2. What Now and Where Do I Begin?: Before You Install Joomla!

A lot more than installing and configuring Joomla! goes into creating an online presence, and over our years of contributing to Joomla!, a number of questions and subjects have come up repeatedly that aren’t Joomla! specific but are more about the basics of where to begin or how to correct a mistake that may have been made before Joomla! was even installed. These are some of the same topics that you would discuss with a Web professional when creating a site. Doing it yourself is no excuse for skipping over them. This chapter aims to answer those common questions and address some of the issues that may be quite confusing for those who are very new to running their own Web site. Experienced users may also be inspired to take a look at their Web strategy to see whether it needs an improvement or update.

Identifying Your Purpose

One of the most important groundwork items you can do before you get started on creating your Web site is to identify its purpose. Why do you need a Web site, what do you want it to say to people, and do you want people to take action based on what you communicate to them? Answering these questions can be tedious and frustrating, and sometimes the answers can be irritatingly elusive. The good news is that this step will help you avoid stuffing your Web site with items and functionality you don’t need, making it easier to maintain and retain focus. Joomla! on this point is an excellent choice as a framework on which to base your Web site, because of the flexibility it offers. At any time you can reevaluate your needs and extend Joomla! to meet any functionality you may want to offer your Web site visitors in the future.

Here are questions to ask yourself and then answer as specifically as possible:

• Why do I need a Web site?

• What do I want to offer to visitors to my site?

• What information do I want from them?

• What actions am I expecting visitors to take while on my Web site?

• What actions am I expecting visitors to take after they leave my Web site?

• What kind of communication path do I want to use:

– A one-way communication directed outward from me to visitors?

– A two-way communication between myself and visitors?

– A collaborative communication environment where visitors communicate not only to me through my Web site but also with each other?

As you refine your answers to these questions, you can begin to list the functionality you will need for your Web site. This step is vitally important to help you choose appropriate Joomla! extensions for your site that work well together. It can also help you avoid using too many extensions or having unused extensions installed on your site. We will talk in more depth about making extension choices in Chapters 6, 10, 11, 12, and 13.

Domain Names: Registering Your Domain Name

Choosing the domain name of your Web site can be a difficult and trying process, and to people who are new to the concept, it can be confusing. Domain names work similarly to how our telephone system works. Just as telephone numbers are universal and unique, so are domain names. As with telephone numbers, the Internet runs on a number system called the Internet Protocol address, or IP address. The Domain Name System translates these hard-to-remember numbers into an easy-to-remember string of letters (for example, 000.000.000.000 to mysite.com). This number system determines how one computer knows how to find another computer.

The worldwide body in charge of keeping the universal Domain Name System stable and operable is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit organizational and consensus development body. The top-level domains (TLDs) that we are all mostly familiar with are .com, .net, .org, .gov, .edu, and .mil. Also, there are the two-letter ISO country codes that can be used, such as .us, .ca, or .uk. New TLDs are regularly proposed and implemented. These TLDs were intended to act like the country codes and area codes of our telephone system, helping us identify where a site is geographically located and other general classifications. As the Web has exponentially expanded, some of these country codes are now being used for specific purposes such as .tv (country code for the islands of Tuvalu) being used to imply television.

One way to see whether a domain name is available for use is to go to Internic.net and do a whois (pronounced “who-is”) search. Whois means exactly that—you will be searching to see whether a domain name is already in use and who is using it. Also at the Internic.net site, you can find information regarding registrars. Registrar companies are where you go to register your use of a domain name. Prices vary widely from company to company, as can the related services each company offers. One of the main points to keep in mind is to make sure you are using an accredited registrar and that when you register the domain name you want to use, you are registering it yourself, in your own name; if you are going through a third party such as a hosting company or development or Web design firm, make sure the domain is registered in your name. The Internic.net site also has a lot of information and FAQs on how to resolve issues regarding domain names and their registration.

Pick a domain name that is relevant to your Web site, be it your company name or something catchy that people can relate to you and/or your Web site. Remember that people are going to be typing in your domain name, so make it as simple as possible, and if you can avoid complicated or cryptic acronyms and extremely long domain names, you really should. Also, your domain name can help people find you in search engines, so the more relevant to your Web site and your target audience, the better. Watch out for domain names in existence that may be similar to yours that may direct people away from your site and to someone else’s if your domain name is misspelled when someone is searching for it. Think about .com, .net, and .org and the ISO code for your country when registering, because those are the most popular TLDs that people know and use. When you do a whois search, you will be able to see whether someone else has one or all of these registered with your preferred domain name. Consider any conflicts that may occur if you don’t own all the main references. You may want to purchase all that are available to protect your brand. All of these tips are good things to consider when the time comes to pick a domain name.

Trademarks, Licensing, Copyright, and Legalities

Let’s start this section with this statement: We are not lawyers (or in popular online acronym speak, IANAL). That being said, remember that if you have compelling legal questions that could be showstoppers for your Web site or business, you need to have the advice of a competent attorney who is familiar with your specific situation. You can find lots of general legal information, great resources, and best practices on the Internet, but the law is serious and there can be very serious consequences if it is ignored, misunderstood, or otherwise handled inappropriately. This section will give you a general overview of some of the legal issues you may want to keep in mind as you embark on creating your Web site with Joomla!

Trademarks

A trademark is a distinctive sign used by individuals, business organizations, or other legal entities to uniquely identify their products or services to consumers.

Think of your favorite product. What comes to mind? There is a memorable logo or slogan that instantly identifies that product to you. Trademarks are the unique way a “thing” or “entity” is associated with some sort of relational cue, be it visual, audible, or some other sensory perception. It is what makes a product memorable and is probably the largest part of “branding.”

Trademarks help businesses protect their uniqueness, and although a trademark can be acquired through legitimate use, such as a business name or logo that you have used for years, the best way to protect your trademark is to register it. The processes and legalities regarding trademarks vary from country to country; it is always best to seek the advice of a legal professional in your geographical area.

Registering your trademark provides a number of legal benefits:

• It allows you to protect and defend your trademark more effectively in a court of law.

• Depending on the country, public notification is given of your ownership of your trademark.

• It aids in facilitating the registration of your trademark in other countries, which is especially important if you are planning on doing business internationally and want an internationally known brand.

• It also helps others who are researching trademarks to not infringe on you because they can find your information easily.

That last point can be important to consider when you are brainstorming your branding. It never hurts to search the trademark registries to make sure you will not be infringing on someone else’s trademark. Nothing is more disappointing than coming up with an entire concept, only to realize you cannot use it or there are restrictions on the use of all or some part of your branding. Your search is not a substitute for a professional search, but it will catch obvious duplicate names.

If you want to use someone else’s trademarks in your Web site, be it a name, logo, or slogan, because you are affiliated with, work with, or otherwise have a relationship with another entity, remember to look up any restrictions there are or permissions you may have to obtain to use that other entity’s marks. A little preparatory work in this area can go a long way toward avoiding heartache in the future.

Copyright

The definition of copyright according to the Library of Congress is as follows:

Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works. . . . Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.

You can learn more about the U.S. copyright system at the Library of Congress Web site (www.copyright.gov). Many other countries have similar Web resources.

Copyright gives the authors or creators of original creative works the exclusive right to use, adapt, distribute, and publish their works and control who else can use adapt, distribute, or publish their works for a period of time. The time lengths differ greatly from country to country, but in general the basic point is to give protection to a creator to use a work as the creator wants, protecting that work from being copied or to have derivatives of the work made by others. Most countries follow the Berne Copyright Convention. Copyright typically exists from the moment the work is created in a tangible fixed medium or form. Some examples of works that can be copyrighted are songs, lyrics, written stories or articles, an image or picture, and code.

A lot of common misconceptions and myths revolve around online media and the extreme availability of everything:

• Myth: If something is online, it is in the public domain.

