Website Design Tips and Tricks

Do you need to get your website up and running, but don't know where to begin?  Well, here are a few website design tips and trick to help you do just that.  

Step 1, Prepare your website for the World Wide Web  

Determine what you want your website to do. What is its main purpose? Do you want to share your ideas or will you be selling products or services online?   Who is your primary audience or visitor to your site? How will you target them, keep them on your site, and have them returning for more?  

If you are a business owner, how will your website enhance your company's goals? Maybe your website will answer frequently asked questions your customers have about your services so you can save time on customer support. Maybe you want to market your products and generate more income.  

Gathering your thoughts and putting them down on paper will help you as you move to the next step.  

Step 2, Build your website  

Whatever your decision, whether to hire a web design company or to do it yourself, you now have some valuable assets you gathered in step one, your written thoughts and plans, the content for your site.  

Brainstorm domain names (ex. www.yourcompany.com) for your website. Think of a domain name that includes your company name or one that focuses on what your website is about. If your company name is very long, try shortening it (with an acronym, for example). The longer your domain name, the easier it may be to misspell.  

Next, you need to rent web space (also referred to as web hosting). This is where the content for your web pages will be published onto the Internet. It's important to find a reliable web hosting company which runs at least 99.9% of the time. If the hosting company's server goes down often, your website will also go down regularly.  

If you want to build your own website, but do not have web designing experience, a web hosting company that includes a website builder tool may be a good place to start. Using a site builder through the hosting company may make it more difficult to move your site elsewhere if you decide to in the future, however.  

Web hosting plans allow you to purchase your domain name and web hosting at the same place. You are given a control panel where you can set up the email address for your company yourself.  

Hiring a website designer or company to help you is another option. They can help you with the set up of your domain name, web hosting, email account, and create your website for you. Your hosting solutions may include a tutorial which shows you how to set your email accounts on your own.  

Step 3, Market your website  

Decide how your target market will find your website, through paid advertising, search engines, word of mouth, or a combination of all.   If you are really serious about marketing your website on search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN, have a search engine optimization company help you.  

Your written ideas for your business will come in handy as you market your website. The text content for your website plays a huge role in marketing an online presence. If your webpage is built mainly with Flash or images, search engines will skip through your web page until they find text content.  

Keywords for your website work well in marketing your website. Creating a list of keyword phrases that someone in your target audience might type into a search box will help you even if you are working with a marketing company. Why? Because no one knows your business better than you!  

The more links you have pointing to your website, the higher your website will rank on search engines. Consider joining a web forum, but not just to get free advertisement.  

Follow these steps and you'll be well on your way to getting a website that works for you.