Website Creation

After you have solidified your keywords and your niche topic you can begin to actual create your website. You should get familiar with the basics of website creation.

There are five design aspects that you will need to focus on when you are creating your website:

• Text
• Navigation
• Links
• Graphics
• General design

Text:

You should choose a font that is familiar and easy to read. Avoid fancy fonts or text that is too small and difficult to view on a smaller computer screen. You do not want visitors to feel overwhelmed by the text or have to strain to read it.

Good text choices are non-serif fonts which usually do not have any embellishments and are rather simple in design. You may be able to use familiar serif fonts like Times New Roman simply because it is a commonly used font.

The best way to choose a font is to try it out and see what works.

Navigation:

Your website should be set up so that it is easy to see how to get to different pages within the site. The buttons should be clear and visitors should be able to tell what each does without hassle.

You should also include some type of notification so a visitor knows where they are on the site. If you have quite a few different pages you should create a site map for easy navigation and searching of the site.

A basic rule of creating a website is linking all the pages together. It can be easy, though, to forget this simple rule when you are so focused on every other aspect of website creation.

Do a run through of your website and ensure that all pages are linked so you can get to any page of the website from any other page of the website.

Links:

Links should be obvious to the visitor. You should make them stand out and always check them regularly to ensure they work.

Also allow reporting for dead or broken links. Hyper linking within the text is almost a requirement of web design. A hyper link is when you embed a website address within a word or phrase. It may sound complicated but it is actually quite easy to do. Most text editors and word processing programs allow you to add a hyper link with a few simple clicks.

Visitors will expect to be able to simply click and get to the external link. They do not want to have to type web addresses in the browser to get to the link. Make it easy on visitors or they will quickly get annoyed with your website.

Graphics:

Graphics should be kept simple and not be too intrusive. Any animated graphics or graphics with sound should be controllable by the visitor so they can turn them off if they desire. Other graphics used should be kept simple and easy to use and understand.

You should always follow the general rule that if a graphic serves no purpose then leave it out. Nothing is more frustrating than graphics that are out of place.

Additionally, graphics slow down the loading of the web page, so use them with care.

General Design:

The general design of the website should be tailored so that the visitor has a good experience. The pages should load quickly and fit within the standards browser window.

The pages should look somewhat consistent so users do not get confused and think they have left the website when they really just went to a new page.

Overall the website should be someplace that you yourself would like to visit. You want it to look like other websites and be usable to any visitor that stops by. Make sure it appeals to a large audience.

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