cocoguru.com now has a new website and design. This is the 3rd design since it started. This time, the speciality is that the site is all self-developed. Here, I would like to share our development process and ideas.

Domain registration for cocoguru.com was done earlier with godaddy.com. Hosting was also done at godaddy.com’s server. Being a market leader in web domain and hosting space, it is also the best in business with minimum downtime and reliable service. Dealing with free hosts or any local hosting space provider can be painful at times.

Website static pages can be developed with HTML on a text editor or HTML editors like Dreamweaver. Also, websites can be developed with dynamic pages using Content Management System (CMS) software. They provide easy user interfaces where even common users can develop and maintain website pages. WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are among the popular CMS software. WordPress.org from Automattic Inc. is the most popular free, open-source platform for website and blog development. Countless themes are designed, and plugins are developed to make the complete ecosystem pretty strong and vibrant. The latest version of WordPress 3.5 was installed directly from Godaddy’s hosting dashboard. Then, the complete website design and development is done by logging into the WordPress dashboard.

We strongly believe in minimalism, where the focus is only on what is required, i.e. content, and anything unwanted, i.e. flashy designs, is ruthlessly deleted. The latest default theme for WordPress, Twenty Twelve, was chosen for this site. It is free, and there are many other themes, some of which are paid. Once a theme is selected and systematically followed, the site developer can write his contents plainly in text and not bother about formatting. There may be some aspects of the theme that you may not like; they can be modified if you can, or you will have to just live with them. A few free plugins like Akismet (for spam protection), mappress (for showing maps), tablepress (for tables), sharethis (for social sharing buttons), formbuilder (for creating forms), etc., were installed.

Website pages can be developed by adding pages, and Blogs can be created by just adding posts. The WordPress dashboard has an easy Visual and Text editor for adding content. Each page/post comes with a comment form and a button for sharing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and email. The header, Footer, and Menu are common to all pages and posts.

The content posted is genuinely about us. I wrote it, and it is not a website development company. None of the text or photos are copied from other sites. They are free from jargon/exaggerations like customer satisfaction, high quality, modern infrastructure, excellent service, social responsibility, striving towards growth, etc. Photos are again taken by me with minimal editing to just crop the required portion. Information is openly shared to enable viewers to clearly understand about us.

Key Message
Small businesses need not use the services of Web Designers to get their website done. They will charge anywhere between 15,000 Rupees to 35,000 Rupees to get a flashy website done. Instead, you could do it yourself and write great content to attract visitors.

What Next
The present template is Twenty Twelve as it is. It needs to be customized to get the Cocoguru brand’s feel. More content is to be updated to make the site content rich.