Steps for creating any website

C

cphost

New member
Although there are dozens of resources on how to make a website, including other websites, I have yet to come across a basic guide that systematically outlines all the vital steps and the sequence in which they should be followed to get a website built successfully, from thought to operation on the Internet the very first time.

I am not merely referring to the programming side or technical steps using software. Instead, what I am after is a sort of 'roadmap', which if followed by anyone can be used to build a website from scratch and have it successfully operational the very first time. I mean, there are issues ranging from conceptualization of the idea to keyword research, domain name registration, web hosting, strategies for a successful launch and getting found in the major search engines organically, to name a few.

Yet, most of the resources I have come across simply start with site building itself and how to get hosted live on the Internet, without addressing some of the other important issues for success I mentioned above.

My question is: has anyone of you come across such a resource that provides all of these steps in simple to use language or does any of you have an opinion you would like to share with me on the subject?
 
Each of the things you mention are vital parts to running a successful site to gain traffic, however there's a difference between creating a site for static display, and a site for generating traffic etc.

Probably the reason that there's very few such roadmaps is because the approach is different for everyone. Lets look at two examples;

Static HTML website. What do you need on your html page:

1) META TAG: Title
2) META TAG: Keywords (not really used by search engines any more)
3) META TAG: Description (define what's the on the page)
4) Body
5) Footer & close body tag)

That is essentially a website. Now all the little things in between for setting up links etc that's all the HTML Programming (or other language) and really shouldn't be defined in a "roadmap". Knowing how to build a webpage gets you off and running.

Lets look at something completely different - Wordpress!
Much of everything is already done for you. There's already a section for the title, you can fill in the keywords, description and the body is the page itself. Links between pages are already generated so you pretty much have a fully functional website right out of the box.

Now if you're looking for how to get online, that's a simple process too;

Choose a domain name (and register it)
Choose a web hosting company (i won't explain that as there's too many to pick from and good & bad with each. Do your research)
Install Wordpress (If your host has Fantastico, Softaculous or Installatron, installing Wordpress is a simple click of the mouse.)
Create your pages/content and you're off and running.

Now when you go to marketing, there's a whole different ballgame at play. You must do marketing research, be able to beat your competition, create marketing campaigns, organize articles & words in a way to attract the search engines & users (no different than the headline on the front page of a newspaper or magazine).
You must have an advertising budget (be it time or money)
You must have a goal that you are aiming at.
Launch (and continue to re-launch)

The beauty of the web is that it's not a static place. Ideas, contents and pages are constantly evolving. It's not like print media in which whatever you type will go into a magazine/book/newspaper and will live for all time on a shelf somewhere. On the web you can refine and review your ideas and thoughts. This is what is the most attractive thing about the web (to me). The second most attractive thing is the wide range of audience and the reach of the website produced.

So, going back the original start here, there's one ONE single roadmap that people should take when launching a website. Having the knowledge of a consultant will greatly reduce the chances of failure, but only if that consultant knew what they were doing. I've been doing this since 1994, there's still many "tricks" that I don't know, but given the years of experience I know more than enough to get someone online and producing quickly if they wanted.
 
Personally I think that Connor summarised nicely the process and made the valid point that there are two distinctive areas to creating a site, firstly the design/conceptual stage and then the creation and further modification of the static site itself.

The lack of a Roadmap of sorts in regards to the above is down to the fact there isn't a "one size fits all" in the design or conceptual stage of putting together a site, as a result the outcome varies greatly. Despite this the actual process as per Connor's post being a nice summary of the steps that can be roughly taken almost irrespectively of the design/conceptual stage.

This however does not provide you with the necessary knowledge, connections or experience that are required for further improving as well as overcoming obstacles that you may encounter during the further running of your site. Such knowledge can be passed on or gained over time, however attempting to write an article or tutorial in a form that could be easily readable and digestible would sacrifice its usefulness. As such a resource could not cover all areas in great depth , additional to that the dynamic state of the industry would require such a resource to be modified and maintained on such a regular basis it could be difficult to manage.

