Web Site Design
At the heart of all good web design are three fundamental elements; function, practicality and look.
It's all good and well to have a snappy or cute looking web site, but if visitors are unable to find their way around your site or if it doesn't deliver what they are looking for, they will simply look elsewhere. After all, there are plenty of competitors out there.
Firstly, what is it you are trying to achieve with your web site? To sell something, create awareness or perhaps enlist members? Web sites are not a one size fits all purchase and your site should be specifically designed around its purpose.
Consider who it is you are targeting? What's going to appeal to the audience you are trying to reach? What functions are going to attract and engage and what will turn your visitors away? Are visitors going to land on your site, take one look and move on to the next site without even having a look around? Your web site not only has to look good, it must be intuitive and provide what is expected by your visitors.
And what about being found on the internet? When you consider there are literally billions of web sites now in existence and the likelihood that you are going to be competing against thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands of competitors – how are your target audience ever going to find you?
Fortunately, you have Spiceweb to look after you. We'll take care of everything for you, from start to finish. And even more importantly, we won't abandon you after the job is done.....
Web Applications
Looking for a communication solution, perhaps a means of sharing data, information submission, electronic direct marketing? Why not take advantage of the World Wide Web? Spiceweb creates custom designed web applications that can be accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet.
Web applications are becoming increasingly popular due to the ubiquity of web browsers. Virtually every household and business in Australia has access to the internet these days. The ability to update and maintain web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity, as is the inherent support for cross-platform compatibility. Spiceweb can assist you with a variety of web applications including custom built databases, online retail sales (e-commerce), online auctions, electronic direct marketing solutions, interactive guides, forums, commerce applications and many other functions.
Web Applications offer end users many benefits, including:
* A compatible web browser is all that is needed; Browser applications typically require little or no disk space on the client;
* They require no upgrade procedure since all new features are implemented on the server and automatically delivered to the users;
* Web applications integrate easily into other server-side web procedures, such as email and searching;
Domain Registration, Web Hosting and Site Management
Where to start...?
DOMAIN REGISTRATION: First off, let's register your new Domain Name! Your choice of domain name is possibly more important that you may imagine and requires quite a deal of thought. With the internet as popular as it is, decent domain names are running out fast. Virtually all simple generic terms and single words were gobbled up years ago and you'd be incredibly lucky to find one nowadays. Your choice of domain name is important in that it should be;
Spiceweb will guide you through the domain name decision and take care of registering your .com.au domain for as little as $12.95 per year (a 2 x year minimum registration applies for .com.au domain names). Other domain extensions like .com, .net.au or org.au, etc are also available to register of course and the legal requirements and other considerations will be discussed before proceeding.
WEB HOSTING: Fortunately, gone are the days of expensive Australian web hosting. Healthy competition in the market means that quality business hosting on high-end web servers located in Australian Data Centres is now available from as little as around $10 per month. Even cheaper hosting is available on non-Australian based web servers but heading down this track will lead to slow load times, poor support (or no support) if needed and a time difference that causes many unforseen issues and it is not something we would recommend.
Where and how your web site/application is hosted is important and is a consideration you need to be aware of. Server specifications and allowances need to be carefully considered in advance. Spiceweb will consult with you all the way and take care of all of this for you. We will select a suitable web host based on your requirements and needs, rather than just based entirely on price or commission.
SITE MANAGEMENT: After we've built your fantastic new web site or web application, we won't just abandon you in the wilderness. We pride ourselves on an extremely high level of after sales support and ongoing assistance and site management. Considerations such as security updates, modifications, edits, renewals and backups are just of few matters that need to be taken into account. Many customers like to take a hands on approach and maintain their web assets themselves. Others prefer to leave it to the professionals. Either way, we will offer you guidance on best practices for managing your own site or alterrnatively we can manage the whole thing for you based on a very reasonable "fee for service" basis. These are all matters that would be disucssed in the inital consultation process.