Need help getting your business online? We have drafted a short explanation of our flexible web-site development cycle.

E-business

E-Business is the integration of organizational business functions onto the web server following your business logic. Why do this?

Because it affords you the opportunity of new levels of service. The integration of business functionality into the web at large requires businesses to have new skills in understanding what the relevant technologies have to offer. That's where Web Engineer can help. In time E-Business will become the norm. The need to manage customer relations will never diminish, it will just become enhanced and resource focused through intelligent automation.

Your website can e-enhance your business in a host of ways:

• The development of contact strategies
• The collection of business data
• Using this data and enhancing it with external sources
• Understanding customer value and potential

Your business data is a valuable asset and being data, it is most effectively and efficiently applied in the world of E-business.

The internet has redefined how business locates and enters new market places for their products and services. Companies are increasingly migrating there business models to the internet with impressive results. Please refer to our folio for examples of business websites we have produced.

We are committed to help you get the most out of the online marketplace. We are experts in a wide range of IT issues - Internet Marketing, Graphic Design, Search Engine Optimisation, Customer Relationship Management, Email Marketing and Legal and Security issues. The following 7 steps give a general overview of the process of getting your business online.

Domain name

Decide upon and purchase a Domain Name. The name will be the unique identifying name used for location of your site on the internet. It should be geared around your brand identity and can also be implemented for mail forwarding i.e. , our own.

Domain names are issued on a first come first served basis, once you register for a name, it is yours for a fixed duration - normally two years, after which you have the option to renew your registration or release the name after which it is available for public purchase again.

At Web Engineer can assist by supplying a free check over name availability. If your desired name is not available, we can suggest a whole host of possible available alternatives for your selection.

When your name is registered, we do not retain title to your domain name. In registering the name, we act on your behalf. The actual name belongs to you. We supply domain name registration certificates with every purchase.

This means that at any time should you wish to change web supplier, you have absolute control over your domain name and which where it points to.

Develop a site plan

This document is used to identify and consolidate your online requirements. It should be used to coordinate quotations and check that produced work fits to the plan - this document may be subject to revision as new requirements are identified and/or existing ones changed as your project matures. We can assist at this stage if required.

This phase of development involves looking at site structure. How many web pages will your site require and how will they interact with each other.

Site maps are a useful aid at this stage in illustrating your site flow through. Care and time must be taken over considering exactly what your site is going to do and how it may further develop in the future to ensure to maintain the highest return on your investment.

At web engineer we can assist by giving you ideas and suggestions over how your site should be structured based on our extensive commercial web experience, but ultimately its your decision.

The basis of a site plan will enable us to produce a proposal for supply of site development works.

Produce design brief

This process ensures you have direct control over your sites look and functionality ensuring that the most economic and efficient use is made of your money to produce the desired results. This may be as simple as describing what you like, and do not like, or you may have specific detailed requirements.

Web Engineers level of involvement at this stage of the cycle depends upon your desired level of input - whether your company has an established look and feel and criteria for media presentation, or do you require us to propose a set of designs to you.

Our customers can either supply a design brief, or we can work with you to produce one. We have a proven track record of award nominated graphic design skills and considerable experience in working to produce corporate design works. We are keen to work with clients in whichever capacity they may require.

Produce content

Your site must contain relevant information directly corresponding to your business functions. This means that sufficient time and consideration must be taken over exactly what you want to say on the web and how you want to say it. We can help to advise over how to structure your content; however you are best placed to actually produce it. Content normally consists of an amount of copy and images.

Copy lengths for pages depend upon the design brief but you can expect a minimum of 150 with typical figures between 200 and 400 words. Production of relevant copy is essential in obtaining search engine rankings.

Depending on the level of imagery you wish to include on your site, sometimes a site may require a high level of image presentation e.g. Photo libraries, while other sites are more textual in content. Remember your target audience may have slow speed internet connections - in the case of the general public - we suggest pages are optimised in size to allow high speed download even on the slowest of connections.

If search engine optimisation (SEO) is required, proposed copy is analysed for identification of Keywords. Keywords are the key to business opportunity. Copy is then analysed and reviewed to maximize potential position ranking for defined keywords. The site when ready for launch is then submitted to a selection of search engines.

We can accept images in digital format, or from high quality prints for scanning. We also provide bespoke digital photography services if required

Testing

At Web Engineer, we test all pages produces with band width restriction software. This ensures that our broadband connection can act just like a slow speed modem to ensure produced pages are suitable for the desired target audience connection speed.

We test host our sites on an in-house server mirror of our live web-server. This ensures reliable and effective deployment of your website when you are ready to go live.

Go Live

The big BANG!, How to shout about your presence on the web. Other services and costs that should be considered and why.

Have you considered your websites promotional strategies and how they will integrate with your existing advertising campaign? Things to consider include advertising your website address, search engine ranking and link exchange programs alongside your normal business promotional functions.

Manage and develop the site

After site launch, the development cycle continues - the persistent advancement of business technology provides important incentives to continually refine business practice - bear this in mind from day one.

A program of search engine position review can be provided for SEO sites, to ensure site rankings are maintained. If rankings begin to drop, site content is reviewed and corrective measures are taken to ensure a maintained high ranking.

Further reading

for further reading click here we recommend bbc webwise