Website Creation

This Website Creation Tutorial is based on my experiences with

creating and promoting a website. When creating a website there
are several different tools and methods available, but it is
important to plan the steps. This guide will help outline the
important steps required for website creation and promotion.
Information in this document should help readers avoid many
pitfalls and save time throughout the process.

Feedback

Continuous feedback is important throughout the website creation

and design process. The website designer must first plan the
purpose and layout of the website. However, after some period of
time, the website designer becomes incapable of objectively
criticizing their own work. Therefore the design is in danger of not
being pleasing to users, either with regard to look or use. It is
important to get early feedback from other people about the
design and layout of the site. This guide will provide suggestions
about how to this and when it is important.

Website Creation Phases

1. Inception and Planning

o Plan a theme - Plan the purpose of the website.
o Consider and plan a layout - Plan a layout appropriate to the theme
of the website.
o Determine tools to use to create the website.
o Determine a web hosting provider and whether you want to use
their tools.
o Consider how the website should be navigated.
o Determine your basic color scheme.
o Consider the types, positioning, and amount of graphics to provide
on the site.
o Consider text fonts to use.
2. Design
o Create a main page and get it running on a webserver.
o Browse the main page with several types of web browsers to
determine whether there are any browser issues to resolve.
o Look at the main page using different screen resolutions.
o Get opinions about the layout from other people. - Is the purpose of
the web site clear?
o Make any appropriate modifications to the main page.
3. Construction
 o Make the site functional and complete the basic working prototype
by adding additional pages or functionality.
o Be sure to set titles and meta tags for search correctly for each
page's content. This is done so search engines will later categorize
the page properly and help get traffic.
o Get more opinions about the completed site, how it functions, how
it is designed, and how easy it is to use.
o Make any necessary adjustments and get the site completely
running.
4. Promotion
o Apply for awards for your site to organizations that review sites and
give various awards.
o Get some awards and post this fact on your site.
o Submit your site to search engines.
o Get other sites that have similar content (or sites that your site
supplements) to link to your web site (especially high traffic web
sites).
o Place your site in webrings.
o Submit news articles to news agencies about your new site or any
significant events that may help your site.
o Promote your site anyplace there are forums or discussion groups
without being pushy. If your site has useful information relevant to
the discussion, only post it then.

o Consider giving awards through your site.

If this all looks like it will involve a lot of work, that's because even if
you know what you are doing, it is a lot of work. However, it can be fun
and rewarding. If you are planning to create a world class web site, it
will not be worthwhile to skip some steps. If you are just planning a
personal website and don't care about promotion, the promotion steps
could be skipped and some other steps could be skipped with some
sacrifice of quality.

Website Planning and

Inception
This is the most important part of setting up a website. If this part
is not done properly, much time may be wasted.

Business Interests

Before beginning the task of planning and setting up the website,

the business interests and objectives must be considered. Is this a
business site that will have a budget? If so, what are the available
resources? What are the goals of the business? How much should
be paid for web hosting or credit card services?

Website Functionality

Along with the business interests and objectives for the site, the
site functionality must be considered initially. This includes site
functions as listed below:

• Will the site need a shopping cart?

• Will the site need a forums section?
• Will the site need the ability to post content by people that are not
technical?
• Will the site need a an events calendar?
• Will the site need an ability for third parties to post links?
• Should the site have a guestbook?
• Should the site be able to take polls?

Website Theme

The type and purpose of the organization will have a great deal to
do with determining the theme of the website. The site purpose
may be informational, it may be built to sell products, or it may
contain some combination of themes and purposes. The type of
information on the site and its purpose will help determine the
theme. The site may be business oriented and traditional, it may
be a non traditional business with attention grabbers. If the site is
some organization with a group mission, it may be an
uncomplicated site stating group purpose and mission with
contact information along with some public information.

Website Content

The website content should be supportive of your main theme but

be broad enough to allow for excellent promotional capability.
Consider some of the following website content:

• Consider providing free tutorials or information supportive of your site

main theme.
• Consider providing some chat groups or forums supportive of your main
theme.
• Consider providing web site awards to sites with themes similar to yours or
 to a broad category of web sites.

