Creating a Website

This is primarily intended for personal non-commercial websites, but many of the suggestions are helpful for all websites.

Planning the Website: Your first decisions

  1. Who do you expect to visit your website?
    The design of your website, the method you use for making the website, your choice of webhost, and promotion of your website vary greatly depending on who you expect to visit the website. If your website is an art portfolio you may want a design that reflects your artistic style rather than commercial style website. If your website is a blog about knitting a casual writing style, a "fun" layout with a pictorial collage of things you have knitted and lots of pictures in blog entries is fine. If your website is a collection of your scholarly writings about your research on quantum physics you will want to use a formal writing style and more conservative layout.
  2. How much are you willing to spend to create the website?
    Many programs that can help with creating websites (Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc) are expensive. While it will take you more time to learn xhtml, css, php, etc it will save you a lot of money. In many cases there are similar programs that are good enough for your needs. GIMP is sufficient for most website creators and it is legally available for free.
  3. How do you want your website to be organized?
    It is highly recommended that you figure out how to organize your website before you put it online. You may need to reorganize it as your website grows, but if you start by just adding files it will be difficult for both you and your visitors to find things. Most visitors have a short attention span and if they can't find what they want they will leave your website and look for one that is better organized.

Making the Website: Things to keep in mind

  1. There are a variety of monitors with different screen resolutions. In order to make your website easily viewable to as many visitors as possible it is a good idea to make sure that your layout can easily be viewed (especially without needing to scroll sideways) by someone with a 800 X 600 screen resolution. If you have a monitor with a higher resolution you should be aware that you have more clarity on your monitor than visitors with older monitors. Thus, if you have access to an older monitor it is a good idea to check your website on it.
  2. The most common methods for specifying colors are using hexadecimal RGB colors or, for a limited number of colors, writing the name of the color. It is important to make sure that the hexadecimal colors you use are "web-safe". While this limits your creativity a little it ensures that your website colors will work on a variety of browsers. A list of web-safe hexidecimal colors can be found at Lissa Explains.
  3. Create some of the website off-line. Most people have little interest in a "coming soon" website or one with only a small amount of content. This way when you put your website online you can upload several pages of content.
  4. Many people turn off cookies or limit which ones they accept. If you offer something wonderful these visitors may accept your cookies, but do not count on visitors automatically accepting cookies. Only use cookies if they are absolutely necessary or if your webhost requires them.
  5. Many people hesitate to download plug-ins, fonts, and other extras from websites. Visitors who are viewing your website from a public computer (library, computer lab, internet cafe, etc) may not have the option of downloading. Also computers have different operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc) and not all plug-ins work on all operating systems. Thus, make sure that your website works without these extras.
  6. Not everyone uses the same browser. It is a good idea to check your website in as many browsers as possible. If you use Firefox there are helpful plug-ins including one that shows you how your website looks in Opera.
  7. The vast majority of your visitors are focused on the content of your website and what they can get from it. Your website design should be there to showcase the content of the website. Do not add large amounts of javascript or php tricks just because you can do so. (Exceptions to this rule include your family and friends who are probably focused on you more than your website and potential employers if they want you to work on their website.)
  8. Do not hotlink or direct link to other files on someone else's website. Hotlinking is using http://www.theirwebsite.com. Hotlinking takes up bandwidth. On paid hosts people pay for their bandwidth. Most freehosts do not allow hotlinking and the ones that do are likely to shutdown a website that is using too much bandwidth. Many webmasters will replace hotlinked images with rude messages or images (ie an "I am a moron who steals bandwidth" image instead of the one you wanted). Any files you use should on your own website.
  9. Do not steal.Do not copy someone's website. Do not take someone's graphics unless they specifically state that you may do so. Do not copy someone's layout. Do not copy someone's blog entry. If you want to use something from someone's website ask them. Most websites have a contact form or contact email listed. Wait until they tell you it is ok to use their stuff before using it. If they deny permission please accept their denial. In some cases reposting material without permission is illegal.
  10. A sitemap can be very helpful for both you and your visitors. Creating and maintaining one helps you think about how to logically organize your website. If someone does not understand your method for organizing your website the sitemap can be very helpful. Sitemaps are especially helpful if you have multiple "levels" of the website (ie click on graphic resources to find the pages with brushes).
  11. For some websites a search function is also recommended.
  12. Validate your website.
    W3C has a good validator. It shows you information about all your errors. Even if the page looks fine in your browser and with your settings errors can cause problems for your visitors who are using different browsers or have different settings.

Putting Your Website Online including Hosting and Domain Issues

Maintaining the website

  1. Check your links peridocially. Visitors will quickly get annoyed if they encounter a lot of dead links.
  2. Add content periodically. For most websites it is a good idea to add content at least once a month. People are more likely to return to your website if they think there will be new things.
  3. Accept feedback. While it is recommended that you ignore flames or comments that are intended solely to annoy or hurt you, it is a good idea to take seriously more thoughtful criticism. If part of your website doesn't load correctly in Safari it is a good idea to try to fix it. If several people tell you that your text color is distracting it may be a good idea to change it.
  4. Changing your layout periodically can give your website an updated feel and emphasize your creativity. Unfortunately, if you change the way the website is organized your visitors may need extra time to find things. If you enjoy changing the look of your website can be a good idea to change the picture or color scheme periodically and only change the website organization when needed.

Important things to consider

  1. Content Privacy note: Remember that any information that is posted publically on the internet can potentially be seen by anyone with an internet connection. Be cautious about posting any personal identifying information (full "real" name, photographs, where you live, your employer or school). In searching Google for work, I have accidently found people who appear to be using their real name posting complaints about teachers or employers. Even if you decide to take the risk and post personal information about yourself, please consider the privacy of other people you know. You don't want to be responsible for your friend not getting a job because you posted about a party the two of you attended or that she told you she hates one of her co-workers. The "no robot" meta tag is not sufficient to guarantee that the information cannot be found by search engines and archive sites.
  2. PHP note: PHP is a wonderful programming language, but if you are not careful it can make your website less secure. It is highly recommended that you have an understanding of PHP before you start using it. Due to the security concerns it is also important to use recent (preferably 2007 or at least 2006) tutorials, books, and other learning materials.

Go to Putting Your Website Online including Hosting and Domain Issues

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