Whether you want to create a website to make money from it, or you are a business owner on the ground and want to use the marketing power of the Internet, or you want to create your own project on the Internet, or even want to share your passion with the world; Creating a website is the window through which you have a presence on the Internet.
Let us also mention to those who do not know; Creating a website is the mainstay on which e-marketing in general depends, as it is the channel through which all marketing efforts flow and pass.
During the past seven years, I read and learned a lot about the world of websites, and as the manager and maintainer of Al-Rabeoon website, I gained a lot of practical experience in this field.
This enables me today to write a comprehensive guide on how to design a website, in which I will cover all aspects of making a website, and which I am confident will represent a reliable and integrated practical reference for every Arab youth interested in this field.
Whether you work in the field of creating websites, or you want to create your own site or with the help of specialists, or you work in the field of e-marketing, or even you already have a website, this article will introduce you to something new, and you will find a lot of important and useful information in it. About creating a website.
What is a website?
There are many definitions of the website, and these definitions differ according to the perspective of the definition.
Website for a visitor: It is an address on the Internet that he visits in order to obtain something, perhaps to purchase a product or service, or to obtain information, or even for entertainment.
The website for the owner of the site and those in charge of it: It is the window through which customers or targeted visitors are reached, for the purpose of marketing a product or service, or content on the site, and the goal is most often to obtain a material profit.
And the material profit here has many ways, such as selling products or services to the visitor directly, or selling other products in the way of commission marketing, or profit through advertisements… We will address that in our article later.
Website For website developers and designers: It is a set of files written in specialized programming languages , which work together to create the look of the website (design) and its functions (development).
The website is the first and essential component of the marketing process on the Internet. There is no e-marketing without a website. It represents the place where the seller, buyer, writer and reader meet together.
Read also: How to create a site to evaluate products and how to make money from it
The website, in terms of the internal structure or the nature of the files used, and also in terms of how it was created, consists of two main components:
the design
development or programming
Now let's look at each of these two elements in detail:
Website design
In this part, we will discuss what is website design, its importance, stages, and success factors.
Website design: It means creating an integrated form and structure for the site from a home page and internal pages, and every part is visible on the site. It includes everything related to the visual form that appears in front of the visitor, and this includes:
The size of web pages within the site in terms of being browser-filled, or within a frame that represents a percentage of the browser.
The form of the home page and other pages such as the articles display page, and the sections display page.
Font size and type in all texts used on the site.
Website colors in all its pages.
The location of the site's logo and name, and the icons of social networking sites.
The shape and size of the header and tail of the site.
Note: I understand that a large percentage of websites are created through specialized platforms such as WordPress. In spite of that, there are some points in this article that are addressed to serve those who want to build their sites from scratch, that is, by professional website designers and developers.
In any case, your understanding of these points will benefit you, whatever your method of building a website. My goal here is to make this topic a comprehensive guide for anyone who intends to create a website in any way.
Keep reading and the dots will link together… Do not worry, all options will be presented and explained, trust that you will get what you want and more in this article!
The importance of design for your website
1. Design is very important in the experience of your visitors
People by nature often judge things by their appearance, so you have to make an attractive and unique design for your site, that the user likes and feels comfortable in dealing with.
2. The design of your site affects how Google sees it
A site that is easy to design and which has good design factors, is ready to be crawled by search engines.
Google also monitors the visitor's good experience with your site, and sees it as a good indicator to improve its appearance in the first search results .
Also Read : SEO (Your Guide to Getting the First Result)
3. The design of your site also entails its programming or development
If the design of your site is good and organized and has all the tools you want, the programming task is easier, then every feature, tool or feature in your site must start from the design.
Website design work stages
The steps of designing any website are divided into three steps; Sometimes it is done by one, two, or even three different people.
This of course applies to sites that are large projects, but in many cases off-the-shelf site designs are used if a site building platform or content management system is used. (All of this will be covered read on.)
The stages of website design work are in this order:
UX Design
At this stage, a complete conception of the website should be made on paper, the location of everything in it and the arrangement of the content, taking into account the ease of use for the user.
