Considerations for
Getting and Using Web Pages
(Brought to you by Rick Garlikov, specializing in informative, user-friendly  web pages that let you save money on your other advertising.)

Having a web page

To have a web page on the Internet, you need two different things: 
(1) the creation of the page itself, and 
(2) a hosting site on the Internet for your page -- that is, a place on the Internet where your page is found and viewed. 
Just having someone design a page for you does not place it on the Internet.  That is a separate aspect of having a web page, so when you inquire about having anyone design or create a web page for you, you also need to inquire about whether that cost also includes having it actually placed and "hosted" on the Internet.  The cost of your web page, therefore, involves the cost of the creation of it and the cost, if any, of having the page kept on the Internet.  Notice, hosting does not necessarily involve having your own domain name (see the next section about reasons for and against having a domain name); it is unnecessary to have a domain name just to have a web page or two that can be readily found on the Internet. 

Generally there is a fee for providing Internet web page hosting sites, but sometimes your own existing Internet Service Provider (the place where you have your e-mail accounts and that you dial up in order to surf the Internet) includes a hosting site for you in the package you are already paying for to have access to the Internet.  (Lately some Internet Service Providers are allegedly offering free Internet service; we don't know what exactly is provided or what the "catch" is -- perhaps involving accepting advertising or something of that sort.) 

The people who create your web page for you should also be able to place it on the Internet for you -- whether on a site they provide, or a site you already have.  Obviously, if you already are paying for a site to have a web page, you should normally put your web page on it, rather than paying for another site to have your web page hosted, unless there is some good reason to the contrary. 

Whether or Not To Have Your Own Domain Name

It is our view that unless you have some good reason to think people will look for you under your domain name, there is no point in going to the extra expenses of having a domain name, and of having a whole domain hosted instead of just a web page or a few web pages.  In other words, unless you are a household name, such as Kleenex or Goodyear or DisneyWorld, there is not much point in having your own domain just to host a few pages, other than for the ego thrill.  It costs money to get and keep a domain name ($70 for two years, as of this writing) and it usually costs more to have a domain hosted than to have a web page hosted.  But there is usually no advantage to having a domain name, unless you have a name everybody knows. Businesses with obscure domain names are not going to be found any more readily than businesses without their own domain names. When people click on a site they have found on a search engine, they don't even know, or need to know, the name of the web address (URL).  They simply click on the link that will take them to the content they are searching for, regardless of what the web site might be.  The only time anyone actually types in the address of an obscure company's site in order to go to it, is if they are reading it off some print advertising.  Your web site address then needs to be fairly easy to copy, but that does not require that it be your own domain name; it could just as easily be any short domain name with your name after the slash following that domain name.  E.g., we use the domain name akat.com; and if your company were Reynold's Rain Gear, you could have www.akat.com/Reynolds or www.akat.com/raingear or www.akat.com/ReynoldsRainGear.  That is not any significantly more difficult for someone to type than www.ReynoldsRainGear.com and it saves you money. 

Being Found On the Web

There are at least three ways to have your web page found: (1) people finding it on search engines when they look for the products or services your company sells, (2) people typing your web site address directly into the location bar of their browser, and (3) from a link on someone else's site who is willing to display a link to you.  There is an art to designing a web page so it is likely to show up on search engines.  Not everyone can be near the top of one or more search engines, even if they have a savvy web designer who is normally adept at getting pages found on search engines.  And search engines change their formulas for finding sites, sometimes requiring revisions to a page in order for that search engine to readily point you out to seekers. 

In short, one can not generally rely on being found on search engines by people looking only for the products or services you offer.  It also requires advertising your web site address in other forms -- e.g., in your Yellow Pages ad, on your business cards, on your stationery, in your e-mail signature, on any brochures or mail-outs. Or in swapping out links with other sites related to your business. 

Other, More Important, Uses of Your Web Page

Having a web page is useful, perhaps more useful, for purposes other than just having someone find you from a cold search.  Web pages are relatively economical ways to give potential customers far more information about you or something you are selling than you could usually give in a mail-out or a media ad.  Sending a compelling post card, or having a small Yellow Pages ad or newspaper ad, and having your web address on all your stationery and your e-mail, that directs people to your web site for more, or more specific, information is much more economical than purchasing large display ads or printing and mailing brochures that have all that information in them.  And the information on a web site can be updated readily as needed, without having to print new brochures or send out new mail. 

Moreover, your web page can save you much time breaking ground with new customers.  If you have the kind of information on your web page that potential clients are usually seeking in initial meetings or phone calls, and if you provide it on your site in ways that are easy to find and easy to read once someone is on your site, often first-time callers will only need a little bit of further information from you.  That can save you much time if you otherwise have to explain the same things over and over again to different customers. 

Having a web page, particularly a helpful web page, sometimes makes potential customers feel you are a more likely legitimate business or a more modern or client-friendly business than businesses that do not have a web site. 

Effective Web Pages

Effective business web pages are those which are easily found and which, once found, help you get business from them -- whether that means having the viewer contact you by e-mail, by phone, by visit, or whether it means having them purchase something over the Internet from you by use of an "online store or catalogue" you operate.

A web page that is easily found but that is not viewer-friendly, does not readily give the viewer information that s/he wants, that is annoying to try to use, that gives too much information in a way that is difficult to sift through, or that does not, for any reason, attract the viewer to want to contact you or buy from you even if you sell what they are seeking,  is not an effective web page.  The design and layout of webpages therefore is extremely important, particularly if you have a wealth of information you want to include, because the viewer only sees one screenful of information at any one time, and there is no reason for him or her to look for more if your page is not obviously user-friendly and compelling at every screen the viewer might be looking.

Web pages do not have any particular length in the way printed pages do.  The viewable screen is all the user sees at any one time, but the page itself can contain many, many viewable screens.  It is perhaps better to think of web files rather than web "pages" because there is nothing really necessarily equivalent to page breaks in web files.  With links, it does not even matter whether two screens are part of the same computer file or have the same web address or not.  The only difference between having material in the same file or in different files, in terms of what the user would see, is that material in the same file can be viewed by someone's scrolling or by using the links, whereas material that is in separate files will only be seen by the viewer's using links.  There are some instances where you want the viewer to be able to scroll or jump by links; there are other cases where links alone might be preferable.  There are also cases where you would want the viewer only to scroll, rather than having links to different material on the same file.

The beauty of links is that viewers can go quickly to those things they want to find, without having to wade through, or ever even see, material they do not care about.  So, if the layout is done correctly, a single site can be very useful and informative for different kinds of viewers with very different (kinds or amounts of) informational needs.

Graphics

While some value in graphics is merely a matter of personal taste, graphics can also be a real help or a hindrance, depending on whether they are a distraction or have some point in making the page more user-friendly and not just decoration. Graphics are definitely a mistake if they contain links that people cannot tell are there or if people have no way of knowing what they are links to.  By using only graphical rather than verbal or combination verbal/graphical links, one might actually be hiding information from viewers seeking it. 

Graphics are also a mistake, we believe, if they take too much time to load before the viewer can see verbal information he or she is seeking.  Searchers do not generally have the patience to wait for things they are looking for to appear on their screens.  As faster access Internet connections (such as DSL and cable modems) become more common, loading times for things to appear on the viewer's screen are less problematic, but still need to be a consideration.

Contact Rick Garlikov for the creation or display of your web pages.
(205) 835-0039
Birmingham, Alabama

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Reset June 21, 2000