Having your own Internet presence is a great way to reach more customers. Others establish a web presence for other reasons such as reference, news, or information. No matter what reason you might have, there are a lot of concepts to understand on how to build a website. Here are some of the basic things you need to understand in order for you to start your own site.
Types of Hosting
One of the first things you will have to consider when you build your very own website is the type of web hosting you will get. If you’re just starting to learn the entire process then its best that you start with a free web hosting service. After you have gained some experience you can move your stuff to a standard web hosting service.
Domain Names
Domain names make your site easier to remember. The only drawback is that these domain names will cost you money. At the onset when you build a website, you don’t usually need a domain name in order to have your own website running. You can put your web site in either a free hosting or paid hosting plan minus the use of a domain name. Domain names will cost you some $10 to $40 a year just to maintain it.
Planning Your Web Site
An important part of making your very own web site is to decide what type of site you want to build. You can choose to make it an information site, a place where you can advertise your products, news, or even as a reference site. Each type of web site you put up should have its own identity and specific purpose and target audience.
When planning your own site, there are two things you will have to spend time on. First one is the navigation effects you want to utilize and the second one is the actual content of your site. The navigation will have a direct effect on the way the information on your site is designed and the content refers to the actual web pages that you will write.
Both of these will take a lot of time and effort to create. You will be building your site page by page so don’t think that you will have everything set up the day your website goes up. You will publish your content on an incremental basis as you learn how to build a website. You will eventually have to learn CSS, HTML, and how to use web page editors.
Publishing and Promotion
Once you have a core set of web pages and a home page ready, you may now publish your very first website. This is the next step to build a website. To publish your website, you can use the tools provided by your hosting service or you may use FTP clients. From this point you will need to learn principles of search engine optimization as you promote your site and fine tune the rest of the details.
