WEBSITE ADMINISTRATION

 Websites need a home – called a server  Hosting can be Internal or External  Internal You house and maintain the web server Typically more expensive Requires experienced technical knowledge

 External Someone else owns and maintains the server Multiple websites on the same server Most internet service providers (ISPs) offer hosting services. Also local hosting businesses.

 Hosting Service Considerations  Support for the software and programming language used to design your website  Web space or storage space needed  Bandwidth – speed and amount of data you can transmit  Back-up services  Other software offered Shopping carts, s, forums, blogs, etc.

 Domain name is your internet address/identity.  Typically the business name Univ. of Dodoma –  Can be a product name Mountain Dew – product of PepsiCo, Inc

 Two parts  Label  Extension  google.com  Possible extensions .com,.net,.org,.edu,.gov,.info,.biz labelextension Domain Name Registrars The popular registrars: Local registrars

 Two options  Stand alone website Ex.  Your website is part of a larger website Ex.  Before you deploy your website, you will have first to register for a domain name.  a default page will be visible when someone tries to open the site before you upload your site.

 Users generally prefer names to numbers.  Computers prefer numbers to names.  DNS provides the mapping between the two  I have “x”, give me “y”  DNS is what Internet users use to reference anything by name on the Internet  You type the words, the computer do the rest for you.

 Example:  Typing on the browser will lead to your computer contacting a DNS server and ask it who is  The DNS will perform a lookup and return the answer (which is an IP address for UDOM).  The IP address is then used by the browser anywhere on the world to reach the server that hosts UDOM website.

 After completing the implementation and testing of your website on the development machine, you have to transfer your pages to the web server so that the website will be accessible over the internet.  Website publishing involves the process of uploading web pages onto the web server.

 There are two ways mostly used to achieve this:  Physically delivering your web files onto the web server site and copy them to your website folder.  Uploading the files to the server using file transfer protocols.  The most popular file transfer protocol used for this purpose is FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

 An FTP program simply provides you with an easy way to select files on your computer's hard drive (your pages and corresponding files/folders), and copy them over to your hosting account on the web server.  A popular open source FTP client is FileZilla program.

FileZilla client

 Note that, files uploaded onto the web server can be updated/deleted during web site maintenance.  To edit the content, either the local file you still have on your development computer can be edited and then uploaded to replace the old one at the server, or use FTP to access the live one, perform changes and save directly onto the server.

 The process of ensuring the website is up-to- date and accessible.  Arises from the need to keep your website up-to-date and error free  You can do this yourself or hire it to be done  Note that, people stop visiting websites with incorrect, out of date, or old information.

 Website maintenance keeps your website “alive” with planned and ongoing maintenance.  Continued improvements and maintenance are key to a successful website.  Maintenance can be  Corrective  Adaptive  Perfective  Preventive  Taking backups (pages/data)

 Maintenance Issues:  Data updates :- Information has a limited life span of usefulness. When users encounter outdated content on a website, that site loses credibility and is less likely to receive repeated visits  Change improvements to layout and design :- Continued use and feedback from users will reveal necessary changes in information presentation and the structure of navigation

 Maintenance Issues: (cont…)  Reflection of changes in parent business :- The entity behind the website (owner/business) is not static and thus its website can not remain static and still be effective.  Alignment of presentation with competitors :- Effective website maintenance requires continuous research and review of sites against which the site will be compared.

 Maintenance Issues: (cont…)  Repair broken or outdated links :- Broken links can be the greatest source of user frustration.  Monitor and respond to user needs  Incorporation of new technologies :- Website designers should continuously monitor and examine the relative usefulness of new technologies as they become available.

 Key roles in website maintenance:  Presenters :- oversee the direction, web strategy and funding of the website. Works with other personnel to guide the growth of the site.  Information Stewards :- Responsible for website content and its validity as it pertains to the business functions.

 Key roles in website maintenance:  Designers :- Responsible for making changes recommended by presenters and/or information stewards.  Webmaster :- Responsible for keeping the website up and running after it is online. This person usually has a link to the posted on the website and thus acts as a primary user contact, directing user needs and requests to the appropriate parties.

 Involves observing certain aspects of the website such as appearance in search engines, site hits, site visitors, traffic on the site and so on.  Use information from web monitoring to decide on necessary updates  Is the website being found? What are you best sources of traffic to your site?  Are people leaving quickly? No hits on sub-pages – visitors ends on the front page

 Monitoring methods  Logs – that keeps track of website activities.  Visits – the number of visits per time interval.  Hits – how many times the website is found through other channels such as search engines.  Cookies – keeping small tracking data on users browsers.  Utilize website monitoring software  Provided by hosting services  Purchase your own