UI Design
At this stage, the visualization is transferred from the paper in the previous stage, to an image on the computer using an image design program such as Photoshop. At this point the colors for the site, the size and types of fonts, and everything to be implemented by the developer must be determined.
UI Develop
At this stage, the Photoshop image is converted into files with codes written in specialized programming languages for design work, and this represents, as we mentioned earlier, everything visible to the user.
Also Read: The 8 Core Web Design Standards
Success factors for your website design
The factors below are the ones that should be made clear to your site designer, or should be considered when choosing a ready-made design for your site:
1. Convenience
The nature of your visitors is the most important key that you should start from when thinking about the design of your site. Choose the design that suits them and matches their nature and inclinations. For example, if the majority of visitors to your site are female, the colors here should be attractive and delicate to suit the upscale female feel.
2. Exclusivity and Excellence
The design of your site must be unique and distinct, and different from the rest of the sites, so that visitors can distinguish it from the rest of the sites and imprint it in their memory strongly.
It is okay to take some famous websites in your field as inspiration for you, but avoid using the same designs in the same colors, as this will leave a bad impression on visitors.
3. The important thing is in the right place
The design of your site should be based on highlighting the important elements, which you want the user to pay attention to. For example, the place of social media icons, they must be in a clear place and in front of the user's eyes.
4. Responsive design with all devices
In the past few years, the size of Internet users has expanded through smart mobile devices and tablets (the vast majority browse the web through mobile), so it has become a compulsion and not an option for every website owner, to make the design of his site suitable for smart mobile devices.
5. Ease of moving from one place to another in the same location
Make sure that the user knows well the place or section in which he is located, and make his transition from page to page on your site easy, simple and clear.
The top bar of your site should contain important site sections and pages, and it is also preferable that you make internal paths that show where the user is.
6. Consistency
It includes:
A/ Fonts
You should carefully choose the type and size of fonts on your site, and it is preferable to choose the regular fonts that most sites use, especially the famous ones, and which the user feels familiar with.
Use the font scaling feature to highlight the importance of texts that you think are essential and important, such as headings. As for font colors, they should basically be compatible with the colors you use on your site.
b/ colors
In any website design the colors should be consistent with each other and also limited (I advise not to use too many colors). You can also control the color grading to highlight the important elements of your site.
c/ pictures
As they say in the world of e-marketing, a picture is worth a thousand words; Images are an element worth your investment as they are very useful in highlighting the design of your website and giving it a special beauty.
d/ spaces
Use the Spaces element to highlight the important things on your site. Don't overcrowd your site with content. Blank white spaces can work for your site to give the visitor a sense of comfort, and also direct him to the important parts of the page.
7. Simplicity
Simplicity is the secret of beauty, make sure to make your site easy and simple for the user, make all the previously mentioned elements work together in the direction of simplicity.
Read also: What is a server, its types and uses (a short and simplified guide)
Website development
When talking about what a website is; I mentioned to you that there is a design part and another development part. We explained the design and now we will explain what is the development or programming of the website Web Development?
Website development or programming is: everything related to performing the functions or features on the website, or responding to orders made by the visitor on the website, or by the website owner.
Programming is responsible for the invisible part of the site, and it is identified through the use of the site and testing its features.
Although the design options are somewhat limited (it is about shape, colors, and spaces), the software options are almost limitless. It may reach a very advanced and complex point, such as programming for search engines and social networking sites.
These are just a few examples of the programming used on most websites:
The site's search feature, which allows the visitor to type in a keyword, and search for topics that talk about that word on the site.
The Contact Us feature, which allows the user to send a message to the site management through the Contact Us page.
The ability to participate on social networking sites through the icons of social networking sites (a software possibility linked to the programming of the social networking sites themselves)
Organizing the display of articles on the site, in terms of their belonging to a specific section, or where they appear in custom lists, such as the list of the most recent articles on the site, for example.
Display Google Adsense ads on the site.
It is worth noting here that design and programming work side by side, and are linked together in everything.
For example, we said above that the search feature on the site is a software feature, but the design is responsible for the size, color and location of the search box.
Programming is also responsible for organizing the display of articles on the site and their belonging to certain lists, but the design is responsible for the size of displaying these articles, background colors, font size, etc.