Website Layout

Generally the layout of the site is influenced by its theme, purpose,

and navigational setup. The following should be thought about early in
design:

• Consider how many layers deep into the site, navigation should be done.
• Consider how to organize the site into logical subcategories that make sense to the
viewer. For instance normally documentation is placed separate from information
about the organization.
• Consider where links should be. Should the main navigation links be across the
top, down the left side, someplace else or some combination? Should some items
be highlighted?
• Consider how many levels deep users can move by clicking on a single link.
• Should buttons be used for links?
• Should JavaScript or VBscript be used to create drop down links?
• Will Server Side Includes (SSI) be used to support the site with some common
notices on multiple pages?
• Should server side script programs be used to support the site?
• Are any additional services required to support the site such as external credit
card services?
• Will your website require access to a database for storage and retrieval of
customer or other data?
• How much content will be displayed on each page? How far down will users need
to scroll the page to see the bottom? This is a controversial characteristic of
websites with some believing scrolling more than three screen lengths is too
much, and others believing it is better to place as much content on the page as is
reasonably possible to allow for easier viewing and printing without going
through many links. I think pages should be long enough to print roughly one to
five pages on a normal printer and should be broken on some reasonably natural
content breakoff point. Pages should not be long enough to cause a significant
slowing in load time.

When considering these items, the type of browser the user will be
using should be considered. It should be considered whether the user's
browser will support these features.
The web page should not be too crowded and have a reasonable
amount of white space and graphics to make it pleasing to the eye.
The web page should be designed to draw attention to its main theme.
During layout, consider the fact that normally, the eye starts viewing
somewhere near, but below the upper left (the upper left center) then
moves to the right, then down.

Website Navigation - Frames?

Setting up navigation is a very important part of web layout. The user
must be able to quickly and easily find the information they are looking
for or they will probably go elsewhere. Things to consider include:

• Consider how many layers deep into the site, navigation should be done.
• Consider where links should be. Should the main navigation links be across the
top, down the left side, someplace else or some combination? Should some items
be highlighted?
• Should frames be used? The use of frames is very controversial. I believe,
depending on content, frames have their place. Normally I use frames so an index
is in one frame with content in the other frame. I normally use frames in
documents, but not on the main page. One major drawback to using frames is that
some webcrawlers can not search through pages that use frames. Therefore these
web pages may not be categorized by search engines and may not be available for
user queries to search engines. Another drawback is that older browsers did not
support frames.
• Consider providing a site map to help your users and be sure search engine
webcrawlers can find all your pages.

Color Scheme

Color schemes are very important on websites. I'm not an expert on

color, but I like greens, and blues. I like light colors. Text and
backgrounds must have a high amount of contrast. If one is dark, the
other must be light. I have noticed that dark text is easier to read on a
light background than light text on a dark background. When using a
high resolution screen such as 1600 by 1200 resolution, it is difficult to
see light text on dark backgrounds. Web designers should be aware of
this. Red usually indicates warning, but I like to use it to draw attention
and for additional color.

Website Graphics

Most good websites should have a reasonable quantity of graphics.

Graphic items may be drawn pictures, charts, illustrative diagrams, or
photographs. When using graphics, the designer should consider the
time it will take to load over various internet media, such as serial lines
using modems. There should be enough graphic content to make the
page pleasing to the eye.

Text Fonts

There are many different text fonts available. The text fonts that will
show up on the client computer are dependent on the fonts that are
installed on that computer. Therefore, it is best to use text fonts that
are commonly available. Also, different text fonts are not displayed the
same with different browsers. You will notice this if Netscape Navigator
and Internet Explorer are used to view the same page side by side. I
like to use Arial for normal text and Times New Roman font for header
text on my web site. The Arial font is easy to read, and Times New
Roman has serifs on the letters.

