Occupational Standard: Web Development and Database Administration Level III Unit Title: pb Write Content for Web Page Unit Code: P Ets wopBas 06 1221 Unit Descriptor: This unit defines the competence required to write concise, clear and relevant content for web pages on behalf of a client. Elements (Learning Outcomes): LO#1: Determine site content requirements LO#2: Write site content LO#3: Upload contentHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY Ins. Akfete.A Introduction to Write Content for Web Page What Is the Content of a Website? The content of a website includes the text, images, sounds, videos, and animations that users experience on a website. Website content is the most important tool you can use to achieve your marketing strategy and communication to your customers about your brand. The three main types of web content: + Written website content should inform all other content of your website. It can encompass a call to action or brief product description on your landing page, case studies, white papers, industry reports, ebooks, testimonials, and blogs. «Graphic content consists of photographs, fact sheets, info graphics, branded images, and data visualizations. Graphic content is generally supported by written and video content and has the opportunity to help your audience visualize what your brand is about. + Video and audio are very valuable pieces of content that include explanatory videos, podcasts, and possibly music. LO#1: Determine site content requirements Meeting Customer Needs in short Knowing your customers’ needs is critical to effectively reaching and engaging with them. Learn how to find, analyze, and meet these needs using guides Planning to redesign your website? Or perhaps you need a new one? You'll need a statement of work and a requirements document, outlining everything you need from your web development team to communicate your vision and steer a course for success. Here, This is guide you through the process of pitching a new web project, with advice on how to write both an initial statement of work and a detail-rich website requirements document. What Is Good Website Content? 5 Easy Steps Okay, so we understand what website content is now? But how do you write website content that is good? Adding random text, photos, or graphics to a website and sending it out there on the web won't cut it. Your website's content has to be tailored to your website and brand to make it successful. It also has to be optimized so it can stand up to your competitors. Let's take a look at some writing for the web best practices: ‘Step 1 - Know Your Audience and Their Goals When you create a website, you're not creating it for yourself; you're creating it for an audience. Yes, you'll reap the benefits of having a good website, increased visitors that translate into increased Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY revenue, but that’s not quite the same. Your website exists to help your desired audience learn about you, or specifically, how your product or service helps them meet their goals or needs. If you do a good job of convincing them that you have what they need, they're more likely to purchase from you. If you aren't sure who your audience is, or what they want, how can you ever market yourself and your site to them? You can't. At least not well. Before writing content that you assume will attract people, do your homework. Take a look at your competitors and see how they're positioning similar products. What's your differentiator? Highlight it in your content marketing and on your website. ‘Step 2 - Clear, Crisp Copy (easy to understand) Have you ever read a sentence worded so poorly that it physically made your brain hurt? Or one that's left you cross-eyed as you try to figure out what it’s trying to convey? Don't be that person and don’t create that kind of content for your website. Hf your website content causes people to stumble and falter as they read, there's an issue. So what can you do to make sure that your website content is legible and most importantly, easily understood, unless your audience is more advanced, write for the average reading level. The National Adult Literacy Survey results suggest that the average American reads at the 7th to 8th-grade level. By using a readability grading tool, you can score your writing to make sure your writing isn’t too difficult, or easy, for your audience. Step 3 - Mixed Media Do you enjoy spending time on websites that have nothing to look at but text? No photos, no images, just endless text. Good website content isn't restricted to blog posts and the written word. Research shows that most of the human brain is visual, and people process visual information many times faster than text. In addition to the text and writing on your website, consider using videos or other graphics to share your message and value proposition with your audience. For example, an easy-to-read chart or graph can also do a better job of explaining a complex topic than text alone. } Be ‘Step 4 - Concise (brief), Understandable CTAs What actions do you want visitors to take on your website? Is it completing a purchase, filling out a form, or visiting your contact page? Whatever you desire, make it obvious to your website visitors with a clear call to action (CTA). If they don't know what they're supposed to do, then chances are they may not do it. Your CTAs should focus on one action at a time, don’t ask someone to do three different things all at the same time, they'll never remember everything and they'll be driven away by the volume of your requests. Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY When writing a good CTA keeps these three things in mind: > makeit concise, > clear, and > Actionable. Step 5 - SEO Optimization Good website content is SEO-optimized. That means it's written in a way that's attractive to search engines, and humans. SEO-optimized content holds valued keywords that your audience is searching for in the text. > Search engines are in the business of getting people the information they're seeking, quickly, efficiently, and accurately. The key is knowing these keywords and knowing exactly what your audience is searching for. > To write SEO-optimized content, do some research around keywords. If you know what your desired audience is searching for, you know what words and terms to include in your website content. That should give you a little boost in search engine results. LO#2: Write site content Site Contents: > The content of a website includes the text, images, sounds, videos, and animations, etc... What is an Initial Statement of Work? + Things to Include in a Statement of Work © Project Overview and Team Information Goals and Objectives Audience and Target Market Phases and Milestones Budget Exclusions Deadlines and Timescales What is a Website Requirements Document? + Things to Include in a Website Requirements Document o Content and Site Structure Page Template Wireframes and Mock-ups Design Elements Functionality and Technical Specifications Non-Functional Considerations What is an Initial Statement of Work? An initial statement of work gives a high-level overview of a web project. It should outline goals and objectives, budget, deadlines and timescales, and other relevant information, such as audience, target market and risks. It should also include the personnel responsible Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY for working on and overseeing the project. A good statement of work should do the following: + Make clear the objectives of the web project + Provide an accurate cost estimate + Highlight the projected timescale of the project and completion date + Outline any foreseeable issues (risk assessment) + Identify the key audience and understand why they are visiting your site. Things to Include in a Statement of Work Project Overview and Team Information The first section of the document is an opportunity to outline a basic overview of the project and list the key stakeholders involved. In your overview, focus on the following areas to give the developers and designers a useful introduction to your business and what you hope to achieve from the new site: + An introduction to your company - include a brief history and background, a rundown of your product/service offering, notable achievements, and a breakdown of your employees and departments. + Explain the problem - and more importantly, how a new web build will help solve it. Perhaps you want to attract more customers? Or make your site more engaging? Whatever the issue, include it here and explain how the project can help. + Ahigh-level outline of the project requirements - what do you need from your chosen web development team? A completely new site or a couple of pages redesigned? Set out what's required from a high-level perspective, giving the developers a clear vision of what you need from the project. + Ahigh-level outline of your target audience ~ while the target audience deserves its own full section in the document, a brief outline will set the tone and help the developers get to grips with your objectives. Following on from the project overview, it’s a good idea to list the stakeholders involved along with their contact details. Include their name, job title and contact information, as well as any other notes that can help the developers knows who to approach with a specific issue. Here's an example: (Project Manager) - Web Content Director -e.g Ib@[Link] Goals and Objectives The next step is to outline your goals and objectives; what do you want from your website? And what specifically do you want the outcomes of the project to be? This is the most important section of your website requirements document, as it communicates to the developers what you want to achieve. It can also help influence the elements and solutions they integrate into the final build, as they will have a clear understanding of your needs. Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY Think about the achievements you'd like to attain from a web redesign or build. Your goals for the project should be measurable, specific and realistic, and based on quantifiable data from your existing site performance. Here are a couple of examples of reasonable goals to outline in a website requirements document: + Achieve X% more monthly visitors + Increase sales of a particular product by X% amount over the next two years + Boost phone enquiries by X% on a specific service landing page + Gain 1K new followers on Instagram by X date + Improve the user experience to increase leads by X% It’s crucial that any goals you set in the website requirements document are realistic and measurable. Remember that a web build often brings long-term gains rather than quick wins. Audience and Target Market You understand who your customers, audience and target market are, but external web developers don’t. To ensure objectives are met, outlining who your website is targeting is an essential step in creating an effective website requirements document. Highlighting your target market is a useful way to get developers on board with what you're trying to achieve through your website build or redesign. Whether you're targeting prospective customers or clients with a brand-new