An important note: Just as there are ready-made templates for design, there are also templates ready for development, which are provided by platforms, systems and software specialized in building websites, so you, as a person looking to make your site yourself through one of the platforms, do not have to be too preoccupied with the idea of developing websites.
Website creation options
There are four options in front of you to have a website.
The right choice for you depends on the nature of the site that you intend to build, and the size of the budget that you intend to spend to create your website.
Here's an explanation of these four options in order:
Option 1: Use a free service to create a Free Blog
This is the most suitable option for those who do not have a financial budget, or who want to create a personal blog to share their opinions and ideas with the world.
All you need in this case is to choose one of the free blog creation sites, create an account on this site, and start creating your blog and providing it with content.
These free services provide you with everything you need, all that is required of you here is to create an account, choose the name of the blog, and learn how to deal with the site's control panel.
There are many sites that offer a free blog creation service , on top of which are Blogger and WordPress. In fact, through these services, you can not only create a blog but also create a site for your company or your own project.
Note: in this case you will not need anything; The platform will provide you with hosting the site, and will give you a free subdomain name, and will give you the tools that enable you to design your site yourself and add what you need (it will provide you with design and development)… It is simple and very similar to having an account on a social networking site.
Option Two: Use a Website Builder
Website building platforms are suitable for those people who do not have any technical knowledge at all and at the same time need something better than just a free website or blog with limited capabilities. These platforms are easy to use and come with plenty of templates to suit all disciplines.
Also, you can change anything on your site through the drag and drop feature, so this option is the easiest to create a website.
Website building platforms are a great option for owners of small businesses and local electronic stores, in record time and at low cost, you can build a website for your own restaurant, for example.
There are a lot of sites that offer a website building service, on top of which is wix , which has a free plan.
But if you want another excellent option, which is available in Arabic, and has all the features and features you need, I strongly recommend the wonderful Wuilt platform .
And let me present to you what you can get through your subscription to the Wilt platform in particular.
It will provide you with everything you need in order to make a website (hosting, domain name, website building tools).
Very easy to use (anyone can build their site with it easily without any technical skills).
With it, you can create a professional website in just a few minutes.
They have a great support service around the clock in case you need any help.
Option Three: Using a Content Management System Platform
This option is suitable for most types of sites, it can be used to create a professional blog, or to create an online store . And many other types of websites.
These services are often open source , so developers can add and modify a lot of their features.
One of the most famous of these systems is WordPress , which is the most widely used system in the web world, but of course there are many other systems, including Joomla and Magento.
WordPress is a free software that you can easily configure your hosting. Although this platform comes with a very limited number of themes, there are plenty of professional WordPress themes that you can buy from specialized stores.
I will come back to talk about WordPress later, and I will give you all the resources and explanations that enable you to make a professional WordPress site, as it is the perfect choice for creating a website for many.
The fourth option: the use of website creation specialists (Website from Scratch)
This option is suitable for large sites that need a special software system, or for large companies that have employees specialized in designing and programming sites.
This option is also expensive compared to the rest of the options, and the size of the cost here depends on the size and nature of the requirements on the website.
This option also has some risk, because there are a lot of incompetent website builders, so you have to choose the company or person who specializes in creating websites very carefully.
Top tips for creating a successful website?
1. Think deeply about the idea of a website that matches your capabilities, and make it stem from your true interests, and do not fall into the trap of imitating others, or be sure that you have a work team and a budget that allows the implementation of your idea.
2. Be flexible in modifying or changing some aspects of your site idea to suit the target audience.
3. Ask yourself: How will I earn? If your answer is Google Adsense , for example, you should take this into consideration when choosing your site design.
4. Ask yourself: What audience will I target? And then create a site that matches the nature of this audience.
5. In the event that you decide that your site will be a source of income for you, do not rely entirely on your personal inclinations and goals.
Rather, tame your idea so that it is both passionate and profitable at the same time.
6. Break free from being the owner of the idea and imagine yourself as a visitor to the site and ask yourself: What is the special thing about my site to attract visitors?
7. Use some keyword tools like the Google Keyword Planner , which tells you how many keywords your site will be searching for.