HTML

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is the format most
web documents are placed in to be made available for viewing. HTML
is simply used to indicate to the web browser, how to display the
content. It uses elements consisting of sets of tags (beginning and end
tag) to mark the type of elements such as paragraphs, headers, lists,
and tables.
There is one significant note about HTML that concerns you whether
you are technical or not. The current web standard as set by the World
Wide Web Consortium at http://www.w3.org is XHTML. What this means
is there are some additional construction rules for the markup
language. Some rules involve proper nesting of elements and tags and
using tags with lower case characters. See the HTML Guide Page about
XHTML for more information about XHTML.
If your site is not written in XHTML, it does not mean your site will not
function properly. It just means you are not using the latest standard. It
would be best to use the latest standard, however, to avoid the
possiblity of future work to bring it up to the standard. If you write the
code yourself, you should use the XHTML standard. If you use an HTML
page making tool, it should either output pages in XHTML or expect to
be upgraded in the future for XHTML.

Website Creation Tools

There are several types of tools that may be used when creating a
website. These include:

• HTML editors or HTML page making tools such as Microsoft Front Page or the
Netscape Communicator tool set.
• Several browsers to view your web pages such as Netscape Navigator and Internet
Explorer.
• HTML validators that are used to validate your code. Validation means your code
is written properly in HTML. Many of these tools include spell checkers, but
validation of your code early can save trouble and much rework in the future.
• Graphic drawing programs that may be used to create still or dynamic graphic
images.
• Java applets may be used to create additional dynamic content and therefore a
programming Integrated Development Environment (IDE) may be required.
 • Additional programming capabilities may be required to create server side script
programs for dynamic interfacing to the user.
• Will you require an FTP client program to allow the transfer of files between your
website and working computer or will you use tools provided by your web host
provider?

The person who is doing the work to create the site will determine the
tools to use. If the person has good HTML knowledge, it may be
preferable to hand enter HTML. with an HTML editor. Most who do not
have this technical knowledge may not wish to take the time to learn
it. Therefore it is fine to use tools such as Microsoft Front Page or the
Netscape Communicator tool set. These tools allow you to edit the
page as it is seen and takes care of the technical details of creating the
page. Whatever tools you use, you should first evaluate them by
reading reviews about them and ask other people who have used them
such as can be done on forum and discussion websites. There are links
to these types of websites in the main weblinks category at the
Computer Technology Documentation Project Websites pages. Under
the "Technical Information" header, click on the link that says
"Technical Forums". The second half of the page has "Forum Sites for
Website Owners"

Web Hosting Provider

It is just as important to pick the correct web hosting service as it is to

pick the correct tools. Following are some considerations for a web
hosting service:

• Are you willing to pay a monthly service fee?

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) can be used to transfer web content back and forth
between your working computer and the on line website. Does the service allow
FTP access and do you require FTP access? How well does the FTP service work?
Some FTP servers are inconsistent or unreliable.
• What kinds of tools does the web hosting service provided for site building?
• What add on features are available from the web hosting service such as bulletin
boards, hit counters, guestbook, and mail features or services?
• How fast and reliable are the web hosting service servers?
• Is there enough storage space for the website and any data services?
• Are database services required?
• Is there a limitation on the number of files that may be stored or how many layers
deep the web pages may be embedded into subdirectories?
• Does the service support server side includes (SSI)? Are all SSI functions
supported? Some may limit SSI functions for security reasons.
• Does the service support server side script programs?
• Is security on your website important? Will purchases or other confidential
information be transmitted between your site and clients?
As was done with the tools, the web hosting service should be
evaluated before making a final selection. Use websites listed at the
Computer Documentation Document Project or others that you may
find using search engines or other methods. Read reviews about the
specific services and ask people at web hosting forum and other forum
websites. The Computer Technology Documentation Project Websites
pages has a list of some providers under the header "Internet Services"
in the link called "Web Page Hosting".

Website Design
Once you have determined the purpose and functionality of your
website it is time to perform the actual website design starting with
some web page layouts. These initial page layouts should establish the
general look and feel of the website and are an important step in the
website design process.

Create Main Page

Once you have determined the desired functionality, content, and

layout of your website it is time to create your main page. You may
want to create several experimental (prototype) website designs and
get opinions of family or friends to see which are the best website
designs. At this point the effort is mainly dependant on your originality
talent and artistic skills.
If creating prototype website designs, you may want to use a free web
hosting service temporarily until you have firmed up the website
design and are getting ready to go operational.

