Date: 16.05.2019 | Internet
Nowadays, anyone looking for a suitable company or wanting to find out more about a particular topic usually starts their search on the Internet. Therefore, it makes sense for companies to create their own website, on which you inform about your services, a subject area or generally about your person. You may even be able to earn money with your website.
In our guide we show, which possibilities there are to create an Internet page and what you need, so that this appears in the World Wide Web. In addition, we will give you some tips on how to proceed in order to make your website as appealing as possible.
- Depending on the size of the website and the content to be uploaded to it, there are different methods of creating the website.
- In order for a website to be accessible from everywhere, a domain and a web hoster are needed. You usually have to pay for this monthly or once a year.
- In order to make your website clear and user-friendly, you should create a sketch in advance of how the finished website should look like.
1. Create your own website
Depending on your own experience and the purpose of the website, there are different methods to create a website. With all three variants, it is basically possible to design a professional website. Nevertheless, you should consider well in advance how to create your own website, because a subsequent change is very complicated. In the following, we present all variants and show for which users they are suitable:
1.1. Homepage construction kit
The easiest way to create a website are so-called modular systems. As a rule, no programming knowledge and only a very short training period are required for it. The creation of your own website is designed to be relatively intuitive and fast. Accordingly, such offers are suitable for people who have not yet created a website and do not have time to deal in great detail with programming or. to deal with the operation of a content management system.
A homepage construction kit works relatively intuitively and has a large selection of templates from which you can choose a suitable one.
A big advantage is that you only need one provider, to design your entire internet presence, because the web space to store the internet page as well as your own domain can be obtained from the same provider. This allows you to very quickly get an overview of the costs involved. In addition, the provider ensures that your website is updated regularly and security gaps are closed quickly.
Simple projects, such as the creation of a Online business card, on which contact details can be entered without any problems. In this respect, a modular system is particularly suitable for companies that want to establish an online presence, but still conduct their business through personal customer contact. The internet presence is therefore primarily intended to attract customers who are looking for a suitable company online. But also for private persons, who for example want to inform about their hobby z.B. want to inform in the form of a blog, the modular system is a good solution.
However, the more special elements you need on your website, the more difficult it becomes to implement them with a modular system. You can usually add simple blogs for free, but for more complex functions you will have to pay additional costs. In many cases there is also no possibility at all to integrate the required function. For larger and more complicated web projects it is therefore recommended to use a content management system (CMS), even if they are more complicated in the west and usually have no support.
Tip: Many providers of building block systems have free test versions, with which you can try out whether the offer meets the requirements.
1.2 Content management systems
A content management system allows you to effectively manage the content of a site.
With a content management system you can create your own website relatively easily and at the same time react flexibly to future requirements. However, this requires a template that determines the layout of your website. Depending on your level of expertise, you can either create this yourself or use ready-made templates that you only need to adapt to your needs. There are both free and paid templates, which vary greatly in quality.
The advantage of this approach is that you can always adapt even prefabricated templates individually to your needs and not within the narrow limits of a modular system move. With templates that offer a customizing function, the adjustment is also relatively easy, but for very special wishes, the code must be edited or. a CSS document should be added.
Content management systems are designed so that new text and images can be easily integrated into the website. With large web pages the administration is thus substantially simpler than with building block systems.
The most popular content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla or Typo3 can be used free of charge, but must be installed on the web space beforehand. The easiest way to do this is if your web host offers a so-called One Click installation of the software, where you do not have to make any manual changes to the access rights and configurations.
The disadvantage of such open-source CMS programs is that they are need to be updated regularly and do not have an official support function. In case of problems, only the community or a professional web designer can help you, who wants to be paid accordingly. This can make your website much more expensive than originally intended.
Tip: For the major CMS programs there are many free tutorials and help on the Internet. So you are not left to your own devices.
1.3 Programming a website
Of course, the greatest freedom and flexibility is offered by specially programmed websites. Besides a lot of practice and theoretical knowledge, however, you need a lot of time and above all a great will to persevere, because problems, bugs and frustration are proverbial "pre-programmed". But the effort to develop your own style can be worthwhile, especially if you want to stand out among the many competitors on the web. A first impression of what you have to consider when programming your own homepage can be found here.
For large companies, it may be worthwhile to hire web designers to create a website that represents the individual style of the company. For smaller projects, however, the costs are out of proportion to the benefits.
