Website Launch
Client websites go live on a web host server, which the client pays for and maintains. We've already discussed file transfer protocol (FTP) which you need to use to test our website live, but you can do this on your own free or low cost server. However, your server will generally not be the server used for your client's final website, unless you get into the business of providing web hosting services yourself – a topic for another book.
Web Hosting Service
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.
The scope of hosting services varies. The most basic is web page and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded by FTP or a web interface provided by the web host. The files are usually delivered to the Web as is or with little processing. Personal website hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or inexpensive. Business website hosting often has a higher expense, and can offer shared or dedicated servers.
Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages, and these may come with a series of templates for you to choose from. This is not the option for web authors, since it does not allow much control over the design.
Free website hosting allows you to personalize your own site, upload as you need, etc. However, you may be stuck with advertising on your site, may have serious space, FTP, and content limits. You also don't use your own domain name, but rather get a free sub- domain while using the Web host's domain name. Finally, you will likely get little and/or slow technical support if you experience issues.
Fee-based web hosts offer comprehensive packages and support that provides database support and application development platforms (like PHP, Java, ColdFusion, and ASP. net). They usually also provide an interface or control panel for managing the Web server
and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (like e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company. They may also provide domain registration and annual renewal of your domain.
You will want to know the hosting uptime of the web host you choose. Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the hosted websites (like yours) is accessible via the Internet. Many providers state that they aim for at least 99.9% uptime (roughly equivalent
to 45 minutes of downtime a month, or less), but there may be server restarts and planned (or unplanned) maintenance in any hosting environment, which may or may not be considered part of the official uptime promise. Many providers tie uptime and accessibility into their own service level agreement (SLA). SLAs sometimes include refunds or reduced costs if performance goals are not met.
Many large companies who are not internet service providers also need a computer permanently connected to the Web so they can send email, files, etc. to other sites. They may also use the computer as a website host so they can provide details of their goods and ser- vices to anyone interested. Additionally these people may decide to place online orders.
Types of Hosting
• Free web hosting service: offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes supported by advertisements, and often limited when compared to paid hosting.
• Shared web hosting service: one's website is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive. A shared web- site may be hosted with a reseller.
• Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a collocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and provide the technical support themselves.
• Virtual Dedicated Server: also known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS), divides server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualization may be done for a number of reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container between servers. The visitors may have root access to their own virtual space. Customers are sometimes responsible for patching and maintaining the server.
• Dedicated hosting service: the visitor gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the visitor typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The visitor has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
• Managed hosting service: the visitor gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The visitor is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the visitor to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The visitor typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
• Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the visitor owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
• Cloud Hosting: is a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. Removing single-point of failures and allowing customers to pay for only what they use versus what they could use.
• Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution. A cluster may separate web serving from database hosting capability.
• Grid hosting: this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
• Home server: usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more websites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PCs. Some ISPs actively attempt to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the visitor's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A common way to attain a reliable DNS hostname is by creating an account with a dynamic DNS service. A dynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP address that a URL points to when the IP address changes.
Domains
A domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control on the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS). When you or your client creates a new website, the name of the domain, which will appear in the URL, is very important. You will want a top-level domain, which is the highest level of domain names of the Internet: http://www.yourdomain.com.
Professional/SEO Naming
The website domain name, and the impression it makes, is crucial. An important purpose of domain names is to provide easily recognizable and memorable names for visitors. You need something that is related to the client's business, client's name, product, etc.
Do:
• Use a domain name that is also the website name when possible.
• Create a variation of your preferred domain name if the one you want is already chosen. For instance, if you want smithdesigns, and it is already chosen, consider something like designsmithy, designsbysmith, smithdesignninja, etc.
• Consider using .net or .biz if your preferred name isn't available as .com, but only if the website is a noncompetitive one. If you are competing against other businesses with similar names, stick with .com.
• Brainstorm the websites top keywords, if needed. You want an intuitive name, not one that doesn't reveal anything the visitor can expect.
• Choose a name that is relevant to the client's business or name, or the website purpose.
• Go for a name that is part of the website branding, rather than something generic.
• Consider how the name can be useful in SEO that is relevant to how your site should be indexed.
• Use clean language and spelling (unless off-spelling is part of the charm).
• Be willing to create a longer name if it gives you the necessary options, but keep it professional.
Don’t:
• Use a confusing domain name - think about how the domain name looks. For instance, a therapists' network is named therapistfinder.com. The rapist finder?
• Choose misleading names that make a visitor think they are going something else.
• Decide on a name that is completely unrelated to what the website is about.
• Select a name that is similar to a popular business/person, since this can border on infringement.
• Create a name with a mix of odd characters, unnecessary hyphens, or odd capital- izations.
• Create a really long domain name that no one can remember or spell.
• Be trendy. Trends end fast and the website should be around for awhile.
Getting a Domain Name
The right to use a domain name is delegated by domain name registrars which are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization charged with overseeing the name and number systems of the Internet. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained and serviced technically by
an administrative organization operating a registry. A registry is responsible for maintaining the database of names registered within the TLD it administers. The registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar authorized to assign names in the corresponding TLD and publishes the information using a special service, the who is protocol.
