Frequently asked questions about web design
Below is some brief information about web design issues and the process of getting a website, with links to external websites to find out more.
1. Getting a website
2. Browsers
3. Search engines
4. Accessibility and usability
1. Getting a website
Q. How long does it take to make a website?
This depends greatly on the type of website. It is always important to leave enough time to be able to test the website properly and make necessary adjustments and corrections.
We will give you a realistic, honest assessment of how long we need to complete your website, but generally you should plan for at least a month.
Q. What is a Content Management System (CMS)?
A CMS is an interface that you can use to control and change the content of your website without specialist computer knowledge. There are many types of CMS, including ones created specially for your website, ready-made, commercial software packages and open source CMS systems.
All our websites come with a CMS so you can control the content yourself, without having to pay a webdesigner for every small change you'd like to make.
More information:
Wikipedia article on Content Management System
Q. What is a domain name, how do I get one?
A domain name is the address a user will type to reach your website, eg. www.mycompany.com, www.ote.gr or www.google.com are all domain names./p>
To get a domain name, you must first choose one that is available and suitable - i.e. not too long, likely to work well with search engines and easy to remember. You can then purchase and register the domain name with a specialised company.
We will guide you through this process, but the following links give more information if you'd like to read more.
- Guide to chosing a domain name with netmechanic
- About domain name registration in Greece
- About registering .com, .org, .net domain names
- Find out whether your domain name is available with uwhois
2. Browsers
Q. What is a browser?
A browser is the computer software you use to browse the internet. Several browsers, developed by different software companies, are used for this purpose. Examples include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari.
Q. Which are the most commonly used browsers?
Statistics show that in 2007 the most commonly used browsers were Internet Explorer (55%-80% of users), Firefox (15%-35% of users), Safari (1%-5% of users) and Opera (around 1% of users). Statistics for browser usage vary according to how this is measured.
Some sources of statistics are:
marketshare
w3schools
thecounter
Q. What is cross-browser compatibility?
Each browser is produced by a different software company. They will vary not only in their looks and features, but also in the way they read and display web pages. This means that same web page will not look exactly the same in each browser. Cross browser compatibility is the practice of designing websites to ensure that they display and work well in all common browsers.
We test our websites on a range of browsers and computers (PC and Mac) to ensure they work across the board.
More information:
Wikipedia article on Cross-browser
3. Search engines
Q. What is ranking?
When a user enters search terms into a search engine such as google and yahoo, they receive a list of links to pages, which are displayed in order of relevance. The position each page obtains in the list of results is known as its “ranking”. Getting a good ranking for your website is important as it means that people searching for your company, services or products will be able to find you more easily through the search engines. Users don’t tend to look through many pages of results, but will often just visit the first few sites listed.
More information:
Check the ranking of a page with googlerankings
Which are the major search engines in the USA today (according to comscore)?
Which are the most popular sites on the web (according to alexa)?
Q. What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
SEO is the practice of optimizing your website so it obtains a high ranking in search engines. This is done using a range of techniques that involve how the website is written and coded, the use of links within the website and from external sites and submitting a website to search engines and directories.
All our websites are created to be optimized for search engines. In addition we will advise you on any linking strategies that could help your ranking.
More information:
Wikipedia article on SEO
Beginner's guide about search engine optimization from SEOmoz
4. Usability and accessibility
Q. What is usability?
Usability describes how easy a website is to use. It is affected by factors such as how easy it is to navigate, how well written the information is, how quickly a user can find what he/she is looking for, and many others.
At every stage of the web development process, we pay special attention to creating usable websites: from our visual design through to structuring the information properly and advising you on how to write for the web.
More information:
Wikipedia article on Web usability
A guide for usable and useful web sites
Jakob Nielsen's website, usability expert
Q. What is accessibility?
An accessible website is one which can be used by users of all abilities and disabilities. For example, people who cannot easily use a mouse should be able to use an accessible website properly with just a keyboard; colour blind users should not have to rely on the use of colour to be able to navigate the website, etc.
Our approach is to focus on creating accessible websites, and we will advise you on accessibility issues and how we have dealt with them.
More information:
The Web Accessibility Initiative described by the W3 Consortium
Q. Why validate with w3c?
The W3 Consortium is an international organization which produces guidelines for the development of the internet. It has produced a set of standards describing how websites should be correctly coded. Validation is the practice of checking that a website conforms to these standards.
Ensuring your site is valid has several advantages:
- your site will not have errors in the code
- your site will work better with modern browsers
- your site has a better chance of being “future compatible”. In other words, it is more likely to work with future technologies such as hand-held devices and with future versions of browsers.
More information:
Does W3c validation provide benefits to SEO ?
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