Beginners 3 - Planning   Back | Next

The Carpenter's Rule - Measure Twice, Cut Once - applies here.

Before you begin to make your web pages, take a pencil and paper and put some ideas down. You may be tempted to design the visual aspects of your web site first. That's ok, but you will need to organize your content before you put it on that beautiful site you are creating.

You might start with your basic concept - what is the site all about? If you put that down into a brief sentence or two, it can become your meta description later on.

One way to organize your thoughts is to take a separate piece of paper for each page your viewers will see. You might have one for the front page (index page), and one for each of the sub-pages of your site. Write down what text you will have on each page, with a general sketch of your visual content.

As you do this, on a separate piece of paper, write down the files you will eventually have to upload. You may not have them ready yet, but it helps to list them. Don't forget that for every page that has images, you need to write down the name of that page (such as page_one.html) but also the images that will be on that page (such as image_one.jpg, image_two.jpg, etc.).

Build a list of your navigation links (the links on each page that take you to other pages on your site). Avoid making any "orphan" pages (dead-ends that have no navigation links, or too few navigation links, making it difficult for the viewer to easily move around your site). There is a link on the links page to an example of an orphan page.

Ready to get started at the computer? Ok, read more...

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