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Below is information about web design, if you have any information
about web design please email us and we will add it. Before you
can post a Web site to the World Wide Web, you need a unique address
for the site. This address is your domain name. This site's domain
name, for example, is internet-guide.co.uk. To ensure that each
Website has an address that no other site is using, domain names
must be registered with the domain administrator. In most cases,
this is InterNIC.
Other sites you can check to find more information about finding
a website domain is at
Below are some simple tutorials to help you design a website.
- Web Site Planning
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The most important part of designing a web site is in the
planning. There is no point in starting to write the HTML
when you only have a vague idea of what you want to accomplish.
In the long run planning will save you plenty of time and
hopefully stop you doing the dreaded redesign.
The first step to take is to decide what your web site
will be about. It is a good idea to look at other web sites
on the same subject to see what the competition is like.
You can also learn ideas from competitors on what works
and what doesn't. It is at this stage you may also realise
that your idea is not feasible ( e.g., creating a search
engine, search engines like Google would be near impossible
to compete with). You also have to take into account what
the costs of creating your web site will be, e.g., hosting
costs, buying scripts, employing people to design graphics
etc. Plus you should honestly evaluate your own web site
designing skills, if you are a beginner you should consider
creating a simple web site to learn the trade.
- Content Development
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The content of your web site is the part that will make
or break it. Useful content is what gets users coming back
again and again. Thou having a good graphically looking
web site is desirable, without any good content users will
soon be drifting away. If you are just a beginner and are
designing the web site yourself it is a good idea that the
content of your site is something you are genuinely interested
in, not only does it make the development of content enjoyable
but your enthusiasm will make your content genuine. If however
you have money to spare and are planning a big project you
may want to hire a creative writer, or for businesses, a
Web-savvy public relations professional to help you put
into writing some of the concepts your web site wants to
express. If your web site will sell a product or involves
dealing with the public, a good help page is essential and
all questions users will ask should be answered here. This
will save time answering emails or the telephone. Another
good idea is creating an online community to keep users
coming back, this can be done by creating a forum. A forum
is a good place for your web site to get valuable feedback
on what your web site is doing right or wrong and gives
your users a chance to interact. Below is two of the best
forum packages available.
- PhpBB - http://www.phpbb.com
- Ultimate Bulletin Board - http://www.infopop.com
- Creation of the HTML
- Once you have planned the basis of what your web site is
about and created the content the next stage is to code the
HTML web pages (you could design XML web pages and other formats,
but we won't cover that here). It is possible to code your
web pages by hand in a simple text editor like Notepad, but
this times a long time and doesn't allow you to view the look
of your pages while coding them. Therefore the best way is
to use a web page design package such as Macromedia Dreamweaver
or Microsoft Frontpage which automatically generate the HTML
code (this web site is coded using Macromedia Dreamweaver).
However a good knowledge of HTML is useful in making the HTML
generated by these programs cleaner and for adding meta tags
and such like. Macromedia Dreamweaver has a useful function
that allows the user to have a split screen with the bottom
half being the code view and the top half being the design
view. You will also need a graphical design package like Adobe
Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks to create the images for
your web pages. Furthermore you may need php, cgi, perl scripts
to automate functions in your web site like email forms, tell
a friend forms, error handling, ad management, forums, guestbooks,
search engines, counters and more. You may need to employ
a programmer to help with development of your web site scripts.
- Creation of Graphics
- Along with creating your HTML code for your web site another
important part of your web site is graphics. Good well designed
graphics are an important part of making your site look professional
and interesting. A good logo and titlebar can give your site
a customized feel and give your users a better indication
of what your site is about. One way to achieve good graphics
is to pay someone to design them for you, however this is
expensive. The other way is to buy a good graphic design package
and create the graphics yourself, this way you can learn a
skill and save yourself a lot of money in the long run.
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Graphic Design Packages,
- Promotion
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Once your web site pages have been created and you have
uploaded them by FTP to your web site host, you then need
to promote your site. Obviously there is no point in having
hundreds of pages of useful content if no one is going to
view them. If you have plenty of money you could advertise
your web site in newspapers, magazines, radio or on the
television, but for the vast majority of people this isn't
an option. Therefore the best place to get traffic to your
web site is by having it in Search Engines and Internet
Directories.
Search engines - Google,
AskJeeves - Teoma, Fast
Alltheweb.com, Yahoo,
Alta Vista
PPC (pay per click) search engines - Overture,
Espotting,
Directories - Looksmart,
ODP (The Open Directory Project),
Yahoo
Again if you have money to spare a professional Internet
marketer can help spread the word fast and soon start bringing
more people to your site using everything from advertising
on the Web to zippy contests.
- Maintenance
- Once your web site is up and running and the traffic is
increasing you cant just leave your web site alone, maintenance
is important. Obviously the larger the web site the bigger
the job of maintenance and with some web sites this can become
a full time job. When conducting web site maintenance you
need to make sure that your content is up to date and still
relevant, that emails are answered promptly, that link partnerships
with other web sites are kept, analysis of traffic to look
for improvements and areas to concentrate on. These are just
some of the things required during maintenance work. During
maintenance you should always be looking for the weaknesses
of your web site and improvements you need to make. A web
site is an on going venture and cannot be left alone to erode.
Again feedback from users is essential for good maintenance.
- Things to Avoid
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