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How to make a website | Create Your First Website

Website design tips

So you have decided to build your own website. Great!

Before your start with your website you will need to have a idea or mental picture of what you want to do. You also need to plan what you are going to do. Read more about conceptualization and website planning here. After you have decided what you want to do (website topic, target audience, goals etc.) then you will create your website.

What will you need to design your Website?

Quality unique content is king!

It is a good idea to write for your your audience so that they can recommend your site to their friends. Always try to write quality and unique content. Search engines and your website visitors, will love your site.

Web browser compatibility

Your website should look consistent no matter what type of web browser you use. At present the two most popular web browsers are, Microsoft (IE) internet explore and Mozilla firefox.

When you design your site it always a good idea to view your web pages in various browsers and also different screen resolutions.

W3C Consortium and html and css validator service

When you do web design then it is a good to make according to the W3C consortium standard and validate your web pages for errors. This will ensure that your web pages are compatible with different types of web browsers. You can read more here www.w3c.org

Choosing a web site layout type structure

1. Table layout

You will create your whole website layout with tables. You will have a navigation, header, body and footer cells in the table.

2. Tableless - CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)

You can have a css file that can have the formatting settings of your website layout, fonts, colors, images etc. If you make a change in the css file then it will make the changes on all the pages in the.

Navigation structure

Good clear navigation is important in your web design. Make sure you've got links back to your homepage. If you use images for your navigation then ensure that you have text links at the bottom of all your web pages.

Color scheme

Visual appearance of your site plays a role in keepng your visitor(s) engaged. Let your colors blend in with each other.

Sitemap

It is a good idea to add a xml sitemap for your website. A sitemap will help organise your web pages and also make it easier for search engines to crawl your site. Go here www.xml-sitemaps.com to create an xml sitemap for your site.

Google analytics

You can use Google analytics to track your visitors and see lots of different statistics of your web site. Go here to try it www.google.com/analytics/

E-commerce

If you are designing an e-commerce site then you will need digital certificates (secure) server. You will also need a good secure shopping cart for your site.

Logo

It is a good idea to get a professional looking logo for your site. You can try to design the website logo yourself or get someone to design it for you.

The most important page is you homepage

The old age saying goes "First impressions last". Your visitors will decide in seconds if they want to read more content on your site, bookmark it or tell their friends about your site.

Your homepage must be able to engage your visitor otherwise they will leave and go somewhere else.

Make the homepage as small as possible. The exception to the rule is a sales pitch page which can be a couple of pages long.

Make sure your main elements and important links are easily asccessible from your homepage. Your typuical standard hompage will have an index.html or index.htm filename.

Graphics

Use graphics sparingly and make sure that it is in the following formats:

Try to keep your images as small as possible, because this will help your web pages to load faster. The last thing your visitors want is to wait for a minute for the page to load.

Flash and Javascripts

These technologies are cool, but try to keep it to a minimum.

Proffesional look and feel

Your visitors must think that you have a good site. If you want to sell your products and services then presentation and professionalism plays a big role. You don't want your competitor to get your visitor.

Hire a web designer

If you don't have time or the patience to create a website then hire a web designer or get ready made website templates

Most of the time your web hosting provider have free web building tools that you can use to build your website.

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