How To Build A Website

It takes more than a handful of HTML tags added to a page to build your own website. This is where the principles and elements of great web design, from print design to brochure design, come in; once you learn how to use the elements in order to design a functional and eye-catching web site, you will have the skills necessary to become a great website builder or web designer.

To put it simply, the building blocks of web design are the elements that are used to make up every web site, page or interface you design. Once you understand the five basic elements you will be able to put together more creative and stimulating web pages. The graphic designs you attempt need to be eye-catching and of course, your web graphic design should have the earmarks of a professional. Also, making your website user friendly and adding some "eye candy" is extremely important, as you are competing with thousands of other websites to get visitors.

One of the major elements of design is lines or line work. They are used to increase readability, as well as borders and contours around different elements and decoration, all working together to create a unique website design. Shapes are also a much-used versatile element of design. Most often you see them as rectangular or square on a web page, but they can incorporate images and most anything else you can think of to generate interest.

The other major elements of a design are texture, color and direction; all used in graphic design as well. Texture on web pages is visual, but you can use artificial or natural textures to create an effect in your design. Color is the design element that a web designer is most aware of, but color is not a requirement of any design. Most often, it is best to create the designs without color and add it later. Direction gives your designs a sense of motion across the page. The better sites will lead you through the design so that you see what the designer wants you to see. Of course, it is always a good idea to sketch the design on paper first and then transfer it to the web design software.

If you plan to be a good designer, then when you see that blank web page do not just throw random images or graphics on it and hope for the best. A good website design is well thought out, long before any actual additions to the pages are made. This enables you to see how well everything you have in mind will blend together, in order to create a great, user friendly, interactive website.

Some of the main website building elements you also need to consider in addition to the above aesthetic considerations (to create a successful and functional website) include:

• Selecting a Website's Niche - This involves targeting your website for one particular niche. In other words, focusing on what your website is really about.


• Selecting Main Keyword Phrases - Find the most relevant keyword phrases for each webpage and build your web content around these.


• Using HTML Heading Tags - Using H1 heading tags for your main title and H2 tags for your sub-titles helps your website when it comes to search engines and search engine optimization.


• Using CSS Style Sheets - This allows you to control your entire website's look and feel from one place.


• Using META Tags - META tags help the search engines to know what keywords are relevant to the webpage and what your webpages are all about.


• Backgrounds and Text - Knowing how to make the text on your website easy to read is important.


• Graphics - It's important to know when and how to use graphics properly to get your message across.


• Navigational Links - It's important to make sure that your website is easy to navigate and that visitors can quickly get to the webpages in your site.


• Webpage Layout - Consistency in your webpage design is important to prevent visitors from becoming confused.


• Important Webpages - It's important that you include pages like the 'About' page, 'Privacy', 'Terms of Use', 'Disclaimer', 'Sitemap' etc. and that you know what the function of each of these webpages is.

Additionally, there are things like making sure that your webpage doesn't have any broken images or links, on-page and off-page optimization, making your website interactive, designing websites to display correctly in different web browsers and screen resolutions, checking that web content is spelled correctly, creating sales pages that convert and implementing various internet marketing strategies to drive new visitors to your site.

If you are just getting started and all of the above seems quite overwhelming, then I suggest you check out the Complete Guide To Website Building, which is the best and most affordable way to learn how to build your very own professional quality website available in the market today.

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