Create a Successful Website
A website can be a great way to tell people about yourself, join the community of whatever you are writing about and impress your friends. Anybody can own their own piece of the web, but not every site will be successful. Hopefully, this article will help you create a website that is successful and popular.
Contents
Steps
Determining the type of website
- Think about what kind of website you and know what your website is about. The site must be representative of your intended use, whether that is to be for sales, blogging, curation, sharing information or images, a fansite, a help site, a shopfront for your business, running games or puzzles, giving Facebook a good run for its money, and so forth. There are plenty of reasons to begin a website but the main one must be clear to you before you begin, otherwise you'll be paying for an empty domain and wondering what to do with it.
Building the website
- Map out all your plans. Then create your website. This could mean going on Wordpress, Intuit websites, etc., or or it could mean even paying for your own unique domain name. Take a look at all your options before you start the site. If you're building a social networking site you'll need to search individually for that. If you're looking for a forum, you'll need to do the same thing. The same goes for just about any site; do the research in depth first.
- If you are using a free website maker, scope all your options out before you choose one. There are many limitations with "free" that might not serve your needs. Then again, they might be ideal; play around with a few to see what is out there.
- Some website making sites are better than others, so try to study each website before you decide which one is best for your needs.
- Build the site so it represents your goal or product (etc.). If you are creating a site about monkeys, don't start talking about elephants. Stay on topic as much as you can and try to add as many features as possible.
- Give your website a funky layout that people like looking at. Make sure it's not a sickly shade of green or a polka dot design that gives you a headache.
- Be certain that you have something to offer. Give plenty of information, links, images, widgets, and the like. Don't make the information too dull and where possible, accompany the text with pictures.
- Know who your viewers are. If your viewers are going to be kids, put a lot of fun features. If your viewers are going to be business people, try to make it as professional as possible. If you want your viewers to be kids, don't make your website plain white with a boring font and talk about politics!
- Make your website interactive as well as informative. Put quizzes, polls and plenty of input opportunities on your website. Don't cram it all with widgets, though.
Keeping your website working well
- Have a team or support crew. This is an important step. Chances are you aren't going to make or maintain a successful website if you're going it alone.
- Divide up jobs and only use people you are close to for starters. Otherwise, there is a risk that people you don't have allegiances from will take your idea and use it for their own.
- Establish a base of fans, viewers and friends. Give them something that will encourage them to keep coming back.
- Expand at a steady but ongoing pace. If you create your website and unleash it nationwide, you're not going to grow very fast at any rate. Facebook became popular because it started at one place. It got popular there and once they got a certain number of members (or hits in other cases), they would expand to another area. The reason it doesn't work if you start out big right away is because a very small number of people will discover your website because it'll be buried beneath hundreds of other websites who are trying to do the same thing. Be smart and start off small until you reach a certain number of members (hits, visits, or views) then expand to a little bit of a bigger range.
- Make sure you can receive feedback from your viewers. Put your e-mail on the website or have a forum/chatbox. Use the feedback to constantly improve the readers' experiences with your site.
- Keep the content fresh, new and interesting. Also keep it relevant. Even when your site is famous, don't forget to regularly update. This is a surefire way to keep the people coming.
- Enjoy what you are doing. This step sounds a little Disney, but if you don't enjoy what you are doing, you're not going to be happy with anything you do on the site. Changing it out of personal frustration can be disastrous if your viewers don't like your personal take on it. Instead, learn to love what you're engaging with, so that you have a good feel for the viewers' needs and interests. If you get cheesed off with the whole project over time, stay its owner but give the daily managing to those who see new and exciting things in it.
Promoting your website
- Make yourself known in the world of whatever you're writing about. Get to know the owners of similar sites and get lots of people to link to you.
- Create your website before you advertise. One common mistake is to start advertising the website before it is even done. This is a terrible mistake and could easily lead to the downfall of your website as people find it half finished and vow never to return again as their time has been wasted. Create the website, and have its beginning features done before you open it up to the public.
- Advertise the right way. What does this mean? Don't post your URL to every person's wall on Facebook or advertise on YouTube (unless it's on your own channel or page). These types of advertising get passed off as spam and you'll end up with hate on your website. Instead, use keywords so that the site will show up on Google or Yahoo.
- Use a wide variety of keywords for more advertising.
Tips
- When your website is new/unpopular, spread the word to your friends and e-mail lots of people. This always helps.
- Winning an award from another site always boosts hits. Don't be afraid to apply for one.
- If you expect a profit, have a plan on what you are going to do if you make money from it.
- If you are buying a domain name and you find an available one like www.starbucks.com, feel free to stop working on your hypothetical website and instead wait for your domain name to go up in value.
- Don't expect anything to happen instantly. These things take time and patience.
- Don't spam as advertising, it doesn't work and with the whole crisis going around with people being tricked into clicking a virus filled link people won't even bother opening your email.
Warnings
- The Net is fickle, and your website may go from top to flop in one night. Don't worry about it too much, the Internet is massive and sometimes these things just happen.
- Putting your information on the web can be dangerous, as you don't know who will see it. If you're unsure about personal info, password lock the pages with your personal stuff or don't put too much information on.
- Beware of hackers, these people live to destroy websites and can easily ruin your whole website. Use a software that will protect your website and be prepared for anything.
- Don't buy things that you won't need. You don't need to get rid of ads for $20 just because they're annoying. Most people don't notice things like this unless they're pop-ups. Most things people advertise to make your site better is worthless and chances are the site you are trying to build already has that feature.
