Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

2. Chapter Objectives • Explain how to test a Web site before it is published • Describe how to publish a Web site to a Web server • Identifyways to promote a published Web site • Discuss the importance of maintaining and evaluating a published Web site Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

3. Testing a Web Site Before Publishing • Self-Testing • Page display – different browsers and platforms • Image display – verify file names and locations • Alternate text descriptions – display when imagesturned off • Internal links – functional before upload • External links – WYSIWYG can check automatically • Satisfy WAI guidelines – HTML validator • After conducting self-testing, correct any identified problems

4. Web Site Testing More on Web • Group Testing • Group - people representative of target audience, take notes on the following items • What appeals to group • What disinterests group • Time spent on various pages • Visited / ignored links • Ease of navigation • Demonstration of confusion or annoyance Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

5. Testing a Web Site Before Publishing • Questionnaire • candid opinions about experience on your Web site • Did find site interesting and content valuable? • What could improve the Web site? • What should be added or deleted? • What helped or hampered navigation? • Would they return to the Web site?

6. Your Turn! (page 185)Exploring How to Organize a Test Group Review the audienceprofile you developed for your Web site that should include age range, gender, educational background, geographic location, careers, income levels, and lifestyles. Review the identified targetaudienceneeds, wants, and expectations for site content. Identifyindividuals you know who match your target audience’s profile. Ask the identified individuals and other interested parties, such as friends, family members, and fellowstudents to participate in the group testing of your Web site. Develop a questionnaire for the testers in which they can express their candid opinions about their experiences on your Web site. Note: Classroom Students: Print out 4 hard copies of your questionnaire to share with the other members of your assigned group.

7. Publishing the Web Site More on Web 3 Things Required before making Web site live • Acquiring server space • Obtaining a domain name • Uploading your Web site

8. Acquiring Server Space • All files must be uploaded to a Web server • Client-side vs. server-side functions • client – take place in user’s browser • server – take place on remote server (script) • Server space is available from • ISPs and OSPs • Free hosting services • ISP – advertisements • College web server • Online communities • MSN Web Communities • Yahoo! GeoCities

9. Acquiring Server Space • Consider the following • Monthly fee • Server space allotted, additional space cost • Naming conventions for files • .htm or .html, home page called index or default • Downtime for maintenance / backing up • E-commerce / Multimedia / SSL support • additional fees • FTP software • Extra capabilities • FrontPage or Office Server Extensions, CGI or ASP, mailing lists • Technical Support

10. Acquiring Server Space Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

11. Uploading Your Web Site • Transmitting all files that comprise your Web site to the Internet • Three methods • FTP applications • WYSIWYG software • Web folders

12. FTP Client More on Web • Used to transferfiles using the FTP protocol • Provides a familiar GUI • Must add the name and URL of the remotecomputer, plus your assigned username and password Localcomputer remotecomputer Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

13. FTP Applications • Used to transfer files on the Internet • FTP Requires • Site name • Host/IP/URL • Host type • Username and password • do not upload unnecessary source files • image or word processing files typical informationneeded by FTPapplications

14. WYSIWYG Editor • Allows you to upload your Web sitedirectly from within the program • Microsoft Expression Web • Eliminates the need for a separateFTPclient • FTP program is built in • can identify specific files to publish • can publish only files that have changed Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

15. Command-Line Interface More on Web • Non-graphical window • Opened by typingthe cmdcommandin the Searchbox • Type the FTPcommands necessary to logon and upload Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

16. Retesting Published Pages • Confirm that all imagesdisplayproperly. • Makecertain that nobrokenlinks exist • Ensure all interactive elements, such as forms, are functioning properly • If any changes are necessary, correct the page file(s) on your local computer and then upload the corrected page file to the server Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

17. Web Site Promotion • It is important to announce your presence on the Web • Online promotional techniques • Search tools • Search tool submission services • Affiliate programs • Link exchange programs • Online advertising networks • Web-industry awards • Opt-in e-mail advertising Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

18. Online Promotional Techniques More on Web • Search Engines • Maintain a database of sites on the Web • Equivalent of having your name and number listed in the Yellow Pages • Meta tags increase the chances of your site appearing in search results • Spiders and robots search the Web for new sites periodically • You can register with some search engines free of charge • Search engine optimization(SEO) increases the possibility that your page will appear as a searchresult Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

19. Online Promotional Techniques More on Web • Search Tool Submission Services • Business that will register your site with multiplesearchengines • Pick one that registers your site with the mostfrequentlyusedsearchtools Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

20. Your Turn! (page 193)Exploring Paid or Sponsored Placement Online Advertising Visit the Web Design Chapter 7 Online Companion Web page (scsite.com/web3e/ch7/ ) and click links in the Your Turn section to reviewthreepaid or sponsoredadvertising programs: Google Adwords Yahoo! Small Business Search Advertising Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions Assume that you are part of the design and development team for a midsized e-commerce company. Your manager instructs you to recommend a paid or sponsoredplacementprogram for the company. Using your research, draft a recommendation based on price, services offered, and other significant program features and submit it to your instructor. Note: A table in Word, or a spreadsheet in Excel, might be the easiest way to do the comparisons.

