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Web Design and Website Development

The Internet is here to stay. No matter what business sector or industry you're in, Internet and web technologies are more than likely to play a very important role in your future. Whether you are looking for a simple brochure website, a corporate website, custom database or software applications, we can provide you with a solution that will help you achieve your business goals. We offer professional web design and web development services and consultancy in relation to any of this. Our web development services include the setup, design, promotion and maintenance of your website. We support all known technologies for coding web pages and server-side web programming and are able to implement special web site features you might require. Our web design services are completed by graphic and flash design services and extend to audio and video productions.

We provide website development and maintenance for companies and organisations throughout the whole of Europe. Please have a look at our Portfolio for some of our web development projects.

We can help you if you want to have a website, be it a static little brochure site or a fully-fledged corporate site with E-commerce facilities and intranet areas.

We can identify your needs, outline the costs involved in developing and running a website, and take you all the way from picking and registering your domain name, selecting an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for your web hosting requirements, design and setup your website, implement any special website feature you might require, help promoting and marketing your website and provide maintenance and support once your website is up and running.

We are also more than happy to update, redesign or modify parts or all of any existing website which has come a bit of age or is missing certain features or functions.

When it comes to the development of websites, we favour solutions which separate the design (page templates, style sheets) from the contents (content management systems, CMS) and keep organisatorial data about the website structure as easily managable as possible. This allows for the quick and efficient addition and modification of content and navigational elements (menus). With this approach, the page design can be centralized, and even complex design modifications such as the changing of color schemes for the whole website or the placement and population of menus can be done in minutes rather than hours or even days.

We are fully aware of any web-related technical constraints such as download times and operating system and web browser incompatibilities and how these might compromise the accessibility and usability of your website. We take such constraints into consideration and design your website so it can reach the widest possible web audience.

Website Features and Functions

The features you might want or need for your website are strongly dependent on the type of your website and/or your business, the purpose of your website and its target audience. We can implement any commonly known website features in any flavour you might require. This includes:

• contact and inquiry forms with automated Email and database feedback
• content management systems (CMS)
• message boards
• E-Commerce systems (online ordering systems with online payment, shopping carts, etc.)
• customer relationship management (CRM) modules and applications
• newsticker and automated newsfeeds
• Intranets and protected client areas
• template-based and database-driven sites and/or site areas
• interactive and dynamic pages
• database integration
• multi-lingual site and page concepts
• download managers with access control for documents, software, audio/video files, etc.
• etc.

Web Development Technologies

We have the technical background and the practical experience necessary to develop impressive websites using a wide range of technologies.

The technologies (i.e., markup languages, script and programming languages, etc.) we are currently using and/or supporting for client-side (front-end, browser-side) development include:

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
• XHTML (eXtensible HTML)
• DHTML (Dynamic HTML)
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
• DOM (Document Object Model)
• JavaScript (ECMAScript), JScript
• XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
• AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And Xml)
• Java (Applets)
• .NET Framework
• WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), WML (Wireless Markup Language)
• I-Mode, CHTML (Compact HTML)
• web-optimised graphic formats (JPEG, GIF, Animated GIF, PNG, etc.)
• Flash, ActionScript
• SGML (Structured Generalized Markup Language)
• VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language)
• etc.

For server-side (back-end) development we are currently using and/or supporting technologies (i.e., script and programming languages) such as:

• PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor)
• ASP (Active Server Pages)
• CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language)
• CGI/Perl
• SSI (Server Side Includes), XSSI (eXtended SSI)
• Java (Servlets), JSP (Java Server Pages)
• XML (eXtensible Markup Language), XPath, XSLT
• .NET (C++, C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, etc.)
• etc.

We support all popular database systems when it comes to the implementation of database applications, the management of database contents and the integration of databases to your website:

• MySQL
• ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity)
• IBM DB2
• Oracle
• Sybase
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft Access
• PostgreSQL
• Informix
• etc.

We are developing software solutions for both Microsoft Windows and Linux/Unix operating systems and the various web servers (Apache, MS-IIS, etc.) which run on these systems. If necessary, we can provide back-end, intranet and offline programming solutions using high-level programming languages such as C/C++, .NET, Java, MFC, etc.

The importance of keeping a website updated is often underestimated. The majority of websites require content updates and technical reviews on a more or less regular basis. Contact information changes, event calendar updates, product and price list updates, job openings, exchange rate adjustments, and complementary and accompanying information for newspaper and/or tv advertisment campaigns etc. are just some of the more obvious examples.

The more substantial content a website provides the higher is its relevance for search engine rankings. Adding press releases, press articles and/or media reviews about your company and your services and products not only increases the amount of web content, such articles usually also contribute greatly to the set of keywords a search engine can scan for indexing your web pages.

Your website visitors are far more likely to return to your website, if they can see that is well maintained and always provides the latest information about your products and services.

If you intend to develop your web presence step by step and expand and grow it over time and in tune with your budget and the success and growing demands and requirements of your web presence then we are more than happy to work at your pace.

If you wish to maintain your website in-house, we would be pleased to assist you by providing your staff with the necessary training.

We also specialise in Content Management and can custom build Content Management Systems (CMS) or setup off-the-shelf CMS systems to enable non-technical staff to securely and effectively manage your web content without having to know (much) about HTML, programming languages, graphic design, etc.

