DESIGN AND BUILD

WebPresenceDesignLab works with you to design, develop and deploy your home on the web.  From the domain name through to hosting, we will tailor a solution that meets your needs and budget.

You have a tremendous idea or existing business, but no matter how earth shattering that idea or business is, if you don't have the ability to communicate it to the outside world it's unlikely to succeed.

It has been said, by people smarter than ourselves, that a business without a website is like winking at a beautiful girl on a darkened dance floor.  You know you did it but nobody else does, so what's the point?

WebPresenceDesignLab first starting building websites in 1997 with raw HTML coding.  Over the years, we have developed skills in various newer technologies including Dreamweaver, Flash, CSS, Wordpress and Joomla.  In addition, WPDL has close ties with PHP and Javascript developers.

There are various types and styles of websites and each of them serves a different purpose or targets a different audience.  All sites are not built equal and nor should they be.  Here are a few examples of the different types of websites out there:

• Basic (Static) Site

This is the original style of website where the content remains the same with occasional minor updates.  Although it is the original and there are newer sites out there, that doesn't mean that sites such as this no longer have value, far from it.  These sites are often the simplest to put together and can be really cost effective. This is suitable for a small or simple business and can be used as an online brochure or catalogue of your businesses products or services, a kind of 24/7 sales representative.

• Flash Site

Flash built websites are often very creative and give visitors a more appealing visual experience. Flash sites are good for showing off products or a gallery of photo's etc. but also allow interactivity between the visitor and the website. With Flash sites you can create stunning visual effects but you need to ensure that you still have content for visitors who don't have the ability to view your Flash content such as iPhone users.

• Sales (E-Commerce) Site

This can be simple or complex depending on the number of products you offer and how much automation and reporting you need the site to do.  This can be an extension of the static website (see above).  As an example of how the complexity can change, consider the following:

• Perhaps you sell one product and need a way to accept orders through your website, this can be achieved very simply and linked to a "checkout service" such as Paypal or Google Checkout.

• If you have a large number of products in different categories and need to be able to allow customers to accumulate a shopping cart of items before they actually checkout either through a third party service (on a third party site) or on your own site (using third party authentication).

• Maybe you have digital content such as software, music or training that you want to make available for download once a customer has paid.

•  Authority Site

An authority site is more of a status you wish to achieve with your website as opposed to the site itself, however, the site has to support your goals.  Think of an authority site as Wikipedia for a specific topic.  For example, maybe you want to establish yourself as THE source for information on widgets (why is it always widgets?).  To do this your site would need to contain lots and lots (and lots) of content about widgets.  Top 10's, definitions, glossaries, video, links etc.  As you can probably see this type of site is more about providing content.  Once you have established yourself as an authority on a particular subject, you may wish to turn it into a membership site (see below).

• Membership Site

Similar to an authority site, a membership site has a slightly different focus.  Rather than simply providing information to your readers, you provide a forum for readers to interact with both yourself and other readers. This might mean the addition of forum, chat rooms or even the ability for readers to submit reviews of your products.

• Blog Site

 
A blog site can be incorporated into all of the above sites but really serves the purpose of sharing an online diary or general musings.

Many other types of sites exist, for more information click here.