site or are building a standalone portal for recruiting new staff; developers will want to know the intended audience to ensure they meet your requirements and hit the brief. As well as outlining your target audience, you should also add information about what the website should do for them. Perhaps you want to improve the user journey to encourage sales? Or maybe you want to increase engagement through your blog and newsfeed? Whatever your goals and objectives, they should align with your targeted audience and what they want from your site. When building your website requirements document, it may be necessary to include collateral which gives developers more of a steer on the type of audience you want to target. Include relevant data and statistics to validate your audience, and create detailed customer personals to make sure the developers have as much insight into your customer base as you do. Phases and Milestones To ensure that large web build projects are realistic and deliverable, it’s often necessary to break them into distinct phases, with specific milestones and deadlines assigned for each. Splitting a web build into phases will help ensure the project stays workable for everyone involved, while giving you opportunities to review, test and refine key stages before moving onto the next phase. Here is an example of a web build project, split into four key phases: Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY + Phase 1 - Basic web build: This forms the foundation of the site build, and focuses on refining the design, structure and key site elements. + Phase 2 - Incorporating advanced elements: The next phase focuses on incorporating specific elements, such as e-commerce functionality. + Phase 3 - UX and CRM rollout: This phase focuses on refining the onsite user journey and experience, tweaking individual elements to improve processes and maximise the ROI of your marketing activity. Not all web builds and redesigns require individual phases, but it's certainly something to consider if you're planning a big project Budget Outline your budget for the project in this section, with any constraints listed if appropriate. It’s important to be clear on budget from the outset, as the amount you're investing will hold sway over the scope of the project. If you're concerned that the project will cost too much, it's still worth putting your requirements to developers. Often, they may be able to find a more affordable solution that marries with your requirements which you hadn't considered. Occasionally, compromises will have to be made to keep the project within your designated budget. Be realistic about your expectations and open-minded to alternative solutions suggested by your developer, as they may be able to come up with a near-as-makes-no-difference approach which helps you save on ongoing project costs. Exclusions Include a section outlining any exclusions which the build team should be aware of. This may include things like: + Content development (copywriting, copy editing, video creation etc.) + Hosting fees + Integration with other parts of the site, beyond that which is outlined in the requirements document + Purchase of stock imagery, visuals, illustrations and photography + Content entry beyond that which is outlined in the requirements document + Changes to the functionality of the site, or wireframe amends, after the project has received signed off from senior stakeholders Note - it can be useful to caveat any exclusions listed in this section, explaining why they’ re not included as part of the project. This is also an opportunity to up-sell additional work which may be required after all phases of the web build are complete. Deadlines and Timescales This is where you set your preferred deadlines and timescales for the project. You should be realistic here, as web projects can be complicated, with the average job taking anywhere between six weeks to six months to complete depending on the scope of the work involved. Set your preferred deadline in your website requirements document, but be prepared to negotiate on it after speaking with your developers. Often, they will be able to provide a Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY more accurate completion date depending on the phases involved in the project, and may decide to launch certain aspects of your site periodically to keep the project moving forward. What is a Website Requirements Document? A website requirements document outlines the characteristics, functions and capabilities of your website and the steps required to complete the build. It should include technical specifications, wireframes, functionality preferences and notes on individual design elements. A good website requirements document should do the following: + Set out the functional requirements of your website, including the sitemap, design and user experience. + Maintenance and support requirements when the site is set live. It should also be: + Specific and focused; your intentions for the new site should be clear. + Considered and complete, with nothing missed or overlooked. + Prioritized by key objectives, with distinct deadlines and milestones outlined. This guide will help you create a website requirements document that meets the criteria outlined above. Things to Include in a Website Requirements Document Content and Site Structure This is where you pin down the ‘information architecture’ (IA) of your website — from its ‘structure to the type of content you plan to use across the site map. A provisional site structure can help give developers a clear vision of what you hope to see from your