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Web Design for Absolute Beginners by Steve Walton

With everything that’s going on with the Internet these days, it’s very easy to assume that everyone understands exactly how websites are put together. But for many people, getting a website onto the Internet can seem an impossible task without either paying someone else to do it or signing up for a free website that will then perform poorly in the search engines and will no doubt be plastered with adverts too. However, it is possible to build quality sites offline for free – all it takes is the learning of some new skills. The most important thing to remember is: don’t pay for your research! There’s a ton of free information available on the Internet, and as you’ll soon discover, there’s simply no need to pay for web design (unless you want to). In fact, why not get someone else to pay you to design their websites some day? This notion may sound a long way off but this is how many webmasters (website designers) started out. And if you still wish to pay for professional web design services then that’s absolutely fine, but it is still a good idea to know a bit about what you’re paying for. It could safeguard you from being blinded by science and paying too much. Webmasters turn back, but for the rest of us there are 4 basic steps involved in getting a website onto the Internet:

1. Build some web pages;

2. Register a domain name (www.whatever.com);

3. Buy some web hosting to host the web pages;

4. Upload the web pages to the host’s server using FTP (file transfer protocol);

Steps 2, 3 and 4 are the easiest by far, while step 1 is certainly the one that will require the most time and attention. Again, this may seem daunting but there are 2 basic options here. You can:

5. Hire a web designer to build your web pages;

6. Build them yourself.

Option 5 can often be expensive, especially if you wish to continually update and improve your website, while option 6 may seem like black magic to those who’ve never dabbled in web design before. But yet again, more options are available for this. You can:

7. Buy some WYSIWYG web building software (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get);

8. Build them from raw code using a free text editor.

Again, this last option may seem incredibly daunting at first and will take time to master but should, if you stick at it, pay the biggest rewards. I’ll say it again: web pages can be built for FREE and everything required to do this is probably already sitting on your computer:

10. A web browser, the program this website is being viewed with, such as: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, Netscape Navigator;

11. A free text editor, such as Microsoft notepad, found in the start menu (All programs>Accessories) if using Windows (if not using Windows other editors are available, such as Pico for Linux or Simple Text for Mac).

When starting out there’s no need to buy any software and don’t be tempted by web hosting packages that offer free web-building software. Both of these options produce awkward, bulky code that won’t help visitors find your website and will also limit how your site is presented. They may offer the quickest route onto the Net initially but after that don’t expect much in the way of visitor traffic or being able to customise your site. In addition, nothing beats the satisfaction of knowing you can create your own websites for free and to your own exact specifications.

Getting started

Web pages are written using a language called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). HTML is relatively easy to learn, and if you’re new to it, now is a good time to begin. HTML is continuously being improved but the biggest shake up has already happened. This was the introduction of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Put simply, CSS is how HTML pages are styled. Instead of styling each web page individually, as was once the norm (colours, backgrounds, text fonts, page layout etc…), a separate file can be used and linked to the web pages, saving a lot of time and effort and resulting in lighter pages that load quicker and are easier to maintain / redesign. This created headaches for many experienced web designers initially because they were forced to move away from traditional layout methods, but for newcomers there’s never been a better time to start learning how to build web pages than today. Learn HTML and CSS and you’re away. And the effort is worth it; after all, there is no other medium like the Internet that allows you to learn for free with the potential of reaching millions with your work.

About the Author

Steve is primarily a science fiction author and website developer / designer.