This is not true. Public domain is a specific term typically used to denote works that are “public property.” How a work is determined to be public domain depends on the specific circumstances of the work in question and which country the work is referenced with.

• Myth: If something is online, it can be used under “fair use.”

This is not true, and more information on “fair use” can be found in numerous resources both online and offline. “Fair use” is a legal mountain all on its own and rather out of scope for the purposes of this book.

• Myth: If I find something online, I can alter it or adapt it by [enter some arbitrary amount or percentage here], and it becomes my unique work.

This is not true and gets a lot of people in a ton of trouble. Specific circumstances do exist that can allow someone to alter, adapt, or use a work, but legally it is a complex and complicated issue.

All of these myths have created a number of problems for people not only since the beginning of the Internet but since the beginning of the time when people could put a creative work into a tangible medium. Most problems were caused not because people wanted to “steal” someone else’s work (that’s not to say that intentional theft doesn’t happen) but because they innocently believed these myths. The best way to protect yourself is to create your own works to suit your needs or hire someone with the skill set to create the works you need.

When in doubt, if you come across some form of a work belonging to someone else (meaning you didn’t create it) that you want to use, track down the copyright owner, and ask whether he or she permits others to reproduce, distribute, or adapt the work. This applies to offline, online, or anywhere you may find works by others.

Copyright usually encompasses a work as a whole, not necessarily the pieces or parts that may have gone into the work individually, and in some instances those individual pieces may have their own copyright that may belong to totally separate copyright holders.

This brings us to the next section. Trademark owners can license the use of their trademark, and copyright holders can license the rights of their creative work to others.

Licensing

Licensing refers to permissions that are associated with the use of a work. Licenses are granted by a party (“licensor”) to another party (“licensee”) as an agreement between those parties. A short definition of a license is “an authorization (by the licensor) to use the licensed material or work (by the licensee).”

As was mentioned earlier, Joomla! is licensed under GNU/GPL version 2 or later (the “or later” is used to offer the most flexibility in terms of compatibility with subsequent versions of the GNU/GPL). GNU/GPL is a free software license. A lot of people get confused regarding the use of the word free in regard to software. In the case of this license, “free” refers to the freedom associated with liberty and not the freedom in terms of price or cost. The basic philosophies of the GNU/GPL are based on four main freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose

• The freedom to study how the program works and change it to make it do what you want

• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor

• The freedom to improve the program and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public so that the whole community benefits

These freedoms are integral to the GNU/GPL. The greatest precondition to meeting the four freedoms as described earlier is for the source code of the software to be accessible, which is also termed open source.

Because Joomla! is licensed under GNU/GPL version 2 or later, it benefits from all the advantages that the freedoms transfer. It allows anyone from anywhere to see, run, modify, and share the code with others. Every day as people contribute to the code, Joomla! becomes more functional, stable, and secure.

The Basics of Branding

Branding is a distinguishing unique name and/or symbol intended to identify a product or producer.

You may already have a brand developed for your services, product, organization, or business. As you venture into the realm of the Web to promote yourself, it may be a good time to evaluate your branding, including whether it is working for you and whether you are effectively using your branding to increase your visibility and market share.

Branding is key to success and failure. All of us can instantly bring to mind companies and products that have excellent branding. Sometimes the psychological effects that branding can produce will make us choose one product over another similar product without question of changing because of the symbolic trust we have that our expectations will be met and our needs will be satisfied. Brand loyalty is one of the biggest commodities of any successful business or product.

Creating a strong brand identity can be a daunting task that takes creativity, ingenuity, and attention to detail. Coming up with a branding strategy could include the name of your business, a logo or identifying mark, color branding, or the use of a slogan or saying. All of these things are brand elements individually, and when used in combination, they help develop your overall brand identity. There are some well-known tricks and tips that you can use to effectively create a brand:

• Naming can be the biggest part of your branding identity. Choose a name wisely. Avoid using a name that is already trademarked or registered (especially if in a similar business).

