This month, we have a guest post, provided by Aj Aviado, marketing consultant for You The Designer. He has put together a handy list of things to remember when you are setting up a website.

You can reach anyone at any time through the Internet. Whatever your purpose is, websites are the sure-fire way to reach millions of people around the world, 24–7. But then how do you create your website?

This article will feature website creation in five steps. It will provide an overview that’s easy to understand to help you set it up. Creating a website requires your attention to detail and a keen research on different tips and suggestions. The website should be pristine—accessible in all types of browsers, with clear text and properly aligned objects and lastly, should comply with the laws and obligations for web page design. So before you layout your website, it is important to know the requirements in setting it up.

Five Essential Steps in Setting Up your Website

1. Choose your domain name

The domain name is the name that you assign to your website.  It is commonly known as the web address that is typed into a browser to get to the website itself. Usually it is prefixed with “http” or “www”.  It works like a business name wherein you would need to pay an annual fee for registration in exchange of your right to use it.

A domain name is important not only for marketing purposes but also to establish your credibility. To register the domain name, you would need to contact a domain name registrar, pay the registration fee via your Paypal account and renew it annually.

2. Sign up for web hosting services

A web host service would connect you to various computers on the Internet. In order to avail the service, you would need to sign up an account and agree on certain terms.

There are various web hosting services and in choosing one, there are also various criteria to consider. Most important of those are the speed and reliability of access, amount of data transfer and web space, amount of traffic or bytes transferred, available technical support, good advertising and lastly, cost efficiency.

Payment for web hosting services depends by agreement. Common trend is done through payment plans on a specific time period and the coverage of services. Some services may be free depending on specific conditions.

You can read a blog post about how to go about this here.

3. Design your web pages

You can choose to design your own web page or hire a web designer to accomplish it for you. Web pages bear the content of your web site where you would need to layout text elements, images, advertisements or links to explain your purpose of building the site itself.

Your creative side is the integral tool for designing your web pages. You would need to familiarize yourself with HTML (HyperText Markup Language) codes and its functions to help you set up web page contents the way you want it. To assist you, you can either purchase or download web editors that will help convert your layout to HTML codes, which is the language recognized in web programs.

If your website is for business or commercial purposes, you would need to consider including web features that incorporate payment methods. You can either persuade advertisers to use your website so you can earn additional profit, or use your website to sell items. In this case, you would need to incorporate online financial services.

4. Test your websites in all browsers

Testing your website is a critical procedure. A website appeals to the vision most so in order to make sure that it is viewable to anyone, anyhow, you would need to try viewing it in all browsers. Browsers are easily downloadable and testing is one procedure for quality assurance. In the event that a browser updates, you won’t have to adjust your settings every time it happens. All you need to do is assure that your HTML codes have no syntax errors through downloadable web validators.

5. Make your site searchable

Remember how every time you need something, you consult good old Google for it? In order for your website to be visited, you need it to appear on search engine results. In a technical perspective, it tackles SEO or Search Engine Optimization. In simpler terms, it means that you would have to submit your website to search engines like Bing, Google, Yahoo, etc and assign keywords to refer to it. Usually, it takes 2-3 months until your site is viewable on a search engine. Requesting other sites to link your website is also another way to promote it. You can also put up advertisements of your site in other sites to help your promotion further.

Like a normal art project, starting a website is fairly easy to do. But without full attention and meticulous need for detail, your website will not be as beautiful as expected. Creating a website is not accomplished in just one seating. You may also have a lot of options that you can use to design it. This is why it is important that you conceptualize first how you want your website to be. Make good use of your resources as well without being too costly or time-consuming. The success of your website depends on your passion to share your purpose to the world.

Aj Aviado is a marketing consultant for You The Designer. The absolute source of design news, tutorials and inspirational graphic designs. Check out You The Designer on Google+