Originally my web site was created in "two parts". Part one being the online store that is hosted by a company that provides the backend order processing and inventory control software and integrates it nicely with the shopping cart function. This integration piece was of high importance to me when starting. Part two was the site entrance/home page which I intended to build a "community" type environment for. It was hosted on a different system by a different hosting company.
This lead to, among other things, the URL of the home page http://www.challengegaming.com with the online store being at http://store.challengegaming.com. There, of course, was/is a link from the home page to the online store.
After paying some bucks to have the "community" site and home page developed I became unhappy with the result. Hard to manage, difficult to change, just didn't work well. The flow of information just seemed bad. When customers went from the "communty" site to the "online store" and then back it seemed confusing to me, let alone the customers.
So, I did away with the "community" site and redirected the www.challengegaming.com to store.challengegaming.com. This was easier than trying to get my security certificate with Thawte changed. I then focused on improving the online store. Things are better now.
Now for the issues. The online store hosting company doesn't provide good development tools and access. Meaning all pages that you may modify have to be done in a cut and paste way. No FTP or shell access, etc. So it is really a pain to update and manage the site. Having to develop everything off site and then cut and paste them to the live site. Let alone the fact that most of the "code" used to create the online site is private, so one can't create an adequate test site.
I also, would still like to create a "community" to pull in potential customers and help with the ranking in search engines. So, I have been doing some work on the "other" hosted system. Thinking that I may use it again as an entrance to the complete site. I still use the "other" hosted system for email and the virtual hosting of another domain for a different company, so the cost of it isn't an issue.
Now, this is the way I see it. I could keep the online store as the main site and entrance/home page and then link back to a "community" site. Keeping the URL redirection in tack. Thinking this is bad for SEO. Or I could process the security certificate change with Thawte so the online store is at www.challengegaming.com instead of store.challengegaming.com. Thinking this is better for SEO. Or I could redo the entire "community" site and use it the way I originally intended.
For those of you that actually read thru all this, you deserve a
. I have considered hiring a design consultant, but because of past experiences, am hesitant. Still thinking about it, but feel like I might be better served by using different contractors to do the various things, such as copy writing, SEO etc after I make the overall site design decission.