Check Viewing of Main Page

Viewers will look at your web page with several browsers and on
computer screens with various resolutions. You should view your
website, offline or online, with computers using resolutions from 640
by 480 at 256 colors to 1600 by 1200 with true color. You should view
the site at a few intermediate resolutions. You should view your site at
least with Mozilla and Internet Explorer at different resolutions. Other
web browsers that you may want to vies your pages with include
Opera. The reason to go to all this trouble is to prevent creating all
your site pages, then determining you need to make a change, and
having to go back and fix multiple pages. After you have viewed your
main page with different screens and browsers you may want to make
some modifications to the page.
Once you have settled on the major portion of your main page layout
and created the main page, upload it to the web serving host you have
chosen.

Get Opinions

At this point your website has a main page with links that may not
work, but you can get opinions on how pleasing your main page is and
whether it conveys the massage you intend. It is worth your while to go
out to web hosting forums sites and ask others to view and critique
your site. Don't be dissappointed if you get negative input. Most of the
people are going to concentrate on telling you what they think you
need to improve rather than what you have already done right. They
are doing this for your good.

Make Modifications

Getting opinions and making modifications may take about one week. I
usually use more than one web hosting forums site at different phases
of the website design and refinement in order to get more variety of
opinions as I optimize the site.

Website Construction
The website construction phase is the phase during which the
bulk of your work is done assuming your website is fairly large.
Hopefully the steps you have taken earlier in the process will keep
you from needing to make any major changes to your web site
from this point on.

Complete Prototype

To start this website construction phase you will want to build a

minimum working prototype. Do not add all features unless they
are required for a prototype or they should be reviewed by others
before going final. Any unique features should be added at this
time. For example, if your website posts tutorials, add one or two
tutorials so viewers will get the idea how the website will work,
but do not create all pages unless it is necessary.
If you are using what you see is what you get tools, like Microsoft
FrontPage you may not have much technical control at this point.
If you are using FrontPage, you must still set proper META tags. If
you are writing your own HTML pages, you will want to be sure
and do the following correctly the first time:
• Use the correct DTD declaration for your documents. Doing this can
prevent validation and web crawlers from searching your site. As of this
writing, if using XHTML (recommended), it should be:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML

1.1//EN">

As of this writing, if using HTML 4.01, it should be one of the following:

o <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01

Transitional//EN"> - For use in normal documents.
o <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01
Frameset//EN"> - For use in documents that have frames defined in
them.
o <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> -
For use in documents that adhere strictly to the standard.

Most of the time you should use the transitional DTD

declaration for HTML. Be sure to use the proper case as
shown above in the declaration. I believe the "DOCTYPE
HTML PUBLIC" may be in upper or lower case but be sure it
validates early during the construction process if you
change case.

• Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control your text colors, fonts, and
other colors on your pages. This will enable you to make changes more
easily in the future. One style sheet can control things like header colors
and fonts, various special text classes, and much more on all your pages or
on all or several pages in one directory. This will also have the advantage of
keeping your website with a more uniform look and feel.
• Set your meta descriptors and title properly when you create the page as
follows:
o Description - This discription is normally used by search engines to
help categorize your content and may be used to describe your page
to users so it is very important. Normally I make the description and
title the same. I normally make the description the name of the
document followed by a dash and the title of the current page as
follows:

<meta name="description" content="The

CTDP Web Site Creation Guide -
Construction">

o Keywords - These words are used to help crawlers match your

content to the subject. These key words should show up in your
 page content. Keywords seperated by commas are separate
keywords. Keywords separated by spaces show up as one word. If
someone wants to search on "web site construction" this page is
likely to show up (except it is in a frame). An example for this page
is:

<meta name="keywords" content="web

site creation, web site construction">

o The title should be appropriate for your content, and I use the same
title and description as follows:

<title>The CTDP Web Site Creation Guide -

Construction</title>

• Use XHTML Standards to save upgrading later. The following rules apply:
o The XHTML document must be well formed. - All elements must
be ended and nested properly including the HR tag which should
appear as:

<hr />

o Tags must be in lower case letters.

o Values of attributes must be in quotes.
o Attributes may not be minimized.
o A DTD Declaration with head and body elements must be present in
the document. The DTD can be Strict, Transitional, or Frameset (for
Frames).

o The name attribute is replaced by the id attribute.

