Definition

Web site
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This definition is also listed under presence, site and Website.

A Web site is a related collection of World Wide Web (WWW) files that includes a beginning
file called a home page. A company or an individual tells you how to get to their Web site by
giving you the address of their home page. From the home page, you can get to all the other
pages on their site. For example, the Web site for IBM has the home page address of
http://www.ibm.com. (The home page address actually includes a specific file name like
index.html but, as in IBM's case, when a standard default name is set up, users don't have to enter
the file name.) IBM's home page address leads to thousands of pages. (But a Web site can also be
just a few pages.)

Since site implies a geographic place, a Web site can be confused with a Web server. A server is
a computer that holds the files for one or more sites. A very large Web site may be spread over a
number of servers in different geographic locations. IBM is a good example; its Web site
consists of thousands of files spread out over many servers in world-wide locations. But a more
typical example is probably the site you are looking at, whatis.com. We reside on a commercial
space provider's server with a number of other sites that have nothing to do with Internet
glossaries

A website[1] is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, typically

identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server. A website
may be accessible via a public Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as the Internet, or a private
local area network (LAN), by referencing a uniform resource locator (URL) that identifies the
site.

Websites can have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a website can be a
personal website, a commercial website for a company, a government website or a non-profit
organization website. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, ranging
from entertainment and social networking to providing news and education. All publicly
accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web, while private websites, such as
a company's website for its employees, are typically a part of an intranet.

Web pages, which are the building blocks of websites, are documents, typically composed in
plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML,
XHTML). They may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors.
Web pages are accessed and transported with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which
may optionally employ encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for
the user. The user's application, often a web browser, renders the page content according to its
HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal.

Hyperlinking between web pages conveys to the reader the site structure and guides the
navigation of the site, which often starts with a home page containing a directory of the site web
content. Some websites require user registration or subscription to access content. Examples of
subscription websites include many business sites, news websites, academic journal websites,
gaming websites, file-sharing websites, message boards, web-based email, social networking
websites, websites providing real-time stock market data, as well as sites providing various other
services. As of 2017, end users can access websites on a range of devices, including desktop and
laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones and smart TVs.

Contents
 1 History
 2 Overview
 3 Static website
 4 Dynamic website
 5 Multimedia and interactive content
 6 Spelling
 7 Types
 8 See also
 9 References
 10 External links

History
Main article: History of the World Wide Web
NASA.gov homepage as it appeared in April 2015

The World Wide Web (WWW) was created in 1990 by the British CERN physicist Tim Berners-
Lee.[2] On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to use for
anyone.[3] Before the introduction of HTML and HTTP, other protocols such as File Transfer
Protocol and the gopher protocol were used to retrieve individual files from a server. These
protocols offer a simple directory structure which the user navigates and chooses files to
download. Documents were most often presented as plain text files without formatting, or were
encoded in word processor formats.

Overview
Websites have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a website can be a personal
website, a commercial website, a government website or a non-profit organization website.
Websites can be the work of an individual, a business or other organization, and are typically
dedicated to a particular topic or purpose. Any website can contain a hyperlink to any other
website, so the distinction between individual sites, as perceived by the user, can be blurred.
Websites are written in, or converted to, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and are
accessed using a software interface classified as a user agent. Web pages can be viewed or
otherwise accessed from a range of computer-based and Internet-enabled devices of various
sizes, including desktop computers, laptops, tablet computers and smartphones. A website is
hosted on a computer system known as a web server, also called an HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer
Protocol) server. These terms can also refer to the software that runs on these systems which
retrieves and delivers the web pages in response to requests from the website's users. Apache is
the most commonly used web server software (according to Netcraft statistics) and Microsoft's
IIS is also commonly used. Some alternatives, such as Nginx, Lighttpd, Hiawatha or Cherokee,
are fully functional and lightweight.

Static website
Main article: Static web page

A static website is one that has web pages stored on the server in the format that is sent to a
client web browser. It is primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML); Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS) are used to control appearance beyond basic HTML. Images are commonly
used to effect the desired appearance and as part of the main content. Audio or video might also
be considered "static" content if it plays automatically or is generally non-interactive. This type
of website usually displays the same information to all visitors. Similar to handing out a printed
brochure to customers or clients, a static website will generally provide consistent, standard
information for an extended period of time. Although the website owner may make updates
periodically, it is a manual process to edit the text, photos and other content and may require
basic website design skills and software. Simple forms or marketing examples of websites, such
as classic website, a five-page website or a brochure website are often static websites, because
they present pre-defined, static information to the user. This may include information about a
company and its products and services through text, photos, animations, audio/video, and
navigation menus.

Static websites can be edited using four broad categories of software:

 Text editors, such as Notepad or TextEdit, where content and HTML markup are
manipulated directly within the editor program
 WYSIWYG offline editors, such as Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dreamweaver
(previously Macromedia Dreamweaver), with which the site is edited using a GUI and
the final HTML markup is generated automatically by the editor software
 WYSIWYG online editors which create media rich online presentation like web pages,
widgets, intro, blogs, and other documents.
 Template-based editors such as iWeb allow users to create and upload web pages to a
web server without detailed HTML knowledge, as they pick a suitable template from a
palette and add pictures and text to it in a desktop publishing fashion without direct
manipulation of HTML code.

Static websites may still use server side includes (SSI) as an editing convenience, such as sharing
a common menu bar across many pages. As the site's behaviour to the reader is still static, this is
not considered a dynamic site.

Dynamic website

A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and automatically. Server-
side dynamic pages are generated "on the fly" by computer code that produces the HTML (CSS
are responsible for appearance and thus, are static files). There are a wide range of software
systems, such as CGI, Java Servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP), Active Server Pages and
ColdFusion (CFML) that are available to generate dynamic web systems and dynamic sites.
Various web application frameworks and web template systems are available for general-use
programming languages like Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby to make it faster and easier to create
complex dynamic websites.

