Post on 22-Dec-2015
Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce© 2002 Prentice Hall
Establishing a Web Site
2 Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce© 2002 Prentice Hall
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
4 Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce© 2002 Prentice Hall
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
8 Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce© 2002 Prentice Hall
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
14 Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce© 2002 Prentice Hall
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
30 Oz – Foundations of Electronic Commerce© 2002 Prentice Hall
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