Setting up a website is simpler than you think, and is necessary in today’s online marketing environment in order to make a name for yourself. Earlier in the history of the internet, building a website required paying a professional, with a career in professional web design. But times are changing, and the market of website creation is shifting in favor of the typical person surfing the web, who is a consumer and not a producer of computer software. I will now outline the basic steps involved in web page production. Build a Blueprint Making your website all on your own for the first time can feel a little like running in a maze while wearing a blindfold.

Yet by investing some time planning your site, you will be able to stay focused, and design a fantastic website that gains a lot of attention. Decide early on what information you want to provide to users Make a sketch of how you would like your website to look, including your homepage and all sub-pages. Are you building a personal blog, an online portfolio or a promotional website for your business? The more effort you invest in your website’s planning, the smoother the construction of your website will be. Choosing Your Domain Name A domain name is the site address used in an internet browser, to locate your website. Domain name are also called URLs, and are the words that come after http://. Selecting your domain name will significantly impact the impression you make on your visitors, so choose wisely. You want your domain name to be simple and direct. Make sure it is relevant to your website. It is also recommended that you use keywords in your domain name, or phrases that describe yourself or your niche. Changing your domain later on will confuse your visitors, so it’s wise to invest time up front picking a user-friendly name that will be easy to remember and represents your site.

Choose a Hosting Service Websites are stored on servers owned by hosting companies, which make them available to users via the internet. A lot of corporations will have their own private servers to host company websites, but many also subscribe to hosting companies. There are thousands of private web hosting providers on the web.

Some advertise different features than others to encourage customers to select them, but above all else, you want hosting service that is reliable. It’s important to use a host that is protected by a firewall, and has servers that will not crash What’s most important is that the servers won’t crash, leaving your visitors with blank screens when attempting to locate your website. Hosting uptime refers to the amount of time a host is available, and most hosting providers try to maintain a 99.9% uptime There’s nothing more discouraging to a new website visitor than a site with an unavailable server. Typically, hosting companies will provide free domain name registration and the option to cancel after a month. Writing Code Since the 1980’s, HTML has been the traditional language used for web design. However, over the past decade, more and more websites are turning to Flash. With Flash, owners of websites can build more dynamic websites with high-performance visual effects and a greater variety of interesting design applications.

Flash coding is however more sophisticated than basic HTML coding, and is not as easy to learn. A solution has recently been created to solve this problem, and new companies are releasing products that eliminate the need to code, in order to produce brilliant Flash websites. http://Wix.com actually produced a free flash website tool that allows users to build Flash websites that are search-engine friendly Wix produced a fantastically simple platform that lets users with no computer knowledge at all, to create a website using Flash. The company’s own website was built with the platform. The program lets users choose from a wide selection of free templates and customize their own Flash websites without entering in any coding at all.

Wix’s hosting is free for unpaid user accounts, which are saved on the company’s own servers. Gather Competitive Intelligence Knowing your competition allows you to figure out exactly what you can offer that others are not, and it clues you in to what customers are interested in. Benchmarking is a very important element of website development, and is not only limited to your website’s early stages. Continue benchmarking as your website evolves over time. Go to search engines such as Google or Yahoo!, and search for terms relevant to your website. Perform a few searches, with different combination of keywords and phrases.

You can also search for your competition by name, and take note of what sort of standards are being set for your niche. Study your competition, and think of ways to offer something better. Keyword Selection and Website Promotion Getting your site noticed by others is the goal behind this entire operation. Using appropriately placed keywords in your website’s content can increase the amount of visitors your website receives. When someone enters in a search in Google, the words they use are known as “keywords”Keywords are words or phrases that a user types into a search engine, to bring up relevant web pages. So how do you choose select good keywords for your website? Think of what words and phrases are related to your web page, that people are likely to use in a search. Although there are several keyword tools that cost money, you can start brainstorming for your website’s keywords before you even start the website itself, with Google’s free keyword tool. Design Your Website for Your Target Market It is much easier to express yourself clearly when you know who you’d like to be listening. Consider your ideal business clientele, or visitor to your website, and imagine what they might expect to find when they visit you. Will your visitors expect conversational, formal or technical language? It’s also worth considering what specific actions you hope your visitors to perform while on your website. Do you want them to purchase products, leave contact information, or sign up for something? Once you recognize exactly who your target market is, you can build a website with a clear focus, and tailor it so that it suits their unique needs and expectations. Final Remarks about Web Design You now have a basic sense of what it takes to make a website. Using these basic tips should help clear up the confusion about how to create your own website. Remain focused, plan out your design before getting started, and demonstrate your success as a website builder to your niche’s online community

Author Bio: Free Website BuilderI have been in the online marketing industry for over two years and love all things related to e-marketing, writing for the web, SEO and SEM. I’ve been working for a large company that specializes in web design, and love how dynamic this field is.

Category: Internet
Keywords: free flash, website creation, search engines, website design, website builder