There are many forms of website building, from considerably complicated web authoring tools like Adobe Dreamweaver, and Expression from Microsoft, right down to plain old notepad, creating all your HTML code by hand. The hand written coding may seem archaic, but many swear by this method to generate clean code.

 

There is another alternative, to web design software, and this is very appealing to the casual web author, or the newbie, your website can be created, without any software, completely online.

 

The majority of these Internet based site building tools are commercial applications, and are linked to web hosting companies, the hosting providers include these website building tools with the hosting account, but few are worth a mention.

 

Nowadays there are some outstanding alternatives, these online, CMS apps are free alternatives that do a fantastic job, once you have mastered the way they work.

 

 

CMS stands for content management systems, and the best known of these apps are WordPress and Joomla.

Both are free to use, and both are available through most hosting companies as an automatic install, through Fantastico, or Installatron. User without these features on your hosting account can download the scripts, and install them yourself, using the install instructions.

 

 

The most widely used CMS is WordPress, this dynamic, web 2.0 blogging platform has evolved to be the platform of choice for millions of website owners across the globe. WordPress is open source, and as such, it is free to use, and an army of coders are constantly updating the code.

 

Todays sites are very remote from the early days of blogging, and they can be figured in a multitude of ways, the inclusion of widgets, and plugins make WordPress websites even more powerful, and attractive.

 

Templates for WordPress are known as themes, and there are thousands to choose from, in every concievable niche under the sun. Specialist web design firms can make your very own unique themes, which always adds that extra sparkle to your websites.

 

Throughout the WordPress lifespan, they have adhered to the blogging principals, new entries to the site are known as posts, and pages can be added to the site, and navigation bars.

 

 

Joomla, is also a popular CMS solution, with many features that also belong to WordPress, Joomla is based around a portal framework.

Joomla lends itself toward large sites, secure sites, and is a very solid platform. The websites can be themed, and easily edited, sections can easily be placed around the pages to create the perfect frontpage.

 

Both systems are extremely robust, and are light years ahead of the old style, site building apps offered by hosting companies. All editing, and updating is performed online, and you never need to install any software on your computer.

 

The real beauty of CMS is that any site can be updated from anywhere in the world, all you need is an internet connection, and your websites login details.

When it comes to web design, very close attention should be paid to every aspect of the pages layout, the navigation, and the overall look.

 

Keep in mind the theme, and what the site will be doing, once published, be it ecommerce, news broadcasting, or blog.

 

Here are some pointers that you can use as guides, to make sure your website not only looks well, but performs well too.

 

 

1) Only use a splash page as a lead gatherer.

 

Splash pages are those pages that have almost no content, except for a few lines, maybe a picture, and a subscriber box. These are only for email address collecting purposes, and are a specialized process.  Unless your entire website is built around the squeeze page method, then don’t use them.

They can be a web design challenge, due to the fact that their owner may insist on continuous tweaking after installing.

 

2) Drop those flashing banners

 

It pains me to see so many of my students ignoring my advice, and plastering their websites with banner ads. There are few things more annoying than a well designed site, with good navigation, covered in banners, like it has some form of Internet disease. Get rid now, and stick to clear web design.

 

3) Use clear, simple navigation

 

The navigation system is paramount to the success of your website. This may sound stupid, but robots also need to have the quickest and easiest way to discover all your web pages, for SEO. Keep your navigation simple, and easy to follow

 

4) Let users know where they are

 

Do not confuse your visitors by leading them down a series of links, to a page, like leading a child through a maze. Try the silo method of navigation, or use a simple breadcrumb trail to allow your visitors a quick route back to a page they want to check again. Basic web design elements, but often ignored.

 

5) Never force audio video on your visitors

 

When you click on a page, and it really wipes its feet when loading, you may sense what is coming next. The web designer has made the video load on entry, and users should be given the choice. The same applies to audio, give surfers a choice! These multimedia players have controls that can easily be displayed on your web pages.

 

6) Forget flash on page load

 

Get your designer head into the real world, and think of the practicalities of  the millions of web surfers that have not got a broadband connection. Flash is a great tool, but it is still to resource hungry on a page load for any dialup user. We want to please our visitors, not annoy the hell out of them.

 

Keep your videos separate from your loading times, and keep all those poor people with slow connections on side.

 

7) Remain compliant

 

Keep up to date with the latest trends, gizmos and gadgets, but always try to keep your site as compliant as possible with w3, access and policies. Display a privacy policy, have a feedback section and follow the rules of mainstream website etiquette, for user friendly web design.