• Remember that your logo will most likely be used across many mediums—print, Web, merchandise, and advertising—so make sure the quality of the look translates well to each one.

• Simplicity increases visual recognition, meaning your logo should be clean, simple, bold, and memorable.

• It is always best to go with an original design—make sure your logo doesn’t look similar to other logos. It should be either electronically or hand drawn and not composed from clip art or stock image sources.

• If you have a slogan, it should be simple and easy to understand. Making people think is a good thing, but they shouldn’t have to try too hard to figure out what you mean.

• Your slogan should communicate what your product, business, or organization stands for in a meaningful manner.

• All of these individual elements should be able to stand on their own as well as stand as a collective.

Memorable Logos and Why You Need One

We are all familiar with the “swish,” or the specific lettering that defines a product for us. These are logos that seemingly without effort can immediately conjure up a good memory of using the associated product. They evoke emotional responses and help us “feel” what the product means to us.

There are basically two categories of logos—those that use an image or icon as the primary visual mark and those that use a name as the logo. In the latter case the company has just chosen the combined letters to be its “icon.” If you have a unique, memorable, or interesting name (preferably one word), that may be the best way to go in terms of creating your logo. Creative use of typography as a logo has been behind some of the most beloved brands in history. Logos that are names also may have a bit of a leg up on recognition because the name is the icon, so they almost get to double dip into the subconscious of consumers, giving them name retention as well as visual recognition.

Iconic type logos have two subtypes. There are logos that are illustrative images, such as a messenger service using an envelope, and those that are abstract symbols or images, such as the stylistic swish of a well-known athletic brand. The latter choice is risky, and it usually takes funding and a professional team of marketers and advertising companies to present and solidify an abstract image as your “identity” to your potential consumers, as well as to encourage brand loyalty with those potential consumers who are converted into actual consumers of your product.

Here’s some practical advice:

• Don’t use a swish.

• Make sure the typefaces you use are easily readable, and don’t use more than two different typefaces if possible.

• Don’t use special effects such as gradients, shadows, or glows. They usually don’t translate to print well, especially if used in black-and-white printing.

• Test your logo in plain black and white.

• Try not to use too many colors. The general rule is to use no more than three, tops.

Again, keep it simple, vibrant, and representative of the image you want to project and have associated with your business.

All about Color and Color Schemes

One mistake that is commonly made in Web design is poor use of color. Color works on our subconscious and conscious minds to create associations that imply meaning. For example, the color green can signify growth, and red can imply power. When you think of the colors you want to use for your logo design or Web site, it can be helpful to think about words you would use to describe your purpose or product. Once you have that list of words, try assigning a color to each one. This exercise should produce an idea of what your dominant color could be. The next step would be to pick a shade of that dominant color that appeals to you. That first color can become the starting point of your “color scheme.”

The color wheel is a common tool used in the creative process for visual mediums. One of the first types of the color wheel originated from Sir Isaac Newton and his experiments using prisms and light refraction, which were published in 1672. The basic color wheel consists of 12 colors (as shown in Figure 2.1) that are classified in one of three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Figure 2.1. Basic color wheel

• Primary colors: Red, yellow, and blue

• Secondary colors: Orange (red and yellow), green (yellow and blue), and purple (blue and red)

• Tertiary colors: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green

There are a few different ways to go about filling in the rest of the colors for your color scheme, but what is vitally important is creating a harmonious effect that is pleasing to the eye. Color harmonies can be created using a number of techniques:

• Monochromatic: One specific color used as the dominant color and then varying shades from light to dark of that specific color (as shown in Figure 2.2).

Figure 2.2. Monochromatic grayscale color scheme

• Analogous: One specific color as the dominant color and the colors that reside on either side of it on the color wheel or the two colors either to the right or to the left of the dominant color. Here’s an example: red, red-orange, and red-purple (as shown in Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3. Analogous color scheme

• Complementary: One specific color as the dominant color and the exact opposite of that color on the color wheel. Here’s an example: red and green (as shown in Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.4. Complementary color scheme

• Split-complementary: One specific color as the dominant color and the two colors that reside on either side of the complementary color. Here’s an example: green, red-purple, and red-orange (as shown in Figure 2.5).