This in itself presents what I would consider the dilemma, firstly to incentivise the writing or such a resource (consider competitive forces), secondly maintaining the resource and also evaluating its usefulness to make ongoing changes and finally ensuring that it cannot be used as a "one size fits all" in terms of allow the user room to ask questions and research/trial and error for themselves.

This is somewhat a gripe at tutorial article writers considering a roadmap in its completeness as described could and would provide users an answer however it potentially as often is the case results in more problems caused by the lack of "learning something".

I would agree with Connor that the one thing to do more than any other is contact a consultant first, and I would add to that with do your homework, in-depth and over a period of time, don't (for use of a better term) jump into bed with the first solution you find.
 
cphost said:
Although there are dozens of resources on how to make a website, including other websites, I have yet to come across a basic guide that systematically outlines all the vital steps and the sequence in which they should be followed to get a website built successfully, from thought to operation on the Internet the very first time.

I am not merely referring to the programming side or technical steps using software. Instead, what I am after is a sort of 'roadmap', which if followed by anyone can be used to build a website from scratch and have it successfully operational the very first time. I mean, there are issues ranging from conceptualization of the idea to keyword research, domain name registration, web hosting, strategies for a successful launch and getting found in the major search engines organically, to name a few.

Yet, most of the resources I have come across simply start with site building itself and how to get hosted live on the Internet, without addressing some of the other important issues for success I mentioned above.

My question is: has anyone of you come across such a resource that provides all of these steps in simple to use language or does any of you have an opinion you would like to share with me on the subject?
Click to expand...

There is one resource I do recommend and that is SiteBuildIt. It isn't free, but I believe it's the most complete system out there for building a web business - from step one to step "making money."
 
handsonhosting said:
Each of the things you mention are vital parts to running a successful site to gain traffic, however there's a difference between creating a site for static display, and a site for generating traffic etc.

Probably the reason that there's very few such roadmaps is because the approach is different for everyone. Lets look at two examples;

Static HTML website. What do you need on your html page:

1) META TAG: Title
2) META TAG: Keywords (not really used by search engines any more)
3) META TAG: Description (define what's the on the page)
4) Body
5) Footer & close body tag)

That is essentially a website. Now all the little things in between for setting up links etc that's all the HTML Programming (or other language) and really shouldn't be defined in a "roadmap". Knowing how to build a webpage gets you off and running.

Lets look at something completely different - Wordpress!
Much of everything is already done for you. There's already a section for the title, you can fill in the keywords, description and the body is the page itself. Links between pages are already generated so you pretty much have a fully functional website right out of the box.

Now if you're looking for how to get online, that's a simple process too;

Choose a domain name (and register it)
Choose a web hosting company (i won't explain that as there's too many to pick from and good & bad with each. Do your research)
Install Wordpress (If your host has Fantastico, Softaculous or Installatron, installing Wordpress is a simple click of the mouse.)
Create your pages/content and you're off and running.

Now when you go to marketing, there's a whole different ballgame at play. You must do marketing research, be able to beat your competition, create marketing campaigns, organize articles & words in a way to attract the search engines & users (no different than the headline on the front page of a newspaper or magazine).
You must have an advertising budget (be it time or money)
You must have a goal that you are aiming at.
Launch (and continue to re-launch)

The beauty of the web is that it's not a static place. Ideas, contents and pages are constantly evolving. It's not like print media in which whatever you type will go into a magazine/book/newspaper and will live for all time on a shelf somewhere. On the web you can refine and review your ideas and thoughts. This is what is the most attractive thing about the web (to me). The second most attractive thing is the wide range of audience and the reach of the website produced.