A site can display the current state of a dialogue between users, monitor a changing situation, or
provide information in some way personalized to the requirements of the individual user. For
example, when the front page of a news site is requested, the code running on the web server
might combine stored HTML fragments with news stories retrieved from a database or another
website via RSS to produce a page that includes the latest information. Dynamic sites can be
interactive by using HTML forms, storing and reading back browser cookies, or by creating a
series of pages that reflect the previous history of clicks. Another example of dynamic content is
when a retail website with a database of media products allows a user to input a search request,
e.g. for the keyword Beatles. In response, the content of the web page will spontaneously change
the way it looked before, and will then display a list of Beatles products like CDs, DVDs and
books. Dynamic HTML uses JavaScript code to instruct the web browser how to interactively
modify the page contents. One way to simulate a certain type of dynamic website while avoiding
the performance loss of initiating the dynamic engine on a per-user or per-connection basis, is to
periodically automatically regenerate a large series of static pages.

Multimedia and interactive content

Early websites had only text, and soon after, images. Web browser plug ins were then used to
add audio, video, and interactivity (such as for a rich Internet application that mirrors the
complexity of a desktop application like a word processor). Examples of such plug-ins are
Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, and applets written in Java. HTML 5
includes provisions for audio and video without plugins. JavaScript is also built into most
modern web browsers, and allows for website creators to send code to the web browser that
instructs it how to interactively modify page content and communicate with the web server if
needed. The browser's internal representation of the content is known as the Document Object
Model (DOM) and the technique is known as Dynamic HTML. A 2010-era trend in websites
called "responsive design" has given the best of viewing experience as it provides with a device
based layout for users. These websites change their layout according to the device or mobile
platform thus giving a rich user experience.[4]

Spelling
While "web site" was the original spelling (sometimes capitalized "Web site", since "Web" is a
proper noun when referring to the World Wide Web), this variant has become rarely used, and
"website" has become the standard spelling. All major style guides, such as The Chicago Manual
of Style[5] and the AP Stylebook,[6] have reflected this change.

Types
Websites can be divided into two broad categories—static and interactive. Interactive sites are
part of the Web 2.0 community of sites, and allow for interactivity between the site owner and
site visitors or users. Static sites serve or capture information but do not allow engagement with
the audience or users directly. Some websites are informational or produced by enthusiasts or for
personal use or entertainment. Many websites do aim to make money, using one or more
business models, including:

 Posting interesting content and selling contextual advertising either through direct sales
or through an advertising network.
 E-commerce: products or services are purchased directly through the website
 Advertising products or services available at a brick and mortar business
 Freemium: basic content is available for free but premium content requires a payment
(e.g., WordPress website, it is an open source platform to build a blog or website.)

There are many varieties of websites, each specializing in a particular type of content or use, and
they may be arbitrarily classified in any number of ways. A few such classifications might
include:

Click "show" or "hide" to toggle this table

Type of Website Description Examples

A site, typically few in pages, whose purpose is to sell a third
Affiliate party's product. The seller receives a commission for facilitating
the sale.
Enabled portal that renders not only its custom CMS but also
Commission Junction,
syndicated content from other content providers for an agreed
Affiliate agency advertisers like eBay, or
fee. There are usually three relationship tiers (see Affiliate
a consumer like Yahoo!.
Agencies).
Used to preserve valuable electronic content threatened with
extinction. Two examples are: Internet Archive, which since
Internet Archive, Google
Archive site 1996 has preserved billions of old (and new) web pages; and
Groups
Google Groups, which in early 2005 was archiving over
845,000,000 messages posted to Usenet news/discussion groups.
A site created specifically to attack visitors' computers on their
first visit to a website by downloading a file (usually a trojan
Attack site
horse). These websites rely on unsuspecting users with poor
anti-virus protection in their computers.
Sites generally used to post online diaries which may include
discussion forums (e.g., Blogger, Xanga). Many bloggers use
blogs like an editorial section of a newspaper to express their
Blog (web log) ideas on anything ranging from politics to religion to video WordPress
games to parenting, along with anything in between. Some
bloggers are professional bloggers and they are paid to blog
about a certain subject, and they are usually found on news sites.
A site with the purpose of creating an experience of a brand
Brand-building online. These sites usually do not sell anything, but focus on
site building the brand. Brand building sites are most common for
low-value, high-volume fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).
A website the information in which revolves around a celebrity
or public figure. These sites can be official (endorsed by the
Celebrity website jimcarrey.com
celebrity) or fan-made (run by a fan or fans of the celebrity
without implicit endorsement).
Crowdfunding Platform to fund projects by the pre-purchase of products or by
Kickstarter
website asking audience members to make a donation.
A website that allows the visitor to donate to charity simply by
Click-to-donate clicking on a button or answering a question correctly. An The Hunger Site,
site advertiser usually donates to the charity for each correct answer Freerice
generated.
A site where persons with similar interests communicate with Myspace, Facebook,
Community site
each other, usually by chat or message boards. orkut, VK
A site the business of which is the creation and distribution of wikiHow.com,
Content site
original content About.com
Classified ads site A site publishing classified advertisements gumtree.com, Craigslist
Used to provide background information about a business,
Corporate website
organization, or service.
A site where users can find other single people looking for long-
term relationships, dating, short encounters or friendship. Many
Dating website of them are pay per services, but there are many free or partially eHarmony, Match.com
free dating sites. Most dating sites in the 2010s have the
functionality of social networking websites.
Electronic
A site offering goods and services for online sale and enabling
commerce (e- Amazon.com
online transactions for such sales.
commerce) site
A site publishing fake news stories, intending to deceive visitors
Fake news website
and profit from advertising.
A site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted
Forum website SkyscraperCity, 4chan
messages.
A website designed specifically for use as a gallery; these may
Gallery website be an art gallery or photo gallery and of commercial or non-
commercial nature.
A website made by the local, state, department or national
Government site government of a country. Usually these sites also operate
websites that are intended to inform tourists or support tourism.
A site devoted to the criticism of a person, place, corporation,
Gripe site
government, or institution.
Gaming website
A site that lets users play online games such as gambling.
Gambling website
Humor site Satirizes, parodies or amuses the audience. The Onion
Most government,
educational and
Most websites fit in this category to some extent. They do not
Information site nonprofit institutions
necessarily have commercial purposes.
have an informational
site.
Media-sharing A site that enables users to upload and view media such as
YouTube, DeviantArt
site pictures, music, and videos
A website that is the replication of another website. This type of
website is used as a response to spikes in user visitors. Mirror
Mirror website sites are most commonly used to provide multiple sources of the
same information, and are of particular value as a way of
providing reliable access to large downloads.
 A short and simple form of blogging. Microblogs are limited to
Microblog site certain numbers of characters and works similar to a status Twitter
update on Facebook.
Similar to an information site, but dedicated to dispensing news,
News site cnn.com
politics, and commentary.
Websites about an individual or a small group (such as a family)
that contains information or any content that the individual
Personal website wishes to include. Such a personal website is different from a
celebrity website, which can be very expensive and run by a
publicist or agency.
A website created to fraudulently acquire sensitive information,
such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a
Phishing site trustworthy person or business (such as Social Security
Administration, PayPal, a bank) in an electronic communication
(see Phishing).
A website created to share digital photos with the online
Photo sharing site Flickr, Instagram, Imgur
community. (see Photo sharing).
p2p/Torrents Websites that index torrent files. This type of website is different Mininova, The Pirate
website from a Bit torrent client which is usually a stand-alone software. Bay, IsoHunt
A site on which people may voice political views, provide
Political site political humor, campaign for elections, or provide information
about a certain candidate, political party or ideology.
Quora, Yahoo! Answers,
Question and
Answer site is a site where people can ask questions & get Stack Exchange Network
Answer (Q&A)
answers. (including Stack
site
Overflow)
A site in which people may advertise a place of worship, or
Religious site provide inspiration or seek to encourage the faith of a follower
of that religion.
Review site A site on which people can post reviews for products or services. Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes
a site on which teachers, students, or administrators can post
information about current events at or involving their school.
School site
U.S. elementary-high school websites generally use k12 in the
URL
a site which largely duplicates the content of another site without
permission, without actually pretending to be that site, in order
Scraper site
to capture some of that site's traffic (especially from search
engines) and profit from advertising revenue or in other ways.
A website that indexes material on the Internet or an intranet Google Search, Bing,
Search engine site (and lately on traditional media such as books and newspapers) GoodSearch,
and provides links to information as a response to a query. DuckDuckGo, Ecosia
Includes images or other material that is intended to be offensive
Shock site Goatse.cx, rotten.com
to most viewers
Web portals used by individuals and organisations to showcase
Showcase site
things of interest or value
Social A site where users share other content from the Internet and rate
StumbleUpon, Digg
bookmarking site and comment on the content.
A site where users could communicate with one another and
Social networking
share media, such as pictures, videos, music, blogs, etc. with Facebook, Google+
site
other users. These may include games and web applications.
 A social news website features user-posted stories that are
ranked based on popularity. Users can comment on these posts,
and these comments may also be ranked. Since their emergence
Social news with the birth of web 2.0, these sites are used to link many types Reddit, Digg, SlashDot
of information including news, humor, support, and discussion.
Social news sites allegedly facilitate democratic participation on
the web.
A site designed to host or link to materials such as music,
Warez
movies and software for the user to download.
An online comic, ranging in various styles and genres unique to Penny Arcade, xkcd,
Webcomic
the World Wide Web. Gunnerkrigg Court
Webmail A site that provides a webmail service. Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!
A site that provides a starting point or a gateway to other msn.com, msnbc.com,
Web portal
resources on the Internet or an intranet. Yahoo!
Wikipedia, wikiHow,
Wiki site A site in which users collaboratively edit its content.
Wikia

Some websites may be included in one or more of these categories. For example, a business
website may promote the business's products, but may also host informative documents, such as
white papers. There are also numerous sub-categories to the ones listed above. For example, a
porn site is a specific type of e-commerce site or business site (that is, it is trying to sell
memberships for access to its site) or have social networking capabilities. A fansite may be a
dedication from the owner to a particular celebrity. Websites are constrained by architectural
limits (e.g., the computing power dedicated to the website). Very large websites, such as
Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google employ many servers and load balancing equipment
such as Cisco Content Services Switches to distribute visitor loads over multiple computers at
multiple locations. As of early 2011, Facebook utilized 9 data centers with approximately 63,000
servers.

In February 2009, Netcraft, an Internet monitoring[disambiguation needed] company that has tracked Web
growth since 1995, reported that there were 215,675,903 websites with domain names and
content on them in 2009, compared to just 19,732 websites in August 1995.[7] After reaching 1
billion websites in September 2014, a milestone confirmed by NetCraft in its October 2014 Web
Server Survey and that Internet Live Stats was the first to announce—as attested by this tweet
from the inventor of the World Wide Web himself, Tim Berners-Lee—the number of websites in
the world has subsequently declined, reverting to a level below 1 billion. This is due to the
monthly fluctuations in the count of inactive websites. The number of websites again grew to
over 1 billion in March 2016, and has continued growing since.[8]

1.

What are the Various Types of Websites?

Originally, websites were purely informational. Before the web was opened to the public,
educational and research institutions and goverment agencies were able to make information
available to each other via text-only websites. Now that we have the World Wide Web, there are
more types of websites than you can shake a stick at. Here we will discuss the basic types, noting
that we will not include all and that there are hybrids of all those we will discuss.

Basic Website Types

    1. Personal Websites
    2. Photo Sharing Websites The first three have very little to do with Small Business,
    3. Writers / Authors Websites so we will speed through them. Numbers three, four, and
    4. Community Building Websites five can be very helpful to small businesses. The last
    5. Mobile Device Websites three are essential to small business.
    6. Blogs
    7. Informational Websites
    8. Online Business
Brochure/Catalog  
    9. Directory Websites
  10. E-commerce Websites 1. Personal Websites
Your Internet Service Provider or Domain Registrar may offer you free server space for you to
create your own website that might include some family photos and an online diary. Usually
these will have a web address (URL) looking something like this: www.your-isp.com/~your-
user-name/. This type of site is useful for a family, teenagers, grandparents, etc. to stay in touch
with each other. This type is not advisable for a small business because the URL is not search
engine friendly and the limited server capabilities your hosting company offer may not be
sophisticated enough for a small business website.
 