8. Check out magazines, newspapers, and TV channels, and try to get a glimpse of your potential audience's interests.
9. Almost no idea will come to your mind to create a site, unless you will find a site that actually addresses it, or even at least similar to it. Yes, you can predict the success of your site through competitor sites.
10. Make a full visualization of what your site will be like, of sections, tools, features, capabilities, content and everything that will be included in your site. This point is very important in the case of the use of specialists to create your site.
Read also: How to Write an Article for a Website (A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners)
What are the steps for creating a website?
The steps and details of creating a website depend on the method you will choose to create your site (we have already discussed the four options for obtaining a website above).
In this part, I will dedicate my talk about the steps of creating a website using WordPress specifically, for the following reasons:
1. WordPress is a great choice for most types and sizes of websites, and this explains how wide its use base is, about 41% of websites are created with WordPress.
2. Due to the wide user base of WordPress, so you will find a solution to any problem you face of any kind, there are many and many sites that talk about WordPress. Among the most important and most famous of them is wpbeginner
3. WordPress is an open source software, so there are a lot of great WordPress plugins, which you can use to add a lot of features to your site according to your needs.
4. Yes, creating a site through WordPress is not the easiest option at all, but you can learn how to deal with it in record time, in addition to the fact that there is a version of WordPress in Arabic.
Steps to create a website with WordPress
1. Reservation of web hosting that supports WordPress
There are a lot of hosting companies that support WordPress, in a previous topic we discussed the winners of the 8 best reliable web hosting companies , just choose one of them, they have been carefully selected.
And if you want me to recommend a specific hosting company… you can count on Bluehost hosting , it’s fast, easy to use, secure, and above all it has an amazing customer service.
2. Choose a suitable domain name for your site
There are some hosting companies that will give you a free domain with the hosting plan.
It is worth noting that Bluehost hosting provides a free domain when booking any of its packages.
3. Set up WordPress on your hosting
You can do this with a single click in the hosting control panel, and WordPress is often set to host you automatically without any action on your part.
4. Choose a suitable WordPress template and set it on your site.
5. Set up basic WordPress plugins for your site
Now your site is ready, and all you have to do is start creating content for it.
Now let's move on to another important point in our article today:
What are the most important pages in every professional website?
1. Home Page
It is the page that appears when you type the domain name of the site into the browser. The home page is the most important in every website, and it is the interface of the site and expresses its content.
It must be designed in a distinctive and attractive image, and its content must be carefully chosen to serve the visitor and introduce him to the site. It should contain links to other important pages on the site.
2. Contact Us . page
This page is very important, as it represents the means by which visitors can contact the site administration. It must contain the contact details of the site administration, or a form through which a direct message can be sent to the site administration, or both.
3. About Us . page
This page is also very important, through which the visitor can learn about the purpose of the site, the story of its creation, and what it seeks to achieve.
Also, through it, the visitor can get to know the site's team... In short, it serves as a way to introduce visitors to your website.
4. Terms and Conditions page
This page represents the terms and conditions for using the site, which the user must abide by.
In it, you can address the most important rules that the user must follow when using your site, as well as the conditions for using your site with regard to the name or brand.
5. Privacy Policy page
This page is a document that explains to the user, the policy that your site follows in dealing with the data provided by the user. Such as your name and email when you sign up for the mailing list.
It also contains data that the site obtains through the browser, such as knowing the location of the user to display appropriate advertisements.
6. Error Page 404
This page has a special nature other than the pages mentioned above, but it is very important for the visitor and for search engines as well.
It is simply a page that appears whenever a user visits a link that does not exist on the site. For example, if you change the link of one of your site's pages, and the user visits the old link in this case, this page will appear.
Your site should have a user friendly error page, with a message that this page does not exist on the site right now. The visitor must also be helped to reach what he wants by referring to the search box, for example, or placing a link to the home page.
Important note: The 404 error page is automatically present when using one of the website building platforms or content management systems, and the home page has designs in ready-made templates, and the Contact Us page is often available through one of the WordPress plugins, and the rest of the pages are easy to create and have special content It has templates used by most websites.
We covered a list of the most important pages and now let's take a list of the most important elements of each website.
