One of the most common questions we receive is, "How do I create a website?" This blog series is a response to that question. It is intended to be a simple and easy guide that will walk you through the entire process from start to finish.

Today we'll cover the second step in the website creation process:

Determine the Best Software For Your Project

Not all website creation software is built equally, and each software package brings a different feature set to the table. It's important to decide what software your website will be built on before you begin creating content. Follow this guide to determine what your options are so that you can make an informed decision.

There are two basic types of website authoring software: desktop publishing suites, and content management systems. Desktop publishing suites are software packages that you physically download to your local computer. Content management systems are software packages that you install on your hosting account and access in a web browser.

Desktop Publishing Suites

Publishing a website via software that you install on your personal computer is the most traditional and simple method of creating a website. The advantage of this type of software is that you can design your website on your local computer before putting it live on the web. These software suites are generally easier to use, but the trade-off is that they are not good for complex tasks such as e-Commerce. Here are a few recommended software suites:

Dreamweaver CS5: Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 is by far the most widely-used web authoring software on the market. It's a feature-rich suite that includes a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) design aspect, direct access to the raw code, templates, and more. Dreamweaver is a great product for experienced web designers who wish to automate repetitive tasks. It is not recommended for inexperienced website publishers.

KompoZer and Sea Monkey: KompoZer and SeaMonkey are two open source web authoring suites that are widely used in the open source community. I list them together because they are both developed from the same source, the original Mozilla Suite. Both are good options for experienced web designers, but I would not recommend either to inexperienced users.

SoftPress Freeway: Mac OS X only. Freeway is a WYSIWYG web design program that is extremely easy to use. SoftPress offers a less expensive version for light users called Freeway Express. Freeway is a great option for users of any experience level.

Realmac Software's RapidWeaver: Mac OS X only. RapidWeaver is a web authoring program that relies on theme templates. Web designers from around the world create templates for RapidWeaver. There are a number of plugins available from third party developers that allow you to extend the functionality far past what is included in the default installation. RapidWeaver's one of the easiest tools for new users. It literally allows you to plug your content in and publish a working website.

Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems, usually referred to as CMS's, are software packages that you install on your hosting account. These software suites run on your web host's server. The advantage of this is that you can update and manage your website anywhere in the world. The disadvantage is that you must have an internet connection to work on your website. CMS's are the best option for anyone publishing a complex website. I'll break the most popular content management systems down by category.

Blogs

WordPress: WordPress is by far the most popular CMS and blogging tool. It's popular for a good reason: WordPress is one of the most customizable content management systems in existence. It's also extremely easy to use. It's so widely-established that a number of large companies use it including CNN, Yahoo, Lafayette College, MTV, and Smashing Magazine.

Movable Type: Movable Type is one of the most established CMS's on the market. It offers both an open source version that is absolutely free, and a commercial version backed by Six Apart, an established web design, development, and creation firm. Movable Type has a higher learning curve for new users, but it often produces more professional results than its competitors. Noted users of Movable Type include the Washington Post, National Geographic, multiple NBC websites, and multiple NPR websites. Movable Type is the darling CMS of the media industry.

All-Inclusive CMS

Joomla: Joomla is the most popular web authoring CMS on the market. It's open source, and free to download. It's possible to build a website that does just about anything with Joomla. Extensions allow you to create a highly complex website. The same Joomla installation can support a large professional website, a multi-user blog, an internal file sharing tool, a large eCommerce store, and etc. The learning curve is at the medium level for new users. I recommend WordPress over Joomla for most users, but power users will love Joomla.

Drupal: Drupal is the techie CMS. It's a complex, do-everything content management system with a high learning curve. Drupal is used as the back-end for corporate websites, college websites, and other multi-user projects. I do not recommend Drupal for most users. It is the perfect choice for web developers who love to code their own modules.

