Tips and tricks to help you build your website. We start from scratch but you may find some ideas even if you have a website.  We pickup on this page at the point that you have decided you need a website and you already have your domain.  We will reference your domain as "yourdomain.com" throughout this information.  I'll also note here that many of these steps will run in parallel.  Many of the steps will be pages you will want to review that include more details.

 

I believe that a good website carries a constant theme throughout.  I normally do that by creating a banner, page width, color scheme, and fonts that are constant on every page.  It can be confusing to the viewer if the colors, size, and banner vary from page to page.  We recomend a width of around 770 pixels.  This fits nicely on most screens and is a width that will print full width on most printers.  As for the banner, colors and fonts, you will need to get creative and come up with your own.  Other than saying that a banner taller than 300 pixels is way to tall, it all has to do with who you are and what you prefer.

 

For purposes of this document I will assume you are using Lookinglass to host your website and will be using the tools they offer to build your website.  Unless you create your menus manually, our tool will create your menu for you as you go saving you many hours of manual work.

 

I will address a basic website here.  Obviously you may have anywhere from 5 or 6 pages to several thousand pages.  However, most websites will have these pages: Home, About Us, Contact Us and FAQ.  Whatever your pages, plan them out ahead of time the best you can before you get started.

 

For each page you will need a Menu Title, Page Title, Page Meta Description, and Body Content.  During the planning page spend some time writing your Menu Title, Page Title, and Page Meta Description so when you start building your site you can move through the creation process quickly.  Click Here to review my tips on creating your Page Title and Page Meta Description.

 

Your home page is the first page that many people will see.  It needs to look very nice and have links to your primary pages.  You need to include a picture or two and some summary information about who you are and as I noted, links to the primary pages on your website.  Often times it will include links that are also included in your menus.  Do not try to include to much information on this page.  You have hundreds of other pages to do that on.