So, going back the original start here, there's one ONE single roadmap that people should take when launching a website. Having the knowledge of a consultant will greatly reduce the chances of failure, but only if that consultant knew what they were doing. I've been doing this since 1994, there's still many "tricks" that I don't know, but given the years of experience I know more than enough to get someone online and producing quickly if they wanted.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I really appreciate your reply on this issue. I fully agree with the point about the difficulty of having a single 'roadmap', given the dynamic nature of the Internet. But one of the reasons why I started this discussion is that some of friends are of the view that certain things should be done first and others afterward, when building a website. In other words, the sequence of doing things will have an impact on the final outcome.

Some argue that marketing considerations need to be taken into account from the very start, since that will determine the type of domain name you register and of course the product or service you actually sell. In fact, I have come across a book that suggests creating prior interest in your website before you launch it is one of the most important factors for success.

I have done some site building myself and it seems as if having a clear purpose, on the basis of which keyword selection is done and your domain name is registered seems to be a very effective approach in building a website. While I fully agree with all of you that "there is no on size fits all" formula, it seems as if doing it a certain way results in a more effective outcome than others.

Do you have any thoughts on that?
 
Well definitely knowing WHAT you're going to be putting on the website is going to define what you make your domain name. At least in terms of SEO it would be a driving factor. That said, I could take a domain like "purpleapple" (awful name with all those p's in it) but I could take that domain and depending on your branding and how you approach your marketing you could sell anything from Apple related products to selling unique web designs. Knowing your target market and the product your selling/promoting usually defines the domain name you purchase and then build a website around.

Mayflower = trucking company
yellow cab = taxi service
Black Cat = fireworks
Nike = sports equipment
FedEx = shipping company

A name will not necessarily define a business, but without the right branding the name will be lost on the consumer.

With regards to prelaunching a website, I've never been big on it when it comes to websites. I think it's great marketing when it comes to building a new gas station "Shell Coming Soon" or a "Grand Opening" banner on a store, even the "Under New Management" is a great banner if the service from the business was previously in bad shape. When it comes to websites, I don't necessarily buy into it.

If you can create enough hype about something, then sure it can be a great launching platform (Verizon Droid, Apple iPhone and others do a wonderful job with the pre-launch), but "Bob's Hosting" likely will not have the same effect.

I loathe websites with an "under construction" banner on their site - if it's under construction, don't make it public! A website should ALWAYS be under construction.

So if you have a product that you can create prior interest in, it's great, but even then you're advertising a domain name or location and sending traffic to that location. It would do no good to advertise "Bob's Hosting" and then just leave it at that.
 
Some argue that marketing considerations need to be taken into account from the very start, since that will determine the type of domain name you register and of course the product or service you actually sell.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree that marketing considerations need to be taken into account from the very start - very much like selecting a location for a brick and mortar business. You have to plan an expectation for success.

In fact, I have come across a book that suggests creating prior interest in your website before you launch it is one of the most important factors for success.
Click to expand...

Like Conor, I disagree with the suggestion that one of the most important factors for online success is creating prior interest in your website. I'm curious what processes your book recommends to accomplish that.
 
handsonhosting said:
Knowing your target market and the product your selling/promoting usually defines the domain name you purchase and then build a website around.
Click to expand...

That I agree with completely! Without having a clear fix on your target market you might just as well be building a website to sell widgets as one to promote golf.

handsonhosting said:
Mayflower = trucking company
yellow cab = taxi service
Black Cat = fireworks
Nike = sports equipment
FedEx = shipping company

A name will not necessarily define a business, but without the right branding the name will be lost on the consumer.
Click to expand...


I like your examples above, i.e., yellow cab, Nike, etc. My take on the success of these where websites are concerned is that the visitor would be seeking the brand itself and not the typical search term per se. Of course when your brand is not yet established, you need to focus more on your product or service delivery. That's where the choice of domain name becomes very important.

handsonhosting said:
With regards to prelaunching a website, I've never been big on it when it comes to websites. I think it's great marketing when it comes to building a new gas station "Shell Coming Soon" or a "Grand Opening" banner on a store, even the "Under New Management" is a great banner if the service from the business was previously in bad shape. When it comes to websites, I don't necessarily buy into it.