2. What you need for your own website
2.1 The right domain
The first thing you need to create an internet site is your own domain name. This should be as memorable as possible and roughly define the subject area the website deals with. When you create your own domain, you should also check how easily it can be confused with other URLs. If in doubt, put your (brand) name in the domain.
You should also avoid unknown domain endings when making your selection, even if they are much cheaper. Common endings like".en" or".com" are a quality feature of domains and are ranked much better in Google than endings that you have never heard before.
2.2. The right web host
With your own domain, through which the website can be reached, you can turn to the second step: the suitable webspace, on which the page is stored. With modular systems you are usually bound to one provider, but with content management systems and specially programmed websites you have the freedom to choose which provider you want to use for your web hosting. The simplest and cheapest webhosters offer a firmly defined storage space, that you can use for your project. In order to find the best offer, you should keep an eye on the following criteria in addition to the price:
- Accessibility: A good web host is characterized by the fact that the web pages on its servers are always accessible. The best providers have only a few minutes of downtime per month.
- Sever locationThe data connection of a data center is of crucial importance for the success of a website. Websites with lower response times are more user-friendly and rank better.
- Computing capacityAs well as the data connection, the computing power also influences the speed of a website.
- Storage space: The price categories are usually divided according to the available memory. Depending on the type of project, the requirements can be very different. 10 GB are usually absolutely sufficient.
- Support: Questions or problems can often only be solved with a direct contact person. Good providers are always available for their customers.
- backups: Since data loss is always possible, it is important that your provider makes regular backups.
- SSL certificate and mySQL database: Modern providers of web space should have SSL encryption as well as a mySQL database.
For large web projects you can also use a dedicated or. rent managed servers. This has the advantage that the computing capacity does not have to be shared with other websites.
2.3. Most websites need an imprint
If you create an Internet site and operate it in Germany, you must make sure that you are obliged to provide an imprint. The only exceptions are websites that are not used for business purposes and serve exclusively private purposes. However, the line between a private website and a business-like offer is often blurred. In case of doubt, you should therefore provide an imprint in order not to risk a warning letter. Which information must be contained in it, they can take from the Telemediengesetz §5.
If you place ads on your website to generate advertising revenue, or use other monetization opportunities, you are obliged to provide an imprint.
3. Tips for creating your own website
The most important thing when you create a website is, of course, the content and the look of the website. In the following we have collected some tips for you, which should help you to build up your website:
3.1 Brainstorming and mindmaps
Before you jump into the code or buy a template, you should analyze exactly which domains you need. It is best to make a sketch before you create the actual homepage. This way you make sure that you don’t forget any category and possibly have to redesign the whole website later on. It is also advisable to create an overview of the individual subpages. For this purpose, for example, a simple Excel spreadsheet is suitable.
3.Collect 2 ideas
Remember websites, where you like the layout, it is best to even write it down. This will give you ideas and inspiration to create your own website. If you don’t know how to organize your content, you can always look at how other websites have solved the problem.
3.3 Optimize for mobile devices
A large part of web traffic takes place via mobile devices such as cell phones or tablets. To ensure that your content can be easily accessed from these devices, you should create a Responsive web design Choose a design that flexibly adapts to screen size.
3.4 Ensure clarity
Most people know it from themselves: If the desired information is not visible within seconds, you leave the website again. Therefore, when creating an internet page, you should make sure that everything is clearly arranged and the most important information catches your eye at first glance. Otherwise, visitors may leave your website early and you will rank worse on Google.
3.5. Search engine optimization increases visibility
Very few people will access your website by typing the URL into their browser. That’s why it’s important to think about which search inputs you want Internet users to use to find you. To increase the visibility in search engines, you should use these terms in your texts. In most cases this happens automatically.
3.6. Choose an appealing design
Web design is of course a matter of taste. Still, your website should appeal to all visitors as much as possible. Color combinations, fonts and logos should therefore be coordinated and not alternated too often. A fixed design scheme also has a recognition value and clarifies the togetherness of the subpages.
3.7 Insert pictures
Images make a website visually appealing and facilitate the reading flow. When you create a website, you should always insert thematically suitable images, which encourage the website visitor to read the corresponding text. Of course, you don’t have to take all the pictures yourself: there are many portals on the Internet where you can buy stock photos. There are also websites where you can download royalty-free images.