21. Online Promotional Techniques More on Web • Affiliate Programs • Advertiser pays a fee on sales generated by visitors driven to the site by links on publishers • Affiliate management networks • DoubleClick Performics Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

22. Online Promotional Techniques More on Web • Link Exchange Programs • Reciprocal Links • Two Web site owners informally agree to put a link to each other’s site on their Web pages • Link exchange sites allow you to choose other sites with which you can exchange reciprocal links Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

23. Online Promotional Techniques More on Web • Online Advertising Networks • Brings together companies that want to purchaseonlineadvertising and companies that want to sellads on their sites • Bannerads and Sidebarads • Click-through • Pop-up ads and pop-under ads • Floating ads, Flashmovie ads, and rich media ads Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

24. Web-Based Marketing • Banner Advertising • Intent is to motivate viewers to click the ad, which takes them to an advertiser’s Web site • Two methods of fee determination • Click-through – number of times ad clicked • Impression – viewing of Web page on which banner ad is placed • Banner Exchange Sites • Similar to link exchange sites • Usually a free service

25. Online Promotional Techniques More on Web Banner ad’s linktarget page Floating ad Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

26. Online Promotional Techniques • Web-Industry Awards • Winners’ pages are featured on the sponsoring site • Beneficial to Web sites only if they come from a credible source • Webby Award • Web Marketing Association Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

27. Online Promotional Techniques More on Web • Opt-in E-mail Advertising • Also called permission-based e-mail advertising • Recipient must formally agree to receiveadvertising • The recipient gets information he or she wants, and the advertiser can send a targetedmessage • Unsolicitede-mail advertising is called spam Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

28. Online Promotional Techniques • E-Mail Newsletters and Mailing Lists • Have potential to market your Web site easily • Inform visitors of new products and services • Newsletter should be personable, engaging, and free of errors • Always provide a way to unsubscribe from the e-mail newsletter • Mailing listcollection of e-mail names and addresses given a single name • LISTSERVs – named given to lists, well-known mailing list software product

29. Traditional Promotional Methods More on Web • Word of mouth • Telling people about your site • Print • URL appears on printed materials • Promotional Items • Magnets, coffee mugs, coasters, pens, etc. Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

30. Web Site Maintenance and Evaluation More on Web • Ongoing Maintenance, Updating, and Retesting • Evaluating Web Site Performance • Add changing, timely content • Check for broken links, and add new links • Document the last reviewed date on Web pages • Include a mechanism for gathering user feedback, and act on that feedback • Identify benchmark and resource Web sites • Evaluate and implement new technologies • Retest site features periodically Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

31. Maintaining and Updating the Web Site • Steps for updating • Download the desired Web page from the server to your computer • Update the downloaded Web page • Load the Web page into a browser and check the changes and the page display • If the changes and the page display are acceptable, then upload the updated page to the server

32. Web Site Maintenance and Evaluation • Evaluating Web Site Performance • Benchmarking • Web server log analysis • Web server log analysis software • Web analytics (also called Web metrics) • Unique vs. repeat visitor • Page views – determines page popularity • Click-stream analysis – how a visitor moves through a site • Conversionrate – rate at which a visitor becomes a buyer of site’s products or services Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

33. Indicators reported by most web log analyzers • Number of visits and number of unique visitors • Visits duration and last visits • Authenticated users, and last authenticated visits • Days of week and rush hours • Domains/countries of host's visitors • Hosts list • Number total page views • Most viewed, entry and exit pages • Files type • OS used • Browsers used • Robots • HTTP referrer • Search engines, key phrases and keywords used to find the analyzed web site • HTTP errors • Some of the log analyzers also report on who's on the site, conversion tracking and page navigation. Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site 33

34. Chapter Summary • Explain how to test a Web site before it is published • Describe how to publish a Web site to a Web server • Identifyways to promote a published Web site • Discuss the importance of maintaining and evaluating a published Web site Chapter 7: Promoting and Maintaining a Web Site

35. Case Study # 7 Case Study Page 209 Do steps 1-5 test, publish, and promote your own Web site. See assignment web page for details.