tutorials > tips to build an effective website

Many people feel that websites start with deciding what tools to use, where to host and so on. It is never that way. A lot of thought and effort must be put in much before you decide on those.

Purpose
Objectives
Brainstorm
Content
Tools
Templates
File Structure
Build It
Community

Purpose

Many people feel that building a website begins with deciding what tools to use, where to host it and so on. A lot of thought and effort must be put in much before you decide on those. Your first step must be to decide on the purpose of the website.

Objectives

Put down atleast five points on what you are setting out to accomplish through this website. Now that you have your purpose and objective ready, hang it on the wall next to your computer. Never lose track!

Brainstorm

Brainstorming is an excellent way to come up with ideas. Write down the main sections of the site. Once done, list the subsections, which must appear under the main section. It is a good idea to ask around for suggestion before getting these lists in place. You may miss out on some really essential points. During this process try putting yourself in the shoes of the visitors. What would you like to see? Where do you want to see it?

Content

Content is King! Content is the only thing in a website that brings people back. Your scales may tip really high on the WOW! meter, but it cannot create the stickiness that Content creates. Provide an option for visitors to send feedback. Listen to your visitors, they are the ones who use the site, give them what they want to see and not what you want them to see.

Another really important thing is to be original. Never steal information from other sites. Refer to them if required, but no stealing! This could lead to two major issues, the actual owner might sue you and the other is that, once your visitors realise that the same material is provided elsewhere a day or two earlier, they might visit that site more often than yours.

Rome was not built in a day!

Target to create about two new pages every week, this way the visitors know that there is something new each week. This increases traffic and also increases stickiness. If this works, you end up creating two new pages every week; and you have close to a hundred pages a year!

Tools

Decide on what tools you want to use, right at the beginning. Ensure all of them are licensed. Here is a list of tools I would suggest.

HTML Editors

Image Editors

Servers

Miscellaneous

Templates

It is now time to build a template. Templates give the whole site a consistent look and feel. Updates made just once to the template will be reflected in all other pages (Macromedia Dreamweaver). Think about graphics, colours and navigation. Create a few template designs on paper and ask people to critique them. Once you finalise on a design, create the template using an HTML editor.

Colours: Use complementary colours
Graphics: Use light (kb) but effective graphics

File Structure

It is very essential to have a good file structure. I would suggest a folder structure that includes Pages, Images, Media, Templates and Raw as the main folders. It is better to have sub-folders inside these directories. File naming is also a very important aspect. Give the files meaningful names and avoid spaces and upper case alphabets. It would also be extremely useful to have a document, which describes the procedures for adding, modifying or deleting content, which files are located where, the conventions used, user name and password of the server and other such details. This would make your site procedure-dependant rather than person-dependant.

Build It

Finally, you can start building your website. After creating the entire site, run through the sheets of paper that you have hung next to your computer. Is the site matching the original purpose and objective? Remember to spell-check each page. Ensure that the graphics are displayed properly. Host the site on a server and test it before you actually release it. Ask others to also test it for you.

Community

Now that your site is up and running, you not only need to concentrate on updating your site, but also on the community around it. Submit your site to search engines, release newsletters, hold contests, include freebies, get feedback, ask for articles from visitors and find new ways to hold on to your visitors.

Remember it is the people that make a site and not the designer.

Mayur Polepalli
07/08/2002

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