First ask yourself the question, who do I want to bring to my website and what do I want them to do once they visit my site. This can make a difference in designing a business or a personal site.

Next, you will need a domain name. A domain name signifies your internet address so try to choose one that tells people a little bit about your site. Many web hosting companies offer the free domain check. This gives you a chance to see if anyone has the domain name already.

Try to use (.com) unless you represent a non-profit organization (.org) if not in the education field (.edu) or a government agency (.gov). If you think your domain name is going to become a valuable asset, you may want to register the (.net) (.biz) (.info) and (.us) as well.

Once you finish checking the domain name before you purchase the name, keep in mind many companies include domain name registration along with hosting packages.

There are many companies offering free hosting; however, everything free isn't always good.

Some people think once you publish a website, you can sit back and drink a cup of tea and visitors will automatically come to your site. Well, I'm here to tell you there's more to it than that.

Personally, I don't have the time to surf several websites to gather everything I need. I prefer an inexpensive hosting company that offers a total package from start to finish. I want them to include the web templates so if I don't want to use a web designing software program, no problem I can just type my information in just like a word processor, insert my meta tag information and add my graphics.

Website Building

You want to build a website so the average person with even a slow computer can view the pages. Some of the more hi tech flash sites loose visitors and business due to not being viewable by the average computer.

There are many web designing software programs out on the market to get you off and running, however I prefer Microsoft FrontPage. Microsoft discontinued making FrontPage as of late 2006, however they continue to support the needs of FrontPage existing customers. Currently, they have a new program called Expression Web which is intended for the more advanced web designer.

In order to use the full benefits of FrontPage, make sure your hosting company supports FrontPage extensions. This will insure your web components will work properly. Whether you use an older version of FrontPage 2000 or a more up-to-date FrontPage 2003, the advantage is web templates with color schemes. This is the best way of ensuring that your site remains consistent. Also there are pre-existing HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) included. All you have to do is add in your titles of your page or pages, which are like adding codes without the programming knowledge.

Make sure you do not enter your keywords more than three times. This is considered spamming according to most search engines.

There are many books out on the market that can give you more details about designing your own website. Check first with your local library. You should be able to find books that can give you step-by-step directions about using Microsoft FrontPage. The ones I recommend are Teach yourself FrontPage 2000 visually and Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 quicksteps.

Hope I've helped you with some of your basic question about designing your own website, the rest is up to you.