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Mary Haggard
Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
April 11, 1997
The following article was originally published in Site Builder Magazine (now known as MSDN Online Voices).
What is the most overlooked part of building a Web site?
While you're getting things squared away with your Internet Service Provider (see the last column, Get Your Server Here! March 13), you need to plan the content.
Answer the following questions: What makes your site interesting and informative? What will ensure that your visitors return? What will make them return regularly?
Don't dismiss the importance of valuable, relevant, and useful content to your Web site. After all, you have a message to get across to your corporation or to the world! That's why you're building a Web site in the first place.
If you've done any Web surfing, you've seen them: dead sites. A growing phenomenon, they are just beginning to attract media attention. Dead sites say "last updated, 1996." Dead sites still wonder about the forthcoming O.J. Simpson verdict. Dead sites make you look really bad to the World Wide Web community. You hope your competitors have dead sites. You hope you never do.
Planning your content well helps ensure that you have a constantly updated information set, with the right combination of information your customers need to do business with you.
Pull together everything that you need to publish and be sure the information is up to date. If you want to tie the site to a database application, plan that well in advance, too. For information on tying Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Access databases to HTML pages, try the following information sources: The Microsoft Access Developer Forum 
or Commerce Solutions and Resources . (I'll also be covering tying database apps to the Web in a few weeks.)
Examine the information you've collected. Earmark content that will need constant updating, and assign people in your organization responsibility for that vital task. Be sure you staff appropriately for this! A Web site is not something you can keep up to date and high in quality in your spare time. Plan to hire at least one person whose only responsibility is to keep information current and to grow the site editorially. It is a small investment to protect the money you're already going to spend to get your business online.
Below are some suggestions for types of content you may want to publish on your Internet or intranet site. Note how publishing some of these types of information online can save in customer-service or help-desk costs.
On an intranet:
For more great information on Intranet publication and Web enabled applications for the enterprise, visit the Microsoft Intranet Solutions Center.
On the Internet:
Think about possible "regular features" to add to your site. Would a regularly updated newsletter be appropriate? How about chat sessions with people in your organization? Will you be conducting business online? How will you change the site to show when you are having a sale? How will you advertise interesting events? Dedicate your home page almost exclusively to information that will change constantly. Many sites on the World Wide Web do this very well. Take a look at one of my favorite sites that usually changes on a daily basis (okay, I'm a little prejudiced): the Microsoft Internet Start Web site .
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language of the World Wide Web, is the format that allows a page to be viewed by a Web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. HTML is an open standard, owned and updated by the World Wide Web Consortium 
(W3C). It is fairly easy to learn, and many online references and how-to books can help you learn it. A quick trip the HTML area on the W3C site or to your local library or bookstore should get you started. If you're in a hurry, try choosing View/Source from the menu in your Web browser (or right-click in Microsoft Internet Explorer and choose View Source) to see the HTML code behind the page you are reading. Then compare the source code with the Web page to learn how key HTML tags, such as <FRAME>, <TABLE>, <FONT>, <BR>, <P>, and <H1>, manipulate text. The Microsoft Internet Explorer HTML Reference also contains helpful information about these and other HTML tags.
Microsoft Office applications can be loaded, as-is, into the Internet Explorer browser window. The Office Developer Forum shows samples of this working with Office applications.
Many reference books and online materials provide useful information on what to consider when publishing online. One really useful article in the MSDN Online Web Workshop library is Authoring for Multiple Platforms. Take some of the following issues into account when you start publishing.
standards for HTML. Internet ratings system. PICS was originally designed to help parents and teachers control what children access on the Internet, but it also facilitates other uses for labels, including code signing, privacy, and intellectual property rights management.Since taking early retirement as commander of the Starship Enterprise and joining Microsoft, Mary Haggard has worked her way through the ranks to her lifelong goal, being Program Manager for the MSDN Online Web publishing team. Mary once worked in a paper mill, so she knows pulp when she sees it.
Did you find this material useful? Gripes? Compliments? Suggestions for other articles? Write us!
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