If you can create enough hype about something, then sure it can be a great launching platform (Verizon Droid, Apple iPhone and others do a wonderful job with the pre-launch), but "Bob's Hosting" likely will not have the same effect.

I loathe websites with an "under construction" banner on their site - if it's under construction, don't make it public! A website should ALWAYS be under construction.
Click to expand...

My take on pre-launching certainly does not include "under construction" labels. In fact I loathe these perhaps as much as you do or even more. The key here is generating sufficient hype or buzz about your product or service before it gets to market, so that a sufficiently large number of potential customers are anticipating its arrival.
 
Steve-Hostirian said:
I absolutely agree that marketing considerations need to be taken into account from the very start - very much like selecting a location for a brick and mortar business. You have to plan an expectation for success.
Click to expand...

Nice! We have a consensus on this one!


Steve-Hostirian said:
Like Conor, I disagree with the suggestion that one of the most important factors for online success is creating prior interest in your website. I'm curious what processes your book recommends to accomplish that.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, creating prior interest is really an attempt at getting your target audience pre-sold on what you will be selling. In fact Connor alluded to some of it when he referred to the new droid devices, for example. Those things were being discussed in the news, on Facebook and Twitter well ahead of even when they were ready for market. As a result, when they were launched a large pre-sold market was full of anticipation waiting to buy. The power of creating buzz about your product ahead of time, is that you set in motion desire for it, which can market itself organically.

I think the same is possible with a successful website launch. If you are designing a website that will provide a new service to a target customer group in a niche market that you know there is a demand for, I think it would make sense to try to get your potential customers sold on the idea ahead of time. What I certainly would not do, is to direct them to the domain name while the website for the product is still "under construction". That would defeat your purpose.
 
csn-uk said:
Personally I think that Connor summarised nicely the process and made the valid point that there are two distinctive areas to creating a site, firstly the design/conceptual stage and then the creation and further modification of the static site itself.
Click to expand...

I also agree with that!

csn-uk said:
The lack of a Roadmap of sorts in regards to the above is down to the fact there isn't a "one size fits all" in the design or conceptual stage of putting together a site, as a result the outcome varies greatly. Despite this the actual process as per Connor's post being a nice summary of the steps that can be roughly taken almost irrespectively of the design/conceptual stage.
Click to expand...

There is likely no "one size fits all" at the detail level. But, I am of the view that there are some things that need to be done, preferably in a certain sequence, when building almost any website whatsoever.

csn-uk said:
I would agree with Connor that the one thing to do more than any other is contact a consultant first, and I would add to that with do your homework, in-depth and over a period of time, don't (for use of a better term) jump into bed with the first solution you find.
Click to expand...

Consultants are certainly a good option. However, many people who themselves have little idea what they really want at the conceptual level, find that consultants may lead them down the wrong path. At the conceptual level it's about an individual's creativity, and no one has a monopoly on ideas. However, when that aspect is sorted out a consultant can come in to give more technical direction to the project.
 
I am just learning how to build a site, but I know someone who has a very successful $$ series of websites she built with Site Build it. This person had no prior training and was busy with two young children at home. I have started studying their program and have enjoyed the process so far. :twocents:
Steve-Hostirian said:
There is one resource I do recommend and that is SiteBuildIt. It isn't free, but I believe it's the most complete system out there for building a web business - from step one to step "making money."
Click to expand...
:thumbup:

I do also appreciate this forum as it has already given me a good general picture on site building and a view "outside the box" of Site Build It.
 
Quest297 said:
I am just learning how to build a site, but I know someone who has a very successful $$ series of websites she built with Site Build it. This person had no prior training and was busy with two young children at home. I have started studying their program and have enjoyed the process so far. :twocents::thumbup:

I do also appreciate this forum as it has already given me a good general picture on site building and a view "outside the box" of Site Build It.
Click to expand...