2. Photo Sharing Websites

These types of website are cropping up like fleas on dog. There are web sites like, Flickr.com,
Photosite.com, and Google's Picasa. There could easily be over a hundred such sites that offer
free photo sharing paid for by their online advertising. Also, many digital cameras and photo
printers now come with software enabling mere mortals to create digital photo slide shows and
upload them to the web. Most smart phones have apps to accomplish the same ends.
 

3. Writers / Authors Websites

Writer's and Author's websites are part of what's known as the Writer's or Author's Platform in
the publishing business. The platform includes, a website, a Facebook presence, blog, Twitter
account, and the old fashioned mailing list. Many publishers will ask a prospective client about
their platform. In other words, "If we publish your book, what sort of a reader base do you
already have that we can count on to buy your new publication?" Fairly weighty request,
wouldn't you say? For now, let's concentrate on the website part. A writers website would
include a biography, a catalog of published books and works, perhaps excerpts from some works,
links to publications on sites like Amazon.com, a link to the writer's blog, reviews and comments
on the author's publications. You get the idea, and that is to build a following, a fan base to
which future publications can be directly marketed.
 

4. Community Building Websites

Social Websites, Forum Websites, and Sharing Websites.
These websites build online communities of people who want to interact with other people
socially or meet people who share their interests. The best known website of this type is probably
FaceBook.com. There's also Linkedin.com, and let's not forget the old MySpace.com just to
mention a few.
For sharing and discussing mutual interests, there are online forums for practically any subject
you can think of. These Forum websites can be a great source of information and help for the
small business person. (I'm sure there is a forum dedicated to your type of business. Just do a
web search for something like real estate web forum.) Now you can see this is where we start to
get into the idea of "hybrid" sites.
Photo Sharing and other forms of sharing sites might also be considered community building
sites, much as Blogging sites are. Can Dating Sites be considered Community Building Sites, or
are they E-commerce Sites. All that's up for discussion.
 

5. Mobile Device Websites

The use of mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, watches, etc.) has become ubiquitous. One
problem is that standard websites are difficult to view and sometines take a long time to
download on some of these devices with their small screens and wireless connections. Websites
whose pages are narrower in width and take up less bandwidth work much better for mobile
devices. A new domain designation has been created to identify websites that are "mobile
friendly". That is .mobi, as in www.xislegraphix.mobi, if I had such a site. If you have a small
business that would benefit from being viewed on a mobile devise, you should consider
investigating the possibilities of creating a mobile friendly site.
 

6. Blogging Websites
People took the words Web Logs and shortened it to Blogs—online diaries, journals, or
editorials, if you will. My, how Blogs have taken over the Internet. A person used to be outdated
if he/she did not have a website, now having a blog is de rigeur. A blog owner will log-on daily,
weekly, or whenever, and write about whatever is going on in their lives or business, or they may
comment on politics and news. How wonderful the Internet is! Now anyone who can afford a
blog can be self published and allow their thoughts to be read by anyone in the world who has
online access. How important is blogging to the small business person?
Read more about blogs and find out...
 

7. Informational Websites
A major informational site is wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia. And it is unique, because it
allows members to contribute and edit articles. Now your small business may not want such a
comprehensive site, but if you have information to share or sell, an informational website would
fill the bill. Suppose you have a landscaping business. You could create a website that lists plants
with their definitions and planting and caring instructions. This would be helpful to people, and
you would use it to lead people to your nursery. Of course you could "hybrid" this site by adding
an e-commerce feature, a forum, or even photo sharing.
 

8. Online Business Brochure/Catalog Websites

In the days before the Internet, we used the print, radio, and television media to spread the word
about our businesses. Now we can cast a large net, reaching literally millions of people al over
the world with just one website. With your online brochure or catalog, you can show anyone who
looks for and finds your website, photos and descriptions of your products or services. To some
this may sound like an E-commerce Website, but there are many businesses that deal in products
or services that are not sellable over the web—think hair-stylist, dentist, or day-care center.
 

9. Directory Websites
Just as we used to use the printed Yellow Pages in phone books to find services and businesses,
today we have website directories. The Yellow Pages has one, YP.com. Directories can be
dedicated to a certain topic or industry, or they can encompass geographical areas. Search
Engines, such as Google.com and Yahoo.com can be considered directories, but since their
databases are so large, rather than searching alphabetically, one enters a search term in the search
field.
 

10. E-commerce Websites

Ever hear of Amazon.com? It's one of the grand-daddies of all e-commerce websites. But you
don't have to be an Amazon to sell your products online. There are millions of small businesses
who use their e-commerce websites to sell their products over the Internet. Just about anything
that can be sold in a brick-and-mortar store can be sold online—with much less overhead! Is an
E-commerce Website right for you?
Read more about E-commerce websites...
We would be glad to discuss your website needs with you.
Send us an email with your questions.

22.

As the old adage goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Building a website without a plan is
like constructing a building without blueprints. Things end up in the wrong place, features are
overlooked, and the situation is ripe for miscommunication between website builder and client.
Planning your website ahead of time will give it clear direction as well as prevent missed
deadlines and backtracking. If you are a web designer working with clients, then this guide will
help both of you to plan properly. If you are a business owner or employee of an organization,
then this guide will help lay the groundwork for your coming website.

Before we get started: If you don’t have a website yet, then you can get signed up at
www.hostgator.com

1. Set your purpose and goals.

What is the purpose of your website? Is it to gain publicity for your business? To sell your
inventory? To rally support behind a cause? It’s important to identify your website’s purpose, as
well as your target audience. You should also define your goals. How many visitors do you
expect per month? How many do you expect will sign up for your newsletter? How much in
sales do you expect to make? Set measurable, specific goals for your website that are in line with
your marketing goals. An analytics tool like Google Analytics will allow you to monitor your
website’s performance over time.

2. Create a budget.
Whether you’re an established, mid-sized organization or a fledgling start-up, you should always
set a budget for your website expenses. This will probably include funds for web design,
programming, and web hosting (though other expenses may apply). Research the market by
shopping around and consulting with professionals. Don’t sell yourself short by comparing
prices alone. What you save in money you may later pay for with a lackluster site and lots of
headaches. It’s better to choose team members based on experience, insightfulness, references,
and examples of work.

