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Internet Design

From the very basic single page site for a home office-based company to an expansive Internet storefront with online sales for the established organization, Meshes Company is determined to offer you the strongest presence for your money.
To help you understand the options a company has when designing a website, we have documented the journey from beginning the first page to wrapping up a complex online sales/database site.

The Basics

This mapped graphical link will send you to various government sites, depending on what you click on. If you click on "White House", you will go to the White House; Supreme Court sends you to the Supreme Court site; etc. Remember to come back when you're done there.

The next element to a complete website is contact information. Contact information can be presented several ways. On the simplest end, one might have a simple e-mail address at the bottom of a page. On the next level is a little more complete information with street addresses and phone numbers. On the next level is an entire page with a form that a visitor fills out and receives an automatic response. On the high end is generated information directly on the web to answer a visitor's questions.

Now, this is a complete website. What is needed next is an access point to the Internet, which is either a hosting service for a low-cost solution or a web server for more options. A web server works better with a more complex site. We do not offer hosting, but we will aid you in finding the service which best fits your needs. You will also probably want a Domain Name (like www.meshes.com), which is a service ran by the government. To receive a domain name, there is a yearly fee from the government organization, but beyond that, some hosting services will set up your name for no additional charge. If the service you choose does not, we will.

Once that is all established, your website will be on the Internet. Anyone who enters your web address will see your website. However, to market effectively, you will want to be listed in popular search engines, like Yahoo, Lycos and AOLNetSearch. We will facilitate your inclusion in a large group of engines for free. In addition, as we built your site, we will have used keywords that the search engines read to determine the type of service you perform or product you sell, including a short description.
If you feel that you need additional ways to advertise your site on-line, there are on-line advertising mediums (besides "spamming" or sending mass electronis mail) that we will help you find and use.

Maintenance is the only additional service you may ever need from us. After some time, if you feel that your site needs improvements, we can offer you special pricing and services to upgrade or redesign your site.

All of this design and programming can get pretty complicated. Sometimes, different web browsers like Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator can show information differently. To minimize unpredicatibility in layout, we use the most widely used versions of these browsers to check compatibility.

Advanced Websites

Simple sites are excellent for the small business solution to creating a web presence. However, to add functionality, additional style, and ability to perform services online, you need some advanced features.

Java applets and JavaScripting are two very easy ways to include additional functionality and style to a website. You'll notice that our site features images that appear and disappear when you mouse over certain links. This is an example of a JavaScript. A Java Applet may be used to calculate the price of a service for a consumer or to welcome an returning visitor.

If you wish to monitor who is visiting your site or have a counter for the number of visitors to your site, you may want to have a site that uses CGI (Common Gateway Interface). CGI is also used for searching capabilities on a website.
Active Server Pages (a Microsoft product) can be used to dynamicly create web pages based on what your visitor is interested in viewing. If you've ever seen a webpage ending in .asp, you've seen an Active Server Page.

Transactional Sites

Transactional Sites are the latest trend in using the Internet as a business tool. By offering a variety of products which are shown on-line as well as the prices and the ability to calculate taxes, etc., the ability to sell has actually become a part of current websites. Using menus to determine particulars like size of clothing or type of service, a consumer can actually order on-line. By using electronic "shopping carts" that maintain a list of items that a user will purchase, the customer can find items he or she wants and continue shopping. Then, credit transactions can be performed over the Internet safely and quickly. The delivery process or service can be orchestrated to the buyer's needs. Shopping over the Internet is like catalog shopping, except that it allows for the user to look at more particular items, get reviews on the items, compare prices and quality in a matter of minutes, and finish the sale with a credit transaction in a period of time much shorter than even walking around a store.

Using databases that check for availability and automaticly update stock by sale, an on-line business can be a manageable venue. The technology used for this can be developed solely by Meshes Company specificly for your company or with the use of 3rd party products that have proven to be successful and effective.

Other Web-Related Services

On-line databases can be used for other reasons as well. The database used in the previous case is limited in viewing by an outsider, but you might want to have an more open database for your employees or customers to check information on-line. Databases can serve various functions and offering acces over the Internet with special tools and some protection, you can open your organization up to another realm of possibilities.

Sometimes, you have questions that can be answered with pre-written text, such as automatic answers to support or product questions. These questioons can be addressed directly on your website, using a "Knowledge Base" that offers options to search through it, to find the answers that the customer is looking for. By using webpages that are generated using a database of questions and answers rather than pre-written webpages, you can cut down on space and save costs.

A business solution like this can be designed by Meshes Company and tailored to your individual needs. In addition, there is also Third-Party Software suites that can address this problem, probably for a reduced price but with less customized features, that we can install, configure, and teach you how to use.

Full-fledged Internet applications are another possibility. For example, a realty company may want to offer a client the opportunity to search for a house on-line and automaticly refine searches to the user's particular needs. In another case, a caterer may want to give a patron a way to design a menu, determine cost, and revise the menu as needed, even over the course of days or weeks. This is only some of the possibilities one can perform with the Internet.

Sometimes you can't depend on the average web consulting firm to design a site which will maintain attractiveness as trends change. Then, they may be charging more for redesign than they did for the original work. We would be glad to analyze your site for good and bad elements and estimate the cost of changes for free. Then, if you interested in our service, we'll be glad to perform a partial or full design overhaul. If not, you can walk away with an estimate of how much one firm would cost against the next.

For more immediate access to your website and on-line services, you might be interested in purchasing your own web server and running your site and all its functions from your own office. By doing this, you can also open your server up to be used inside yur business without the need to give each computer access to the Internet. You may also be interested in having an e-mail server to allow for e-amil for your business and each of your employees.

Purchasing your own web server is a step for a company which has explored its options and has determined that the procurement of a organization-owned server is the best choice. Safety and security, which is otherwise controlled by the hosting service, needs to be addressed. This includes the issues of keeping unwelcome hackers out or sometimes some employees in. Owning a webserver is also a major decision because of the need for an administrator or technician to maintain, repair, and upgrade the hardware and systems. See Network Consulting for more information.