How To Make A Website Guide

This guide will give your a high level view of how to make a website in a few easy steps.

It not as hard as it seems. You can build on learning one skill at a time.

Use this tutorial to design and build a website that is easy to navigate and one that your visitors will love.

1. Lay the Foundation With Careful Planning
• After you've arranged your hosting package and domain name, you will probably be tempting to jump in and design your site as you go -- big mistake!
• If you approach website creation in this way, you'll quickly create a bunch of web pages, complete with repetitive and bothersome navigation quirks.This can be avoided with a little TLC...

  ... tender loving care-ful planning. ;-)

• Website Goals... Before you think about how to make a website you need to ask yourself...

  "What do I want my outcome to be when designing my site?" You should have an idea of what you want when it is completed.

  What are the goals you are hoping to achieve? The answers will help you make decisions down the road.
• Keep it simple -- unless you're creating a site for the hottest heavy metal band doing it with a lot of fancy colors and flash snippets is probably not how to make a website for yourself or client.
• A little time spent on planning your site now will save you hours of frustration later. Follow these easy guidelines for a better-quality site:



2. Ask Yourself... "What Type of Site Do I Want to Build?"
• First, consider the focus of your site. Do you want to sell things to people, or get them to read as many articles as possible?

• Are you trying to attract advertisers to your site, or simply provide information about a club?
• When you a planning how to make a website consider your readers. Are they tech-savvy or could they be older 'silver surfers' who might not go for fancy Flash screens or difficult navigation options?
• My advice is to start with pen and paper, and write a mission statement for your website. It might sound like it's going overboard, but its well worth the effort.
• Do everything possible to make sure that your website is going to give people what they want -- whether you're creating a small site for family and friends or big site to attract the widest possible visitors.
• Write down a description of your potential visitor. This will give you clarity on how to make a website that's pleasing to her.






• Try to give visitors something they can't easily get from other websites if you want to attract a large audience. The goal is to get your voice heard above the rest of the field.
• Learning from sites you visit -- take a look at some of your favorite websites; pay attention to the structure and aim of these sites. As you go through each site, ask yourself...

  What kind of website is this? What are the parts of this website? How do I navigate between pages? What gives makes this website distinct from other sites on the net?

• You'll be surprised and often amazed by what you might learn from them. You might even take notes on these websites. What makes these sites work? or better yet ... not work.
• As you are planning how to make a website you want to consider what to name it. Pay attention to some of the existing website names as you browse the web.




3. Let Your Map Be Your Guide -- Draw A Site Map

• It helps to create a 'map' of your site so draw a box on the left-hand side of a piece of paper or in the center: this will be your home page.
• Draw more boxes to the right and write in them some general ideas about what kind of information will be on your website -- work your way across.

  Subdivide several different topics -- this will be your second level under the home page box. It's also know as a tier 2 level.

• Connect other pages to the home page with lines -- this is the beginnings of your navigation structure.
• Subdivide second level boxes into a third tier 3 level... if necessary. I call this a tier 3 level. Usually, there is no need to subdivide down to a forth level -- it's not search engine friendly at this point.
• Plan on creating an About page and/or a Contact Us page -- this is the standard pages that you'll find nearly all websites. Your visitors will expect to find links.
• List the various pages you want to build. Once you have a list of pages, you'll also have a preliminary version of the file structure of your site.
• Make a note of any images, videos, and sound snippets that you want to use as part of your site.

How to make a website that my visitors will like? Easy, create good content?

Be patient...

... as the saying goes Rome wasn't built in a day.

By building one quality page and then another and then another...

... you'll soon have a website that you'll feel good about -- one that you can...

... continue to grow.