8 Simple Steps to planning your site

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What makes a really good website? The answer is more simple than you think. This guide will teach you how to create the mystical combination of content, design and functionality and bring to life your dream site.

Contents

What's Important in a Website?

Everyone has their favorite websites to visit online. These are the websites that you happily go back to again and again. It’s not only because of the information that they provide you with, but also because they’re easy to use, designed in a way that appeals to you and give you an overall lovely web experience.

"WOW! How can I build a killer site like that?" Well, you've come to the right place! We’ve written down these tips to help you as you start pondering about your new  free website:

A great design: Visit websites that you like and try to figure out what’s so good about their design. What websites do you think your users visit often? Study these sites to get inspiration and design ideas. After your research is complete, use Wix’ website design tools to create a professional-looking and visually stimulating website.

Easy navigation: Internet is supposed to be simple. No one wants to get lost and stuck (unless your website offers some crazy D&D labyrinth for people with impaired social skills). Think about the most important points that your users are looking for and let them guide your navigation decisions. The most important information should be found with a minimum number of clicks. Use clear menus and buttons and provide your visitors with connective links on each page for a simple and natural flow.

Appealing content: A site’s content is often what attracted you to it in the first place. Whether your users are searching for homeopathic remedies, how to build a playground for bunnies or photos of Communist interior design, the content of the site is the primary attraction. Another thing about content is that search engines are crazy about it. If you provide premium content, your site can become more visible on google, Yahoo! and the rest of them.

Few ways to improve your web content:

Quality writing:Clear and clever writing will keep the readers smiling.

Updated content:Sleepy content is boring, both for your readers and for the search engines. Wix makes it easy to update your website as often as you wish with our user-friendly editing tools. Simply login, go to your website account, edit all you want and then hit save. The changes will automatically update on your published site.

Offer your visitor some added value:  Focus on the benefits of using your product or visiting your website. One way to do this is to offer them something extra - something beyond what they would expect to find on your website.

Keep these notions in mind and you’ll be on the right track to creating your dream free website.

Road Map: Mapping Out Your Site

To build a great website, you first need a blueprint. When architects create a blueprint, they first consider the function of what it is that they're building. An airport’s blueprint looks much different than a library’s blueprint, for instance.

Think of your website’s blueprint as the outline of your site, ultimately providing you with a plan for how to build the site that you’ve always envisioned on those sunny afternoons of daydreaming. Yes, building a website can become somewhat emotional.

One rule that should always guide you: When you’re building your free website with Wix technology, it is important not only to have a superior design, but also to have real quality content. After all, content is the main reason why someone would choose to pay your website a visit in the first place. On the World Wide Web, content is king. Content is what helps search engines rank you, which, in turn, helps your ideal users find you.

Things to consider for your super roadmap:

1. Function: What will be your site’s function? Will it be a personal blog, an online gallery or exhibition or a promotional website for your business?

2. Information: What sort of information would you like people to find on your website? What should they find on the homepage? Once you decide on the main topic of your website, you’re ready to start organizing your content. If you're truely interested in your topic, then selecting content should be one of the most thrilling phases of website building. Fun!

3. Navigation:

  • How many pages should your site have?
  • What should be the order of the pages?
  • How will people navigate on the site? How should the menus, interactive buttons, displays and all the functional tools work?

Important questions that need to be answered.

4. Design: Your website’s design should, to a large extent, be derived from the function, information and navigation you decided on. It is important to keep the design clear, but not boring. Think about the visitors you wish to attract to your site. What kind of design will they appreciate? How can you please them and even surprise them?

Once you have your roadmap in hand, you can work quickly with Wix.com’s Flash website builder  to design a beautiful and efficient website.

Flash Websites, HTML Websites & Wix Sites

Stepping into the great Flash vs HTML debate

For years there has been a dispute in the website building world between the Flash mob and the HTML gang. These days, however, the dispute is coming to an end, with flash offering what it always had to offer AND what HTML has to offer as well. Ok, so we may be a tad biased here, but hear us out.

HTML has been the traditional form of website building since the 1980’s. Flash websites, on the other hand, use a new technology to create dynamic and smooth web experiences. As many of the biggest companies switch their websites to the Flash website mode, Flash is becoming a website building standard. For Flash advocates throughout the world, this is no big surprise.

