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Mary Haggard
Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
October 17, 1997
The following article was originally published in Site Builder Magazine (now known as MSDN Online Voices).
In previous columns, I've given you a lot to think about when designing, building, and launching your Web site. You don't really think that's all you need to know? No way. One of the biggest mistakes traditional software developers make when they build and launch an Internet or intranet site is failing to consider how to maintain a healthy and growing Web site.
During the initial development of your site, you need to assign staff to update content and manage the site on a continuing basis. Web-server hardware and software must be monitored to ensure it is scaling appropriately to the growing load. Customers need to learn how to use the site, and you need to respond to their demands by fixing problems and adding new features in timely fashion.
As I've said many times before in this column, the only reason to build a Web site for your organization is to publish timely, useful, and relevant information that customers will find helpful and that will make your business succeed. In most cases, that means planning to update the site's content on a regular basis. Whether it's the publication of a regular newsletter, updated pricing and services information, or changes and corrections to forms that gather information, you will need to maintain a staff that is well versed in the technologies used on the site, and that can manage the day-to-day preparation and posting of updates and new content.
A site that attracts the most return visitors is often one that voices a specific personality within its pages. This personality can be humorous, informative, critical, or even self-honoring, but most importantly it reflects the personality of the people who built it. If as site builders you also consider the personality of the customer whom the site is trying to attract, then you have a winning combination.
Some site builders realize that they themselves do not reflect the customer demographic. If that's the case, build a customer profile, research online or print publications that speak successfully to your audience, and try to reflect that tone in the work you do. One site that has successfully taken a print-based "personality" and put it online is Rolling Stone Magazine 
.
Customers on the Web have this wonderful tool called e-mail, which lets them say anything they want about what they like, and don't like, about your site. Use this feeback to understand what customers want your Web site to do for them. Offer users an e-mail address or develop a feedback form for comment on your Web site. Not only do you learn how your site needs to improve, but you can assess the accuracy of your customer demographic and target your message more effectively.
You can also analyze log files that the Web server generates for quantifiable information about who has visited your site and what they did while there. Use this information to judge how well your design is getting users through your site. Microsoft Site Server 
offers log-analysis tools to help you do this. The TuCows Web site has an ample listing of log-analysis tools. (As a side note, Tucows is a great place to learn about Internet software available from hundreds of vendors. It's worth a look.)
How many Web sites are too many Web sites? As in any other aspect of your business, you've got to learn how to get your message out and attract both existing and new customers to your Web effort. Each business will have a different set of needs, but here are some places for you to get started.
Spending time up front to get out the message about your new Web site is an important part of getting users to your site. With so many sites on the Web today, you really need to go the extra mile to ensure your message gets heard.
Adding or updating content can become a complicated process as your site increases in size. Not only do you need to ensure that a new file functions correctly on your server, you need to update and add links to it in other files, add cross-site components, and test the HTML, components, or scripting that it is using. You also should check to be sure your new file downloads and runs appropriately on all the different browsers you are targeting.
When many people are working on a Web project, such site-maintenance tasks as file management and site backup become very important. To avoid having files accidentally overwritten, and much work lost, consider using the site-management capabilities of Microsoft FrontPage or Microsoft Visual SourceSafe to manage source-code files, and the capabilities of Windows NT to automate backup of files.
The FrontPage Explorer should be sufficient to manage most sites. With FrontPage, you can manage and organize your files into a logical structure, update hyperlinks (even those to external sites), assign tasks, administer the project by setting up password protection, and view the structure of the site by either file or navigational views. For those last-minute changes, FrontPage also provides a search-and-replace tool that allows you to make site-wide changes quickly.
Visual SourceSafe is usually installed on the Windows NT Web Server. It can be used as a stand-alone file-management tool, or it can integrate smoothly with FrontPage or Microsoft Visual InterDev to provide version-control for your project.
When building a medium- or large-scale Web-publishing effort, a server on which files are copied and tested before being put on the live Web site becomes a necessity. This "staging" or "test" server needs to match as closely as possible in hardware and software components to the Web server on which you will actually publish your information live. If you're working with an independent service provider (Remember? An "ISP"?), be sure you work with them through the issues of how to set up a staging environment.
Where would we be in the world without writers to write and editors to rewrite? Since your Web site is all about communication, hire someone onto your team who understands how to give your site a common voice, communicate the right message, and spell things the right way. On a Web site, the job of "Site Editor" is a lot more than correcting grammar mistakes. It's about keeping the site useful, developing the right content, providing education for users about the site, and gathering and responding to customer feedback about site content. Who will ensure outdated content is removed from the site?
Traditionally, an important part of the site editor's job has been to test the Web site to be sure everything functions as intended. However, as Web technologies become more complicated, and as sites become larger, site testing has become a very necessary component of any Web team.
Early this year, when we expanded the MSDN Online site to its present structure, the need for a person dedicated to testing the site's technologies and content became very apparent. Our test team has spent the last 10 months teaching us how to improve our site, how to ensure it functions well on multiple browsers, and how to make the right technology decisions that result in the best experience for the user. To help you jump-start your testing effort, here is an overview of what to check for each technology you may be using on your site.
More information on testing and testing tools and processes is available in MSDN Online Voices's Getting Testy article.
It is incredibly easy to use ASP technology to tie Web sites to databases and other files. Don't think of databases only in terms of how the user will interact with them; consider also how you can use this technology to easily automate processes on your Web site. Here are a few ideas.
If you have a component on your site that will change between several options on a regular basis, such as a "Tip of the Day", you can use ASP to open a text file and pick a random entry to display. The Adventureworks ASP sample site does this on its home page . The code is also available there.
Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 provides tools that can automate Web tasks. You can either use the SQL Server Web Assistant, or the Internet Database Connector in Internet Information Server (IIS) , to write a query, schedule when it should be run, enter the formatting information for the HTML page, and automatically generate and publish the page. This is very useful for automatic generation of regular reports, such as sales figures or financial data, and is an easy way to keep your site up to date.
Another way to add flexibility to your site without expanding your overhead is to provide users with an entire set of data that they then filter to find what they need. Use the data-binding features of Internet Explorer to make this happen. Data binding is part of the Dynamic HTML implementation in Internet Explorer 4.0.
As traffic to your Web site grows, your server will need help to keep it functioning at its best. This is an important section for those of you running a Web server, but also for those of you working with an ISP. Here we'll talk about how to use Windows NT® tools to keep the hardware in top shape, how to streamline your ASP code, and when to upgrade hardware.
The Windows NT Performance Monitor provides a familiar interface to monitor performance on the Web server. It can help diagnose problems related to the five fundamental aspects of the Web server: processor, memory, disk, network, and IIS. Because the Performance Monitor uses bandwidth to run, use it sparingly on your live service. More information about all of these, including much more detail on using Performance Monitor to keep your server optimized, is available in the Windows NT Resource Kit.
ASP code is extremely flexible, and can be very server intensive. Documentation is just becoming available that gives great tips on how to write the best code. The place to watch for great documentation on writing good ASP code is the Server section of MSDN Online Web Workshop. Nancy Cluts' 15 ASP Tips to Improve Performance and Style article is a great place to start.
Documentation on writing good ASP code is well worth the time it takes to research. In fact, just by implementing a few of the tips in the article above, the folks on the home.microsoft.com site doubled the performance of their server code.
Unlike this column, work on a Web site never ends. Be prepared to work hard to keep your site alive and running well. Otherwise, there really is no point in doing the work to build it in the first place.
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.
For technical how-to questions, check in with the Web Men Talking, MSDN Online's answer pair.
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