Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall Establishing a Web Site

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall2 Learning Objectives Select and register domain names for Web sites Register a Web site with search engines Select a hosting company for a Web site Explain what is required to maintain one’s own Web server Appreciate good Web site design principles and know how to avoid design pitfalls

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall Domain Name Selection and Registration

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall4 Domain name – the name of one’s Internet business assign register Domain name registrar – a firm that is licensed to assign domain names and to register them in a global database

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall5 Domain names must be associated with an Internet server They must have an IP number A top-level domain (TLD) usually indicates the general purpose of the business

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall6 How to register? Check for domain name availability If a server is not already chosen, it is possible to “park” the domain name on the registrar’s server

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall7 Selecting domain names Register all domain names that are similar in spelling or sound Register the same name with several TLDs.com,.net, country-level domains, etc. The domain name should be as closely related to the name of the business as possible

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall8 New Domain Name Suffixes for the Net New TLDs: Seven new TLDs were selected by ICANN in late 2000:.info.biz.name.pro.coop.museum.aero

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall The search engine landscape

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall10 Search engine – software used to find sites or pages, based on KEYWORDS Not very effective

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall11 Index engines vs. directory engines: Index engines Index engines produce a list of all sites that have the keywords in their titles or metatags Directory engines Directory engines produce treelike directories based on the keywords

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall12 Registering with search engines “submit URL” links vs. human registrars Manual registration vs. using search- submission services Submitting keywords Determine the position of the URL in searches

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall13 Titles and metatags Metatag Metatag – an HTML tag that identifies the contents of a Web page Does not appear on screen Web crawler (aka spider or bot ) – program that visits sites and reads their pages Creates keywords Usually visit sites registered with the search engine

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall14 Search engine checklist Include the most important keywords in the homepage’s title The higher the keywords appear on the page, the better Tables and JavaScript code placed before metatags push the text further down, and may result in a lower ranking

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall15 site maintenance Routine site maintenance checklist: Stay current Watch your competitors Blow your horn Keep registering Update metatags Take advantage of software tools

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall Connecting to a server

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall17 Your own server Most expensive option Greatest degree of control ISPs offer low-fee or free space for individual or business site Large portals host personal and small business web sites

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall18 Cybermalls or storefronts Cybermall Cybermall = shopping mall on the Web storefront Also called a storefront The owner of the mall develops the pages for the hosted businesses Many local US newspapers have added storefronts to their Web sites

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall19 Web hosting services for businesses Web hosting services Web hosting services Primarily targeted at small businesses Provide space on servers, templates for pages, shopping cart services, etc.

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall20 Virtual Web server registered domain A business must have its own registered domain The registration authority associates the domain name with another company’s server The business may switch servers by asking the domain name registration authority to update its database The URL stays the same

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall21 Using a subdomain SUBDOMAIN Use a SUBDOMAIN as an alternative to registering its own domain name Use the services of a hosting company Disadvantages: The domain name contains the name of another entity The URL is associated with a single server

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall22 How to select a Web host Factors to consider Technical supportDisk spaceScalability Content support servicesPage design standards Monthly feeFTP servicesSetup Fee Traffic limits and fees CGI scripts

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall23 Maintaining your own server Personnel – must include: Telecommunications specialists Server management software Web designers Webmaster Webmaster Transaction software specialists

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall24 Content delivery network Content delivery network – uses multiple servers that store copies of the site mirroring services Also called mirroring services, since they maintain “mirrors” of the site caching services Also called caching services, since they cache the most frequently requested content

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall25 ISP services Load balancing – requests are routed evenly among the servers used by the ISP Colocation – the client company owns the servers, but they are maintained at the ISP’s location

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall26 Important services that must be provided by the ISP To maximizeThe ISP must provide SecurityBiometric identification Surveillance camera Caged servers Access speedMirror servers Cached servers AvailabilityLoad balancing

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall Considerations in developing a Web site

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall28 Avoiding mistakes Not knowing the purpose Designing for top management A site that mirrors the organizational structure Outsourcing to multiple agencies Forgetting to budget for maintenance

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall29 Treating the Web as a secondary medium Wasting linking opportunities Confusing market research and usability engineering Usability engineering – the effort to design Web pages that are easy to navigate and that make information easy to absorb

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall30 Building in growth Scaling up a site: Speed up the site’s connection to the Internet Increase the server’s storage capacity or add servers Server farms Expand the capabilities of the database Reconfigure the software

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall31 Application server vs. database server Database server – holds and manages the databases (product catalogs, customer records, etc.) Application server – handles the applications that allow users to interact with the site

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall32 Page design imperatives Different views Quick load Navigation A picture is worth… Providing a find mechanism Local search engine

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall33 Frames Flashing and other tricks Consistency and proper presentation Flexible sizing For the disabled No “work in progress”

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce © 2002 Prentice Hall Establishing a Web Site