A website is the greatest prerequisite for a businessman interested in promoting his product/service online. Websites are like grasslands - they start off with one twig of grass and end up engulfing massive areas under their green cover.
The online marketplace is dynamic, and therefore, the onus of evolving with it, lies on you. When it comes to promotion of your site, keep your mind open to different marketing platforms like search engine optimisation, directories, social networks, et al. Your main objective is to make people notice your site and visit it for trading purposes.
When you set about developing a site for your company, it is wise to remember that it will have to grow along with the business itself. It is advisable to create a comprehensive base structure for your site in the beginning itself. It should ideally contain well-defined folders, sub-folders and files that clearly indicate the references and data therein. This structure will help you visually plan and categorise the development of your site.
And, if you believe you can handle this expansion phase when you actually reach it, you cannot be more mistaken. Unplanned expansion, addition or deletion of pages can result in broken hyperlinks or image holders, creating confusion for webmasters, search engines and users.
When deciding on a basic structure for your site, give due importance to names and locations of files and directories that are presently available or will be added later. The root directory should have one file that'll include the homepage and all files/pages that are subsequently published online.
The name of such a file can be either index.htm, or default.htm, depending on the programming language you use. The use of this convention allows web servers to serve particular documents by default. Whenever someone types the name of your site, the server will automatically hunt for files that are named 'index' or 'default', and eventually display your homepage.
Even though you can have a distinct URL for your homepage, this convention is widely regarded as the safest bet. It ensures that your users do not need to include words like 'index' or 'homepage' when looking for your website's main landing page. Moreover, even if you change web hosts in the future, this file name will not give you any problems whatsoever.
Above all, the file names and URLs of each page on your site should be relevant to the content of the page. This not just fosters better search engine promotion, but also gives clarity and easy identifiability to your site.
Even though naming of files sounds a petty task, it can have a huge impact on your campaign. As a web developer, you should take care of the minutest issues and get them sorted out at nascent stages of your website development. When it comes to flourishing in the online market, this move will stand you and your business in good stead.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment