Unit 1 - My Website

LESSON 1 - What make a good website?

There are currently over 600 million websites in the world. Making a website has become an easy and manageable task. Getting your business online is one of the best things you can do to reach new and potential customers and getting your club/team online is one of the best ways to communicate with people and share the latest information about your club/team. However, many people find it difficult to begin. These four steps will help you with the creation of your website.

1. A strong and clear message - Your website is your best chance to make a lasting impression to your customers. What is the first thing visitors see when they come to your website? Do they understand your site’s purpose? In order to have a successful and engaging website, it should have a simple and clear message that all visitors can understand. The best way to communicate your website’s purpose is through a clear message on your homepage. This will also help search engines categorise your website for appropriate keywords and phrases. If you are building your website with Yola, you may want to review this article. Think about what your website does or what you want it to do. What products or services do you offer? Then, on your homepage clearly display that message in your content. Many websites online fail to communicate the essence of their website to customers on their homepage and, thereby, lose valuable leads and sales. Your website is often a potential customer’s first impression of your business. Make it count.

2. Easy navigation - Another important feature of a good website is navigation. Many website owners fail to include well-structured pages or clear navigation tabs that lead visitors to relevant sections of their website. Organise the information on your website in a simple and structured way. Think of the general path you would like a site visitor to take. In many cases, adding sub-pages to the top navigation will be the best option for organising your information into specific categories. Think through your web pages’ structure so that it all makes sense in a logical flow. That way, when customers visit your website, they will have an easier time navigating to the information on your website that is most relevant to them. In some cases, adding sub-pages to the top navigation will be the best option for organising your information into specific categories.

3. Content and more content - The main function of your website is to convey relevant content to your visitors and help them understand the problems that your products and/or services solve. Your content is the single most important element in increasing customers. Make sure that the content you add to your site is displayed in a simple and clear manner. Use clear and error-free language that will encourage your visitors to dig deeper for more information about your business. You’ll want to include keywords that relevant to your business and industry in your page titles, meta tags, headings and in your website’s content so that your potential customers can find your business online. This tactic is called search engine optimisation (SEO).

4. Community - Building a community for your business is one of the best investments you can make. It’s crucial to establish an online presence. Start with the networks you know and are active on – the most common being Facebook and Twitter. Include Facebook “Like” from your business Facebook page or a Twitter follow button will allow visitors to connect with you through other media. In addition to your social networking profiles, creating and maintaining a blog is one of the most effective ways to build community and a great way to increase content. Blogs are a great way to have a conversation with your visitors and customers on a regular basis and improve the level of trust website visitors and customers have for your business over time.

LESSON 2 - Setting up my website.

Today there are many ways of creating a website. Only a few years ago there was only one way, using HTML and coding your own site. However there are now numerous web based creation tools, one of them being google sites - https://sites.google.com/ and this is how we will create our website.

Before we start to design and create the website for your project we will set up a blank website for you to learn and practice the skills you will need.

Go and create a website of your choice at Google Sites, for example Tim´s Website Practice. Once you are there I want you to complete these tasks:

• Edit the Layout of the Website by adding Horizontal Navigation.

• Delete the Sidebar

• Insert a Logo into the site Header

• Change the colours of the text and background of your site

• Insert a new page

• Add new pages to the Navigation

• Edit the new page by adding text, images, tables.

• Add a Youtube link to a page

• Add a Map to a page

• Add a Hyperlink to a page

LESSON 3 - Choosing a topic

Now that you have basic idea of how Google Sites works, you can start to think more about your website, and the topic of you website. You must chose something that is personal to you, this will make it easier, and more enjoyable, to create. Here are some ideas:

• Your own sports club (football, gymnastics, running...)

• Your class

• Year 11 at Newton

• A family business

• A team/group/band you like

• A local sports team

• Anything that you feel strongly about

What you must do then is go and find existing example of websites associated with your choice. This could be an official website, an unofficial website or even website that are similar. Take screen captures of the websites and make notes of what each website publishes, and what information you can find on them. You must find 3 examples. Once you have found five, you can start to evaluate them. Mention the following in a word document, and it will easily be a couple of pages per website once you include photos:

• Name and address of website

• What is the main topic of the website

• What information does it give you?

• How is the website laid out? (Header, footer, tabs, dropdown tabs,...)

• Is it easy to navigate? Why?

• Draw a "map" of the website (click here for an example, it maybe be best produced using Powerpoint or Publisher)

• Do you like the website? Why?

• How would you change it?

• Anything else of importance? (Images, pictures, text, fonts, backgrounds, links,...)

All of this will help you think of ideas for you website and help to create the best possible website.

LESSON 4 - The Internet

Before we start to create you website we must look at the history of the Internet. Write 800 words, of you own, on how the Internet has developed and the way the public has used it. Use images to help you.

• What has changed?

• Has the use of the Internet changed?

• Has people´s access to the Internet changed?

• Who uses the Internet now?

• Are there more problems with Internet use? Why?

• Can we live without Internet? Image the world without Internet access - what would it be like?