3. Assign roles.
 Company stakeholders (owner, marketing manager, or whoever else represents a primary
function of the business)
 Web developer
 Content writer and/or editor
 HTML/CSS professional
 Web and graphic designer

Make sure everyone on your team knows their role and what is expected of them, and that they
stay abreast of deadlines and new developments.

4. Create a content strategy.

What kind of content will you be displaying on your website? Content is basically anything that
gives your visitors information. It can include, but is not limited to:

 Blog posts
 Documents
 Video
 Pictures (such as in a gallery)
 Slideshows
 Embedded social media feeds (such as your Twitter stream or Facebook page updates)

Your content strategy is the way that you plan to present your content over time. For instance,
you may want to publish two blog posts a month, and put out a free quarterly report for your
subscribers to download four times a year. Since content is such a vital aspect of a website, bring
in help if you need it. Hire a writer who is experienced with writing for the web, and invest in
some professional looking pictures of your storefront and employees.

5. Structure your website.

Decide what pages you’ll be using and what features will be on each one. Most websites have an
About and Contact page, but the pages you use should meet your business’ needs.

6. Create a mock-up.
A page mock-up, also know as a wireframe, is essentially the outline of your website (with the
initial design being the first draft). Usually created in Photoshop or Fireworks, you don’t have to
put too much detail into your mock-up.  Use placeholder text to fill pages, and don’t worry about
details. This is just to give everyone an idea of what the website will look like.

If you don’t have a design program, you can also map it out with pen and paper! When you have
a general feel of what you’d like, you can send it to a designer to create or do so yourself.

7. Start designing.
The importance of good web design can’t be stressed enough. Good website design includes both
usability and aesthetics. An ugly website will drive away visitors, as will a website that’s
difficult to navigate. Keep in mind some basic concepts of usability as you go:

 Make your navigation easy to understand and easy to find. Research shows that most
users expect website navigation to be vertical and centered at the top of the page.
 Use an easy-to-read font for blocks of text. Choose a background color and text color that
contrast well (Hint: No red text on a hot pink background).
 Make sure your site fits the screen. Use responsive design (or an equally effective
approach) to make your website one that adapts to all screen sizes.
 Keep your website light so that it loads quickly.
 Make the company logo and tag line prominent on the page.
 Keep styles and colors consistent across the website.
 Make copy clear and concise, and put important information and features (e.g., your
newsletter sign-up form) above the fold.
 Make notes about what to include in the style sheet as you design, as you want to keep
style and function separate. This is important, not only to comply with web standards, but
to make it easier to change something in the future if you need to.
 You should also design with the future in mind. For instance, your website may only
have a few blog posts now, but what about when you have two hundred?

8. Test it out.
Testing is important for getting out bugs out and catching details that you might have missed
initially. Make sure your website shows up the way you want it to in all browsers, including
Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and mobile web browsers like Safari and Opera Mini. Test it
on your cell phone, your tablet, and your colleague’s cell phones and tablets too. You want your
site to have a consistent appearance no matter what screen it shows up on. Make sure all of the
links work, that the images are properly sized, and that you’ve replaced all of the placeholders
with actual content. See to it that all of the forms and other input fields are working.

9. Maintain your site.

Once your site is launched, the work isn’t over. A website is an ongoing entity that continuously
represents your company, so maintenance is very important. Monitor your analytics software to
see how your website is performing with the public. Keep an eye on metrics like your number of
unique visitors, bounce rate, and which pages are most popular on your website. You might find
that certain metrics are more useful to you than others, but that is information you’ll find out
over time.

You should also have a plan for maintaining the website, such as who is responsible for posting
new content or monitoring site security. And of course, get feedback from your users. Feedback
is a valuable tool for improvement.

Planning a website ahead of time is just as important as planning anything else in business, yet
this step often gets overlooked by those anxious to claim their piece of internet real estate.
Taking the time to plan your website is a great investment, and it will better you chances of
having a finished product that serves you well for as long as you need it.

Now that you are ready to plan your website, it’s time to get started! HostGator offers different
options to accommodate first time users, all the way up to Fortune 500 companies. You can see
what we offer by clicking here.

2222. How to Plan a Website

Follow the P.L.A.N to Create a Successful Website
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Home Business
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 Before You Begin
 Home Business Ideas
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 Grow Your Business
 Work Life Balance
 Taxes & Accounting
 Home Business Toolbox

By Mindy Lilyquist
Updated November 22, 2016

Because of free and simple online website design software, it is easier than ever to create a new
website. Seriously, within five minutes and a couple of clicks, most users could be up and
running. This new found power can be somewhat intoxicating for non-geek types (ahem), so
don’t forget that planning a website is just as important as creating one.

To help ensure you don’t miss any crucial steps during your website development, follow the
simple P.L.A.N.

acronym to help you fashion well thought out web pages. By doing so, your completed website
will produce the traffic and end-user results you want.

Prepare – Identify your target audience and appropriate website tone.

Landscape – Think through how you would like your website to be able to function. More
specifically, what features need to be on your site?

Aesthetics – The way your website looks and feels is just as important as what it can do. Think
about what colors and images you want on your site and how your site compares to your
competitors.

Navigation – It is important to plan how you want your audience directed through your website.
By thinking through what pages you need and how they should be laid out, you will help ensure
early on a good visitor experience.

How To Plan a Website:

1. PREPARE: The most important thing you can do during the creation of your website is to
prepare by thinking about your audience and your content message. Who are you trying to talk
to? Once you determine whether it is men, women, sports fans or homeowners, start thinking
about what you want your website to do for your audience. Do you hope to sell products? Do
you need a basic online marketing brochure/business card? What website content (written
words) will you need? Will you write with a formal or casual tone? Your answers to all these
questions will help establish your website personality and tone.
1. LANDSCAPE - Figuring out the "lay of the land" for your website is essentially
determining which website features are essential and desirable for your particular site.
For instance, do you want to sell products? If so, you are going to need credit card
processing and a shopping cart feature. Most website providers offer this option, but it
does cost and the type of customer experience will differ based off which website
provider or third party provider you use. Do you want to have a gallery with photos or
videos? How large will your file sizes be? For instance, will you have streaming video or
music? If so, those files will be large and some website design providers will charge you
additional fees once your images or file sizes reach a certain size. All of this information
is important to keep in mind so there aren't any surprises when it comes to your final
website cost.

