An Informational Website - Step by Step instructions. Page 2

Ok, so far you have picked a subject for you site and you've picked and purchased a domain name. Now you need hosting.

Your website is just a bunch of files. The files need to be accessible from the web or internet so that people can download those files into their browsers. You need a web-hosting company to put your files on one of their servers with high speed access to the internet.

There are of course, no shortage of web hosting companies, and a wide range of packages available for you to choose from. For more detailed information about web hosting companies click here

WYSIWYG Editor

The next thing you need is a way to build the web pages you need. This is where a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor is very handy. Now you could learn HTML and code the entire site by hand with notepad or some text editor, but it won't be the fastest way to riches. I just went out and bought a copy of Front Page 2000 and it works fine for me. There are others such as dream weaver, and there are even some free ones out there if you look hard. You can still find free copies of Front Page Express...maybe.

Putting it all together

Now it's time to build your site. The number one thing to remember is build it for humans. Make it easy for humans to navigate and easy for them to know where to navigate to. Usability is the word most often used in this regard on the internet.

Provide easy to follow links to all your pages so the search engine spiders can find all of your pages. A good way to do this is to make a sitemap.

When picking your title be sure to do keyword research. If your main keywords are not incorporated into your title it will be more difficult for the search engines to figure out the main theme of your site. Make your title sound good too. Your human visitors will be reading it too.

Try to work some of your keywords into some image Alt tags, but try to do it in a way it makes sense to humans, and don't overdo it. Working your main keywords into your text in a few places doesn't hurt either. Make it sound natural when you read it.

Typically page sizes of 300 to 800 words work well. I like to make my pages around 500 words long. You need text on your pages because that's the only thing search engines can read...they can't read images.

Promoting Your Site

Once you've completed your site it's time to promote it. As long as there is at least one link from another site it will get spidered, or you can submit it yourself to at least one major search engine.

One way to promote your website is to write some articles about related topics or about the site itself. You can submit your articles to article directories online and pickup traffic from readers and back links from the articles. You can trade links with other related sites if you have a links page on your site. Submitting your site to directories can help and they are one way links too.

You can use online press release services to send press releases about your website out.

You can use pay per click advertising to bring you traffic, but paying for traffic probably won't be viable for a informational website.

Often off-line advertising can be very effective.

Be sure to put a link to your site in your email signature.

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