Presentation given by Adam Lake on 2 October as part of a free day of free training for charities and local community groups.

1. Introduction to running a website
Adam Lake
Where do I
start?
What should I
think about?

2. Setting up the best website

3. Choosing the right
domain name

4. Domain names
• These are the names associated with websites (eg. bbc.co.uk)
• Can be registered for a fee via a number of registrars
(eg. 123-reg, GoDaddy, UKReg, 1&1, Easily, DNSimple)
• Consider the most appropriate extensions for your site
• A lot of new TLDs are being released by ICANN (eg. .shop)
• Consider protecting your brand with defensive registration
• Check the renewal fee
• Consider the most appropriate registration period
• Check for similar names to avoid trademark infringement
• Ensure that your domain makes sense when you read it
• Avoid words or phrases that may have alternative meanings
• Register your domain before publishing it anywhere!

5. www.itscrap.com

6. Hosting…
Getting your website online

7. Hosting…
• Think about the type of hosting that you require
• Will you be using a content management system (CMS) or blogging
platform such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal?
• Or will you be creating a series of static pages using a website creation
program installed on your computer?
• Using a CMS means that you can update your site from anywhere that has
access to the Internet.
• If you choose to use a CMS then make sure that your choice of hosting
package is suitable for the system that you’ve chosen.
• Many hosting providers offer “one-click installers” for popular CMS
applications such as WordPress, Joomla, Umbraco an Drupal.
• Speak to the supplier if you have any doubts/questions.

8. Hosting…
• Alternatively, you could use a SaaS platform where the application is fully
managed by the supplier. Simply sign-up and create a site in minutes!
– WordPress (wordpress.com)
– Google Sites (sites.google.com)
– Blogger (blogger.com)
• Managed services mean that everything is taken care of for you. You won’t
have to worry about keeping the CMS up-to-date, or creating back-ups.
• Some SaaS platforms provide ‘apps’ to remotely manage your website.

9. Promoting your website

10. Search engines

11. Search engines…
• An increasing number of users begin their journey at a search engine
– Google is the most popular but there are others, eg. Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo
• In order to be found, your content must perform well in search engines
• Search engines use a lot of factors to evaluate your content, including:
– Domain name and URL
– Metadata ‘description’
– Title and headings (h1 - h6)
– Regular text and ALT (alternative) text for images
– Links from other websites (quantity and quality)
• Google gives web pages a score out of 10 known as PageRank
• Your pages should contain relevant keywords and phrases
– Use the Google Keyword Planner: https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
– Your content needs to be unique, relevant, informative and natural

12. Google search results for Amazon
Page title tag
Page meta
description

13. Search engines…
• Google and Bing provide some useful tools to help you manage the search
presence of your website:
– Google Search Console
https://google.com/webmasters
– Bing Webmaster Tools
https://bing.com/webmasters
• Simply sign-up for free using your existing Google or Microsoft accounts
• You’ll need to verify ownership of your site using one of these method:
– Add a <meta> tag to the homepage
– Upload a small file to the root of your site
– Add a DNS record to your domain (via your registrar’s control panel)
• You can verify the location of your organisation using Google My Business
– Sign-in to Google My Business using your Google Account to ‘claim your business’
https://www.google.co.uk/business
– You can then influence how your business is listed on the Google search results page…

14. Your head office...

15. Search engines…
• Where to find further information:
– Google AdWords Keyword Planner
https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
– Google Webmaster Academy
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6001102
– Google Webmaster Blog
https://webmasters.googleblog.com
– Follow Google Webmasters on Twitter @googlewmc

16. But before anything...

17. Web accessibility
and usability

18. What is web accessibility
and why is it useful?

19. It’s video time…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grrx2Lva7T0

20. Web accessibility…
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
– Published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
(https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20)
– Three different levels of compliance: Level A, Level AA and Level AAA
– Government websites must adhere to Level AA
• Some aspects of WCAG can be tested automatically using free tools
– Test your website markup using the W3C Validation Service
(https://validator.w3.org)
– Test your website accessibility using the WAVE Accessibility Checker from WebAIM
(http://wave.webaim.org)
– Analyse colour contrast using the Colour Contrast Checker from WebAIM
(http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker)
– Use plugins/add-ons for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer
• Remember to review your content manually and test with real users

21. What are web standards?

22. www.surreycc.gov.uk/webstandards

23. Who is your target
audience?

24. What devices do they use to
access the internet?

25. Guess how many mobile users?
Desktop: 30%
Mobile: 54%
Tablet: 16%
To most
visitors, the
page looks
like this

26. User testing –
What is it and
why should I do it?

27. Questions

28. Adam Lake
Thank you for coming