site, but it may change later as budget constraints or technical requirements come into play. Site Map Begin by creating a site map for your website. This takes the form of a ‘tree’ chart displaying the hierarchical structure of your website's pages. We've included an example of what a typical site map might look like below: The trick to creating an effective site map is to consider your audience and analyse quantitative data which demonstrates the limitations and shortfalls of your current site. From there, you can look to improve the user journey and experience offered by your website's navigation and structure; insights which should influence your new site map. Taxonomy Creation Outlining a taxonomic structure for your website is an excellent way to provide a better experience for the user, whilst also ensuring optimum performance in search results. Creating a classification system for your pages will make your site easier to navigate, and therefore more attractive to users and search engines. When creating a site-wide taxonomy, consider the following: + What does the user want from your website? Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY + What is the purpose of the content? What are you hoping to achieve (sales, engagement etc.)? + What are users looking for when they visit your site? This will inform how pages are classified; for instance, product or service pages would typically be classified ahead of informational pages on an e-commerce website. Here's an example of what we mean by website taxonomy: Say you're building a new website for a record shop. One taxonomy could be ‘genres’, with ‘rock’, folk’, ‘soul’, etc. leading away from the main ‘genres’ page. This may not be a site-wide taxonomy, but may refer only to a specific type of content on your site (informational content, for example). Building taxonomies for your site can help steer the overall structure, ensuring that the foundations of an easily-navigable site are in place from the earliest stages of the build. Page Template Wireframes and Mock-ups Do you have a clear vision of how you'd like specific pages on your website to look? Don't be afraid to include them in your website requirements document. Normally, developers will create templates for each type of content page on your site, be it the homepage, product/service page, blog page or contact page, so focusing on creating mock-ups of these templates can be a great steer towards building a site you're happy with. Design Elements How much information you include in this section of your website requirements document depends on two factors: whether you already have a design for your site (including specific style elements) or if design work is being incorporated into the project. Below, our interactive guide can help you determine what kind of collateral to share with developers depending on whether a design exists for your site or is required as part of the project. Design Work Exists may: + Annotated PDFs + Flat image files + Invision project links and notes + Sketch files + PSD files + Astyle guide for your brand + Brand guidelines Design Work is Part of the Project + Brand guidelines + Astyle guide for your brand + Examples of other sites, and what you like about them + Analysis of competitor sites + Relevant print media which can inform the digital design Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY Functionality and Technical Specifications This is where you list the desired functionality of your website - highlighting what you want it to do. It's also an opportunity to outline any third-party integrations your site requires, such as an interface connected to your live Instagram feed. From a functionality perspective, it's critical that you understand what your site is for and what users expect from it; that's why audience research and customer personas are so important. Functional elements should align with the type of content and pages in your site structure, and should be geared towards streamlining the user journey towards your desired KPIs. Here are a few examples of technical specifications you may want to list in your website requirements document: + E-commerce capabilities - payment gateways, shopping cart, ‘save for later’ options, stock checker + Multi-lingual options, allowing users to toggle between different default languages + Social media integration + Contact or sign-up forms + SSL certification + Aresponsive, mobile-ready version of your site ~ for total usability across all devices Non-Functional Considerations Aside from the technical requirements of your site, there are several non-functional elements to consider and communicate to developers. Here are some of the things you may want to list in this section depending on the needs of your site: + Accessibility - Accessibility is an integral part of all web design, and the WCAG guidelines can help ensure your site is usable by all. However, if your site has any specific access requirements or is frequently used by a certain type of user (e.9. children or the elderly), this should be communicated to developers. + Security - Does your site need to meet specific security legislation, such as the PCI Standard? Tell your developers here. + Legal - If your site has specific compliance or legal requirements, or if customers need to accept certain terms and conditions, you should list these here. An example of this is a date of birth gate for legal-age sites, such as alcohol or +18 video games sites. + Page load speed - Given page load speed is one of the top SEO ranking factors of 2019, it's critical that you emphasize its importance to developers ~ particularly if you're running an e-commerce site. + Hosting - Do you already have a hosting platform that you'd like your site to sit on? List it here. + Browsers and devices - Which browsers and devices do your current visitors and Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY customers use? And which platforms, if any, would you like to target? Listing the browsers and devices you want your site to perform well for will help developers test and refine your site more effectively. + Maintenance and support ~ Will your website require ongoing maintenance and support to maintain security and ensure it continues performing at its best? Inform your developers of necessary maintenance, as well as any limitations you may have in maintaining the technical aspects of the site. Websites require a unique style of writing. Novelists paint a picture with words. Reporters report the news with dramatic flair. Academics explain complex ideas in context with citations. > Web content writers share information as succinctly as possible. People consume websites differently than other forms of media: they don't read; they skim. They will read only about 20 percent of the words on the average page. How do you make your website easy for users to digest? Be concise Do not say in 150 words what could be said in 75. Do not say in 75 words what could be said in 30. Write simply: Long sentences with complex structures that endeavor to explain in complicated terms a topic that could otherwise be described in a more straightforward manner are best avoided. Use simple sentences. Avoid “marketing’s” Neutral language is easier to read and understand than subjective and boastful text. Be clear and direct. Use the “Inverted Pyramid” style of writing Put the essential and most interesting information at the beginning. Include additional information in order of diminishing importance. Use keywords Use terms that are commonly used to describe your topic. Avoid using proprietary terms and abbreviations as much as is possible. Use headings Break up your text with brief but descriptive headings and subheadings so users can find information faster. Break up different ideas into different paragraphs Long, dense blocks of text are intimidating to readers. Several short paragraphs are preferable to a single long paragraph. Make your text skim-friendly Use bulleted lists in place of long series or text lists. Highlight only as necessary Use bold very sparingly to draw attention to an important point. vvv 7 Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY Use the proper case Sentence case is much easier to read than uppercase. To emphasize an important point, use bold. Make links easy to identify Links should be a consistent color and style. Do not change the color of a link to make it stand out. Do not underline any text since it may be confused for a link. Best Practices for Web Writing Quick Tips Write clear, simple, and effective content + Content should be written in an easy-to-read, conversational style + Always keep your audience, messages, personality, and goals in mind Put the most important content in the first paragraph + Readers scan pages, you don't want them to miss your main idea Chunk your content + Cover only one topic per paragraph Be concise + Write short paragraphs and minimize unnecessary words + Sentence structure should be simple and varied Use active voice instead of passive voice + Yes: Tim taught the class. + No: The class was taught by Tim. Choose lists over long paragraphs + Use lists to make your content easier to scan Write Meaningful Headers Headers allow readers to navigate content. Use the header to clearly describe the content in each paragraph. Headers should: + Be short and direct + Be able to stand on their own and understood out of context + Avoid jargon, abbreviations, cleverness, and technical terms + Be search engine friendly - see “SEO Writing” below Use Common Language For SEO (Search Engine Optimization) use the same words and phrases your readers do. When creating page titles, headers, list items, and links, choose keywords carefully and use them consistently. This practice reinforces keywords relevancy for search engines. Tone Readers expect a personal, upbeat tone in web writing. They find bureaucratic writing offensive and out-of-place and ignore the message it's trying to convey. Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY To avoid bureaucratic language, turn the tone down a notch. Search out and destroy jargon. Use active voice. Always try to write in first or second person. Keep it Short Web writing needs to be much shorter than other kinds of writing. Research shows that people scan web text, rather than read every word. Make it easy for your users to scan for information quickly. A paragraph should consist of 70 words or less. Remember Writing for the web is NOT the same as writing for a print publication. A page on the web should be half the length of a similar print document. 