See the CTDP HTML Guide for more information about CSS, XHTML, and
document type definitions.

Get More Opinions

With the basic working prototype completed, it is best to get more

opinions about the site functionality, look, and feel. This way, if more
changes are required, only the skeletal prototype will be reworked. This
is the last time external opinions about the websight are sought prior
to submitting applications for web site awards.

Make Adjustments and Complete Site Functionality

Make any required adjustments to make the site pleasing to users,
then add all material and functionality to the site. Once done, check
every page to be sure it works properly. This should be done with more
than one web browser.

Additional Construction to Aid Promotion

1. Create a map file for your site that has links to every important page that you may
want search engines to search. The purpose of this page is to allow search engines
to crawl all important pages on your site since many only crawl one layer deep.
2. Possibly create pages that contain search phrases to help people find your site.
Some people call these pages a "doors" page or "gateway" page to your site. This
page would be a descriptive page about your site or a site section.

These types of pages should be well integrated into your site and if not done
correctly may cause your site to be penalized by search engines. I have abandoned
the idea of a specific gateway page on my site but choose to determine key
phrases that relate to the site, then integrate those phrases into appropriate
documentation or site section pages.

Whether you use a gateway page or integrate key phrases into pages on your site,
the page should contain the favorite search phrases several times on your page.
The phrase or keyword should be up to about 2% of the words on your page. If
you make the keyword or phrase appear too many times, you may get penalized
by search engines. I recommend your page title and a header contains the key
phrase. The key phrase should also be included in your keywords meta tag.
Construction steps:
1. Select search phrases that are appropriate to the site or section you are
going to create a doors page for. You should try to do some research on the
internet to determine the popularity of the search phrase or search word. It
may be necessary to pay a subscription to some sites that sell key word
search information. The search information may not only include single
words, but include word combinations such as "networking
documentation" or "how to build a web site".
2. Determine how many times to user the phrase on your page. Use the
phrase on the page two to about thirteen times depending on the content
and size of the page. Remember to not exceed too high of a percentage of
the overall words on the page so your site is not penalized. One way to get
good example pages for the type of page you should build is to search the
internet using your key phrase or word and look at the pages that are
ranked the highest. Determine how many times the phrase or word
appeared, whether the phrase is in the page title and how many headers
contain the phrase.
3. Use your keyword or phrase in the page title, and a header near the top of
the page. If the phrase is used in the page HTML META title or main
 header or near the top of the page, it will count more to the search engine.
Place the keyword combination in your meta tag such as:

<meta name="keywords" content="web site

creation, web site construction, how to build a
web site, promtion, web promotion">

Keep characters in lower case. Remember however that some search

engines may penalize your site if your keyword density is too high.

4. Determine content of the page that will get as many keywords used as
possible and create it. Use somewhat repetitious language but don't
overdue it enough to make it annoying. For example if you are writing a
tutorial about widgets and you know "widget tutorial" is a popular search
phrase, name your introduction page "Widget Tutorial". Make your main
header contain that phrase. As you are describing what will be in your
tutorial, say things like "this widget tutorial will describe" rather than
saying "this document will describe".

Website Promotion
At this point, you have created a world class website, and you
should be proud. It is time to get traffic to your site. Getting traffic
to your site can be hard work. One of the first steps is to get
awards to impress others.

