Overview of Creating Your Own Web Site
- Quick Start Guide to Web Site Design
by Gina Hoover (c) 2004-2014
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Come up with an
Idea on what you want to do. Could
be a business or a personal web site, whatever
you want.
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Secure
your domain name. A domain
name is a specific web site address that you
choose and register with a company that offers
domain name registration (i.e. .com, .net,
.org, .edu, and .gov). Our domain name is
"hooverwebdesign.com". You should secure your
domain name as soon as possible because if
you wait to register your name it could be
grabbed up by some one else.
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Draft out on paper
how you vision your web site will look. Ask
yourself, what will be on each page? How should
it navigate, etc.
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Start putting together
the content for your web site.
Content is text, graphics and music that you
would like on your web site. Do not copy text
and graphics from other websites. This is
called copyright infringement and is illegal.
You could open yourself up to lawsuits. Type
up your own text that you would like to appear
on your web site in a word processor. Be sure
to check your spelling. Any photos you want
on your web site will need to be scanned.
You can give your site a polished appearance
by purchasing a professional
website template. Besides getting your
site up and running quicker, all you would
have to do is paste in your text. Using an
online website
builder is another option.
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Secure
your web hosting. Web hosting
is a monthly fee that you pay to have your
site accessible on the Internet.
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Add some eye-candy
like a few graphics. View
royalty free graphics and photo resources.
Nobody wants to look at a web site with
just plain text. When choosing graphics, be
careful not to add too many. Less is more.
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Add items that make
your site "sticky" (items
that make your visitors stay on your site).
Things like message boards, guest books, polls,
and articles make your visitors want to stay
around for a while. Giving away free items
will always make surfers want to visit your
site. This site has a guestbook, a messageboard,
a free sitebuilder, free templates, a font
archive, a sound archive and other things
to attract visitors. There are many scripts
that you can use to make your site come alive.
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Once all of your content has been added,
ensure you add meta
tags to each of your pages. Meta
tags are very important. Meta tags allow
search engines to find your web site. If search
engines can find your web site people will
be able to as well.
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This is a good time to sign
up with an affiliate program. Affiliate
programs allow you to earn money from your
web site by advertising products for a company.
An example would be that you have a website
that discusses books. You could have a link
that would allow your visitors to buy the
book from your website. Your site visitors
would also appreciate being about to read
about the book and then being able to buy
it as well.
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Check and double
check the spelling on your web
site. Nothing makes a bad impression worse
than misspelled words on a web page
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Promote your web
site. You can have a great
web site, but if no one knows it's there it
won't do you any good. Add it to search
engines, directories, spam-free ffa pages,
and guest books. Ensure not to put blatant
advertisements in someone's guest book. That's
very rude and would offend anyone. Take a
look around the person's web site and tell
them what you liked about it, while also leaving
your link. Invite them to sign your guest
book if you have one. You should attach your
url to every email message you send out. This
makes it easy for surfers to come back to
your web site. Be patient because it takes
time build up a steady flow of traffic. Paid
Promotion is highly recommended because
you don't have to wait to be listed in search
engines.
Guaranteed
Search Engine Submission is also recommended
because this service assures that your web
site pages 'get in' and 'stay in' the search
index which powers top search engines such
as AOL, MSN, iWon, and HotBot. Your web page
is automatically re-spidered every day and
reflects any changes you make to your web
site. You also get to see how many searchers
visited your web pages and which search terms
they used.
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Update your site
often with new content.
Give your visitors a reason to come back.
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