Another feature you should consider adding to your website is a regularly updated blog.
In order to perform well in online searches (referred to as SEO), your website will require
regularly updated content. Having a blog tied to your website can help you achieve this
goal – which will ultimately increase your website traffic and improve your visitor's
experience.

1. AESTHETICS - Design aesthetics, or the way your site looks, is a crucial piece of the website
creation process. Thankfully, the free or low costs web site providers have done much of this
work by providing ready-to-go design templates. When deciding on a design look and feel, it is
important to consider how industry appropriate a template is. For instance, don’t pick some
crazy colored music industry template if you plan to do business in a conservative B2B
marketplace. Make sure you take some time to research what some of your main competitors’
websites look like. This will provide you with context as you plan yours -- because ultimately,
you want to create something that stands out in a good way –- not like a sore thumb.

Images are crucial to building an environment where your website visitors will want to
stay and click around your site. If you don’t have any of your own images to use, there
are plenty of free or low-cost stock photo options available on the Internet. If you are on a
tight budget (and who isn’t these days?) be careful cutting corners on images. It may
make sense to spend $20 to get the image you want versus settling on an “ok” image
which is free.

2. NAVIGATION: Website navigation is the way the website pages and links are laid out. Do you
want your menu up on the top or do you prefer to have your navigation along the left-hand
side? Ease of navigation and easily identifiable links have been shown to influence website
audience behavior. If your navigation is cluttered or not intuitive, your audience won’t stick
around. Keep in mind that less content per page does better than pages with an abundance of
written copy or images. A nice rule of thumb is to shy away from an amount of content that
would require you to scroll down on the page to see it all. Stop at the page break and create a
new page or reduce your written copy.

One of the best website planning tools is the creation of a rough sitemap (also referred to
as wireframes). This doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy-schmancy - a pen and
paper, Excel spreadsheet or even an org chart software will do the trick. Start by listing
out those website pages you already know you want to have, like, About Us, Products,
 Contact Us...etc. Then begin to organize those pages into main categories, sub-categories
and any special features or images you hope to have on that page. This visual map will
help identify any holes in your site’s content and ultimately help improve your visitor’s
experience. It will also identify how many pages you will need to create for your site.
This number is handy because some of your online website design providers will charge
more after a certain number of pages. Knowing the total number of website pages will
allow you to shop around and settle on the best price for the size website you want

22222. The Importance of Website Planning

Too many individuals and businesses simply start hammering nails without taking the time to
create the proper plan. I like to say that anytime you undertake a task like building a website,
building a house, or starting a marketing campaign, etc. it’s important to spend two-thirds of
your time planning and one-third of your time executing.

One of the most important stages and often time consuming tasks of building a website is the
Planning Phase. If you neglect to plan a project thoroughly and/or completely, the odds of an
unhappy finished project are at a greater risk.

SUCCESS BEGINS WITH PLANNING

Before getting started on any project, it’s important to collaborate and make sure everyone has a
clear vision before moving forward. Having a concrete plan and identifying potential red flags is
the best way to prevent scope creep, which may affect budgets and deadlines down the
road. Let’s take a deeper dive into how the Planning Phase progresses.

Determine Goals.

What are you trying to accomplish? What’s the main purpose of the website? It’s important to
understand the overall goal of the website when building one. You don’t just build a house to
simply build a house. You want to make sure you’re planning your “dream home” and that it’s
functional and built with the right intentions and audience in mind.

Whether you are trying to increase membership, convert more visitors into leads, or provide
investors with valuable information, you need to establish these goals at the beginning so you
know what you are aiming for.

Define Your Target Audience.

What are the demographics of the audience you are trying to target? Understanding your target
market is vital to creating plans for a website that will appeal to them. Do your research, create
buyer personas, and analyze your competition. 
I'ts also a great idea to look at websites that your target market might visit. Make notes of what
you like and what you don't like. By keeping your target audience in mind, it makes it much
easier to design a website that resonates with them.

Don’t Underestimate SEO.

It’s best practice to always keep SEO in mind as it directly impacts your online performance and
success. There is no better time to focus on SEO than when you are building your website as it
can help save you a lot of time in the long run. Knowing what keywords you want to try and rank
for makes it easier to incorporate into your site design and architecture. If you don’t already have
a solid list of keywords, check out Google Keyword Planner.

It’s also extremely important these days to have a mobile-friendly or responsive website as
Google ranks them higher than those that are not.

Plan for Content.

Ensuring you have the right content that speaks to your audience is critical in creating a
successful website. You need to not only make sure the content is there, but also that it is
educational and engaging to your audience and optimized for search engines. You can have a
beautifully structured and designed website but if the content isn’t there to back it up and people
aren’t seeing it, then it’s a waste.

You also need to ensure you outline what types of content you want to include within your site.
For example, do you want to have a blog? Do you want to incorporate video? These are all
important things to consider when building out your website.

Develop Use Cases, Sitemap and Wireframes.

Use cases help establish project requirements. They help determine how different users will
behave on your site and a way of outlining the steps a user will take to accomplish their goal or
task. The more we define and understand various use cases, the easier it will be moving forward.

Building out a sitemap helps to organize the content you want to have on your website. It builds
the foundation of the pages you want included. When building out your site map your goal
should be to keep it as intuitive and simple as possible. However, it’s important that all of the
features and functionality are outlined.

A wireframe is essentially a blueprint of your website that shows its skeletal framework. It’s a
way for the client to see the layout and overall navigation and functionality of the site before the
building begins. Wireframes also help the designer get a better idea of where different
components need to be and provides them an outline of how the website should function and
where different features need to appear.

 
Get Planning!

Your website is a vital part of your business’ marketing efforts, it’s the virtual face of your company.  This
is why the Planning Phase is so important for any web project. It sets the tone and foundation for a
successful website. Don't underestimate the importance of website planning!

