While browsing the net we must have come across a lot of sites which contains guides of a wide range of articles on how to start a website. But did we really find what we are actually looking out for when we think of starting a new website? We might get a variety of articles on issues faced by a webmaster and few A-Z guides to get started but I failed to find any of them which will provide me with a step to step guide. As a result, the newcomer will become perplexed as to which article he should read first and which next. Well, we have made an attempt to fill in the gaps by providing you with an overview of the web creation process with the beginning.
Today we present to you a Step-by-Step Guide on how to start a new Website
Get a Domain Name
The first thing we do when we have a new born baby is to think of a name for the baby. Likewise when we are thinking of starting a new Website the first thing to decide on is the name. In technical terms we call it as a domain name. A domain name is the name which you want to give to your website like we have given to our website namely “startwebsite.org”. It is pretty simple to get a domain name, you only have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. But remember getting a domain name does not mean that you get a website. It’s only a “name” for your website which you are getting registered. It’s just like getting a business name registered in the commerce world and having a name does not mean that you got a shop or a premise with the name.
How to decide on a good domain name can be discussed later in our other articles. Now to move on you will need to know the steps to register the domain name and the things which you need to look out for when getting the Website registered and also some of the important precautions which you need to take while buying a domain name. This is only to ensure that you are not committing the same mistake which some of the other newcomers have made while buying a domain name.
Select a Web Host and Sign Up for an Account
If web hosting is new to you then to explain it in brief a Web Host is basically a company which has many computers connected to the internet. When you place your web pages on their computers the whole world will be able to connect to it and view them. To do this you may have to sign up for an account with any web hosting company so that your website has a home. Taking the same example which we have given earlier of a business, if getting a domain name is similar to getting a business name then web hosting account is similar to renting office premises for the business.
You may have to deal with many issues which are involved in finding a good web host and the various things which you need to look for in searching a good web host. Once you get an idea of what to look for in a web host you can search for the right budget web hosts.
Design the Web Page
You got the domain name and a web host but where is the website. So now is the right time to design the web site itself. Following are few tips which can help you in designing the website. But if in case you are using a third party web designer then you can probably skip this step.
Although there are many things which are involved in web designing but as a beginner your first step is to actually get something out onto the web. The other enhancements can be done at a later stage but the first thing to know is how to get a basic web page onto the site. One way is to use a WYSIWYG (”What You See Is What You Get”) web editor to do it. Such editors enable you to design your site visually without actually getting into the technical details. They word just like a normal word processor.
If you don’t want to shed money on the editors then there are many commercial and free web editors around and if you don’t mind spending money then one of the most highly regarded WYSIWYG web editors is Dreamweaver. If you wish to use free software then KompoZer is a free WYSIWYG web editor. There are many other web design software around. If you prefer not to use either of the above mentioned software then you can find a variety of list on the web.
Once you are on your way to design the website you may have to concentrate on the appearance, usability and search engine visibility as there will be some real time issues that a web designer might have to deal with. Search engine readiness is an integral part of the web design. You may have to start the search engine promotion since the time you start designing the web site and not after the web site is made. It is very important to create a search engine friendly website since the beginning and optimize the site accordingly. It is also essential to look for the ways where you can improve your search engine ranking especially on Google as the Google is the most important search engine around.
There are few other issues related to the web designing but as a beginner the above information will be helpful to get you started. However, if you have time after you have got something out onto the web and want to know more about web designing then you can find few other articles on web designing, website promotion and search engine ranking.
Website Testing
Website testing is something which you need to do throughout the web design cycle. We could have included this point in our former part of the article but the only reason to list this as a separate point is to give it a little more importance as too few webmasters actually perform this step efficiently.
Test your web pages on the browsers like Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 6, and the latest versions of Firefox, Opera and Safari as all these browsers are free and readily available. You will not find any hassles in getting them and installing them on the computer. The trick is to test the web site on two versions of Internet Explorer since the later version will overwrite the earlier one. Check out your website on multiple browsers on the same machine. There are different ways to test the websites like Cross-Browser Compatibility Checking and emulator/virtual machine method.
One way to enhance your website and improve the chances that the website will work with any of the future versions of the web browsers is to make sure that the web pages code validate as correct. There shouldn’t be any errors in the underlying code. There are numerous free web page validators which are listed on the web like the Free HTML validators, broken link checkers, and browser compatibility checkers etc.
Collecting Credit Card Information
If your site is about selling some products or services then you will need some way to collect the credit card information. You will need to know how to accept the credit cards on the website and also how to add an order form or a “Buy Now” button using PayPal to a website.
If you want to make money from your website then you will need advertisers for your website. You may affiliate your site with various revenue generating programs and a list of advertisers. There are companies which are on the constant lookout for new web publishers to display their advertisements.
Promote Your Web Site
Once the site gets ready the next step is to submit the site to the search engines, especially the most sought after search engine Google. You can find the Google submission page by clicking on the “About Google” link on Google, and then locating the “Submit your content to Google” link on the page that appears. But frankly speaking submitting your site to the Google alone is not enough. In other words Google will not index your site if there are no other links to your site on the web and will be reluctant to display the results that include your pages. On the contrary, if your website has many other links then you don’t even have to bother to submit your site to Google as it will find your site by itself.
This is the point where advertising your website becomes significant. Promoting the website involves many things like advertisements in the newspapers, word of mouth, hoardings, etc. You can choose internet also to advertise your site and various places like Yahoo! which in turn will put the ads on Yahoo!, AltaVista and CNN. Another way is to post the ad on Ask which again puts the ads on Ask, Excite, Match.com, Gifts.com, etc or our all time favorite Google is also the best option.