Figure 2.5. Split-complementary color scheme

• Triad: One specific color as the dominant color and the two colors that are evenly distributed on either side (on a 12-color color wheel, they are four colors apart). Here’s an example: green, purple, and orange (as shown in Figure 2.6).

Figure 2.6. Triad color scheme

All of these color wheel images can be found in color on The Official Joomla!^® Book Web site (http://officialjoomlabook.com).

In visual design, it is important to not overload the viewer’s eyes, because doing so can distract your audience from your message. The basic rule is to start with one dominant color and then use the other colors in your scheme as accents.

There are a number of books such as David Carter’s The Big Book of Color in Design (Collins), online resources such as ColourLovers.com and kuler.adobe.com, and programs such as ColorSchemer that can help you design the perfect color scheme for your project. Don’t be afraid to be as bold or as understated as you want to be. This is your site and your creation. Have fun with it.

Identifying Your Target Audience: The Who, What, Where, and Why

There are close to 2 billion people with access to the Internet and trillions of Web pages out there. You have to find a way to narrow it all down to your target audience. The Web is a big place, and the point isn’t to be just another forgotten page out there in cyberspace but a reliable source for people who are interested in your product, ideas, organization, or business to reference, purchase from, or otherwise engage with you. You may think your audience is “everyone,” but the reality is, it isn’t everyone. If your site is about restoring antique cars, your broadest audience is people who are interested in cars. People who are interested in flower arrangements will most likely visit sites about flowers.

Knowing Your Visitors

Identifying your audience will point you to what functionalities to consider for your Web site. A local restaurant most likely does not need a forum, but it may want to use a contact form to get feedback from its customers or a forms solution to handle online ordering and delivery tracking. A national or international organization will have specific communication needs and may need a forum to handle the interaction among its target audience of members and supporters. Musicians will need streaming media, something that ties in their social networking accounts, as well as a robust calendar, because their target audience would be their fans and the new fans they are hoping to attract. When starting out, it is usually best to very closely define your audience and excel at giving that well-defined group the best experience possible. As your site grows, you can expand your target audience appropriately.

Usability: Users Want to Actually Use Your Site

Usability is the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other object in order to achieve a particular goal. Usability can also refer to the methods of measuring usability and the analysis of the principles behind an object’s perceived efficiency or elegance. In human-computer interaction and computer science, usability often refers to how a Web site or computer program is designed and how the design enables users of the program or Web site to accomplish specific tasks or goals.

A number of research studies and books are available on Web usability; one of the most popular online resources is Jakob Nielsen’s site (http://useit.com). Web site usability is a two-part equation:

• How easy is it for visitors to your site to get the information they need or to fulfill the purpose for which they visited your site to begin with?

• How can you, the Web site owner, translate that ease of use into the results you are intending, such as encouraging people to read your content, purchase your product, or visit your physical location?

More usability is better for you and your visitors because everyone’s expectations are met and everyone has a rewarding experience.

The first usability check for your Web site is your color scheme and typography. Are your colors giving your users a headache, or are they pleasing? Are you using them effectively to direct people’s eyes to the important parts of the page? Is your text easy to read and the proper color for the background color? Do your titles and headings clearly stand out to organize the page’s information?

A second usability check is to evaluate your navigation. Are you offering clear navigation that is intuitive at a glance? Do the menu items accurately indicate the content they are pointing to? Are you giving people too many choices or not enough? Can people get to the information they need in three clicks or less? If you offer a shopping cart, is the process self-explanatory, or are there too many steps to get to the end goal of completing checkout? Do you have a clear way for people to contact you or your staff regarding any questions they may have about your Web site, product, or services?

