STEP 1 HOW TO BUILD WEB SITES OVERVIEW
How To Make Host and Market a Web Site
Web Sites Explained in Plain English, step by step.
Understanding fully how to create host and market web sites before you start is the key to web page success. This page is an overview of the various steps needed to build your own web page, to create an easy web site.
We’ve created the steps to building a web site in a different order to what you’ll see elsewhere. This is because we want you to create a successful web site, one that is ranked highly in the search engines and is professional. Personal web pages can use the same techniques, although the SEO section may not be that critical to you.
It is possible to create a free web site. We have also provided free resources for each stage where they are available.
Each page is a stand-alone step, but should be read and applied in the order presented for the best results. Follow the Go To > arrows at the foot of each page.
Planning and Evaluation of Your Needs
Think of this as a business plan. Before you start, think about what you want from your website. What will be its primary purpose?
Profile your customers – who are they, what are their needs?
Choose the theme / topic
Look at your budget, the facilities and technical components you’ll need.
The theme can be also determined by keyword research – see Search Engine Optimisation below
How will you make money from your web site?(if that is your aim)
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
If you want your site to be ranked and positioned highly in the search engines, for new visitors to find you, then study this section next. If you don’t need search engine traffic, skip ahead to Hosting. The reason SEO should be done as the next step is because it will help decide many of your choices from now on.
SEO can even help determine the topic or theme of your site, by looking at the supply and demand of keywords people use to find your site.
Web Site Hosting
A web page hosting service hosts your website on its server, so that it can be accessed on the internet via a browser..
There are many different packages, facilities and companies. Deciding on your budget, concept and components first will help decide the package and host you choose.
Most web hosting services can also register your internet domain name, some include this in the package.
Design
Plan your site’s overall structure and navigation
Pre-plan each separate page’s visual appearance and functions.
Gather together or write your content.
Avoid Bad Design elements - what turns people off a web site
Web Site Building Tools
There are many tools you can use to help you, including website builders, traffic statistic counters, forums, colour coders, ebook cover creators, image libraries, adding dynamic headlines and news, site search boxes, scripts for interactive forms, logo and banner creators, metatag generators, scrolling status bars and many more.
Create Web Site
Once you know how you want your site to look and what you want it to do, it’s time to actually create or build it, using website building software. Here is where you add web pages, insert colours, tables, forms etc. Then proofread, adjust and publish (upload to a server)
Web Site Marketing
Besides the search engines, there are many other ways to increase your site’s traffic. Traffic for a website can be compared to location for an offline business, and the principle is the same - if no-one can find you, you won’t get much business. So you’ll need a web site marketing strategy.
Getting your site listed on many other websites can increase web site traffic, especially if your site title and description contains your search engine optimised keywords.
While you can outlay a lot of money for this, there are many free resources as well, and many ways to do it.
Maintenance
Can include checking for broken links and updating content with fresh information. As in normal marketing, through trial and error, aspects of the site may need to be changed to improve performance.
The pages of this tutorial can be viewed in the order presented by following the Go To > at the foor of each page, or the entire How To Build Web Sites tutorial can also be downloaded here
How To Make Money From Your Web Site < Go to > Step 2 Planning and Evaluation
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