Textpattern: I'm listing Textpattern as a CMS, but it is most frequently used as a blogging platform. It's hard to categorize CMS's such as Textpattern because it is capable of so much. TextPattern is at the mid-way point between WordPress and Drupal in terms of difficulty of use. It requires some understanding of code to use, but not at the level of Drupal. I recommend TextPattern to web designers and developers.

eCommerce

Many of the content management systems I have already mentioned include provisions for eCommerce. However, for an Amazon.com-style website you should use dedicated eCommerce software.

Zen Cart: Zen Cart is the open source world's answer to a shopping cart CMS. It's not pretty, but it contains just about every feature you'll find in commercial software. Zen Cart is widely used. I tend not to recommend Zen Cart because of its legacy code and unattractive GUI (graphic user interface).

Magento eCommerce: Magento is the latest and greatest shopping cart CMS. It has become popular because of its extensive feature set, and impressive GUI. Magento allows you to create a website that looks and feels like a professional web store in the same style as Amazon.com, Buy.com, and the other big names. The only disadvantage is that it tends to be a resource hog which means your website may load slowly for visitors. Caching extensions are highly recommended to combat the speed issue.

PrestaShop: PrestaShop is another up-and-coming shopping cart CMS. It's designed for smaller e-shops that don't require the feature clutter of Magento and etc. PrestaShop is well-regarded because it's fast, and the GUI is attractive.

Summary

There are a plethora of content management systems and desktop publishing suites available on the market. I've covered the basics in this post. Use a CMS if you're creating a website that's a decent size, requires multiple contributors, and/or has any sort of interactive component such as a blog or shopping cart. Use a desktop publishing suite if you're designing a website that is relatively simple, has less than 100 individual pages, and doesn't require any visitor interaction.

One of the most common questions we receive is, "How do I create a website?" This blog series is a response to that question. It is intended to be a simple and easy guide that will walk you through the entire process from start to finish.

Today we'll cover the first step:

Choosing a Domain Name.

A domain name is the virtual address of your company on the web. It should be short, easy to remember, and as simple as possible. Domain names are words that end in a TLD. TLD stands for top level domain. The most common TLDs are .com, .net, and .org. There are also ccTLDs: domain names created specifically for a country. For example, the United States has .us, Mexico has .mx, and the United Kingdom has .co.uk.

The general rule when choosing a TLD is to always register the .com version first. There's a few reasons for this:

1. The vast majority of web users will assume your website ends in .com.


2. The TLD .com can represent a personal OR a corporate entity.


3. .com domain names have historically ranked higher in Google searches.


4. Most browsers will add a .com extension when a visitor types a word into the address bar.

ccTLDs are typically the worst option, with some exceptions. There is nothing wrong with ccTLDs, but many web users are not aware that they exist. Choosing a ccTLD as your presence on the web may limit your traffic. The only ccTLD that I recommend at this time is for clients located in the United Kingdom. The .co.uk ccTLD has strong enough recognition to be a good choice.

How long should my domain name be?

Choose a domain name that is as short as possible. For example, we use both omnis.com and omnisnetwork.com. omnis.com is visited by more than 95% of our clients because it is short and easy to remember. Avoid stringing large words together. A general rule is that it is best to keep your domain name under twelve letters.

Should I include a dash in my domain name?

Many of our clients add a dash to their domain name because the name they want to register is already taken. For example, we could register omnis-network.com instead of omnisnetwork.com. My advise is to avoid this practice. It will not hurt your Google search ranking, but it WILL drive traffic to the domain name that does not have the dash. When most people hear "Omnis Network dot com" they will type in omnisnetwork.com, not omnis-network.com. By adding a dash you may be sending customers to your competitor!

Should I include conjunctions in my domain name?

A conjunction is a word that connects two related words in a sentence. For example, in the sentence, "Jack and Jill went up the hill", the word "and" would be the conjunction.

