Creating a Website- Planning 101

If the plan is in your head, there is no plan. ~by someone smart

Pre-Planning
Know what you want. Know what you want. Know what you want.
If you don't know what you want, you will never complete the website and the basic elements will constantly change. Change is good, but too much change will discourage viewers. Just think about it, what if you each day you walked into your favorite store, the aisles changed! You'd be thrown off! So, if you want to have repeat viewers, consistency is key.

You need to know and have these four things when creating a website:

1. Type of Website- personal, business, portfolio, forum, news, e-commerce, etc.
2. Content- copy, photos, links, etc.
3. Basics of HTML(HyperText Markup Language)- Basic coding or language of the web
4. Domain and Host- a place (host) to on the web to house you site and a name (domain) for people to find it.

Need an in-depth description of types of websites?
Examples of Types of Websites

Not sure about this Domain and Host stuff?
What is a Domain?
What is a Host?

Need HTML help? HTML who?
What is HTML?

What's the plan?
Now we can get visual. It's important to know the parts of a basic website.
A basic website contains the following elements:
- Title- Name of the site

- Header- Logo, Name, Slogan

- Navigation- Buttons and/or links to each page of the website

- Body- Main content (copy, photos)

- Footer- Contact info, legal info, privacy info, copyright/trademark info


Here's a map of a basic website (Below, click to see larger)

Now what?

Now that you know the parts, you need to know how to create them.

If you know the basics of HTML, the next post may be irrelevant.

Next: HTML 101