A common mistake by first timers and people new to creating websites, is to rush into the available options which the free hosting and web design companies are pushing at you.
As with most other things, it’s all in the planning.
Ideally, you should have a reasonable idea about what you’re trying to achieve for your site before assessing the design and hosting packages. If you’ve already gone through the numerous choices to create a free site, chances are, you’re overloaded with technical jargon and are slightly confused.
Here’s a list of 10 Planning Tips which you can do without spending any money, so that you can create your free website supported by a well thought-out plan.
(1) Know What You Want – before looking for a free website service, sit back and reflect on what you WANT in your website and what’s your ultimate goal of having it.
(2) Know What You Need - after listing the things that you want, go through it again and analyze more deeply about your site’s objectives and what you really NEED to achieve it.
(3) Examples & Comparisons – one of the best ways to visualize your website before it’s made, is to reference 10 to 20 similar sites in the same category where you can get more IDEAS to refine your own site.
(4) Plan the Structure – using pencil and paper, Excel or whatever suits you, PLAN out the structure of your site, the number of individual web pages and how they link to each other to create a website.
(5) Design your Homepage – before diving into the website builder from your free website provider, have a rough idea of what you would like to achieve so that you can make clearer decisions for templates and other creative elements in the site creator.
(6) Plan your Templates - Similar to your homepage, try to have a plan for what you want in each page and how it will look together with the content
(7) Start Writing Content – If possible, write at least 10 to 20 pages of content for your new site. The site maker and hosting may be free, but you still have to do the work for the content.
(8) Write More Content – After completing the static pages such as your About Us page, move on to write more articles, reviews and posts on the main topics in your site.
(9) Plan the Graphics & Visuals – Once you’ve got your content, homepage design, web page templates and the general structure for your site, incorporate your visual elements (such as icons, photos, images, graphics) to match the text content and overall page layout.
(10) Compare with your Reference Sites – With everything in place, compare your website design and content with your reference sites to get a better picture of your end-product.
Please ask any questions or share your comments & personal experiences in creating websites below.
Tags: content, Homepage, images, photos, templates, Web Page