How To Build A Website

I wish I still had the websites I built ten years ago, we'd have a good laugh!  They were a great example of what not to do when learning how to build a website.

Building a website today is much easier than it use to be because the internet has been around long enough that we pretty much know what works.  The science of attracting visitors and hanging onto them has been studied so much that there's now an abundance of good web site design builders to work from. 

As you begin to create your website you will be compelled to design your sites with eye-catching graphics and interesting color schemes.  While we all want a site that is appealing and eye-catching, it's important not to sacrifice usability and content.  Think of it this way, if you take away the graphics, pictures and ads, what would your page look like?  Would it still interest your visitors and provide them with the information and usefulness they are looking for? 

Below are some useful tips and strategies for building a website that will help your visitors find what they are looking for as well as give the search engines the information they are looking for. 

14 Tips for Building Your Website

1. Use lots of white space.
Your page should follow a clean outline. Include your site name at the very top. Below that, list the subject of your page and below that, expand on your topic. Leave adequate space between each section.
Don’t cram a lot of pictures and ads on your site. If you have an ad keep it off to the side or subtly intersperse it between your text. The idea is not to overwhelm your reader.

2. Keep animation and flashing objects To A Minimum.
As advertisers we feel the need to get our viewers attention. This is ok but we need to do it gracefully. Flashing objects and scrolling images distract your visitor and take away from the content. If your product is better demonstrated with animation or some other multi-media, allow your viewer to select the option. Don’t force it on them.

3.  Tell Your Viewers What You Want Them To Do.
Be specific in stating what your site is about and what you want your viewers to do on your site.
If you want your viewers to buy something, instruct them to have a look and buy.  If you want them to sign up for a newsletter or subscription, instruct them to do that. People like to know exactly what something is about and instructed on what to do.  They may not do it, but they don't want to have to figure things out.

4. If you have a newsletter or opt-in sign up keep it to either the top left or top right - Research has found that businesses get the most sign-ups if their sign-up forms are at the top.

5. Anything you put at the bottom right of your website will be noticed the least - Interesting, but true.  Save that space for things you're not worried about anyone seeing.

6. Do Your Keyword Research
Think about the words users would type to find your pages. These are the keywords you should optimize each page of your website for.  To date, Wordtracker is still the best tool for finding accurate, highly used keywords.  Don't spam the search engines by overdoing it, instead use the words accurately and effectively on the page.

7. Every page of your site should contain an ‘about’ link.
Anyone visiting your site should be able to find out about who you are and what you are about. Visitors will feel better about doing business with you or taking advice from you if they have background on you.  Always include your business address (a P.O. Box is ok) and phone number and email address as well. This lets viewers know that you are serious about your business and that you welcome contact. The search engines will find favor with you as well.

8. Include a ‘Privacy’ Link
Viewers want reassurance that you have a policy that follows privacy guidelines. They want to know that you will not sell or give away their information. In these days of rampant spam, your privacy policy needs to be prominently displayed. Many viewers and business partners won’t do business with you unless you have it.

9. Keep your links in blue.
This isn't a must and why does that matter you might say?

It’s an expectation that viewers have along with the links being underlined. There’s certainly no law that says they need to be blue but people spend a lot of time on the internet and it’s good practice to keep your navigation consistent and recognizable. If you do use another color simply keep it consistent.

10. Keep navigation consistent.
What you do on your index page should be done the same way on the rest of your site’s pages. Keep the colors consistent. Don’t force your viewers to relearn each page of your site. Keep your navigation bars and links the same for each page.

11. Use Understandable Buttons and links.
Title your links appropriately. Don’t use cute or misleading names. For example, if you have a link to sports equipment don’t label the link ‘Great Outdoors’, call it ‘Sports Equipment’ and make sure your page is titled the same.  For example, if your page is about 'dog food recipe' and, after your research, you found that your best keyword for that page was 'homemade dog food recipe' then be sure to title the page as 'www.yoursite.com/homemade-dog-food-recipe.html' and make sure all hyperlinks on your site referring to that page are labeled 'homemade dog food recipe'. Keep things consistent and relevant.

12. Add Fresh Content Often
Your site won't have anything to offer your visitors or the search engines if you don't provide useful, informative, interesting information, tools and services.  Notice I added tools and services.  This is important. You don't just want your visitors to simply visit your site, you want them to USE it. It's what keeps them coming back.

13. Use a Site Map
Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages. Most search engines nowadays base rankings on whether you have a site map or not.

14. Keep Links and Advertisements to a Minimum
Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 50) and advertisements should also be only one or two to a page.  If you want to do some advertising on your site, it has been noted that text links actually receive a higher click through rate than banners.  Why? Probably because clicking on a text link doesn't make the viewer feel like their clicking on an advertisement.

See also Web Site Optimization Tips

Easy Tools for Building a Web Site

TOP recommendations for creating websites that are in keeping with optimal web site design,  easy navigation, easy to use and include built-in search engine optimization: 

SiteBuildIt - by Dr. Ken Envoy, provides you an easy to build website tool and hosting options. His product also goes a step further and delivers the information and training you need to get your business started.  Ken's best features are that he provides you the education you need to make your site "sales worthy". Any research on the internet will tell you that Ken's products are of superb quality. The cost invested is returned in the traffic and sales you'll receive from your site. Website Builder (Includes website builder, Domain Name and Hosting).

XsitePro - If you're just looking for a standalone website builder then this is a good one. It's what I use simply because I find it easy to use, easy to install and versatile.  It's designed for both beginners and experienced website builders. Xsitepro includes software, tutorial and lots of useful time saving features.  Read my Review.

Create a Web 2.0 Site with Wordpress - Easily create a web 2.0 site with Wordpress and reap the benefits a static website can provide.

Build a Static Website with Wordpress - Easily build a static website using Wordpress and leap ahead of the competition with the benefits of quick site indexing, social bookmarking and much more. 

Build A Niche Store - An exciting software product that allows you to build a niche store (BANS) that promotes eBay niche products.  You can get paid up to 75% of the revenue Ebay makes from each sale you refer plus up to $35 for each new active eBay member you refer.

Build Mini Sites - Create your own money making minisite in just a few hours with this convenient home study course from Jim Edwards.

Affordable Web Hosting - Compare affordable web hosting between two of the webs best web hosting services and see how they compare for disk space,  features and pricing.