What stops a person in pursuing his online goals? Building a website seems daunting. All you can think is hitting rock bottom or the end of a tube without a way out. This is why many don't have the courage to launch out into the deep of online business, or perhaps online presence. Is there a way out? What are the chances of success? Are they too slim that trying seems stupid? Let's find out.
Is it difficult to build a website from scratch? No.
Even if you are absolutely new to website development, you can build a one-page website in an hour or so. With all the technology, software, GUI tools, and available platforms, building a website becomes easier and timeless. You don't even need to buy a software, or hire a professional designer to get things done. Just few clicks... and you have a website.
But building a GOOD website is definitely challenging, if not difficult. It's more than just choosing the title, purchasing a domain, or registering a web host. Building a good website requires a lot of work, time, and money. There are questions you have to answer, issues to be solved, and factors to consider.
Factors of a Good Website
What are the demarcation lines that sift good websites from the bad? If you want better results on your online endeavor, building a good website is tantamount to success. Take into account the following factors:
- Purpose. Are you going to build an e-commerce site? Or a simple blogsite? Well-defined purpose guides website owners on how to manage the website, what contents are included, when to communicate messages, and everything on how the website runs. The website's purpose sets the tone of the activities for a more effective achievement of its goals.
- Appearance. Appearance is an important requirement, but not that vital. Not all successful websites have award-winning designs. A good appearance appeals to the audience's eyes. This way, it creates a professional, clean and positive look. But don't allow the appearance of the website overpower its contents.
- Accessibility. Good websites are widely-accessible. They must be compatible with different browsers. You should not limit the website on desktop-use only, it should be available for mobile device users.
- Usability. Nailing accessibility on good ground leads to usability. Logical categorization, search functions, user-friendly features, and knowledge-rich contents are few of what make a useful website.
- Navigation. The aim is not for visitors to view a single website page and then leave. Navigation is primary to a good website. You don't want to get visitors lost in the middle of a thick forest of bad links.
Two Ways of Building a Good Website
Now that you know what a good website is made of, you have to decide on how to achieve the goal. There are two basic not-to-hard ways of making a good website.
1. ) Using Website Builders or Quick Install
Website builders allow web owners to click few buttons, add some texts, and choose several options in creating a good website. Most web hosts offer site builders or Quick Install tools to build good websites. This way you can install pre-built templates, e-commerce platforms such as PrestaShop and OpenCart, content management system platforms such as WordPress and Joomla, and plug-ins.
You don't need to upload files, the website builder creates the database of WordPress, Joomla, Prestashop, etc. into the web host. Through the Setup Wizard, the daunting task of uploading a website is reduced into easy and doable process. It simplifies the job, saves time, and speeds up the process of building of a website.
You don't need to upload files, the website builder creates the database of WordPress, Joomla, Prestashop, etc. into the web host. Through the Setup Wizard, the daunting task of uploading a website is reduced into easy and doable process. It simplifies the job, saves time, and speeds up the process of building of a website.
2. ) Using HTML Codes
Do you know about HTML codes? This may come in handy to create a website by simply writing the code into a text editor such as Notepad++. Learning HTML and CSS gives you control over how the website should actually look. But the process takes time and extra care. Holes of the programming language pose threats of malware or virus insertion by auto-robots.
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) software solves the problem. This way you can manipulate the design of your website without writing the code directly. There are really good WYSIWYG editors that you can use such as Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression Studio Web Pro, NetObjects Fusion, and many more.
There are several other ways to build a website, but these methods are certainly not -too-hard. They require good technical and programming knowledge. A website with PHP and MySQL has finer advantages than static, HTML-based websites. PHP is a server-side programming language that HTML is still necessary in making the website. But PHP makes the website more efficient with additional capabilities such as processing form data and communicating with target audience.
There are lot of tools and options in building a website. There is always an easy way out. Installing WordPress, Drupal, etc. is done in few easy steps and clicks. Building a good website can be easy... or difficult.
