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Which template to use - a generic starting point for newbies by Mark BergerPublished on 11/13/2006 11:24:37 PM |
| Here's a great article on how to choose the best template for getting your site off the ground. Be sure to check out our other great articles too. |
Are you new to website design? Just looking for a quick template to throw up on your Geocities or myspace website? Or just want something very simple, even to put on your corporate domain.
While we do have many free and paid templates to choose from at Free Free Templates, your question might be one of those above. One of the first things you need to think about when you want to start a website is the following.
- What your website will be about. Is it a community website? Is it a personal website based on opinion? About something you love to do that you know you're good at writing about?
- Appeal. Who your website is going to appeal to; who will see it. Primarily the people who hit your website will be from the areas in which you promote your website, or what search engine you are trying to get ranked on if you know a thing or two about SEO. For more help with SEO be sure to read my other articles.
- Source of income. Most websites do ads. If you plan on using ads, we recommend you plan out where you want your ads to be. Envision them in your site design as you look at what template to use, and where you will place them. Again, if you know a thing or two about web marketing, you will know where the best spots are to place your ads. This is another thing that will be covered in another article.
- Function. Do you want to be able to have include files so you can just edit a few select files to make changes to the site - likely you are thinking yes, if you have built a website before. Do you want the sites to have many pages, few pages, etc. Choose your template according to planned building.
Primarily you either go for something professional and something that loads quick, easy to modify, or you go with something like Flash which is more of a in-your-face design concept. Many websites are going flash nowadays because there are a lot of people out there who just like a site for how it looks.
What will keep people coming back to your site is either good content, or a nice design. For example, take a look at www.callofduty3.com . Some people hit that site just to oogle the game and listen to the interactive music in the background.
If you want something simple and are new, go with a generic HTML template. Later when you learn how to do includes (they're so easy, check out our include article) then you can easily splice your left nav into an include file and voila, you have an easy to use, easy to generate new content HTML site layout.
CSS is Cascading Style Sheet. It's likely for more advanced users; more about CSS in our other CSS articles.
If you want something cool, something animated. Example: A DJ website. You want something hip, something happening. Something to jump at people when they hit the site; to make your name stay in their mind with the thought "Hey, that was one cool website." Then go with a flash or animated flash template. Honestly though, the best flash concepts are ones thought up by one unique individual. Nevertheless, you can still modify a pre-build Flash template and apply it to your site. Most web hosts are compatible with SWF files.
Geocities templates are great for the free geocities sites. Most webmasters at some point started on Geocities, which was around long before Myspace.
Myspace is for users who want to do as little work as possible (or don't know HTML) and just want something completely pre-generated with little to no modification. You can get a template of your favorite band like Savage Garden if you want to do a savage Garden fan club. Then you change almost nothing and call the site your own.
More to follow on free Icon & free logo templates too! Ones you can just take an image and throw something on top of it in photoshop to create something not only easy and quick but professional as well.
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