A third usability check is to make sure your site works across browser platforms, specifically most modern browsers. This may not apply if your site is for internal corporate use, because your corporation may be locked into using an older version of a browser because of program or network compatibility issues. Again, you have to think of your target audience, but it really is important to realize that not all of your users will be using the same browser or the same operating system. You don’t necessarily have to match pixel per pixel in terms of visual display across browsers, because that isn’t a usability issue, although to some it may be an important image issue. Basically, it is important that all functionality be working; there cannot be an absolute breakdown in terms of layout or other rendering issues that can cause user frustration or disruption. Your users need to be able to complete any tasks or processes that you invite them to undertake.

What Is Accessibility?

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available for use by as many people as possible, or the “ability to access.” Accessibility is often focused on people with disabilities and their right of access, often through the use of assistive technology.

Accessibility should not be confused with usability, although increasing either in most situations will result in the other also improving.

Accessibility is about making things accessible to all people (whether they have a disability or not). An alternative is to provide “indirect access” by having the Web site support the use of a person’s assistive technology to achieve access (for example, a screen reader).

Accessibility is an important part of Web design, not only because it is a matter of law in a number of geographic areas but also because the Web has become an assistive technology to a large number of people with disabilities.

In the United States, one of the standards for accessibility is called 508 compliance. This is a set of guidelines for digital and electronic information technology, developed to ensure that people with disabilities have the same access to and use of data as people without disabilities. This set of guidelines refers specifically to governmental sites and agencies. Outside of governmental agencies, this standard has been picked up as a general standard of good Web design.

Worldwide, the standards for accessibility are determined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines are set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3), the international body of member organizations in conjunction with the public that sets all Web standards. It is led by Tim Berners-Lee, the brilliant scientist who invented the World Wide Web.

WCAG standards are stricter than 508 compliance standards and deal specifically with Web technologies. There are four main points to WCAG 2.0 according to its Web site (http://w3.org):

• Perceivable: Provide text alternatives for all nontext content, provide content so that it can be presented in different ways, and make content easy to see and hear.

• Operable: Allow for operation and functionality with a keyboard, allow enough time for content to be read or used, do not design content in a way that could cause seizures, and make content easy to navigate, search for, and find.

• Understandable: Make content readable and understandable, make pages operate in a predictable manner, and help users avoid and correct mistakes.

• Robust: Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents and assistive technologies.

Assistive technologies are computer accessories or components that assist people who have disabilities in using their computers effectively. Screen readers, eye movement trackers, voice recognition software, large-key keyboards, special trackball mice, and screen magnifiers are all examples of assistive technologies. All of these can present unique challenges to Web and software designers, but for the most part, if good standard design principles and practices are used, these challenges are easily met.

Here are some basic ways to incorporate accessible design and function into your Web site:

• Use tables for tabular data, not for layout or design.

• Use appropriate hierarchical titles and headings.

• Create logical navigation.

• Use alternative tags for images and other media.

• Code your Web site to allow for keyboard navigation or navigation with other assistive technologies.

• Structure your content in a logical fashion.

• Use a color scheme that properly uses color and contrast to aid in readability.

A good way to test your Web site for basic accessibility is to look at it with all of the design elements such as images, media, and styling turned off. In Firefox you can turn off styling by clicking on View in the menu and then clicking on Page Style and then No Style. Other browsers have different but similar options for turning off styling. You should now see your raw, unstyled page. You should then ask yourself these questions: Does your content flow logically down the page, and can you tell how the content is organized from the titles and headings? Are you able to see and use your menu navigation to browse your site in a logical manner? Where an image was in your content, can you now see a description of the image and the title of the image? Can you use your keyboard to logically tab through your menu navigation and the links on your page? When you analyze your Web site in that raw state, is your intended message still being conveyed in a meaningful manner?

A good example of an accessible template for Joomla! is included in the core distribution. It is called Beez. It is also relatively easy to customize and adapt, a topic that will be covered in Chapter 7. The Joomla! administrator has an accessible template called Hathor. This can be assigned either as the default template for all users or as the default for specific users who need its accessibility features. As a project Joomla! strives to build accessibility into its core. If accessibility is important to you and you also wish to add new templates and extensions, you should be sure to ask about 508 compliance or other related issues as you make choices of tools for building your site.

