248 – Business Websites
I was hired to set up a website for a small bookstore and the owner knew very little about the Internet. I tried to find out what she wanted for her business website.
Octavio: Let me show you some websites I’ve designed. I have them all bookmarked. Okay, this is a website for a restaurant. As you can see, the homepage is fairly simple. The menu bar on the left-hand side allows visitors to navigate around the site.
Margaret: I like this layout a lot. Why are these words in a different color?
Octavio: Those are hyperlinks to other pages on the website. If you click on the text or the image, you’ll be taken to a different page.
Margaret: Oh, I see, so for my site, I can list the books I have for sale, and we can hyperlink each book title to a description of that book.
Octavio: Yes, that’s right. You’ll probably also want a search function so that people can type in the name of a book or the author to find out if you carry a specific book.
Margaret: Yes, definitely. Does it matter which browser customers use to look at my website?
Octavio: No, I’ll make sure that it’s compatible with all of the major browsers out there.
Margaret: Will people need to type in “www” before the web address?
Octavio: No, they should be able to just type in the name of the store and the domain, which in your case would be “.com.”
Margaret: Since I know so little about the Internet, do I have to learn HTML or some other type of computer language to maintain the site?
Octavio: No, not at all. Your website will have content management software installed that allows you to make basic changes. Once it’s done, I’ll show you how to use it. Should we look at a few more websites to get some other ideas for your site?
Margaret: That’s a great idea. Let’s do that.