How to Build a Website

If you are completely new to website building, i.e. you know nothing about HTML, FTP and the like, this page will show you not only how to create a website - there are plenty of such resources on the Net, but how to create a successful website getting a lot of traffic from search engines, in the most time-and-money efficient way possible.

I've tried to go into as much detail as possible, to minimize the need for switching to other Web pages. Unfortunately, it's unrealistic to provide detailed information on how to create a website, promote it and earn money from it, within one page. You'll find quite a few links to other pages providing additional information and useful services. All links within this page are set up to open a new browser window, so that you can open several pages simultaneously and switch between them without losing the context.

The whole process is divided into four sections:

1. Planning
2. Building
3. Promotion
4. Making Money

I've also added Advanced Options for those who want to know how to create a website with more traditional Web design tools.
1) Planning

If you're going to create a website not only for fun, take the time to think it through thoroughly. The real opportunities on this over-congested Internet lie in the niches. The only successful strategy for newcomers is to select a narrow niche and to fill it with useful content.

Some niches, such as "Internet marketing" or "Web hosting", are extremely competitive. Your goal is to find a subject that you really know and like, that would have some appeal for others and that is still not very competitive.

You can estimate the competitiveness of your niche by analyzing related keywords. Create your original list of keywords - write down all the words and phrases that you think are related to your concept and can be used by people when they search for your site. Don't limit yourself to single words. Statistical research has shown that most people search using multiple-word keywords composed of two, or even three, words in order to get more targeted results.

There's a remarkable online tool that will help you find actual related keywords and measure their popularity on the Internet. Go to WordTracker and start the free trial. Then go to the Keyword Universe. WordTracker will guide you through 4 steps:

Step 1. Type in your first keyword, and click on the "Proceed »" button. WordTracker will display a list of keywords related to the word that you've typed in.

Step 2. Click on the first word which is applicable for your Web site concept and WordTracker will show a list of keywords which contain the word you had clicked on and the number of times they have been used by searchers (the figure present in the Count column).

Add related keywords to your basket by clicking on them, then click on the second related word in the first window. Again add related keywords to your basket. Repeat this process for each of the related words, then click the link to move to Step 3.

Step 3. Your chosen keywords appear on the screen. They are organized in descending order with the most popular first. Go to Step 4.

Step 4. Choose a search engine on which you want to do the competition search and click "Proceed »". You'll see keywords from your basket along with their attributes, the most important of which is the KEI Analysis. The amount of competition is determined by searching for each phrase on the selected engine and finding out how many sites come up in the results.

Write down the best keywords (KEI > 10) along with their attributes, click the link at the bottom of the page to try again, clear the basket and type in your next keyword. You may repeat it as many times as you need to analyze all related keywords. Your goal is to find not less than 10-20 good relevant keywords (keyword phrases). The more keywords you find and the higher their KEI, the more promising your niche is.

Note:

* WordTracker assigns high KEI to words with low Count and very low (or zero) Competing. Don't target these keywords. What good would it do for you to rank high for these words if no one ever searches for them? Select words with high Count (not less than 100).

Pick the most profitable keywords and plan pages of your site. Also select the main keyword for your home page. Each page should be optimized for one keyword. However, if you have managed to find some keywords with very low competitiveness, you can optimize a page for two or more keywords.

For example, if Google finds only 20-30 sites providing information about a particular keyword, there is a good chance that your page will be found if you include that keyword only once or twice into it. Otherwise, if you have 20000 competitors, you'll need to optimize all areas of the page for this keyword to get a high ranking.

Of course, the above process can take a lot of time. But if you want to get free traffic from search engines, this step is absolutely essential. It's the very thing that can make the difference between a successful website and one that fails to attract any visitors.
2) Building

Now that you know what you want to accomplish, it's time to start building your website. Depending on how many pages you're going to create and how serious you are about building a profitable Web business, I offer you the three most time-and-money efficient options I've been able to locate.

They are online website builders which anyone can use to build professional looking websites and have them hosted instantly. No software to buy, no code to learn, all you need is to be a little Internet savvy and know how to click your mouse.

These tools are the current leaders in their fields and differ in their capabilities and prices...

1) 1&1

If all you need is a 1-5 page site to establish an online presence, buy a domain name at 1&1 ($6.99/yr). Each domain comes with free Starter WebsiteBuilder - a convenient, easy-to-use tool that lets you create a 5-page website. The simple wizard guides you through the building process from start to publish, with easy-to-follow instructions and simple point-and-click prompts.

You can choose your template, customize it with fonts, colors, graphics, and then add your content using the built-in text editor. No technical expertise or knowledge of HTML code is necessary. Each domain also includes 1 personalized email address (2 GB mailbox space, 200 aliases, auto-responder, forwarding).

2) Site Studio

It's a popular website building software from Positive Software Corporation. Many hosting providers have installed it on their servers to help users build professionally looking websites without knowing anything about FTP, HTML, or imaging software.

This is a good deal for you if you plan to learn HTML, JavaScript and other techie stuff needed to create a website. Site Studio is just an option. You can use it if you are new to the technical side of Web design or simply haven't enough time. You can always switch to traditional building tools and use all the power of your host - CGI, Perl, PHP, MySQL and the like.