Here’s why:

Dynamic Memorable Visual Experience:More sophisticated than HTML, Flash provides an incredible visual experience, allowing you to create a dynamic memorable website for your users.

Greater freedom:Flash provides you with a degree of freedom of development that’s not found elsewhere. For instance, you can place objects anywhere you want without having to deal with tables and all sorts of coding nightmares… yuck!

Greater Interactivity:Flash is the way to create an interactive website: rollovers, color and image changes, incorporating mp3 and wav files, movies, background music and tons more. Perhaps all these features together are too much for you. No problem – just don’t add them. But unlike HTML, at least its easy .

Videos and animation:It’s much easier to incorporate animation and videos in a Flash website, and they look way more awesome than with basic HTML elements.

Wix Free flash websites have even more to offer:

Search Engine Friendly: During the dark ages, one big challenge with Flash was that it was hard for search engines like google to index. Wix has taken care of that, so you can now build your Flash website with Wix and know that your site is being read by search engines & by your visitors.

Easy to Update Content: The ability to modify your website used to be hard with Flash. With Wix, those sad days are over. We’ve made it as easy as editing a document on your computer. All you need to do is login to “My Account”, find your published Wix websites, edit them the way you desire and hit save. Your changes will automatically be updated on your Wix website. Simple.

Overall, if you want to create a website, a Wix Flash website is the best way to go. With its highly professional but at the same time user-friendly features, you’ll be able to deliver a dynamic and rich free website that is also easy to update and search engine friendly. How lucky can one be?

Quick Tips for Choosing Your Domain Name - You'll Thank Us Later

Ok, so it’s not like we’re talking about your newborn child or your puppy, but choosing your domain name is super important! It’s the name of your website address. The thing people type in after the http://www.

For the majority of your website's visitors, the domain name will be their first impression of your website. And as you probably know, first impressions are quite hard to change. So in order to make a good first impression, we recommend you spend some time coming up with the ideal domain name.

Here are some homemade tips for choosing the domain name that’s right for your free website:

Keep it simple: Your domain name is your guests’ direct highway to your website. Try to keep the name as simple and straightforward as possible, so they won't get confused. Avoid words with tricky spelling.

Think catchy: Creating a catchy name will make it easier for guests to tell their friends about how to find your website online.

Make sense: Make sure the name is related to your site.

Short and sweet: Long domain names may be more explanatory, but they won’t be much fun for your guests. BecomingABuddhistTheEasyWay.com can just be EasyBuddhist.com – much friendlier.

Keywords & buzzwords: Try to incorporate keywords and buzzwords related to your website's topic (it helps to create a list of your favorite related words and try different combinations of them).

Choose carefully: Avoid using a temporary name and changing it afterwards. This will only confuse and upset your regular guests.

Wix Tip: Ifyou’re using Wix free hosting (it’s free, safe & simple!), your domain name will look like this: www.wix.com/ username / your Wix doc name. To create a great name, we recommend you rename your Wix website document, using a keyword related to your topic.

These tips are meant to help people find and enjoy your Wix site without difficulty. Although choosing a domain name may be a long pain, it will be worth your while to keep focusing and not to settle on an average name. After all, a fantastic and original name will help define and distinguish your free website right from the start.

Website Hosting

One of the great benefits of creating a free website with Wix is that we offer you the option of free hosting as well.

That means that you can design and build your own website using Wix’s Flash website builder , AND you can also host your miraculous creation with us when you are ready to publish it online.

But what is important in a host?

1. Flexibility: We’re providing the hosting, but you’re still the boss.

2. Safe & Secure: If you don’t want your site to crash from time to time, you need a reliable hosting service. Your site is safe and sound on Wix’ servers, guarded by a firewall and a load balancer.

3. Free: Hosting can be pricy, but not with Wix. Ours is a free-of-charge policy.

Benchmarking - How Do You Compare?

How do you rate compared to your competitors?

Benchmarking is the process of evaluating your business practices, yourself or your website against the other players in your field.

In website building, benchmarking is an important part of creating and improving a site. Benchmarking helps you to set goals for yourself. It motivates you to create the best personal websiteor business website that you can.

Once you have the first draft of your website, you are already set to begin benchmarking (using a comparison survey to evaluate your progress, for instance). So this is how it's done:

1. Search & find competitors: Go to a search engine like Google or Yahoo and run searches on the most popular keywords related to your website.