Photo Credit: Icon vector designed by Freepik

2222222.

Website Planning Guide

10 Step Website Planning Guide

Whether you're planning a 3 page business site or a 5,000 page e-commerce site, our planning guide can
help you get started. Website planning can be a daunting task for any company or organization. If you
do it well, your website will achieve the goals you've mapped out for it; the impact design you're after,
the features your customers will love and the functionality that reaps the ROI you've set your sights on.

Not New to the Web?

Obviously, the web is not new marketing ground... we're very familiar with website
redevelopment as companies grow, gain a new focus, retool, restaff, need new technologies for
communicating or selling or just plain wear out their old website design.

1. Define the Objective of your Site. It could be to...

 Generate income
 Develop name recognition or enhance company image
 Sell products to consumers or wholesalers
 Develop a national or global market for your business

2. Define Your Audience. Think expansively. You might be...

 Selling products to the public

 Providing business-to-business services
 Offering expertise to other professionals in the fieldA
  Ask...who, besides direct customers, might view or use your site? Competitors?
Suppliers? Jot down scenarios in which different types of visitors come to your site and
try to think about how you would address each of their needs.

3. Pinpoint Your Edge. What is your...

 Competitive angle: price, quality, service, and uniqueness of product or service

 Primary point of differentiation

Will you do a better job of marketing than your competition? Can you bring to the table special
products, knowledge, contacts, and sources?

4. Research Similar Sites. It's helpful to...

 Look at similar organizations or businesses, sites dealing with similar services, products
or even your supplier's web sites.
 Make lists of content, features, and design elements you like and don't like.

5. Consider Site Features and Functionality. This could include...

 Special forms to gather leads, quote requests, general contact, questionnaires, etc
 Ecommerce shopping cart or order forms
 Content management package so you can update your site in-house
 Audio, video, blogs or other Social Media integration
 Dynamic navigation menus
 Special graphics, slideshows, tabbed navigation or content sliders
 Email marketing integration

See our list of ecommerce website features to help you start that list

6. Make a Budget for the Site. A web site should be integrated into your existing and long-term
business goals and not considered a one-time marketing expense. Budget for the initial cost of
site design and development, but also keep in mind that you'll want to update your site just like
you make changes and updates to your business.

7. Consider your Marketing Strategy. Coordinate your online and print media design plans.
Budget for search engine optimization, Internet marketing, email newsletters and site
announcements, as well as offline marketing like newsletters, postcards or other print media.

8. Register a Domain Name. You'll need to find a Domain Name that is available and pay the
annual fee ($5 - $35 a year). Questions to keep in mind are:

 Is it easy to spell?
 Does it reflect your company name or product line?
  Does the domain name match what your customers will be searching for online? The
closer, the better.
 Will it show up well when used in print advertising?
 Need help registering the domain name? We can take care of that for you at no additional
charge.


9. Assemble Site Content. Inventory the content you already have in printed brochures, flyers or
newsletters. Collect graphics or photos you have for logos, signs, posters, products, staff or
personnel. Get your product database or other materials you want on your web site and we'll put
it together. Or, we can design graphics, compose the content, and create other material for you.

10. Set a Target Date. Set up a schedule of when you plan to review, write or provide site
content, who you have to meet with to make decisions and a target date of when you want the
site to be up and running. We'll work with you to keep the development process on schedule.

The Best Website Builders

Highly recommended and thought of.

#1

Perfect app marketplace with a vibrant community improving everyday.

Free website maker life plan – create your own website using a Wix template for free, given that
it will be hosted on their servers and subdomain. Design is perfect, with thousands of available
layouts and templates on their open, free marketplace. Wix serves millions of clients and powers
more than 70 Million websites.

Get Started

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#2
Web.com is a leading website builder with top performing support system among the big
service providers in the industry.

Overall great value for price and options to utilize extended marketing services for this
established company. Tailored to North Americans and offers a free .COM domain with signup.

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#3

Great responsive themes with eCommerce capabilities and a free for life plan.  

Drag and Drop page builder is neat and to the point, enabling novice web designers and store
owners to get started in minutes. Highly thought of online store builder, which is only available
for paying customers. Check out the different demos before choosing a design.

Get Started

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#4

Currently the best eCommerce solution available, powering online stores with social
capabilities, like the new Facebook Store option.

On site Point Of Sale services makes Shopify stand out from the crowd, making it an all-in-one
solutions for stores worldwide. In app editor is highly flexible, and the ability to purchase
premium templates is great. Nice themes and overall experience is good.

Get Started
#5

WordPress is an open-source Content Management System that powers millions of websites.

Some sources state that 25% of the websites using content systems are using WordPress.
Although started purely for blogging, now you can create amazing websites for any vertical
using pre-made themes and templates. The advantages of WP is a huge community (that works
to improve the product), and large marketplaces to cater for plugins, designs, technical help and
much more.  The learning curve is not too steep, but possibilities are endless.

Get Started

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#6

Bigcommerce is an online website builder that specializes in online store setups.

Overall support is responsive and around the clock. The extensive store related features are great
and useful. Different price plans for various Commerce solutions, which is quite standard. You
could try BigCommerce with their free 15 day trial, but beware of the different price plans before
you go pro.

Image Processing Software: Purpose &

44.

Types
Chapter 3 /  Lesson 5

Imagery Are Important

In our society, visuals rule. Sure, audio has its place, like when playing music. But if you want to
learn something quickly, it's generally visual in nature. If you don't think so, just look around.
We watch videos on our phones and tablets, we watch the news on TV, and we even learn about
the latest movies from posters. So, it makes sense that advertisers would spend a great deal of
time and effort constructing these images. But how do they do it? How do they adjust the
contents so that it reflects what they want? There is a multitude of tools available for just that.
Some fall into the category of image processing software

What is Image Processing Software?

Image processing software is software that is designed to manipulate digital images. In
particular, it captures the image if that hasn't already been done, it converts it to a digital form,
and it performs a manipulation or manipulations on it. For example, have you ever seen someone
lighten a photograph that was too dark? Or crop an image to remove unwanted background
clutter. These are examples of image processing at work. Its purpose is to improve the contents
and quality of an image.