Submit to Internet Directories or Search Engines

The most important part of website promotion is to submit your

site to web directories, search engines and other websites. There
are hundreds of search engines and internet directories on the
web. You can submit to them individually or go to sites that allow
submissions to multiple search engines or directories. Both the
search engines and sites that submit to multiple search engines
may allow anywhere from free submissions, to five dollars, to
around two hundred dollars. Obviously, paying is more likely to
get your submission considered sooner. Many search engines
have various packages for submissions. Some allow free
submissions for official non profit sites. See the Computer
Technology Documentation Project Websites pages and click on
the link that says "Promote Your Web Site" for promotional sites or
click on the "Search Engines" link to find search engines to submit
to.
Search Engine and Web Directories

There are two types of sites you should submit your site to:

• Web directories catalog listings with weblinks to sites based on functional

categories and subject. Usually these sites such as Yahoo and Dmoz are
entered by hand and may take a long time to list sites or make changes.
Many search engines crawl Dmoz listed sites and use Dmoz for their
indexed catalog list. However, it may take six months or more to get on
Yahoo unless a fee is paid, and some sections on Dmoz may lack an editor
which can cause indefinate delay for websites in some categories. Submit
your site once to appropriate categories on web directories and do not
submit too often or your site may be banned. You may want to keep a
record of when you submit your site, the category it was submitted in, and
the name of the site you submitted to.
• Web crawler based search engines such as Lycos and Exalead. These sites
use webcrawlers which are programs that automatically go out to web
pages and index the site and connecting links. The index results are placed
in a database catalog and used to provide search results for users. Some
web crawler programs only go one link deep, and may not be able to crawl
web pages that use frames. These sites may also include a human entered
catalog, but many allow free submission of URLs (Universal Resource
Locators which indicate the human readable name and location of a website
page) for the webcrawler programs to index. It is wise not to submit your
site to search engines too often since this could be considered to be
spamming and can cause your site to be banned.

Many experts say it is an essential part of website promotion, to

get listed on Yahoo.com. This is because yahoo has the most
traffic of any other search engine. Yahoo brags that they list the
best sites on the web. I have found that this is no longer the case.
Not only are many sites they list not very informational, they
currently have many broken links due to the recent dot com
business financial shakeups. I believe this is partly due to the fact
that they have cut their staffing to the bone, and cannot keep the
site current. It is important to get listed on Yahoo, but I'm not
convinced that it is possible, although I'm still trying.

Action

Submit your site to Dmoz for free. Also submit to other web site
catalogs like Yahoo and pay a fee if it is within your budget and
practical. You can submit for free, but you may never get listed
this way.
Go to sites like Exalead and Lycos and any others that allow free
submissions to web crawlers. Submit the URL of your map file to
be crawled, if you created one during the construction phase,
otherwise submit your main page. It may take three weeks or
more for results to show up.

Get Links to Your Site

An important part of website promotion includes getting various sites

that have a high profile or high amount of traffic to link to your site. If
your site content can complement or add to other sites, it is worthwhile
to ask them to link to your site, either by using an email or filling out
an on site form. Some sites that are listed on Yahoo may link to your
site.
Getting links from any other sites may also help your website
promotion because some search engines rank pages. The more links
you get, in general your page ranking will go up.

Apply for Awards

There are many websites that provide various awards in many

categories for good websites. Many people love to review websites.
Some of these sites are search engines and also post a link to your
website. You should apply for as many awards that are appropriate to
your site. Do not apply multiple times for the same awards. To find
sites that give awards find the Computer Technology Documentation
Project Websites pages and click on the link that says "Sites that Give
Awards". Sometimes, the award is based on the opinion of the agency
or person giving the award, but usually criteria includes:

• Must be easy to navigate.

• Must have useful content.
• Must be original.
• Must have graphics or in some way be pleasing to the eye.

Post Awards on Your Site

You should brag about any awards you receive. Awards should be
placed on the main page or on another page with a link from the main
page. The award should be a link back to the site that gave the award.
Once you have some awards, other organizations will consider your
site more credible and worthwhile and you should get better responses
to site submissions.

Get in Webrings
There are several webrings on the web. Webrings are groups of sites
that have a theme in common. See the Computer Technology
Documentation Project Websites pages and click on the link that says
"Web Ring Sites". These are helpful, but not as helpful as getting links
from multiple sites.

Use News

There are several sites that post news. It is helpful to submit articles to
these sites to get the word out about your site. Simply write your own
news bulletin about your web site significant events such as the
startup of your group. See the Computer Technology Documentation
Project Websites pages and click on the link that says "News Sources"
under the "Information" header.