The goal here is to find other websites that are the best of the best, the jewel in the crown, the cream of the crop in your genre (vintage fashion, authentic Japanese cooking, Vanilla Ice fanclub, etc.). Of course, you can also type in your competitors’ names and see what keywords they are using to attract visitors.

2. See what they offer: Examining the industry’s standards will allow you to know how high you should aim for and where can you improve.

3. Do it better! Don’t be the same as your rivals, be brutally better. Explore your competitors’ weaknesses, find inspiration in successful websites from different fields, adapt unique practices into your own website design process and always aspire to bring something fresh and captivating.

Remember that benchmarking is a valuable exercise in all stages of a website’s development. In order to maintain the quality that matches the highest industry standards, constant benchmarking and updating must be practiced.

As you build and update your website, continue to benchmark. In the online world, the bar is always being raised. Make it your goal to be a leader in your free website niche.

Keyword & Keyword Selection Tips & Tools

An overview and a reference to some cool keyword tools

Everyday, millions of people around the world perform searches on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo. What are they looking for?

What they search for is commonly known as “keywords”. Each search term can include one or more keywords that are related to a specific topic, for instance: “baby stroller”, “Mexican food recipes”, "how to remove blood stains from carpets" and so on. Wise keyword selection can substantially boost the traffic on your free website You probably heard it before, and you're likely to hear it again: on the web, content is king. It is your content that is being read by search engine robots, which then compare it to all other relevant websites and decide how to rank you.

That's where keywords kick in. It doesn’t matter if you’re creating a business site or a personal site. Using keywords that are related to your website in the site's content can elevate its position on search engines and increase your traffic. This does not mean you should turn your site into a keyword dumpster. Keywords should be used moderately and appropriately.

But how do you choose the right keywords?

Keyword Selection is the art of choosing the best keywords for your website. These keywords should include words and phrases that are both commonly searched for AND that are related to your website.

If you want guidance with your keyword selection, there are paid services and plenty of advisors you can hire, but unless you’re creating a massive business website, we don’t recommend it much.

Instead, we recommend you spend some time doing your own keyword research. You'll find a neat free Keyword Tools here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Wix Tips:

Check out your competition: If you’re having trouble getting started, try searching for your competitors and check out which keywords they are using.

Use Keyword Phrases: Keep in mind that most people perform multiple word searches, which means more than one word. So keyword phrases are generally better choices than one keyword. They also allow you to be more specific about all the wonders your website has to offer.

Spread 'em: Use keywords in your website title, description and domain names.



Design for Your Target Market

Your “target market” is marketing-talk for “who are you building your website for".

Knowing who you’re writing and designing for will help you express yourself with certainty, purpose and sex appeal.

You can create the website of your life, but if you don't keep the target market in mind, it just wouldn't work. So, who are the visitors that you hope to attract to your free website?


If you’re designing a business website, you may want to consider your ideal business clientele and what they would expect to find on your site. Breathe, focus and ask yourself the following questions:


1. What actions would you like them to do while visiting your site? Do you want them to buy, to provide their contact information, to subscribe to something?

2. What language are they used to – technical, formal or conversational?

3. What information and products/services are attractive to them?


If you want to make a personal website, you're aiming for quite a different target market, which is a little more difficult to define.

For instance, if you think of a webpage written by a single mother, her target audience may be other single mothers. On the other hand, the website could be designed to inspire children of single mothers, to generate awareness to issues of raising children as a single mom or to take revenge at that bastard of a father. Each target would lead her to choose a different design.

Once you’ve figured out who your target market is and what they wish to find on your site, you can begin to build a sweet website with a clear focus.


Some quick tips for how to design for your target market:


  • Design your website as a clear roadmap for your target market. They should be able to find exactly what they are looking for without having to dig through the whole site.
  • Create a simple website menu (e.g. “About Us,” “Products,” “Contact Us”) on each webpage for easy navigation.
  • Keep the text and pictures relevant. No kitties pictures, unless it's necessary.
  • Benchmark: Browse through websites that appeal to similar target markets as yours to get inspired, expand your ideas and keep ahead of your competitors.
  • Learn which keywords your target market would search for and integrate them into your content and design.

See Also


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