What Types of Image Processing Software are Available?

It seems like there is image processing software for just about any application you can think of.
Not surprising really, because it contributes to so many areas. Instead, let's talk about some of the
categories, or types, they fall into:

Computer Graphics

We don't often think of computer graphics as image processing because it processes 2D and 3D
image definition files rather than the resulting images themselves. It is a fine point, but worthy of
note. Examples include maps, posters, videos, and movies.

Computer Vision

This type focuses on processing that helps the software recognize objects within the viewing
area. For example, some factories use computer vision to determine if particular steps in their
process have been completed successfully.

Medical Imaging

This type focuses on processing that helps with issue detection and diagnosis. Examples include;
Bioimaging (non-invasive visualization of biological processes) and Neuroimaging (visualization
of the nervous system).

Photo Editing

This type focuses on processing that helps improve photographs, like changing the brightness,
contrast, or color skew. For example, when you brighten an overly dark photograph or crop out
background clutter.
What are Some Examples of Image Processing Software?
There is a lot of image processing software packages out there, too many to enumerate here.
Operating Systems like Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, install two or three out of the box. But
there are a few worth noting:

Photoshop

Photoshop is a general-purpose application designed to work on any raster-based (made up of

dots) image and perform any number of included manipulations. It is one of the most popular
image processing software packages available today.

44444. Imagery Are Important

In our society, visuals rule. Sure, audio has its place, like when playing music. But if you want to
learn something quickly, it's generally visual in nature. If you don't think so, just look around.
We watch videos on our phones and tablets, we watch the news on TV, and we even learn about
the latest movies from posters. So, it makes sense that advertisers would spend a great deal of
time and effort constructing these images. But how do they do it? How do they adjust the
contents so that it reflects what they want? There is a multitude of tools available for just that.
Some fall into the category of image processing software

What is Image Processing Software?

Image processing software is software that is designed to manipulate digital images. In
particular, it captures the image if that hasn't already been done, it converts it to a digital form,
and it performs a manipulation or manipulations on it. For example, have you ever seen someone
lighten a photograph that was too dark? Or crop an image to remove unwanted background
clutter. These are examples of image processing at work. Its purpose is to improve the contents
and quality of an image.

What Types of Image Processing Software are Available?

It seems like there is image processing software for just about any application you can think of.
Not surprising really, because it contributes to so many areas. Instead, let's talk about some of the
categories, or types, they fall into:

Computer Graphics

We don't often think of computer graphics as image processing because it processes 2D and 3D
image definition files rather than the resulting images themselves. It is a fine point, but worthy of
note. Examples include maps, posters, videos, and movies.
Computer Vision

This type focuses on processing that helps the software recognize objects within the viewing
area. For example, some factories use computer vision to determine if particular steps in their
process have been completed successfully.

Medical Imaging

This type focuses on processing that helps with issue detection and diagnosis. Examples include;
Bioimaging (non-invasive visualization of biological processes) and Neuroimaging (visualization
of the nervous system).

Photo Editing

This type focuses on processing that helps improve photographs, like changing the brightness,
contrast, or color skew. For example, when you brighten an overly dark photograph or crop out
background clutter.

What are Some Examples of Image Processing Software?

There is a lot of image processing software packages out there, too many to enumerate here.
Operating Systems like Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, install two or three out of the box. But
there are a few worth noting:

Photoshop

Photoshop is a general-purpose application designed to work on any raster-based (made up of

dots) image and perform any number of included manipulations. It is one of the most popular
image processing software packages available today.

Light microscopy

 Light microscopes
 Techniques
 Image processing/analysis software
 Other equipment/facilities

Image analysis and processing software

Just taking an image with a microscope, and keep it in its raw format, might be sufficient for
your needs. But often a fluorescent image needs to have a background subtracted and it could get
much sharper with deconvolution and a z-stack needs to be put into a 3D image. You might want
to quantify intensities or sizes of objects, track structures in a time series or make movies. To do
all these things you will need specialized softwares.
If you need help to create a solution for your specific needs we can assist you. The price for this
service depends on the complexity of the problem and will be discussed on a project basis.

Software at CCI
We provide a few commercial image analysis and processing softwares, installed on powerful
computers, which are free of charge for our microscopy users:

Imaris - for visualization and quantification of 3D and 4D data. Used for model rendering,
tracking of particles over time, track filamentous structures, colocalization, movie recording and
data visualization. Examples of data processed in Imaris can be seen in Bitplane's learning
center.

Volocity - Deconvolution, 3D reconstruction, advanced movie recording, tracking, and

quantification. Learn how to use it by watching the instructive on-line tutorials.

scan^R image analysis software - High content screening software from Olympus for analysing
large quantities of images, especially those aquired using the scan^R automatic microscope
system.

Free software:
There are several free softwares that you can download to your own computer. We also provide
these on our image analysis workstations.

Zen lite - With this software you can easily open the images that you have acquired with all our
Carl Zeiss microscopes. The software is only compatible with PC.

ImageJ - Developed at NIH, works on both PC and Mac and can open most image file formats.
There are also a couple of installation packages, MBF_ImageJ and Fiji, with many plugins
already installed.

CellProfiler is a free open-source software designed to enable biologists without training in

computer vision or programming to quantitatively measure phenotypes from thousands of
images automatically.

IMOD - is a set of image processing, modeling and display programs used for tomographic
reconstruction and for 3D reconstruction of EM serial sections and optical sections. The package
contains tools for assembling and aligning data within multiple types and sizes of image stacks,
viewing 3-D data from any orientation, and modeling and display of the image files.

eTomo provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to the IMOD Tomography package. aTomo is a
program used to reconstruct 3D volumes by joining smaller volumes and/or guiding the user
through the process of tomographic reconstruction of single and dual axis tilt series. During this
process eTomo make many program calls and often launches 3dmod and Midas to allow users to
make fine adjustments.

Older softwares:

LSM Image Browser - With this software you can open the images (database) that you have
acquired with our Zeiss LSM 510 Meta system.

AxioVision LE - With this software you can open the images that you have acquired with our
Zeiss Axiovert 200 system.