300-700 words is a reasonable average length for any web content. What if you have more than 700 words? Break your content into sections, leading readers to specific portions of the text as much as possible. It's your job as a web author to guide your audience to the content you want them to consume. Don’t waste space welcoming people to your page. There is no need ~ most users ignore welcome text as filler. Get to the meat - that's what they came for. Sub headlines, Lists, and Scanning On average, users read about 20 percent of your content per page. What should you do? Be concise. Be relevant. Use short sentences and action verbs, and cut inessential text without sacrificing your identity. Along with short, easy-to-read blocks of text, you also should make good use of font size, lists, and subheadlines. These elements help guide readers' eyes toward the most important content, and make it easier to absorb large content. Use a bulleted list to break up content. Write a short sentence and support it with bullet points. Do not end sentences in a bulleted list with a period - periods stop the eye from scanning. Use Links Effectively Link, link, and link to relevant information. Hf you mention the UM shuttle, link to it. If you want to include someone's email address, link their name. If you mention a faculty member, link to their bio page. Don't make people go and search for something you mention if it already has a page somewhere. The average time new visitors spend on any one page is around 30 seconds. Take advantage of that short attention span by providing lots of relevant links to explore. Web usability experts discourage the use of the phrase “click here" for links. Make your links contextual. Use part of your sentence or phrase as the link. Research shows that users like them to be 4-8 words in length. + Yes: For more information, view the Print Policy at UMB. + No: To find out more about the Print Policy at UMB, click here. Formatting Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY Keep it simple. Don't underline or use bold, italics, headings, and indentations unnecessarily. They may be difficult to read from the users' view. ‘Structure Your Content Like an ‘Inverted Pyramid" on Top-Level Pages What's an inverted pyramid? It's a writing style where you put your most important information first. Load the most important information at the top of the page and at the top level of your site. Often this is a few sentences or bullet points. Please refer to the type hierarchy for formatting guidance, a number of type styles have been provided to enhance your inverted pyramid. Content that requires users to scroll vertically loses up to 80 percent of its readership. Your introductory sentences or paragraphs for any key landing pages are prime real estate for your messages. The goal is to capture the interest of site visitors. Save the more specialized and lengthy pages for deeper levels of the site. Search Engine Optimized (SEQ) Writing Most users visit a web page for 10-15 seconds. In that brief time, 80 percent will skim the page for keywords they already have in mind. Therefore, before you create content, it's important to understand your audience and anticipate what content and keywords they're trying to find. When a user conducts a search on a search engine, the database is queried to identify all the pages that include those words on the page and/or in the links pointing to that page. If your page does not include the words the user was searching for, itis unlikely that your page will rank well, if at all. The same is true when none of the links to that page include the words that the user used in their search. ‘Once pages have been identified, search engines order the results according to relevance. Relevance can be determined based on dozens and dozens of criteria, such as keyword prominence (how often your keywords appear on a page, and where they appear). Keep Your Content Fresh Outdated web content will confuse your users and make you look lazy. It also degrades the user's trust in your information. Add fresh content (text, images, video) as often as possible. Make sure your staff and contact information is up-to-date and remove past events from your site. Look Good Whenever possible, work with a designer when artwork is required. Use a header image relevant to your subject matter. LO#3: Upload content How to Upload Your Website (in 6 Easy Steps) Creating your own website will help boost your online presence, expand your customer base, and increase your conversion rate. However, it'll be nearly Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY impossible to reach these goals if you haven't uploaded your website in the first place. Best of all, you don’t need coding experience to launch your site on the web server. A lot of hosting services and FTP programs provide convenient tools for uploading a website within clicks. For more information, read our article and find out the full instructions on how to get your website live on the internet within 6 quick, simple steps. 1. Pick a Reliable Web Hosting Company 2. Choose Your Website Upload Method o File Manager o File Transfer Protocol (FTP) o Automatic Website Importer o Word-Press Migration Plugins 3. Upload Files to Your Website o Using File Manager o Using FileZilla 4. Move the Website Files to the Main Root Directory 5. Import Your Database 6. Check If the Website Works 1. Pick a Reliable Web Hosting Company Creating and maintaining a website is not something that you should take lightly. It’ s crucial to pick a top-notch web host that has all the key features to kick start your project. Here are several factors that you should consider when choosing a hosting provider: a. Live support. A good hosting service should have a team of experts who can help you at any time. There's no worse feeling than running into some issues and having to wait for days to get a response. . Control over your web hosting space. The less control you have over your hosting account, the more likely you are to run into trouble when your site grows. . Room for growth. Before you choose web host, make sure it offers scalable solutions that can provide more power (such as virtual private servers or cloud website hosting). d. Money-back guarantee. Nobody likes a bad investment, so make sure to s 2 Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY check for a refund policy. This will give you a time frame to test everything out before committing to the hosting service. 