A content management system can be a costly feature, though, especially if you want your website to stand out and the system has to be tailored to your specific needs. This might not be a cost-effective solution if your updates are only occasional or of a generally minor nature. Should this be the case, then we offer affordable and efficient outsourced web maintenance services to ensure that your website is reliably updated. You just have to send us the updated information by Email, fax, or post or communicate it through the phone, and we will speedily (same day, same hour, ...) make the necessary changes.

It is also not unusual to have a combined solution, i.e., content management for frequently changing sections of the website and outsourced maintenance for the sections of the website which are less likely to be changed very often.

The best website isn't worth anything if no one ever visits it. All too often, the importance of Internet marketing and website promotion is overlooked. We want to have satisfied clients and customers who are happy to recommend our services. It is therefore in our very interest that your website is successful and returns your investment as quickly as possible. We never get tired to emphasize the importance of website marketing and to point out the possibilities for promoting your website and how to analayze and measure the success rates of website marketing campaigns. Of course, we also encourage your own marketing ideas and concepts and implement them speedily.

The Basics

Website marketing starts with the inclusion of your web and email addresses on your business cards, letter heads, phone book and golden/yellow pages entries, email signatures, product and company brochures, shop windows, delivery vans, etc. Simply put, your email and web addresses should go everywhere where you would usually put your phone and fax number or other such contact details.

Search Engines

The vast majority of all web searches are carried out on only some 10 to 20 of the most popular search engines (e.g., Google). It is crucial to get listed there, and if possible get highly ranked in those listings.

The relevance of a web page for specific search queries and the way a search engine displays information about a page in its search result listings depend on a series of factors such as the page title, the amount and quality of the text on the page, the use of search words and/or phrases in the page's text and so-called meta tags which - invisible to the human viewer of the page - contain short page descriptions and keywords. We take care that each web page is coded in a search engine friendly way, with a proper page title and relevant meta tags. We also apply concepts for displaying links, menus and navigational elements which enable search engines to find and index all pages of your website once it entered your homepage or any of your other web pages.

Once your website is online, we submit it to those of the most important search engines which provide free of charge submission services. Some of these search engines require repeated submissions on a more or less regular basis to allow for high rankings. We can manage ongoing search engine submission processes to ensure your site is continually indexed and ranked.

Unfortunately, some of the major search engine operators (e.g., Yahoo!) recently introduced fees for including websites to their databases. In return they promise a quick and reliable inclusion of your site, something you cannot necessarily expect when using free search engine submission services. We can give you advise about paid inclusion search engines and directories and enable you to successfully submit to those which are relevant and/or important for your website.

If your business or your products and/or services target a regional or niche market then it is advisable to get listed on search engines and directories which are targeted accordingly. We can submit your site to specialist or regional directories to ensure that your online presence is strong within any applicable regional, niche or specialist markets.

Web Access Statistics und Web Traffic Analysis

Most commercially operating web hosting companies provide you regularily with some basic web access statistics pages, which usually give you an impression as to how the overall popularity of your website is developing. If your ISP provides the original web access logs (most ISPs do) then it is possible to create a much more specific and comprehensive analysis of your web traffic.

The information which can be retrieved from web access log files is surprisingly comprehensive:

• how many pages, files, have been accessed in any given year, month, week, day, etc.
• which of your website areas, pages, files, etc. are accessed most, least, how often, etc.
• which amount of data was when transferred to your visitors through which website section or file type(s)
• which are the most or least frequented weekdays or hours of the day
• where are your website visitors coming from (which countries, organisations or even companies)
• which are the pages through which visitors enter your website, which are those from which they leave your website
• which search engines and/or search engine queries send visitors to which of your web pages
• which operating systems and/or web browsers are being used by your website visitors
• etc.

All this information can be filtered, merged and combined in whichever way imaginable, and it is possible to put it into tables and/or graphic charts for easy viewing. We are happy to compile and prepare your web access statistics sporadically or on a regular basis and provide it in the format of your choice.

The following list provides examples of some of the work which typically comes with web development projects and the preparation of web contents. We won't charge extra if these tasks are outlined as part of a complete website project. However, we are happy to take specific orders for these tasks if you already have a website and need any of this done.

• scanning, converting, preparing, and optimizing your graphic images (company logos, product illustrations, location maps, etc.) for use on web pages
• converting your documents (brochures, MS-Word files, Excel spread sheets, PowerPoint presentations, etc.) into HTML web pages or into downloadable Adobe PDF files
• creating animated graphics (GIF Animations, Flash, DHTML animations, etc.)
• producing and/or preparing web-enabled multimedia files (MP3, MPEG, Midi, GIF animations, Flash, streaming audio and/or video, etc.)
• web page translations (English/German, German/English, others on request)
• converting web content into offline content (e.g., company or product brochures, interactive presentations for conference lectures or for publishing on CD/DVD, etc.)

As owner of a business website you want to make sure not to miss any important basic information which might help to make your website commercially successful. We recommend the following literature if you are thinking about setting up a website or if you are already running a business and/or E-Commerce website.

• Web Development Services Portfolio
• Software Development Services

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Web Design and Website Development • © 2023 Manfred Baumeister • Updated: 29 October 2008, 14:16 [UTC]