Jun 09
10
Some web companies consist of individuals or teams of people with only one skill set. This skill set is usually web site design. By this we mean individuals or teams who can make a site look visually appealing without any consideration for security, search engine rankings, who visits your site and where/why they leave and sometimes even navigation of your site.
While the look of your site is important, there are also a number of technical considerations to ensure you gain maximum benefits from a web site. There is no point having a nice looking web site if no one can find it on the Internet and you have no idea about how many visitors your site receives.
A web designer should not be responsible for the technical tasks and likewise the technical team should not be responsible for the visual design of your site. There should also be a search engine optimisation/online marketing person in the team.
Typically a web design company will tell you that you must host your web site on their servers for maximum returns. They neglect to inform you that the maximum returns are not for you the customer but for the web design company itself in terms of revenue gathering.
If your design company use a proprietary system that allows you to make updates to your web site, then you will essentially be stuck with your company for ever. Make sure your design company use an open source system that can be moved from one server to another.
An example of the need to move will be if your web design company cease to exist, prices are raised high due to the monopoly or you become unhappy with the customer services provided.
Often Web design companies resell hosting space on behalf of a dedicated web hosting company and usually at a greater price than you could pay directly for the service from the hosting company. If this is the case, be aware that there could be long delays in gaining customer support – if any support at all. Many resellers offer no or very little technical support.
The same is true for your domain name. Many web design companies offer to register your domain name so you do not have to worry about the technical issues. If you can read and write English then there are no technical issues except maybe writing the name of the server where your web site is at. Something like ns3.netmania.co.nz . Reputable hosting companies have this information available on their web site or freely offer the information.
Some companies whom register your domain name will add their contact details to your domain name in the technical, and admin fields. But some will also add their details to the registrant (domain name owner) field. Hence you will not own your company domain name.
To check your .nz domain name visit http://www.dnc.org.nz . If you do not own your own domain name our advise is to talk with the company that registered your domain name first. If you can not solve the issue there, there are solutions at the www.dnc.org.nz web site.
