WEB PAGE PLANNING

Although it is very tempting to just start creating your web site right away, it is a good idea to think about it first, and do a draft design.

There are one or two things you should think about before you start as they will help you focus on what you really want your pages to do for you.

Why do you want this web site?
What do you want to show?
Who do you want to read your webpages - customers, businesses, family, friends, genealogical searchers?
How many pages will you need?
What sort of structure would you like it to have?

Then go and browse the Net and look at other people's sites - print off pages or sketch ideas, take note of colours you like and what works well, and write down the ideas you like. You could always bookmark attractive sites. Make a folder in Favourites

Next - sketch out your site on paper. The act of sketching the structure will help to sort out confused thoughts!

Write the filenames for each of your pages - keep your filenames simple. Note Your first page or Home page should be called index.html.

Because the filename that you choose will determine the address that your visitors will have to type to get to your page, use only lowercase letters. Mixing upper and lowercase letters makes it much harder for people to type names correctly. Also do not put spaces in your filenames - use the under_score or use-a-hyphen instead. Not all broswers will accept spaces in filenames. - Keep it simple!

This is the beginning of the sketch for these pages

Back to the Top

And here is an example of a draft sketch for our family web site

Now that you have some idea of the structure, it is time to decide what you want to say on each page. Here again, writing it down first will help in the long run. It is also time to collect those photos and graphics that you want to include on your pages.

Once you have got everything together - the next step is to find a web host to look after your web pages so that they can be accessed from the internet.

Back to the Top