I went through their process years ago, and I have to admit it was pretty darn thorough. They cover lots of stuff most entrepreneurs never even think of. I particularly liked all of their tools.
 
All is important like being found but I guess whats more important is even though you dont want to specify but man you need a programmer that tests ur stuff so it versions the same on browsers that is a most and then you can be found but with some pride because there are some big commercial sites with even millions of traffic that dont version the same and to me integrity is first and not just be a sellout but it all gets reflected

Getting back to ur question most tutorials cover just part of ur thread but you can search in webmonkey.com it is the best place for developers though theres others,I guess it is from Lycos and Angelfire is also frrom Lycos and it has tutorials to but more basic
 
Hello,

You need first to know HTML basic, you can check here a very basic tutorial in HTML.
http://www.w3schools.com/html/

Once you know HTML you can learn photoshop for you to create your design + HTML to create good websites...

Once you know HTML + Design, try to learn PHP and Javascript (with a bit of database). From there you can create very good websites (complex ones)..

Thanks!
 
handsonhosting said:
Each of the things you mention are vital parts to running a successful site to gain traffic, however there's a difference between creating a site for static display, and a site for generating traffic etc.

Probably the reason that there's very few such roadmaps is because the approach is different for everyone. Lets look at two examples;

Static HTML website. What do you need on your html page:

1) META TAG: Title
2) META TAG: Keywords (not really used by search engines any more)
3) META TAG: Description (define what's the on the page)
4) Body
5) Footer & close body tag)

That is essentially a website. Now all the little things in between for setting up links etc that's all the HTML Programming (or other language) and really shouldn't be defined in a "roadmap". Knowing how to build a webpage gets you off and running.

Lets look at something completely different - Wordpress!
Much of everything is already done for you. There's already a section for the title, you can fill in the keywords, description and the body is the page itself. Links between pages are already generated so you pretty much have a fully functional website right out of the box.

Now if you're looking for how to get online, that's a simple process too;

Choose a domain name (and register it)
Choose a web hosting company (i won't explain that as there's too many to pick from and good & bad with each. Do your research)
Install Wordpress (If your host has Fantastico, Softaculous or Installatron, installing Wordpress is a simple click of the mouse.)
Create your pages/content and you're off and running.

Now when you go to marketing, there's a whole different ballgame at play. You must do marketing research, be able to beat your competition, create marketing campaigns, organize articles & words in a way to attract the search engines & users (no different than the headline on the front page of a newspaper or magazine).
You must have an advertising budget (be it time or money)
You must have a goal that you are aiming at.
Launch (and continue to re-launch)

The beauty of the web is that it's not a static place. Ideas, contents and pages are constantly evolving. It's not like print media in which whatever you type will go into a magazine/book/newspaper and will live for all time on a shelf somewhere. On the web you can refine and review your ideas and thoughts. This is what is the most attractive thing about the web (to me). The second most attractive thing is the wide range of audience and the reach of the website produced.

So, going back the original start here, there's one ONE single roadmap that people should take when launching a website. Having the knowledge of a consultant will greatly reduce the chances of failure, but only if that consultant knew what they were doing. I've been doing this since 1994, there's still many "tricks" that I don't know, but given the years of experience I know more than enough to get someone online and producing quickly if they wanted.
Click to expand...

You said that You must have an advertising budget (be it time or money)

I would say time is most essential.. Money of you don't have can be ok as if you do proper SEO with time then there's no need of paying any money to any SEO firm.

But again contarcting my statement, if yu don't have time but have money then you can hire any SEO :)
 
I agree with the above, META tags can be one of the most important aspects of web design, especially for getting your website indexed and found the way it should be.
 
For creating a site ,first you have to build a good design and structure.You have to learn HTML language and some CSS styles.You can design a site in dream viewer and for making headers or logos,you can use photo shop.Use should design a simple layout and make attractive headers.You should not load the site by putting heavy animations.You have to learn java script and PHP for doing programming and development of site.Then you have to do SEO for making your site rank higher in search engines.
 
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