2. Choose Your Website Upload Method The next challenge is picking the right tool for uploading your website to the internet. Here are four of the most popular tools to upload a website: File Manager A file manager is a browser-based tool with all the key features to take care of your website files and directories. If you have a Hostinger account, log into the hPanel and find File Manager under the 's section. However, the File Manager has an upload limit. If your website files are larger than 100GB, you should opt for the next tool instead. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Most web hosting providers support FTP or file transfer protocol, which you can use to connect to an FTP client. If you don’t have an FTP client, make sure to install one on your PC. For Hostinger users, all the required credentials for accessing your FTP client are located in FTP Accounts under the Files section. There, you can find all the important information regarding your FTP account, such as your FTP username, hostname, and password. There's no size limit when it comes to uploading files with an FTP program. However, it does take a bit of technical knowledge that you can learn from this article on how to configure FileZilla and any other FTP clients. Automatic Website Importer For Hostinger users, you can find an Import Website feature in hPanel. You can use this feature to extract a website archive to the public_html directory. The tool supports .zip, .tar and .[Link] formats, and the upload limit is 256MB. WordPress Migration Plugins If you plan to use WordPress, there are several ways to upload your website to the CMS. One of the easiest methods is using a WordPress migration plugin like All in One WP Migration. After installing and activating the plugin, the rest of the steps Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY are self-explanatory. The upload size limit will depend on your hosting provider. 3. Upload Files to Your Website Now that you know the best tools to upload a website, it’s time to get your website live! In this part of the tutorial, we'll show you how to upload files to a website using Hostinger’s File Manager and a well-known FTP client, FileZilla. Using File Manager 1. Login to Hostinger’s hPanel and navigate to File Manager. 2. Once you're in the public_html directory, select the Upload Files icon from the upper-right menu. 3. Select the website archive file on your computer and Upload it to our server. 4. Right-click on the uploaded file and Extract the archived files to the public_html folder. Using FileZilla Before we begin, make sure to extract the archive to your local computer as FileZilla doesn’t have an Extract feature. 1. Connect your account to FileZilla. Use port 22, or connect to SFTP, for a secure connection. 2. Navigate to Remote Site panel and click on the public_html folder. 3. Head to the Local Site panel and locate the extracted files. 4. Select the files, right-click to upload them to the public_html directory. That's it! By following the above steps, you can transfer all files to public_html without doing any extra work. Otherwise, you'll need to connect via SSH and extract the archive manually. 4. Move the Website Files to the Main Root Directory In some cases, an additional directory will be created when you upload website files. As a result, visitors will be directed to [Link]/subfolder instead of the default [Link]. Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY To prevent that from happening, you need to make sure all the files are located in the root directory of your domain, which is public_html. You can use the File Manager to move your website files. All you need to do is right-click on the subfolder, select the Move option, and set public_html as the destination. 5. Import Your Database If your website uses a database, you'll also need to import it along with your website files: 1. Create a new MySQL database and user. 2. Access your newly created database via phpMyAdmin. 3. Use the Import section to upload the backup file of your database. 4. Update the MySQL database connection details (database name, host, user, password) in its configuration files. Skip this part if you don’t use any database. 6. Check If the Website Works Once you complete your upload, it's time for a final check! |f your domain name is registered and already pointed to your web host, enter the domain name into your browser and see if it directs you to your website. Keep in mind that DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to fully propagate worldwide. As such, if you just pointed your domain to the web host's name servers, you might need to wait for a while. Use an online tool like [Link] to check the state of your DNS propagation. Just enter your domain name and the tool will check the DNS records against multiple name servers. Should you follow all the instructions correctly, your website will appear just fine. However, if you run into an issue, ask your hosting provider for assistance. Conclusion Congratulations, now your website is live on the internet! To recap, here are the steps to upload your website to the web server: 1. Pick the right hosting provider. 2. Choose the tool and method to upload your website. 3. Upload files to your website. Akfete.AHARAMBEE UNIVERSITY 4. Move the website files to the main root folder. 5. Import your database. 6. Check if your website works worldwide. Akfete.A