How To: Website Design & Build:

Here we explain the different options available, and which ones may suit you best.

Design & Build your own web site
The internet, and websites are made out of code. The most commonly used code to create and display a web site is HTML, one of the most basic web languages.

If you're tempted to learn how to design and code your own web site then you'll need to invest in some design software such as Adobe Photoshop, or a free alternative such as GIMP. With a design program, you'll create a design for your web site, and then optimise any images or banners for the web.

You will also need a web development application, a highly popular example of which would be Adobe Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver, with a little assistance from yourself, will turn your web site design into a fully coded, ready-to-put-live website. It also let's you see what you're building on the fly.

You can actually code your web site in a simple text editor such as Notepad (included by default with most PCs), which some find incredibly fun, but this is only recommended for people who consider themselves experienced with web coding or want to learn how to raw code web pages. A great place, if you're wondering how to learn HTML by hand (the most commonly used, and easiest to learn web language), is to find a good book, though you'll find some excellentweb sites out there such as Tizag.com  to help to learn HTML, which comes highly recommended by Freeola.

Use an easy, no-experience-needed website builder:
Alternatively, if you'd like a professional web site built but don't want to spend a lot of money, you can use a web site builder. Website builders, being aimed at inexperienced users, are generally easy to use, and very affordable too. Take the Freeola InstantPro Website Builder  for example, which includes absolutely everything you'll need to get a website online. Designed to be incredibly easy to use, it guides the user through a step-by-step wizard choosing colours, designs and typing text into various boxes.

Please note that with InstantPro, all web hosting and FTP uploading is included, and automatic, so you won't need to worry about these whatsoever.

InstantPro then does absolutely everything else automatically, building your web site and therefore leaving you nothing left to do apart from marvel at your stylish new web site.

For only £3 per month, absolutely anyone (well, almost) can build a really good looking web site. And with great page types available such as online blogs, elegant photo galleries and the ability to add Google Checkout or Paypal code for an online shop, InstantPro is a great, cheap, usable alternative suitable for almost anyone wanting their own web site.

Hire a Web Designer to design & build your web site:
If you're completely new to the art of web design, a popular choice would be to hire a web designer who will design and buld a website from scratch, to your specification. Web designers however dont usually come cheap, and for a web site with a few pages you could spend anything up to £1000.

Web designers will generally be able to add anything you like to your website, such as photo galleries, password-protected areas, shopping trolleys and so on. The more technical the feature, the more advanced the code becomes and therefore could prove to be quite expensive if you're looking for a quality, interactive web site.

Freeola provide a directory of UK web designers, which is completely free of charge to browse through. Where possible, we'll show you designers that are based closest to you, and provide some examples of web sites they have designed before. Check out the web designers directory  today.

Once your website is designed, unless you've chosen to use the Freeola InstantPro Website Builder , you'll need to get some web hosting  sorted out, and get it online so people can start visitng it!