Insider Tips for Website Builders

Building a website can seem overwhelming to a beginner, but if you have the right tools, and know-how, it can be a very fun and satisfying project. I have been a website builder for around five years, and I have had many successes and failures. Once I got the hang of it, I found website creation to be one of my most rewarding hobbies.

A website can be a wonderful tool to help you succeed in whatever you do. Whether it is running a business, displaying artwork, or just showing off your family to friends and relatives that are far away. Here are a few tips for website builders of every level, from beginners to experienced webmasters.

Tools and Software

If you don’t know much about HTML code, or CSS, your best bet is to use Web authoring software such as Mozilla Kompozer, (which is a free, open source web authoring program for windows available at kompozer.net ) Adobe Dreamweaver, or Microsoft Front Page. Even if you do have a good understanding of HTML and CSS, using web authoring software can help you build a solid foundation to your website quickly, so that you can spend the majority of your time fine tuning and perfecting your work.

A simple way to bypass the process of dealing with code entirely, is to use a blogging platform such as Blogger or WordPress. These platforms offer easy to use design tools, application software and templates that do most of the work for you, so all you have to do is add quality content.

There are pros and cons to using blogging platforms.

Pros
· Easy to use design tools, templates, apps and promotional tools
· Free hosting service
· Built in SEO and search engine priority
· Blogging capability
· Free or low cost domain names

Cons
· Design limitations
· System bugs (if the platform or app you use has a bug, so does your website)
· Platform icons or credits on your page. (Such as “Powered by Blogger” in the footer)

Getting Online

Once your website is built, you should turn your attention publishing, and making sure that it thrives on the web.

Publishing

This is the area that can make or break your website. Most of the failures with the websites I have built, have been due to poor choices regarding the servers I have used, and the amount of money that I was forking out trying to keep them running.

For this reason alone, I would recommend that if you have never built a website before, you should use a blogging platform that offers free hosting and low cost domain names. My most successful website is powered by a blogging platform that has partnered with GoDaddy.com, and it only costs me around twelve dollars per year to run.

It generally takes around six months for website to be recognized and ranked by Google, so if you are planning to use your website to earn money in some way, the ability to keep it running at a low cost is essential for the first year. There are companies out there that will promise guaranteed success if you pay for their online web builders course, but I have personally tried one of those companies after carefully searching all of their reviews, and found myself unable to maintain the $300 yearly fee. When I became unable to afford it, I lost the rights to my work, and was devastated. Don’t let that happen to you!

Keeping Your Website Alive

The absolute most important thing you can do to keep your website alive and thriving is to build a lot of quality, keyword rich content. Whether or not you use a blogging platform, it is advised to have a blog somewhere on your site where you can add daily content to keep the search engines interested. The more interested the search engine are, the higher your ranks on them will be, and the higher your ranks, the more visitors you will receive.

Blog posts don’t need to be long, but they need to be interesting, informative, and full of relevant keywords.

Keywords and Links

Keywords should ideally be in combinations of one or two words, and related to the topic of your website. Keywords that match your titles and subtitles are most effective. Keep in mind that Google takes each page in it’s entirety, into account when it ranks your website. Choose five solid keyword phrases (one or two words in length) that match your titles and subtitles. Then go to work making sure that other key phrases are repeated enough to catch the search engines attention, but not repeated enough to sound artificial or awkward. One keyword combination per paragraph is enough.

A Note About Keyword Combinations

The rule about having your keywords in combinations of two words, really only applies to the rules for Google. It is important to please Google, because they are still the top search engine, surpassed only by YouTube. Search engines like Yahoo! and Bing accept keyword phrases of any length. In order to please them, you may want to come up with two or three keyword phrases that are three or more words in length, and add them to your page in addition to the solid five you have chosen just for Google.

You should also have at least one link on your page that matches a keyword phrase. If possible, try to make the keyword in the link match your title. If you can’t, try to make it match a subtitle. If you can’t do that, make it match a keyword phrase that you have chosen to repeat beyond your solid five.

Promotion

Next, use backlinks to gain even more respect from the search engines. Backlinks are links from other pages to your website. This is not an easy thing to do, and has proven to be very tricky, depending on the content of your page. For this reason, there are services that offer do this for you. Please be careful, because Some of them are not on the up and up, and will not provide you with quality backlinks to your site.

The best way to get backlinks is to join a discussion forum related to the topic of your website, and if your are allowed, post to it using a signature that features your website’s URL. Be sure that you read the forum’s rules carefully before you try this method.

Another good way is to write articles, and include backlinks in them that point to a page on your site. One or two links per article is best. Including too many will make the article look too promotional.

Social media websites like Twitter, Digg, and FaceBook are also good ways to get backlinks to your website. Again, don’t spam or post the same page so often that it annoys people. Use all of these tools politely and in moderation, and you will see better results.

Whatever you do, don’t spam. This will not help you or your website in any way.

For more tips, tools, and resources for building your website, please visit the following links:

Buildthat.com
I found this website while watching a YouTube tutorial for the Kompozer software. This guy teaches you how to build, name and host a quality website for practically nothing. He has included many useful links to free, open source software and video tutorials, that will help you with anything you wish to do on your website for free, or at a very low cost.

Sitepronews.com
This website offers up-to-date website creation news, and daily articles that will help you stay informed on the best, and latest website building tips and resources.

W3schools.com
If you don’t know anything about HTML code or CSS, but you would like to, W3schools will show you everything you need to know for free. This website offers in-depth, interactive online tutorials for free. Once you have learned everything you wish to learn, there is even an option to take a test and become HTML certified.

*Sources **

Good old fashioned experience, and:

Web Standards Solutions
The Markup Style Handbook
Dan Cederholm
Foreword by Jeffery Zeldman
Dan Cederholm 2004

Twitter, Tips, Tricks, and Tweets
Paul McFedries
Foreward by Pete Cashmore, Founder & CEO of Mashable
Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2009

The Non-Designer’s Web Book 3rd Edition
An easy guide to creating, designing, and posting your own website
Robin Williams & John Tollett
Peachpit Press 2006

Do-It-Yourself Websites for Dummies
Janine Warner
Author of Dreamweaver CS3 for Dummies
Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2008


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