Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce© 2002 Prentice Hall

Establishing a Web Site

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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

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Domain name – the name of one’s Internet business

Domain name registrar – a firm that is licensed to assignassign domain names and to registerregister them in a global database

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Search engine – software used to find sites or pages, based on KEYWORDS Not very effective

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Index engines vs. directory engines: Index enginesIndex engines produce a list of all

sites that have the keywords in their titles or metatags

Directory enginesDirectory engines produce treelike directories based on the keywords

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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

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Titles and metatags MetatagMetatag – 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

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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

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Routine site maintenancesite 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

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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

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Cybermalls or storefronts CybermallCybermall = shopping mall on the

Web Also called a storefrontstorefront The owner of the mall develops the

pages for the hosted businesses Many local US newspapers have

added storefronts to their Web sites

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Web hosting services for businesses Web hosting servicesWeb hosting services

Primarily targeted at small businesses Provide space on servers, templates

for pages, shopping cart services, etc.

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Virtual Web server A business must have its own

registered domainregistered 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

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Using a subdomain Use a SUBDOMAINSUBDOMAIN 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

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How to select a Web host

Factors to consider

Technical support

Disk space Scalability

Content support

Email services Page design standards

Monthly fee FTP services Setup Fee

Traffic limits and fees

CGI scripts

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Maintaining your own server Personnel – must include:

Telecommunications specialists Server management software

Web designers WebmasterWebmaster

Transaction software specialists

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Content delivery networkContent delivery network – uses multiple servers that store copies of the site Also called mirroring servicesmirroring services, since

they maintain “mirrors” of the site Also called caching servicescaching services, since

they cache the most frequently requested content

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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

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Important services that must be provided by the ISP

To maximize The ISP must provide

Security Biometric identificationSurveillance cameraCaged servers

Access speed Mirror serversCached servers

Availability Load balancing

Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce© 2002 Prentice Hall

Considerations in developing a Web site

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Page design imperatives Different views Quick load Navigation A picture is worth… Providing a find mechanism

Local search engine

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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