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If you are new to the web designer community or have decided to build your own website, here is some advice to help you get started.

You know you want a website, but you do not know where to start.  It can be very difficult and time consuming to find a quality website construction company, not to mention expensive.  But constructing your own website seems like a daunting task.  My advice, if you have some computer knowledge and free time, is to purchase a template from a website, so you do not have to start from scratch. 

 

When purchasing a template check to make sure the template is search engine friendly.  This is very important, do not purchase a template that is edited solely in photoshop.  Make sure content or typed information on your website is not saved as an image.  Search engines cannot read images and will not know how to index your site, so it will not show up in search results.  If you try to get around this by loading keywords into the 'alt' tags, Google may see it as spam. 

 

Instead, purchase a template that comes with a content management system.  I recommend the Joomla templates from TemplateMonster.com.   I use them for all of my clients websites because they are attractive and very user friendly. 

 

After you purchase your template, you will need to download Joomla (which is free) onto your computer and follow the instructions on how to set it up.  If you use GoDaddy for your hosting you can download it in five minutes by going to the 'my applications' tab under your hosting account. 

 

It took three months to build my previous site using dreamwever and I was never in love, so I tried this technique.  It took about three weeks for me to finish my new site and it is gorgeous! The template I purchased told me exactly what I had to do and TemplateMonster helped me whenever I had questions.

 

Another perk about Joomla is that you can make changes to your website whenever you want and view the changes immediately on your site.  If you want to add modules such as a tag cloud, polls, a login form, a portfolio, or a thousand other things you simply go to JoomlaExtensions.com and download the extensions and load them through your Joomla site.  It could not be easier.

 

Check out my Joomla site: www.enginemediagroup.com