Who would think that something as small as a word could have so much effect on the World Wide Web. Having a good layout, and good content are great ways to keep people coming to your site. But it’s the magic of the “keyword” that will help you bring them there in the first place.

Very few people are going to think of your exact URL and type it in to their search bars. In fact I’d go so far as to say less than 1% of your traffic will be from exact URL usage. This is where the use of keywords comes into play. Pretty much everyone these days uses a search engine to navigate through the internet to find their destination. Of course you want your site to be up at the top of these lists, and keywords are the way to do it.

Search engines rank sites by the keywords that users type in, compared with the relevancy of the keywords of the site. So if someone types in “shoes, stinky, store” and you just happen to have keywords relating to your Stinky Shoe Store, then you’ll probably be at the top of the list. The Stinky Shoe Store was intended to make you chuckle, but also brings up another important factor in the use of keywords. It is important that you try and be as original as possible. If you’re using the same keywords as everyone else in your business venture, than rank will be lower on the search engine list. On the flip side though, if you’re using keywords that no one in their right mind would type in than you’re going to see lower traffic (like Stinky Shoe Store). So of course finding the middle ground between originality and common sense is the name of the game, and like anything else dealing with web design it isn’t going to be easy.

Google has released a tool that you might find useful in your keyword search. The site is Google AdWords and can be found here

There is an old saying, “A craftsman is only as good as his tools”. This saying translates over for designers as well, finding the right software for your design needs is a very important step towards being successful.

Finding the right software isn’t about going out and buying the most expensive program on the market, it’s about forging your decision around the needs of the project you’re working on. For example, if you are creating a site that has very low image use, and is mainly text a simple text editor or HTML editor would suffice.

Next, it is important not to invest into a product too early. Many programs that are out right now provide customers with trial periods, so you can shop around for different products without investing thousands into it. The reason for this is so you can find software you are comfortable with and what you find easiest to use. To give another example, I use Photoshop when it comes to image manipulation, but when it comes to illustration I prefer to use Corel Draw. It’s these different styles that make it important to be totally confident in the software you are using.

Here are a few companies to look around at when shopping for software:

Adobe
Corel
Laughing Bird

So your site is finished, now take a deep breath and a drink of water. I wish I could say that the hard part is over, but this is just the beginning. The next few steps that you should take is getting your website out there.

The first step in publishing your site is deciding on a domain name. Sometimes your domain won’t be able to exactly reflect www.your-site-name.com. The reason for this is someone may have already obtained the domain. Now dont panic, there are some ways around this problem. The first solution is to buy the domain from the person, this option is mostly reserved for larger companies with larger budgets. A more cost-saving solution would be to change the suffix of the domain. So instead of calling your site www.your-site-name.com, you would call it www.your-site-name.org, or www.your-site-name.net.

So you’ve decided on the official URL, now it’s time to find somewhere to host the site. Deciding on a web hosting service is like trying to buy a car (minus the polyester suits). One of the things to looks out for is “How much space, for how much money?”. Finding the best deal isn’t necessarily about what host costs the less, because they might not be providing enough space and features. The next thing to do would be to find customer reviews of the host, asking questions like “Are their servers stable?” or “How is their customer service”.

Alright, your site is finally on the internet. If someone types in your site’s url, it will appear on their browser. The final step is making sure that more people are viewing your page. Advertising is the obvious solution to the problem, and there are a few creative ways to get started. The first step is to make sure your site’s keywords are common and will help generate views on a search engine. If you can move up in page ranking at places like Google, and Yahoo then alot of times that’s all the “advertising” you’ll need. Another tactic you might take is to actually advertise on other sites. This solution can be tricky in that you’re paying for it, and you’re trying to find a site that generates enough traffic for your ad to be seen.

I know that all of these steps seem like a monstrous endeavor, but through dedication people will be flocking to your site.

Creating a website can be a daunting task to undertake. Trying to think of an original idea can be frustrating enough, and if you’re unsure of the tools and language that you need to use it just adds fuel to the fire.

So once you have you’re idea, it’s time to start building. The more I build sites, the more I find that using CSS style sheets is probably the most universally sound style to use. The options are nearly limitless with what you can do. The greatest thing about CSS is it has the “easy to learn, difficult to master” feel behind it.

How CSS works is it acts as a reference point for your web page. You will undoubtedly be using all kinds of different properties for different parts of your website. How the CSS style sheet helps you is by being able to categorize the different sections, and applying the specific properties you want.

Here are a couple of places to get you started on learning how to code CSS-
http://www.w3schools.com
http://www.csstutorial.net/