My rule is to avoid adding these to your domain name. jackandjill.com is easy to read, but "and" is both a conjunction AND a Google operative word. When people search for your website by writing "jack and jill" they are telling Google that they want to find a website that contains those two words. The top search result may not have anything to do with your website! This is an example of how your website's domain name can directly affect the way Google ranks your website.

Should I purchase a domain name from an auction?

The short answer is "no". The long answer is "maybe, but be careful". Most domain name auction services are not reputable. Stick with big names such as Sedo. In general, I would advise that you create an original domain name rather than attempting to acquire a domain name from an auction.

I have decided on a domain name. How do I order it?

Order your domain name through an ICANN accredited registrar. ICANN is the organization that regulates domain names. ICANN accreditation means that the company has paid a fee to the ICANN organization and agreed to follow the ICANN guidelines. Omnis Network is an ICANN accredited registrar. We offer domain name registration for the most popular TLDs and ccTLDs.

The Omnis team has been working on a few projects for the past couple of months aimed at improving our client experience. I'm now ready to provide a sneak peak at what we've been working on.

1. A new website. We've been working on a new design for our website that will make be significantly easier to navigate. Live chat, phone support, and our Knowledge Base and FAQ areas will be available so that you receive support even faster.


2. Video tutorials. We've created video tutorials for our control panel. These tutorials are now available to clients who are logged in to the account manager. We'll make them public as soon as the new site is up and running.


3. Expanded business plans. Omnis Network has served over 400,000 accounts since we first opened shop in 1999. That's a lot of satisfied clients. We've hosted mission critical business websites around the globe. We'll soon be offering our maximum reliability, failsafe business web hosting in affordable packages.

Keep an eye on our blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page for more updates.

Omnis Network uses a technology popularly known as "cloud hosting" to provide reliable, secure web hosting. The term cloud hosting is tossed around by a lot of websites, but very few companies explain what benefits their cloud services actually provide. I'd like to use this blog post to provide some insight into the benefits of our cloud hosting service, as well as give you an inside look into how our cloud hosting works.

Cloud hosting is a method of distributing content across multiple servers. Omnis Network's web servers are configured in a load-balanced cluster. A single website's content is served from a minimum of twelve servers at any one time. There are multiple advantages to this configuration:

• High traffic on a single website does not affect other sites on the cloud. The load is shared across the entire cloud.


• There is no single point of failure. All client websites remain online if a server in the cloud goes offline.


• Speed is increased due to low loads.


• High security due to the distribution of services.

The bottom line is that uptime is phenomenal with the load-balanced cloud. Client websites load fast, data is securely stored and transferred, and reliability is top-notch.

The Omnis team has been hard at work for the past few weeks on a special project. Bookmark our company blog at www.omnis.com/blog to stay in the loop.

In the mean time, here's a reward for our blog followers:

Become a follower of Omnis Network on Twitter and email sales@omnis.com with your Twitter username to receive a 50% discount on your first year of hosting with a new account. This offer will last until Friday, June 18th.

Part of our security initiative at Omnis Network is to provide services that protect the privacy of our clients. Domain name whois privacy protection is perhaps the easiest and most effective privacy service to implement. The service is highly recommended for all domain name buyers. Here's how it works:

For $0.99 a month Omnis agrees to act as an agent to act on your behalf. Your personal information, normally on display via a public whois database, is replaced with our contact information. You retain ownership of your domain name.

What does this mean in practical terms? In normal circumstances, your contact information is displayed in a public database:

Administrative Contact:
John Smith
123 Example Street
Example, State 12345
Phone: 1-310-555-1234
Fax: 1-310-555-1234
Email: you@example.com

The Omnis Network whois privacy protection service replaces your contact information with that of a generic agent:

Administrative Contact:
Guarded Services
3655 Torrance Blvd Suite 230
Torrance, CA 90503, US
Phone: 1-310-316-1688
Email: example.com@guardedwhois.com

For $0.99 per month this is a bargain. Follow our blog to learn more about the steps Omnis Network has taken to increase security and protect your privacy.