Before you begin working on your website, it's important to consider the following:
Audience: Who will be looking at your site? Will it be men, women, children, business people? Knowing who is going to be using your website will help guide the look, feel and content of your site.
Purpose: Why are you designing this site?
Tone: Consider the type of language you should use on your site. Should it be casual, formal, persuasive, etc.?
Navigation: What pages do you plan to use? Where will you put the menu? What links do you want to include? In general, it is best to keep the navigation simple. Don't try to add too many pages to your site.
Features: Will you be using multimedia, music, photo galleries, contact forms, etc.? It is important to know what features you want to include because that might determine which website builder you decide to use.
Look: Pick a color scheme that uses no more than four main colors. What images do you want to include? Look at sites you like to get an idea for design.
Font: Use a common font, such as Arial or Times New Roman. Be consistent in your use of titles and subtitles--use the same colors/sizes throughout the site.
Content: Avoid a cluttered-looking site. Don't make your site too text-heavy. In general, short paragraphs and bullet-point lists work best. Try to keep content "above the scroll."
For more strategies for organizing content on your site, check out Starting Out Organized: Website Content Planning the Right Way.
Before publishing your website or sending out the URL, go through the following checklist:
Make sure all internal hyperlinks work.
Make sure all external hyperlinks work.
Proofread for grammar, spelling and/or errors in punctuation.
Make sure you've used a light background with a dark font. Dark backgrounds can be difficult to read.
If you've used graphics, do they contain words? If so, make sure to provide alternate text for the visually impaired.
Do you have the proper permission to use images, music or other copyrighted material on your site?
Are you satisfied with the look and feel of your website? Does it do what you wanted it to do?
The following sites offer free web design tools. You will need to create an account.
If you didn't find what you wanted, check out this list of the 10 Best Free Online Website Builders 2013.