Hi everyone,

I am new here and pleased to meet you all. I hope you can help me with my questions. I am in the process of starting a company and need your help to understand what I need in order to make my website plans a reality. I have literally no understanding of what is required for web design (other than cursory reading online - most of it goes over my head), but I think being informed of the best options is probably the best route to go down.

The whole idea for my website is to enable users to search for specific venues in my city. At face value the website is simple with 4 pages - Home, Service 1, Service 2, Contact Us. However, obviously there will be many different profile pages as well which would feature a gallery (HQ photos), email contact form, tracking number and text boxes. What kind of web hosting would I need if I am requiring a lot of space for HQ photos?

How complicated is it to add a search function to a website with various fields of refinement? Would having a large amount of profiles count as having a data base and require back end coding for the site?

A key part of my business model is having my website users be able to contact venues quickly and directly. This contact is also how I plan to show the venues how useful my website is in driving leads to them. How difficult is it to include email contact forms for each profile page so that I can monitor the outgoing emails with analytics and is this email hosting? Is there a industry standard analytics tool that is always used? This is the same for the phone number which would be unique and used as a tracker. Can this be tied in to analytics software on the website as well? Is there any service people can recommend for this?

I really like the modern, soft and inviting designs that many websites are using. A good example of this is the style that AirBNB uses for their website. Is there a preferential web design language that my chosen web designer should be skilled at using to make this and all of the above happen? I will also be the person updating the website text and adding new profile pages. Is there a language that is easy to use so I can load in a template page when in need to, update photos, availability etc?

Sorry for the really long string of questions, but I am a little perplexed by a lot of things here.

Many thanks for your time,

Alex

Wow!

 

As much as I resent it, you need something like WordPress. Plenty of tutorials online I am extremely confident of that fact.

I guess it depends on how many venues there are in the city! Assuming quite a lot then I'd be tempted to use Drupal myself, though I am a relative beginner so others may be able to provide a more in depth analysis.

The best way to achieve what you want is to use the Listify WordPress theme. Really easy to setup and runs itself.

The best way to achieve what you want is to use the Listify WordPress theme. Really easy to setup and runs itself.

Using a prebuild Wordpress theme might be the easiest and quickest way to get something done in a hurry, but almost NEVER the best way, if you care the least about performance, scalability, security and semantics.

Edited June 1, 201610 yr by Nillervision