Welcome to the Web - Rocketface(R) Workshop Webmaster's Tutorial - "How to Design a Website"

Designing your Homepage
By: Candice Pardue

In today's world, it seems that almost any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this article about designing a homepage, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought were settled are actually still being openly discussed.

Tip! Be mindful of visitors when designing your website. Your website's design should NOT interfere with a visitor's surfing, but should encourage more of it!

I explained in a previous article how to test your site's navigation abilities. Put simply -- how long your visitors will stay and surf throughout your site before clicking out. Believe me, you want your visitors to stay as long as possible. This is the only way your site is going to succeed. Your site must be interesting, persuading, and easy to navigate.

Tip! A web host provides space for your website. There are two musts in getting your site online - a web host and registering your domain name.

First let me tell you a couple of misconceptions about how to design websites.

1. Many people assume that because the internet is so "big" and covers such a vast amount of areas around the world, their website has to be everything to everybody.

Tip! As a beginner, you should learn the basics of HTML with beginner lessons before learning a complicated programming language. HTML is a great foundation for web design.

They design their website for "everybody" in the world and never have a distinct purpose. No purpose and no direction results in no sales! That's a profound statement but so true. How many websites have you visited that had no purpose, no direction, and no real valuable information that you stayed and surfed around the site a while?

Tip! Choose a domain name with these three characteristics: 1) Easy to remember. 2) Short and to the point. 3) Related to your products or company name.

You click to that site only to find twenty links that are all non-related to the site's description nor to each other.

A link to the left takes you to a computer store online while a link to the right takes you to a sports website.

Five banners straight down the middle of the homepage all going in five different directions. No direction or purpose whatsoever.

Tip! But before you can go all out in building your website with your web design software, it would be best to know the basics of a website first.

Even if that company did offer what you were looking for, you probably would not consider that company as an expert or even trustworthy after one glance at the website, would you?

2. The second misconception is that selling on the web is different or easier than selling offline. I know from experience that sales is sales is sales.

Even if your business is on the web, you still must take the same steps to gain a customer's trust as you do offline. Your product will not sell itself, just like your website will not promote itself. You must take the necessary steps to promote your site as well as give a persuading presentation once the visitor arrives.

Now that you know a couple of the most common misconceptions on the web, you can move forward with designing your website with these in mind.

Don't worry, if you've already designed your website for "everybody", it's not too late to focus in on your sole purpose. It's far less painful to design your website with your one purpose in mind from the beginning -- and less costly.

Tip! While selecting Web design software it is important to keep a few things in mind. Firstly, the software should support the Operating System.

3 important steps you can take while designing your website to insure navigation ease for your visitors

The more authentic information about designing a homepage you know, the more likely people are to consider you a designing a homepage expert. Read on for even more homepage design facts that you can share with other webmasters.

Tip! Write a headline for each of your web pages that will grab your visitor's attention immediately. Create headlines that are keyword-specific for maximum results. Examples: "Learn Web Design from Home," "Grab Your Free Training Video while They Last," "Build Your Site to Sell.... here is the Secret."

1. Place your "appealing headline" below any banner or logo at the top of the page.

This is the headline that persuades your visitor to continue reading your homepage -- to spark their interest in your product or service. Write your headline to your target customer.

Your visitor should have no doubt about what kind of website he/she just entered.

If your purpose is to sell books, your headline should say something about books or a particular book that's very popular. This will insure your "targeted" potential customers that they are at the right site for what they are searching for.

Tip! Your domain name is the web address, or URL, of your website. The company you choose for web hosting might also register your domain name for you. Choose your domain name wisely. It will be with you for a long time!

Visitors who aren't looking for books really aren't your customers, are they? You're letting them know up front that they're in the wrong website.

The reason for placing your headline below your logo or banner is because people tend to look at the "picture" first and then begin reading below the photo.

Tip! People working in the field of web design are uncountable but there is still room for a webmaster with new techniques and new ideas for business websites.

2. Place a side bar or navigation bar at the right hand or left hand side of your homepage (or top to bottom depending on the layout of your page).

A general rule of thumb is to place your navigational bar on the left hand side if your website is information-based and you offer just one to three products. Place your navigational bar on the right hand side if your website is set up like a catalog offering many different products.

Tip! After creating a web page, always check to be sure your website looks great in all major web browsers -- Explorer, Netscape, etc. It might look wonderful in one, but horrible in another!

The navigation bar provides your visitor with options to move around within your website without crowding the homepage. Your homepage should be an introduction to your website or your product or service, not your entire website.

The information should be intriging to your "target" visitor and lead the visitor to the next page or to your desired response at the bottom of the homepage.

3. Continue your homepage. Write to your visitor in a way that he/she can't wait to go to the next page and continue.

But don't stop there -- when your visitor gets to the bottom, be sure to say "Go to the Next Page Here..." or "Continue to Next Page...", something to persuade your visitor to go the next page. The ... always leaves a sense of continuance also!

Tip! Initially the Web designing was based upon the simple markup languages, functionality of these languages was very limited. At that time only the hyper linking between the pages and layout services were available; it became more extensible and rich in context with the advancement of Web technology and Web design.

Implement these three methods while designing your homepage to insure navigation ability for your visitors.

Remember, your visitors can only turn into paying customers if you get a chance to make your presentation.

It never hurts to be well-informed with the latest tips on designing a homepage. Compare what you've learned here to future articles so that you can stay alert to changes in the area of homepage design.

Article written by Candice Pardue, marketing content writing and owner of http://www.webmastercourse.com/writing-services/ Online Success for Internet Business. Go here to learn web design from start to finish. This one's for beginners...

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