Decide on a name
Probably one of the most important aspects of your website will be its name, in web jargon this is called the domain name, for example LivingWandsworth is our domain name, when choosing this you have to take a few things into consideration;
Will you chose the name of your organisation or something relevant to it
So for example if you are a hairdresser called Nicky’s Saloon do you aim to call the website according to the name e.g. Nicky’s Saloon, or Nicky’s, or something relevant such as NickandCut?
.Com, .co.uk, org, .info, .biz
Part of the domain name is the TLD which is the part at the end, most large companies have their website in different countries so have different TLD’s. Generally every country has its .co.uk, co.it, etc, except the US where companies generally use .com. Some TLD are reserved, such as .gov.uk.
We recommend that you primarily choose .co.uk and if possible purchase the .com version as well.
Make it memorable
Whatever you decide to call it it has to be memorable, key to this is length, very few people will remember www.NickysSaloonOnTheHillByTheCafe.co.uk, on the other hand www.NickysOnTheHill.co.uk may stay in people memory.
Check its available
The net has been around for a while now and many domain names have already been snapped up, so you need to check to see if what you want is available.
To try out some names and see if they are available use the domain checker on the 1and1 hosting provider.
Costs
Domain names are not purchased they are leased, the price ranges from £1.99 - £8.99 per year.
If the name you want is not available, it may still be available for sale by the current owner, simply visit the site and see. If it is available you may be able to buy it but chances are it will cost you.
Hosting
To put your website on the net you need a host. The job of the host is simple, you upload your website to the domain space you purchase on their server, then when someone types your website address up pops you website. When you chose a hosting service there are a few things to bear in mind such as
- Cost per month, this can be from £1.99 to £24.99
- Amount of space you will get, from 100mb to virtually unlimited
- The monthly traffic allowance, every time a visitor requests data (pages, downloads) from your site this counts as traffic. You should aim to get at least a minimum 3GB for a small website
- The number of email boxes included, so you can write/receive email with your organisation name, e.g contact@yourorg.co.uk
- Are there any domains included, some hosting service will include at least 1 free domain name to get you started
- What tools and software is included to help you set up your website
As well as the above one of the most important things you need to consider is the uptime (availability) of the hosting service, there is little point choosing a host that is very cheap if they have a poor availability record and your website is forever unavailable. Also make sure there is some level of support in your package in case you run into difficulties.
Some of the more popular hosting service are 1and1, FastHosts, and BlueHost
Software
So once you have got you host and domain name, you need to build your website. If you host provides it you hosting package may already include a basic web building application. Alternatively you hosting package may have come with some additional software, for example 1and1 packages come with NetObject Fusion web designer. The most common applications for creating website are as follows
Decide your site
At this point its a good idea to have a rough idea of the type of site you want to build, these can range from one page brochure sites to full blown 100+ page commercial sites.
|
Application |
Cost |
Features |
Difficulty |
Aimed at |
|
Hosts webmaker |
Usually free |
Basic |
Easy |
Basic sites |
|
NetObjects Fusion 11 |
£80 |
Medium |
OK |
Medium |
|
Serif WebPlus X2 |
£70 |
Medium |
OK |
Medium |
|
Microsoft Expression 2 |
£100 |
High |
Hard |
High end |
|
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 |
£550 |
High |
Hard |
High end |
Of course there are tens of other applications and methods of creating websites, and you can use each one to create simple or complex sites. Its all really a matter of trying it out. Don’t forget we have links to free web design software on our Free Software page.
Content
Once you have the above sorted you need to think about content, now depending on the type of site that you are building for the organisation you are building you may need different things so we have compiled a list, in no particular order, of what we think are essentials to make your site work.
- Quick loading
- Each page has an appropriate name
- Meta tags are used to describe the site content
- Clear and easy to read
- Easy to navigate
- Uses standard fonts that are available on all computers
- You have an about page
- You have a contacts page
- No dead links and bug free
- Accuracy
- Content is relevant
The list is endless but everyone has to find their own balance to suit their own needs
Search
Once you have the your site created you need to make sure that people can find it on Google, MSN (now Bing) and Yahoo at least. Most people concentrate mainly on making sure their site appears on Google as it the largest search provider, but by ignoring the rest you are ignoring 40% of search users,
Most search engines download as much of the web as they can, strip the pages of text, pictures etc, index them, and rank the pages. Depending on how important and relevant your site is determines how often it will be downloaded and added to their index. To maker it easier for search engines do the following
- Have a good domain name
- Have good page names
- Fill in meta data tags
- Have the subject of your website appear on the pages, so for example for a hairdresser you need to have different cuts, product names, styles and services on your pages.
- Tell Google about your site and use Google Webmaster to submit your sitemap
- The more other, especially popular, sites link to your site the better your site will rank
However, you can get excluded from Google and other websites if you try to be sneeky
- Don’t have invisible text with your keywords repeated on it, for example white text on white background
- Don’t create multiple pages with the same content
- Don’t create multiple websites that re-direct to one site
If you do get excluded form Google you will not appear in any search results and will have to submit your site for reconsideration via Google Webmaster
Maintenance
Once your site is up and running make sure that you maintain it, by keeping it fresh and engaging. Remove anything that is no longer relevant and add new content
Don’t forget you can discuss this article and get help and advice on the forum