Creating Websites
Even if you do not want to create your own Website you should consider the following: A lot of my students come to my
class disgruntled because they paid a lot of money for someone to create a Website for them. The Web designer is gone
and they cannot change the Website and no one can find their site on the Web.
Best advice I can give anyone: You don't need to be a programmer to build a great Web site. Web sites can be created
through, for instance, Yahoo! Small Business, which uses a fairly intuitive program called Yahoo! Sitebuilder. You can
also buy a domain and have an e-mail account. Yahoo! Sitebuilder is downloaded onto your computer from the Internet.
You then use the program to create your Website and then publish to the Web with a click of the 'Publish' button. You can
easily place metatags and manage your site. There are many Web hosting sites like this. If you pick one, make sure it is
reputable. If you want to create a free Web site I recommend Tripod. This is the program I teach in my Build and Maintain
Your Own Website class. I tried at least 12 free Web hosting software programs and believe this is one of the better
programs available. It not only allows you to create a fast and fairly decent Website, but allows you to insert metatags and
submit to search engines easily. If you are looking for advanced features, like a database or query tools, I recommend
you create your Website and then hire someone to do that specific portion of the Website for you (or take a class and
learn how yourself.)
You need to do the following to have a successful Website:
Web rankings myth and the real unknown--no one knows exactly how a Website is ranked
Most experts will tell you the following:
Even if you do not want to create your own Website you should consider the following: A lot of my students come to my
class disgruntled because they paid a lot of money for someone to create a Website for them. The Web designer is gone
and they cannot change the Website and no one can find their site on the Web.
Best advice I can give anyone: You don't need to be a programmer to build a great Web site. Web sites can be created
through, for instance, Yahoo! Small Business, which uses a fairly intuitive program called Yahoo! Sitebuilder. You can
also buy a domain and have an e-mail account. Yahoo! Sitebuilder is downloaded onto your computer from the Internet.
You then use the program to create your Website and then publish to the Web with a click of the 'Publish' button. You can
easily place metatags and manage your site. There are many Web hosting sites like this. If you pick one, make sure it is
reputable. If you want to create a free Web site I recommend Tripod. This is the program I teach in my Build and Maintain
Your Own Website class. I tried at least 12 free Web hosting software programs and believe this is one of the better
programs available. It not only allows you to create a fast and fairly decent Website, but allows you to insert metatags and
submit to search engines easily. If you are looking for advanced features, like a database or query tools, I recommend
you create your Website and then hire someone to do that specific portion of the Website for you (or take a class and
learn how yourself.)
You need to do the following to have a successful Website:
- You maintain all passwords, write this into the contract if you hire someone to do this for you
- Know what program was used to create your Web site and have a licensed copy of this program for yourself so that
you can make changes later on or hire someone to make changes for you - Maintain a backup of all Web files and original documents. Run backups and put them on disks that you maintain
every month or whenever your Web site gets a major update. Write this into the contract if you hire someone to do
this for you - Know the Web address and company used to publish your site. Have phone numbers and contacts and passwords
written down - Change/ update your Web site regularly. No one knows for sure how search engines rank Web sites but everyone
assumes the following: the more you change your Web site the better ranking you may get - Make sure you put metatags (search words) into your Web pages. If someone is creating this for you make sure
you see the list of search words they create and have them show you that they have put these metatags on your
site. You should take an active interest in this. Having a Website is only half of having a Web presence. The other
half is having people find you on the Internet - Submit your Website to search engines after the Web site is completely finished and metatags and title are in place
- Finally, if you also hire someone to create a logo for you, make sure you get a high resolution copy of it. Write this
into the contract. Have backup copies of this for print and Web. Print should be in TIFF format, 800dpi or higher.
Web should be 72JPEG
Web rankings myth and the real unknown--no one knows exactly how a Website is ranked
Most experts will tell you the following:
- Make sure you have thoughtful descriptive metatags placed inside your Web site and that your Web site has a title.
Most user friendly Web site software programs tell you where to put this information. It's not a big hassle to do this.
You just need to make sure you do it or that it is done for you. Hiring someone to do this? Have them show you on
the Website where this is located. Don't take for granted that they put the metatags and title into your Website. See
it for yourself. If you have a change in your business change those metatags to reflect what it is you do Metatags
and be changed and should be changed. - Change/ update your Website regularly--it is believed Web sites can get better rankings if you do this.
- Never put up 'Page Under Construction' for any reason at all, and certainly don't submit to search engines until
your Website is completely finished. - Make sure to submit your Website to search engines. You don't have to pay big bucks for this, you just need to
know how to do it. Paying a lot of money for a company to submit your Website to search engines on a regular
basis may have its benefits but you can do this yourself and you don't have to pay big bucks for it. - If you pay someone to create a site for have them give you the list of search engines they submit to. If they can't do
this, don't hire them. - Submit your site to directories. A lot of them are free. For instance if you are a photographer, you can submit to
photography directories. It's another avenue for you to get business. - Have something to say--a bunch of pictures won't give you a good listing on search engines.
- Finally, have a lot of links to other Websites. Search engines like that too and your ranking may go up.
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