Creating Your Web Site Design
A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Frances Rhea
Creating Your First Web Site Design
Prior to anything else, you must determine the goals for your web site design. Knowing your goals will contribute to its success or failure. By defining the purpose, you can get the right tools and/or people to complete your design.
Diagram Your Web Site Structure
Visualizing the web site is very helpful. Name each page with lines connecting the pages and showing the links. Start at the home page and work down.
Write Text for the Pages
Before you create any HTML pages, write out the text needed in the web site. This will save time later.
Choose a Basic Layout
Use a standard layout that people are used to is beneficial. Most common are: left side navigation, top navigation, and/or right side navigation. Keep it simple with only a few graphics.
Basic Colors and Fonts
Choose a style that fits the subject of your web site. USe standard color schemes to avoid confusion (blue for links, red for active links, purple for visited links). It is not necessary to use the default colors. There are lots of varieties of these color combinations!
If you use Cascading Style Sheets it will make your web site easy to control.
Construct Your Web Site
Use either notepad or software specially made for creating a web site. There are lots of programs available as freeware and shareware that can help with the actual creation of your web site design.Some also help to maintain links by creating a visual structure of the web site.
Find a Web Host
There are literally thousands of good web hosting companies. Determine how much traffic you expect and what extra features you may need. If you use a database for e-commerce or need extra disk space your site will probably cost more to host. Choose the hosting company and plan that best suits your web site and design. Cheaper is not always the best.
Upload Your Web Site Design
When all of the above is completed, it is time to upload your web site design to your host servers. Using FTP to do this is the easiest way. If you are not sure how, your hosting company should be able to help with the details when you set up your account. They should have a help page with tips and it might be included in their welcome message.
Web Site Design Quick Tips
Make sure you keep your web pages small (under 60k). Keep all of your content headers clear. Make your paragraphs small and easy to read. Your contact information should be easily found in the same place on all of your pages. Do not change the look and structure of the web pages within the site. Provide a Home or Main Page link on every page. Links are always underlined. Your company logo should appear on every page in the same spot. It should always contain a link back to the home page of your web site.
