Creating A Web Site

Creating A Web Site Unit B

Phases in Web Site Development • Research and Plan • Design • Build • Test • Launch • Market

Research and Plan • Identify the goals of the site • Learn as much as possible about your intended audience • Based on sit’s goals and audience, decide what features are important

Design the site • Consider the characteristics of both business and audience • Create a Site Map • A diagram depicting how a Web site’s pages are related within the site • Design the Page Layout • Placement of content, graphics, and navigation of each page in the site

Build and Test the Site • Follow your plan • Building includes writing the content and creating or gathering graphics • Test your site before you publish it • Test in different browsers, different screen sizes, and different operating systems

Publish and Market the Site • Publish your site so it can be accessed by visitors • Promote it so that you attract visitors by: • Registering the site with search engines • Placing ads online or in print • Asking for links from other sites

Planning the Page Layout • Sketch it on paper first • Draw on existing conventions • People expect to find the logo and link to the home page in the top left • Internal links and navigation on the left • The search engine in the top right • Contact Us link at the bottom • Figure B-4 Page 27

Planning the Page Layout Cont • Be consistent • Keep it simple • Focus on navigation • Decide on a size • Fixed page design- the page is the same width on every visitor’s computer no matter how large their screen is • Liquid page design- shrinks or expands to fit the size of the visitor’s screen

Creating a Web Site • The first step in creating a Web Site is organizing all files in a root folder. • Root folder- a folder on your hard drive, USB drive, or network drive that stores all the files that make up your site.

Creating a Web Page & Setting CSS Options • Structure can be created using layout tables, frames, or CSS positioning. • CSS positioning- you create div elements in your HTML document, and then use style sheets to position them on the page • Divs- rectangular areas you can position on the page to hold your content, including text and images

Adding a Title, Page, Description, and Keywords • The title, description, and keyword elements help visitors find your Web Site. • Title • the title elements are not displayed on the page itself; • They appear in the title bar of the visitor’s browser and as the title in a browser’s list of favorites or bookmarks if a visitors adds it to their list

Adding a Title, Page, Description, and Keywords • Description • The description should be a brief explanation of what visitors can find at your site • It should motivate them to visit • Keywords • A list of terms related to your site visitors would enter in a search engine, and use those as your keywords

Managing Web Pages • You can create a copy of an existing page by using the New From Existing Page command.

Adding a Folder to a Web Site • In addition to the HTML files you will also have image files, animation files, video files, sound files, or more. • These media files are known as assets. • It’s smart to create a general assets folder to hold these files. • Large sites may have many assets folders, each with different names.

4 Ways to View the Web Site • Folders • Displays a list of files and folders in the site • Use this to navigate your site to locate files • Remote Web Site • Displays a dual list of files, those on the local Web Site and those on the remote Web Site • Local Web Site- folder on your hard drive • Remote Web Site- Folder on the Web Server that contains your Web Site files once you publish them

4 Ways to View the Web Site • Reports • Provides an overview of available Web Site reports, with links to some reports to allow you to drill down for more details • Hyperlinks • Illustrates how one file is linked to other files in your site

Creating A Web Site