What You Need to Create or Build a Website

When you prepare to build or create a website, it is very important to have a plan. Here are a few of the important elements you must think about:

1) Find a subject around which to create or build your website. (obvious but important)
2) Decide what type of host you will require to create, build and maintain your website. (There are many types of website hosts. This is covered below.)
3) Find a website domain name.
4) Create and build your website

Selecting a subject around which to create or build your website

First find a subject for your website. There are many different types. Below are some ideas.
You can:

1) Create and build a personal homepage website.
2) Create and build a personal or home-based business website.
3) Create and build a team website.
4) Create and build a travel website
5) Create and build a family website
6) Create and build a video website
7) Create and build a school website
8) Create and build a corporate website
9) Create and build a sports website
10) Create and build a community website
11) Create and build an art website
12) Create and build a fan website
13) Create and build a humor website
14) Create and build a news website
15) Create and build a Commerce website
16) Create and build a blog website


Before you get started...There are two things you absolutely must have to create or build a website:


Create a Website Domain Name  (website.com or website.net, etc.)
 
This is where you choose the title of the website you build. If you go to www.makewords.com, you can enter the words you would like to see in title of the website you create. This website is useful because it gives you ideas for domain names that are available before you build your website.

Selecting The Best Domain Name

When you create your website, keep in mind you'll want it to be found in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) It is highly recommended you register a website name that contains your major keywords instead of your company name.

The average surfer searches for websites by subject, not by proper name.  So while it may seem cool to have a name like Billsbigtimebicycles.com, when you creat your website, you'll want to choose a name that includes keywords that your target audience would likely use when they search for a website.

You can still list your company name on your website pages, but it's more important when you create and build a website to make sure the domain name includes your important "search friendly" keywords if you want to receive traffic from all over.

Of course, you can still list your company name when you create your website some place, but your domain name will include all the important keywords you'll want to be found with.

Keep in mind though...
If you just build a website for a local business, getting traffic from all over the web may not be as important to you.  This is because your customers will be local and you may want to grow your brand name in a specific area.

If this is the case, it may make more sense to register your company name and create brand awareness you can build locally instead of trying to capitalize on search engine presence.

HINTS

    1) Don't register domain names that are too long and have too many syllables if you can help it.  Yes, you can register names up to 63 characters long, but that doesn't mean you have to use all 63 characters.

    You want your name to be easy to remember. Not everyone will bookmark your page initially so try to think of something that can be easily remembered -- although this may be tricky since a lot of names are taken these days. (Go to Makewords.com)

    2) Use hyphens if your name is more than 3 words long (unless your name includes 3 short words).  A name like carbuying.com doesn't really need a hyphen because it's readable the way it is.  

    However a name like used-car-buying-scams.com looks better than usedcarbuyingscams.com since there are so many words in the name.

    3) Protect your name by registering multiple extensions (.net, .org, etc.)  This deters people from copying your name when they create their website. For example, if you own garden-tips-for-us.com you can also register garden-tips-for-us.net and any other extension that's available.

    You don't have to build a website on all the domains, but you can reserve the others to keep people (copycats) from registering them.

How to Register a Domain Name