What are the most important elements of every professional website?
1. Website Header
It is the rectangle at the top of the website. It must be designed and chosen with distinction and care to distinguish your site from the rest of the sites. The header, although it is an independent element of your site, often (not necessarily) contains some other elements, including:
search rectangle
Site listings
The site's logo or logo
2. Website Logo
It is a small image or icon that has a special and distinctive symbol or expressive of the specialty of your site. The logo work must start with the first steps of creating the site in order to be compatible with the design.
3. Search Box
It is a small rectangle that has the feature of searching within the site. With it, the user types any search word, and when he clicks on the search mark, all pages that talk about the search word he entered appear.
4. website menus
Lists are links to the important pages of the site, for example, you can make a list with links to the pages of your site on social networking sites, or a list containing the site's administrative pages (contact us, about the site .... etc), also it is important to make a list containing the sections of your site .
Lists are very important for improving the visitor experience and making the site easier to use, and also for search engines (they make it easier to crawl your pages)
5. Website Footer
It is the bottom part of the site (the end of the site is below), which also has its own design, and it is somewhat similar to the header in terms of content and unique design.
It may contain the site's logo or special menus, and also contain the famous sentence of property rights.
“All rights reserved to…”
Now we've covered everything about creating or designing a website, but there are some important questions I'd like to answer before I finish my topic.
Important questions about creating a website and their answers
1. How much does it cost to create a website?
This is a very important question and many people ask it, and in fact it does not have a fixed answer! The cost of creating a website depends on many factors, foremost of which is the method of creating the website.
You can make a website for free just as we mentioned above, and you can make a website for tens of thousands of dollars! Yes that's right.
In order to give you a definitive answer, let's address the cost of creating a website through one of two ways:
Create a WordPress site (Wordpress itself as a system and program is free, and you can start with a free template and rely on free plugins, and here the cost will only be the cost of hosting, which starts at $3 per month).
Create a site through website building platforms such as Wix or Wilt, which we talked about above (annual fees starting at $50).
Regarding hosting and also regarding website building platforms, when your site grows and you need more storage space and traffic capacity, this will make the cost higher.
For example, we in the winners pay for hosting only $120 per month, and we recently purchased a lot of paid WordPress plugins to suit our needs and our desire to grow.
2. Can I create my own site?
The great thing about technology in general and the internet in particular is that there are tools that help anyone get what they want. In the past, the only way to make a website may have been by writing the code yourself or hiring a professional to write it.
Now there are a lot of tools such as: WordPress and other content management programs, as well as website building platforms such as Wix and others.
I know what comes to your mind now; Can I be able to handle these platforms or tools to create my own site? The answer is simply yes you can… You will need some time and training, and sometimes you will need to research, and you may need a specialist temporarily to solve a problem, but you can find hope… Just start.
3. What is the easiest way to make a website? And what is the best way? And what is the most popular method?
The easiest way to create a website: rely on website builders, which provide everything in one place, and have a support service to help.
The best way to create a website: Nothing is best for everyone, but there is something more suitable, but if you insist on answering the question, then WordPress is the best.
The most popular way to create a website: WordPress.
4. What are the types of websites?
There are many types of websites and here is a list of the most popular ones:
Blog
News time
Social networking site
forum
Electronic shop
educational platform
Practical training site
A website that is a tool for getting things done
5. What is the difference between a website and a web page?
The difference between a website (website) and a web page is like the difference between a house and a room. The web page is an internal address that falls under the website. For example, if we say the winners’ website is “alrab7on.com”, the page of this article that represents a web page (falling under the winners) is like this “alrab7on.com / how-to-create- a-website” After the slash you will find the address of the web page that falls under the main website.
Also Read : 11 traits your blog must have in order to be successful
Conclusion
Creating a website is not as difficult a process as some think, and now you have all the knowledge that qualifies you to get started.
Choose an innovative idea and start creating your site as soon as possible, and remember that your success journey as a site owner will really begin after creating your site.
I hope that this topic has helped you turn your dream of owning a website into a reality. I am always happy to answer any question, so feel free to comment with a question or inquiry that comes to your mind. I would also appreciate your help in getting this topic to anyone who needs it.