Wireframes, Storyboarding, and Visualization

One way to plan your site is to wireframe, or make a visual diagram of what your site will offer to visitors in terms of structure and navigation. It is not concerned with how things are implemented or how they look, only with what needs to be present for the site to fulfill its goals. This step allows you to place the functionality visually or create the interactional design. This is the time to ask yourself what users should be doing on your site and how you can direct them to complete a process that makes both you and them happy. This step almost always saves on actual Web development time, because it allows you to make all the mistakes and correct them before one bit of code is written. You can sketch the diagram on a piece of paper or use any number of wireframe programs that are available. Figure 2.7 shows an example wireframe.

Figure 2.7. Basic wireframe of a Web page

Your wireframes should clearly show the click path of your visitors on any given page, the natural navigation between the pages and areas of your site, and how you are channeling users to take action, whatever that action may be, without being distracted by design and style.

Once you have your wireframe completed and your user interface set, you can storyboard or create a mock-up of your site to incorporate the design and style that will make your site visually appealing. Storyboards or mock-ups are visual representations of what the site will look like when it is complete, and they can be created with graphics programs such as GIMP, Adobe Photoshop, or Inkscape. Figure 2.8 shows a mock-up based on the wireframe.

Figure 2.8. Mock-up of the Web page

Creating Great Content

Creating engaging content that conveys your message can be difficult. Keeping your content on task regarding your specific subject matter helps build a relationship with your users who will then return and ideally refer friends to your Web site. There are two keys to content creation: relevancy and usefulness. There are two basic types of Web content: foundational and continuous. Your foundational content should be quite narrowly targeted to the subject matter of your site, and it should contain a good number of descriptive keywords. Usually foundational content is quite static in nature.

Most Web sites have foundational content that succinctly describes to a visitor who they are, what they do, and why there is a benefit to visitors interacting with them. About Us pages, mission statements, and product and service overview pages are good examples of foundational content. They can set the standard of trust and the importance of the relationship you have with your site visitors. Well-written foundational content is also very important to search engines as they look through your site’s content to rate how relevant it is to a specific search term.

Continuous content is relevant, useful content that is updated on a regular basis, such as a blog, a press section, product reviews, or a news section. This is the content that compels your visitors to keep returning, and it is another way to direct your users to perform an action. You can also consider content such as that from forums, embedded social media, and comments as continuous content. Continuous content doesn’t necessarily have to be generated by you. Your site visitors can be a great resource for content creation. Continuous content is a very important part of creating a great Web site that generates repeat visitors, referrers, and quality links back to your site from other sites that find your content useful. Search engines also like to see fresh new content, because it can indicate that you are current, you are relevant, and you are generating good links back to your site.

Mission Critical: Why Choosing a Good Host Matters

Table 2.1 lists the technical requirements that you need to consider in regard to hosting your Joomla! site. It is important to discuss these technical requirements with prospective hosts to make sure the hosting service supports Joomla! At times an extension developer may specify a higher minimum requirement or Joomla! may raise its technical requirements (although this is extremely rare in a major release such as Joomla! 2.x or Joomla! 3.x), so you may want to choose a host that is already meeting higher standards, such as offering PHP 5.4 even though it is not required.

Table 2.1. Hosting Requirements for Joomla! Web Sites

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that was originally designed for Web development to produce dynamic Web pages. It can be embedded into HTML and generally runs on a Web server, which needs to be configured to process PHP code and create Web page content from it.

MySQL/MySQLi is a relational database management system (RDBMS) where data is stored in the form of tables and the relationship among the data elements is also stored in the form of tables. You should only use a host that provides MySQLi as PHP will no longer support MySQL in the near future.

Starting with Joomla! 2.5, the Joomla! CMS has also supported Microsoft SQL Server, which is a great improvement for Webmasters who also use other Microsoft products.