Registries and registrars usually charge an annual fee for the service of delegating a do- main name to a user and providing a default set of name servers. Often this transaction is termed a sale or lease of the domain name, and the registrant may sometimes be called an owner, but no such legal relationship is actually associated with the transaction, only the exclusive right to use the domain name. More correctly, authorized users are known as registrants or as domain holders.
You can register a new domain yourself, but of you do, and you later decide to use a web host which provides domain name services, you will have to transfer your domain name to them. It can be more efficient for you to decide where you will host your website first, get that web host set up, then register your domain name through them. The Web host will have a process and explanation of how to do this.
Domain Renewals
You can renew or extend your domain name at any time. You don't have to wait until you get a notice that a domain is close to expiration, and if you have your domain name registered/handled through your web host, you should get expiration reminders so you know.
Renewing is required because the registration is for a finite period of time, usually one year. However, you can renew for one year or up to 10 years.
Domain Hijacking
Domain hijacking or theft is the process by which registration of a currently registered domain name is transferred without the permission of its original registrant (you), generally by exploiting a vulnerability in the domain name registration system.
Domain names expire after a fixed period of time (usually a year) and become available to the public. If their original owner allows them to expire - even momentarily - they may be immediately purchased by another party. The difficulty here is that many of these do- main hijackers will then be happy to resell your own domain name back to you, for a very inflated price. Don't let this happen – know when you annual domain renewal schedule is and stay on top of it, or renew early.
Listing Websites
Back in the day, before search engines became so sophisticated, websites didn't just get found. You needed to register them with search engines. Nowadays the biggies like Google, Bing, and Yahoo tend to find websites sooner rather than later, so technically you do not need to register them, especially if they are personal, social networking, and blog sites.
However, clients like and need their professional websites to be indexed and available as soon as possible after they launch, so registering websites for launch still doesn't hurt. You can go to Google, Bing, and Yahoo, and do a search on registering your site with them; they will have an easy online form where you can give site information.
You can also find free website listing options, where you complete a form to get your site listed and the form will be sent to a bunch of smaller search engines to get indexed/listed. This can be useful if you need a site to get onto special research/scientific engines and such.
Whichever you choose, make sure you have solid meta tags: description, title, author, niche keywords - this, along with good SEO content, is what the indexing depends on, and can also establish the placement on the search engine results more accurately.
Web Sitemaps
Web sitemaps are different than the design sitemap you may create while planning the layout of your website. Web sitemaps exist for audience and search engine use, and there are two types you will want to create for your website.
Website Sitemap
The website sitemap is simply another page of your website, following the same template, navigation, and content structure. However, in this page, you list all (or many) of your pages so that a visitor can simply click and go. You would list your main pages, sub pages, and your utility pages. You can choose to list pages:
• By their order in your main navigation, with sub pages listed below each.
• Alphabetically
• By subject
• By purpose
Whichever you choose, make sure to make the sitemap very easy and intuitive for your visitors, and to link it to all pages of your website – in the footer, for instance.
Indexing/SEO Sitemap
The indexing sitemap is an XML file you create solely for search engines to use to index your website. Sitemaps are a way to tell a search engine about pages on your site it might not otherwise discover in the normal crawling process. You will want to search for “search engine sitemap” in a search engine to get the most current protocols, but it's pretty easy.
Indexing sitemaps are particularly helpful if:
• Your site has dynamic content.
• Your site has pages that aren't easily discovered by bots during the crawl process—for example, pages featuring rich AJAX or images.
• Your site is new and has few links to it. Bots crawl the Web by following links from one page to another, so if your site isn't well linked, it may be hard for the search engine to discover it.
• Your site has a large archive of content pages that are not well linked to each other, or are not linked at all.
Web Analytics
Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. It measures website traffic and can also be used as a tool for business research and market research, by providing data on the number of visitors, page views, etc to gauge the traffic and popularity trends which helps doing the market research. There are two categories of web analytics:
• Off-site web analytics refers to web measurement and analysis regardless of whether you own or maintain a website. It includes the measurement of a web- site's potential audience (opportunity), share of voice (visibility), and buzz (comments) that is happening on the Internet as a whole.
• On-site web analytics measure a visitor's journey once on your website. This includes its drivers and conversions; for example, which landing pages encourage people to make a purchase. On-site web analytics measures the performance of your website in a commercial context. This data is typically compared against key performance indicators for performance, and used to improve a website or marketing campaign's audience response.
Web analytics is a specialty unto itself, and can't be covered here. However, if you focus on clients who need sales and marketing support as part of your web projects, this will bear research to determine what analytics tools and skills you can add to your toolbox.
Online Website Tools
You can access a variety of tools for webmasters online. These can give you the bigger picture on current linking and indexing practices, search engine optimization, analytics, and more. Check them out:
• Google Webmaster Central
• Bing Webmaster Tools
• Backlink checkers
• Keyword density checkers
• Rank checkers
• URL redirect checkers
• HTML optimizers
• CSS optimizers
• Reciprocal link checkers
• Domain Whois