Key features of Site Studio:

* Simple to use: Site Studio guides you step-by-step, providing simple choices regarding color, style and images. There is no software to buy, and no code to learn.
* Layout templates: Site Studio provides over 1000 professionally designed templates. The content of your site is stored separately from the layout. You can completely change the look and feel of your site in a few clicks of the mouse, without ever having to retype any information.
* Customizable color schemes: Site Studio includes a number of built-in color combinations that look great with any layout. All the colors can be changed, either by using a point-and-click color picker, or typing in the color as a hex number.
* Complete control over images: you can upload your own images without having to leave your browser. The required images, including logos, rollover buttons and sidebars, can also be generated automatically in the colors you want, with the desired text.
* Variety of pages: Site Studio includes a lot of predefined page templates: About, Links, Download, Firm Profile, Survey Form, FAQ, Catalog, ICQ Contact Center, Site Map, Contact Us, Services, Add-A-Cart Catalog, Amazon Web Store, etc. Generic Page template enables creation of custom pages that do not fall into any other categories. Advanced users can also copy-paste existing HTML pages and create Web pages based on their own HTML code.
* One-click publishing: The website is published with one click. But even after publishing, you can go back and change it as much as you wish.

Many hosts offer Site Studio for an additional fee. However, here is a reliable and inexpensive hosting service which provides members with Site Studio for free...

* IXWebHosting
Unlimited disk space and bandwidth for $5.95 a month. Additionally, you get a unique (dedicated) IP address for your site. Buildwebsite4u.com is currently hosted by IXWebHosting (full story).

See Resources: Inexpensive Web Hosting for more details about this hosting provider.

3) Site Build It

This is the most comprehensive and well established product among other tools for creating websites. You won't find any other website builder that can show results like this. It's most suitable for those who are serious about making money on the Internet and want to focus on building their business instead of managing their website.

Of course, Site Build It (SBI) is more costly than the previous options, but it takes care of ALL the technology and complexity of building and marketing a website (domain name, hosting, graphic design, search engine submission and optimization, traffic analysis, e-zine publishing, etc.) and allows you to jump straight to the money making side of your Web business. See the complete list of features for more information.

SBI is focused on minimizing your time and maximizing your results. For example, its Brainstorming and Researching tool reduces hours of that tedious manual work of finding profitable keywords to mere clicks. All you have to do is type in a keyword and this tool will give you dozens of profitable keywords - ones with high demand and low supply.

See Articles: Easy website building tool, if you need more information to decide whether SBI is right for you. Also, if you want to get real answers to any questions that you may have about SBI from an actual SBI user, via phone or email, visit SBI - Question.

In fact, if you choose SBI, you won't need this guide any more. SBI's Action Guide (a pdf file) will show you, step-by-step, how to create a website in the most efficient way.

In my opinion, the main advantage of SBI, which makes it unique among other website building tools, is that it actively struggles for traffic from the free search engines:

* SBI's Brainstorming tool helps you find highly profitable topics (i.e., topics that attract motivated, targeted traffic) for your site.
* Before you even build each page, as well as after each one is ranked, SBI tells you exactly what to do to rank higher at the search engines.
* WorldSubmitter submits pages to all the major search engines. And it does it without violating any of the search engines' protocols: it doesn't submit more than one page of a site to each engine in any 25 hour period and it doesn't submit the same page twice in a 30 day period.
* SpiderWatcher tracks the major search engines' spiders (crawlers). It knows what the spiders look like (the spider-tracking database is updated every 6 hours). If, within a certain number of days (varies from engine to engine), no crawler has visited, SpiderWatcher "alerts" WorldSubmitter to re-submit the site to the search engines that ignored the initial submission.
* ListChecker checks the engines periodically to make sure the site has made it into the index and after that keeps tabs on it to make sure it's still there. Should that page disappear from a search engine's index (these things do happen), ListChecker will tell WorldSubmitter to re-submit it.

So it's no wonder that SBIers quickly grab the top spots in search results and earn thousands of dollars per month from free traffic:
How to create a website - SBI ranking

* 62% of SBI sites rank within the top 3% most popular sites.
* 53% rank within the most visited 2%.
* 35% score in the top 1%.

Personal stories told by successful SBI owners...

The rest of this guide is applicable for you only if you haven't chosen Site Build It as your website building service - SBI includes all the tools you will ever need, as well as an excellent guide on how to create a website using these tools.
Search Engine Optimization

To optimize a page for a specific keyword (keyword phrase), you should include it in the following strategic places...

* Title tag
The first and most important tag in search engine optimization. It should contain 5-10 words. The specific keyword should be used, preferably as the first word(s) of the title. The title appears as the link in search engine listings, so you need to make it attractive to humans as well.
* Meta Description tag
The second important tag. It is used by many search engines as a short description of the page, so don't repeat the Title in this tag, and make sure it's attractive, without being misleading. It should not exceed 150-200 characters. The specific keyword should be used at least once.
* The regular text of the page
Put not less than two hundred words on the page. Don't make the page too long. Use your keyword at the start, middle, and end of your content. Don't simply repeat it over and over. Use it more frequently in the opening two paragraphs, and also in the closing paragraph. The first sentence should contain the keyword. Headlines are more important than the regular body copy for both your human readers and for the search engines. Include your keywords in the heading tags, preferably as the first words of the heading.
* Incoming links
If possible, include your keyword in the text of incoming links (links to your page from other pages).
* Meta Keywords tag, Image ALT tags, Comment tags
These tags aren't very important - they hardly affects the rankings these days. However, just to be on the safe side, you can include your keyword in them. Meta Keywords tag can contain a list of keywords separated by a comma.