Other Promotion

If your site has useful information, you can post it on various forum
websites when the subject matter is appropriate. See the Computer
Technology Documentation Project Websites pages and click on the link
that says "Forum Web Sites"

Advertising

If your organization requires traffic quickly and you have an advertising

budget, it is worthwhile and required to pay for advertising. Be careful
to choose sites to advertise on that have high traffic and draw people
who would have an interest in your products.

Additional Idea

Create a offshoot of your site to give awards to other people's

websites. One condition of getting the award is that those who receive
your award must link back to your site. In some ways an award site is
like a link trading scheme, but is much more ethical and elegant.
Note: Award sites purposes are usually one or more of:

1. To make money.
2. To increase links to the site to get better search engine listings.
3. To actually give awards, only to excellent sites.

Website Creation Pitfalls

Designing and building a great website is fun and easy. All you need to
do is get some tools, or learn HTML, then start working. You just make
the website, submit it to search engines, and people will come to your
site. After all, it is a great site, very useful, and hou have great
products. Better still, you built it. If you build it, they will come. Right?
Wrong!
If you want a world class web site, it takes planning and work. It may
be fun, but like any other endeavor, if it is not well planned and
executed properly, it is likely to fail. If you are building a web site for
your hobby or family and don't care who reads it, then fine, you don't
need to plan ahead. It does not need to be a world class web site.

My Experiences and Pitfalls

I created my website manually. It was created offline, using a free

HTML editor called Arachnophilia. Then the content was uploaded to a
webhost provider. Since I had no budget, I chose to use providers that
provided free webhosting with advertising on the site. So I did the
following:

1. Started creating the site offline and got a basic working site.
2. Chose the first convenient web service provider and uploaded the offline content.
3. Continued expanding and updating the site.
4. Became unhappy with the first provider and moved to a provider with better tools
and more storage.
5. Continued expanding and updating the site.
6. Realized that web crawlers could not crawl past the first page, but didn't know
why.
7. Figured out that the HTML document type letter case was incorrect in all my
pages and I had not applied the three types of document types properly for framed
documents or those that were not framed
8. Updated all my web pages and had to re-upload them to the web service provider.
9. Found out that my web host provider did not allow enough files to be on their site
to contain my entire web page although, I had more file space available.
10. I changed web host providers to one that had better FTP access, more available
storage, and allowed more files on the site.
11. Learned more about HTML and style sheets.
12. Found out it was easier to update and add style to pages using style sheets.
13. Updated all pages to use style sheets and uploaded them again to the new web
provider.
14. Decided to move the main pages away from frames and modified the main pages
to not use frames and left tutorials to use frames.
15. Re-uploaded new pages that didn't use frames.
16. Asked opinions from outsiders about the web site and found out the layout,
graphics, navigation, and color scheme needed improvement.
17. Updated the main pages and asked for opinions again.
 18. Made a few adjustments, and updated more pages.

It is obvious that a little foresight would have saved quite a bit of work
and time.

Website Creation Tutorial

Terms
• Frames - Frames are a method of allowing more than one HTML file page to be
loaded in a web browser window. Many webcrawlers do not search to web pages
that are linked from a frameset page.
• HTML - HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is the format most
web documents are placed in to be made available for viewing. HTML is simply
used to indicate to the web browser, how to display the content. It uses elements
consisting of sets of tags (beginning and end tag) to mark the type of elements
such as paragraphs, headers, lists, and tables.
• Search engine - A search engine is a web site that searches web listings. The web
listings may be provide by categorized sites such as dmoz.org or they may be
created by web crawlers. Search engines allow web surfers to find websites that
have information based on keyword search criteria. Some search engines are
edited by humans and some are done with automatic programs such as
webcrawlers.
• SSI - Server Side Includes are normally used to place the same notices on many
pages. This way, if the notice is changed, multiple pages do not need to be edited.
Only the notice page is changed. Ste the CTDP SSI manual for technical
information about SSI.
• Web crawler - A web crawler is a program that goes to web sites and creates an
index of pages based on a description, title, and keywords found in the web page
header and in the content.

The CTDP World Class Website

Creation Tutorial Credits
Document:
The CTDP World Class Website Creation Tutorial Version 0.6.0
Author:
Mark Zehner