How to Create a Website From Scratch
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Your product, service, or special interest deserves to be in the spotlight or else you wouldn\'t be putting it out there. Depending upon your immediate and long-term internet goals, you must decide how and where to construct your world-wide-web stage.
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Your product, service, or special interest deserves to be in the spotlight or else you wouldn't be putting it out there. Depending upon your immediate and long-term internet goals, you must decide how and where to construct your world-wide-web stage. In this article you will learn how to quickly evaluate your situation and explore all your options before you create a website from scratch. If you move too fast you may spend a lot more money than you need to, or have to start all over again from a newly-realized angle.
Define your site's purpose and goals. What reaction do you seek from each visitor? To buy? To click random ads? To go to another site? To simply inform and not earn? Whatever the purpose, sharply envision it first, then you can proceed to create a web site around it. If selling a product directly, you might want shopping cart and PayPal to be included. To inform on a regular basis, you might want forms for visitors to fill in so you can build an email list. To just get ad clicks, a tightly focused hobby or review site might do. The point is, don't buy a caddy if a bike will do the job.
Make a list of possible names for your site and then Google them. Behold your competition! Note how they are catching fish and what sort of lures they employ. Who has top positions? Lesser positions? Now go to your keyword tool (free from Google and elsewhere). Enter those same names. Which ones are being used the most when a seeker fills in the search engine search box? Which search terms are being used a little less? You must review the names and meta-tags (a meta-tag is the first few words that follow the site title or address) of these sites before you create a website that's going to be fighting these very same sites for it's own Google position.
Sometimes you would want to utilize a lesser-searched term because there are probably fewer fishermen targeting these good little ponds, you see. Try several keywords, list all possibilities and configurations that might work for you, and make your final informed decision. By the way, this is no time to be cryptic, cute, romantic or poetic, unless your site is intended to be purposely broad, very exclusive or just a personal diary.
Secure your domain name at any registrar site, but don't commit to any hosting. You will be tempted, but do not do it yet. Look around first so you may seriously compare price and features between host offers. When registering your name, consider taking not only the "dot com", but also the "dot net" and "dot biz". Otherwise, later on when you are a big success, somebody can usurp and confuse your customers by advertising your near-name!
Now that you know what you want your site to do and what features it must contain in order to do it, you have to size up your own desired level of involvement with the mechanics of running your site. If you know HTML, you probably want to work all the knobs behind the scenes. Or maybe not.
To truly create a website from scratch, you have to acquire your own site creation software, create your website on it, purchase straightforward hosting, and then upload it with an FTP server. Then you submit it to search engines if they don't find you first on their own. This is probably the most controllable and versatile way to create a website, and the most economical if you will eventually have more than one site.
If you don't want to go in that deep, then a simpler set-up would be better for you. Look instead for a host that includes a built in site creator plus all the features you know you need. Most of these hosts are fairly flexible and do make impressive sites, but they vary a great deal in what they cost and how they limit you. Just make certain their package is neither more nor less than you really need or will need.
TIPS:
If at all possible, delay actually uploading your site until fully built. Depending on your host, you may or may not be able to control this. The reason to delay it is because Google might well pick it up, analyze it, and stick you somewhere without your proper meta-tag or in some insufficient position. This kind of thing is SO not good, and Google stuff can be difficult to change later. In any case, get it generally like you want it as fast as you can. And as always, mind your keywords.
Shell out for private registration of your domain name(s). If you don't, then be prepared to get avalanche-spammed from all sides because your personal registration info goes into a public registration listing. This info includes not only your email address, but your name, home address, and phone number.
You may be offered free or cheap site hosting without the ability to use your own dot com address. Again, you must consider the purpose and promotional intentions of your site before committing to the address. Many back-linking doors may be shut to you unless you have your own, clean dot com address, and you may run into other assorted barriers. If your site name/address does not end with ".com " or ".net" etc., and nothing more, you are actually a sub-domain of your hosting service. This is no problem for most folks, but might be a little confining for extensive commercial operations.
A note about blog vs. website:
Instead of a website per se, you may prefer a single blog on a single landing page. Here again, make sure features are what you need and that the name you bought can be applied cleanly. Most if not all free blog hosts restrict or forbid you to place ads or html, and they may even put some ads on it "for" you. Also, true, full-featured blog software is hard to find as a built-in instrument of a stand-alone site creation software package (or impossible), so a paid blog host is the best idea if you are a gung-ho commercial blogger.
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