Starting in Joomla! 3, the CMS also supports PostgreSQL, the second major open source RDBMS. The Joomla! Platform also supports other databases, and these may be supported in the CMS in the future, possibly even during the Joomla! 3 release cycle.

Apache is Web server software that runs on a number of different operating systems. Most Web servers running Apache use the Linux operating system.

Microsoft IIS—formerly called Internet Information Server—is a set of Internet-based services for servers created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows.

Joomla! is not (at publication) yet compatible with MySQL 6.x. You may need Microsoft URL Rewrite Module and FastCGI for IIS.

Choosing your hosting provider is probably one of the most important decisions you will make regarding your Web site. Your host can either make or break (literally) your Web site and impact your visitors’ experience, so it is imperative that you choose wisely. Here are some items to consider and questions to ask before you buy:

• Does the host meet or exceed the recommended technical requirements for running your Joomla! site? With so many hosting options available, there is no reason to choose one that doesn’t.

• Does the host offer the customer support options that are important to you, such as e-mail, phone, or live chat? Some hosts offer all of these options, and some may offer only one. You should be comfortable with the options offered to you. You should also check to make sure that the host’s customer support is timely and courteous. Is the host’s relationship with clients evident on its Web site, forums, or other communication channels? Does it give an indication of positivity or negativity?

• What is the online reputation of the host? Can a simple search engine search find blogs dedicated to a company’s poor service record, or do customer complaints figure prominently in the first two pages of search results? What is the host’s rating at the Better Business Bureau or other similar consumer protection agencies? If the rating is anything but stellar, keep on searching.

• What does the host offer in terms of storage space and bandwidth limits? Hosting companies that offer unlimited storage and bandwidth are offering something that they cannot realistically deliver. Be sure to read the fine print in any host’s terms of service, especially if the word resources is mentioned but not specifically defined. If this is the case, ask for a specific definition of resources. Be careful of “oversellers.” Overselling is a term used for shared hosting services companies (many individual hosting accounts share one server) that sell server storage space and bandwidth in excess of the actual capacity they have available, in the hope that customers will not use all of the storage and bandwidth sold to them. Although some very good hosts can effectively juggle this scenario, it is important to consider whether your site is critical for your business. Poorly run, oversold servers will have significant downtime, service lags, or interruptions.

• What are the host’s server and service uptime statistics and/or guarantees, as well as security record? Can the host articulate its security practices, equipment failure mitigation protocol, data storage, and backup procedures? No host can guarantee 100 percent uptime, and bad days happen to everyone. Having a good host that provides excellent service is vital, but it is important to remember that ultimately, your site is your responsibility to maintain and keep updated. Back up your site on a regular basis, and download the backup, remembering that you also have to have a copy of your database. With a current backup and complete database, you will always be able to restore your site in the event of an emergency.

• A number of hosts offer “managed hosting” for Joomla! This kind of hosting—sometimes called “software as a service”—means that the host will keep your Joomla! installation up-to-date and take care of some set of site maintenance tasks. This can be a good solution for you in a number of circumstances, for example, if you know you will have limited time for performing these tasks and monitoring your site. It also can be an excellent option for large, more complex sites where in essence you are contracting out some or all of the technical tasks (but not content creation) rather than creating an in-house team for them. These services vary as widely as self-managed hosting, and you should make sure you understand what you are contracting for and any limitations on the service, including what applications besides Joomla! you can install.

You may have noticed that we didn’t include price in the list of considerations for choosing a host. Although price can certainly be a factor, we recommend that it never be a determining factor. There are so many hosts to choose from in various price ranges that you are certain to find one that meets the criteria for a good host and also suits your budget.

Conclusion

As you can see from the items this chapter has touched upon, there are a number of things to consider when embarking on creating a Web presence. Although some of them are rather permanent in nature, such as your domain name, others may be flexible as you work through the process, such as the look of your site and its design elements. The great thing about Joomla! is that your design, layout, and functionality are highly flexible and extendable.