Today’s websites can really do a great deal, even with a very low budget compared to years past.  Open-source software (free software) is available for almost every function, and many servers (including ours) offer push-button installation of these often very elaborate programs.  Almost every function imaginable is available for free or for so little money that anybody can afford it: which is why there are so so many false starts, and failures.  These more and more elaborate solutions can be even more costly to the underlying business interest in missed sales, lost time, and negative cash-flow due the improper configuration, and lack of understanding purveyed by novices attempting to learn-as-they go at the businesses expense: we would liken it to representing yourself in court: you can do it, but you will have  a fool for a client.

What features do you absolutely need on your website?  This is not the laundry list of you what you desire, but the ones that are essential for your site to operate and work on the lowest level.  We will begin by looking at the features that all modern websites should have, from the most simple to the most complex.  I’d like to make a special note here: it is now possible to create dynamic social sites that do not contain blogs, which was more difficult to do before, as blogs and forums became the cornerstones of social media sites.  If you don’t know much about blogs, don’t worry:  we will get into that too.  No matter what website you get, even at a $200 budget, you should try to shoot for all of the following features.  They are just standard now:

List of basic features every modern website should have:

• Ability to upload and display images
• Ability to post and update information
• Ability for users to comment on content
• Ability to insert and publish html code (like Youtube embed code)
• Ability to categorize and organize content
• Automatic optimization of content for readability and indexing by the search engines (don’t worry this is built in to most content management systems and can be easily modified using the tips below)

List of features most community or social networking sites have:

• User account creation with profiles
• Forums
• User blogs
• Activity feeds
• Groups

List of features most Basic eCommerce website or small stores have:

• Secure SSL for screens that take in credit card numbers
• Products and shopping cart

List of features most CRM and Intranets have:

• Project Management
• Customer Relationship Management

List of features most Custom Web Applications have:

• Custom content types (i.e. Car Parts) for your business
• Advanced search and faceted/layered drill-down search capabilities

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