choice of Web Site:

Start off by making a choice of the kind of website you will need. Choose the format your website design need to be: Here are some choices;

Static HTML Website: Choose a static html website if you simply want to display some text, images and other information on different pages, want a simple shopping cart and want to give your visitors a form to contact you directly from the website. Include a newsletter subscription form to send regular information to your subscribers. Simple navigation (menu) system and not too many features and components, also not recommended for a website with many pages, preferably ten or less, max fifteen pages. Choose this option if you want your webmaster to make all the changes to your site.

Content Management System: With a CMS website design you want all of the above and also want people to be able to interact on the site, such as add articles, comments and take part in discussions, upload images and articles. With CMS it is also possible for you to easily update existing information, add pages, images and articles yourself, without any designers knowledge. In other words you can manage most aspects of your website yourself.

Visitors to your website can communicate with others by means of Forums, Blogs, and even chat rooms, here.

It is simple to add new features and components to your website without having to rebuild and restructure the entire website and navigation system every time as with a static html site. The CMS also allows for quick members registration with automated handling of the registration process, giving the owner a safe, secure and restricted area that only registered members can access. Simple to apply different access and restriction levels to these parts of the website. As the name says, you can easily manage all the content of your website by placing the information in different sections and categories. Even ask your designer to add more advanced features and functions to your CMS, it is easily expandable!

Blog: One of the main aims of this form of website is to run a Blog. We can create a normal website look and feel, all of the features of the static and CMS can be setup in a Blog. Adding new applications and features are possible as well.

Custom Scripts: There are many useful scripts on the market, however good scripts are not free, we can purchase the scripts on your behalf and professionally install and set it up and re-design it for you to suite nor needs.

Flash Website: Although some flash sites are very entertaining, it is not a preference we have for a total website design for some obvious reasons:

These websites are generally very slow loading,

Flash is not always recognized and supported by the major search engines,

they cannot be viewed by visitors with slow internet connections,

not all computers have the required software installed to view these sites,

they take the visitors' attention away from the actual reason they are on your site in the first place.

A rotating banner or simple Java-script header image would be the most we recommend

Click on the links below to see a demo of each site-type.

Static; Old CMS; CMS, Blog, Custom Scripts

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3. Choose Hosting Account Option:

It is necessary to open a hosting account which includes a CPanel. It is complicated to explain what exactly a CPanel is but in short it is the Administrators Control Panel, from where all the files, folders and components, allocated to your account and websites, are stored and controlled through a secure login. We recommend two excellent Hosing Suppliers and also a third website hosting option.

FirstChoice:

Afrihost. A great choice starting at about R39 per month for their Gold Home Hosting Plan as we need a CPanel and MySQL databases to set-up most of the above websites. This is also an excellent and our number one choice for local hosting and .co.za registration, e-mail account setup and support. For South African website it is best to register a .co.za domain name for your website.

Second Choice:

Vodahost,

Unlimited everything, (unlimited- web space, e-mail addresses, databases, domains, sub-domains, web-mail, CGI, PHP, MySQL with Unlimited Databases). Also includes excellent CPanel, website builders, support and a free domain with registration.

Third Choice:

BloemSBN hosting: We host your Website for R 100 per month with your Own domain name, or bloemsbn.com sub-domain (no registration costs) and R50 per month.

Bloemsbn sub-domain looks like this, http://yoursite.bloemsbn.com or http://www.bloemsbn.com/yoursite

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4. Domain Name:

While creating your hosting account, you will also need to register your domain name. Decide on two or three possible options choices for your domain name.

First you will be asked to check your domain name for availability, (you can do it below). The hosting company will supply you with an online facility during the registration process to check availability and if available to register your domain name (normally takes 1 – 2 days for registration but may take up to 3 days). Usually one free domain is included in the hosting package deal or even a free domain name transfer if you already have a domain name. Domain names are paid in advance and is for a one year period, but you have the option to register for a longer period, three or five years. Costs per year range between R90 and R 200 per domain. A bloemsbn sub-domain is available immediately with no registration costs, just R 50 hosting per month).

Check your domain name availability below!

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5. Account and e-mail setup:

After opening your hosting account, we will set-up the account (basic configuration settings) and create your chosen e-mail addresses to start off with. This is where your choice of designer comes in. We will setup your account and create your e-mails for you and that starts our involvement in the entire process in creating your website. Steps two to four can easily be handled by the client. We will coach you through the process!

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6. Design of site:

We have two options with the design process:

We design a site from scratch, static HTML site, own unique colors, images layout

Use of a template: When using Joomla, Mambo and WordPress CMS we use pre-designed templates. We are able to personalize the color scheme, add your company logo or unique header-image/s, favicon and many more. There are many free templates available on the internet as well as paid templates. Paid templates range from about $10 - $89 and even more and are not always better than a free template or theme.

Choose Your template from our selection (Coming Soon -- not yet active)

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7. Upload Unique Content:

After we have setup your basic website, it is time to add text and images. The client must supply us with Text in the form of pre-written edited articles, information articles and or sales copies. Description of your business, products or venture, terms, pricelists, product lists etc. We will upload it to the site and connect it to the navigation structure and also make it accessible.

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8. SEO:

Search Engine Optimization is not a single process, and actually starts with the setup, as we need to setup the site correctly in order to handle certain functions of SEO later on in the design process. Adding keywords and page descriptions is only a very small part of SEO. We also submit your site to a number of search engines for a small fee, however full search engine submission costs a whole lot more. We will also coach you in some things you need to do to help get your site well-ranked and visible. Search engine rankings takes time as the search engine crawlers and 'spiders' first need to visit your site and then, after considering many aspect, your site will gradually start earning better rankings.

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9. Go Live:

When everything is done it is time to publish your website, to go live, if all goes well, this happens in about five to ten working days, obviously depending on the complexity of your website.

However CMS websites are built online and are live from the moment of setup.

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10. Approval & Final adjustments:

The moment your site is live, you may view your site on the internet. Time to scrutinize each and every aspect of the website, read all articles, check all the links, image titles, slideshows, headers, forums, blogs, footers, test forms and whatever other features your site might have. Once you have approved your website it is time to start the advertising process. (Advertising is Not included in the web-design package, however we will add a free advert listing to BloemSBN classifieds)