So, you've finally designed a web site, put it 'online', and promoted it to the world.

Now what?

If your web site is promoting your business, you will want it to be the best it can be. Today's web sites are more than just static billboards advertising your product or service. For a web site to effectively promote your product or service in today's competitive marketplace you must offer your Internet customers more.

• Interaction - A web site should respond to the viewer. Thank you responses to fill out forms, order tracking, online ordering and much more. Extremely effective are mailing lists. Collect e-mail addresses from customers interested in your business and e-mail them with updated information regularly. A professional can setup software that will handle the addition and removal of names from your mailing list and even automate the "mass" e-mailing to your new clients.
• Revolving Content - It has been proven that effective web sites are the one that change regularly. Most business change information on their web sites at least once per month. If you can change content on a daily basis its that much better. Using some creative programming your web site change regularly without the need to design changes and 'uploading' to the server daily.
• Animation - People want multimedia. With this comes animated graphics. There are dozens of graphics libraries with animated graphics free for your own use. You may need something custom, however. HuronTel can assist you in finding a professional who can handle the job.
• Branding - You need to display a consistent theme throughout your web sites. Be sure your customer knows where he or she is. Small web sites aren't much problem to keep track of, but in larger web sites you will find it very time consuming to update navigation bars, logos, etc. on each and every page. Using some advanced programming features, you can create the information once and the web server will put it on the pages you specify with only a few lines of additional information!
• Statistics - Running your business online is a very effective addition to any company. However, you will eventually want to know some information about the visitors to your web site. Where are they from? What time of day are the visiting? Is your web site visible to the world at all times? Special log analyzer programs are available as are services that track web site availability. A professional Internet consultant can also assist you with these type of options, generally less expensive that if you had to purchase the software and services on your own.

What you Need: You'll need to learn various programming languages. PHP, ASP, Flash, and Javascript programming are all the top choices of web site professionals. In addition to learning the programming languages, you'll also need to learn skills in programming for networks - to ensure your web program doesn't 'crash' as multiple users try to access it.

If you can't spare someone to learn programming on a full time basis, you will need to hire some outside assistance. HuronTel has a certified web professional capable of helping you. Email us at webdev@hurontel.on.ca to inquire.