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How to Develop a Web Site

Published October 01, 2023

Developing a web site can be an easy thing or more complicatged, depending on your goal. Here are the basic steps you can follow to develop your own web site.

The Idea

The first step in developing a web site is to come up with an idea for one. This can take several forms, but for the most part, you will probably have an idea or a concept that you wish to let others know about. Having thoughts that you wish to communicate to others is a primary starting point for the average user. Of course, if you have a business you are trying to promote, the idea should be formed by now.

The Domain Name/Web Hosting

Now that you have your vision, it's time to come up with a domain name that is available and is representative of the ideas you wish to convey. You will want to take your time with this step because once you've settled on a domain name and published into it, changing to a new domain name would mean having those that are already visiting your site needing to figure out a new site to navigate to. Spend a little time with a blank piece of paper and jot down some ideas. Once you've got a good vision of what the site should be called, find a web hosting providor to work with. You can search that providor for your domain name to see if it's available. If it isn't, most providors will offer you domain names that are close to the one you're looking for. If nothing looks good, go to the next idea.

When choosing a web hosting providor, you may also want to consider if that providor hosts blogging software if that is what you need. Having blogging software already built and ready for your content will speed things up a bit (of course, you will need to learn that software for how it's configured and how it allows you to add content). If you are using plain HTML files (like ps|ocm creates), then all you need to know is how to upload them.

A final note on this step is that if the domain name you're interested in is already taken, it may be a good idea to visit that site to see if it's truly a valid site (there are companies that sit on domain names hoping someone will purchase them) and that it has a different concept than you have (you want to avoid the confusion).

Develop an Overall Theme (Philosophy)

Your web site should have a basic philosophy that you follow. You will want to be consistent in how you follow it so that the users of your site will know what to expect from you. Some key questions to ask yourself are:

What am I trying to accomplish?
What message am I trying to convey?
How will my web site help others?

When you have the answers to these questions, be sure to publish them in your "about" page so that your users will know your intent.

Develop an Overall Theme (Look and Feel)

Now that you have the basis for the content, you need to know how you want to appear to others. If you are using blogging software, my advice is to accept the default in the beginning and then install a theme later. The lesson here is that it can be changed later on if you need. If you are serving up your hand coded HTML files, it will be more difficult to change, but it can be done. We're building ps|ocm with the idea of updating the look and feel by changing the configuration files and re-compiling the web site. Any way, the best thing is to worry about the content first and then worry about the details of how it will look to the end user later as this can be changed as your site evolves. For a note on our approach, we're keeping it real clean and simple by sticking to plain HTML without too many bells and whistles. This allows for a fast page loads, easy navigation, and full compativility. It looks a little "old school" because it is. We're letting the device display the web site using its defaults, relying on the developers of that device to know the best way to display on the screen you are viewing this page on. It's a little different than the typical site publisher that wants to control everything. Let us know in the feedback if it works for you.

Publish your Site

If you are using a hosted blogging platform, this is as simple as adding your content to the system. As you add more content, the site will build. If you are publishing your HTML files directly, then you need to develop them or use something local to do so and then copy them up to the server using the tools provided by the web hosting company. Once you've done this, you are now on the web!

Letting the Search Engines Know You are There

The final step is to let the search engines know that your site is up and running. This can be done by going to several search sites and asking it "How to submit your site to < name_of_site >". You should find a page run by that site to add your web address to. This will initally let that site know that you're up and running. One key thing to do is to keep adding new content so that the search engines will continue to check back in on your site to get any updates.

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