Quick simple way to set up new website?

Chet Zar

Hi guys,

I'm pretty much completely new to web design and development so any help broken down into simple steps would be most appreciated! I have purchased a domain name and also web hosting (Linux 5 package from Irishdomains.com, domain is also from irishdomains.com).

I am looking to set up a simple but decent looking site (something that looks professional but doesn't require any fancy bells and whistles for now) and have been hearing a lot about CMS systems such as Joomla etc. Pretty much all I would need on my site is some nice graphics, a logo, a nice background and a set of tabs which would be single pages (one of the tabs would have sub-tabs):

Tabs:

Home
About Us
Tab 3 - with 3 or 4 sub-tabs
Forum
Blog
Feedback
Contact

So - very simple layout at least to start with. Can anyone recommend a good way to get my site up and running given I already have a domain and a host bearing in mind I have zero experience? I am really eager to get started!

Am also not clear on how my site would get published to my domain so that others can see it - presume I need to use the FTP in my control panel?

Also, can I upload a forum to my site using Joomla or other applications? This would be a central part of the site.

Again, any simple steps much appreciated!

Thanks

edit: should also mention I am doing my own research on how to do this but the amount of info out there is fairly overwhelming!

Chet Zar

Anyone...?

p

What's your background & skillset?

To be completely honest, it sounds like you're asking how to make a nice, professional website without any skillset or budget. Hard to give you advice on that.

My advice is to hire someone.

Liam Byrne

+1 on everything that p said.

A professional-looking, simple site takes design and implementation expertise - graphic design, Photoshop, HTML structure, basic SEO, etc - and time - working out what the client wants and likes, and how best to put it together, as well as putting it together.

At a guess (because the content hasn't been specified, and the amount of time required to collate it and turn it into a suitable content format is therefore undefined) a templated version could be done and set up for around €350 - €400, while a professional one-off design could be done for about €800 - €1,000; and that's on the basic end of the scale, balancing budget with all of the basic requirements of a site (professional design, proper structure and graphics, basic SEO, cross-browser and screen resolution testing and compatibility).

If you had some of the skillset required, and let us know your background, then some of the above could possibly be done without a professional, but the general rule is that hobby sites can be done as a learning experience while a site that represents your company should be done by a professional.

Chet Zar

Ah yes - prob didn't give enough background!

I don't have any experience in web design - I mean I know what HTML, CSS and Javascript are, what a CMS is and that's about the height of it. I have a full-time job so my only time to dedicate to this is evenings and weekends - so while I def want to learn about web design obviously my time is limited and I do want to get it up and running quickly. My experience would be more on the content development/marketing side - so really I just need to get the bones of the site and place and have the ability/access to add and edit content as I go along under the sections I mentioned above.

Budget is not a major issue but I wouldn't be looking to shell out hundreds just yet as there is no guarantee I will make my money back or that the site will even take off! (although I will be working 100% to make that happen and am confident it will). I don't have an actual business - any revenue at first would come from advertising through driving traffic to the useful content on the site.

Seems like I have two options - 1) hire a designer mate to do some work part-time to get me set up or 2) try to set it up myself using some sort of online app like Joomla or WordPress (although this seems more suited to blogs?).

If I'm going to try out 2) then my question as above is where do I start. I do realise that to get it looking good the free apps are prob vastly limited. Comments in general welcome.


EDIT - Just read Liam's post above - cheers Liam - re the content this will come from two sources:

1) myself - me writing the content, plus others helping out possibly

2) from the forum on the site - user generated discussion and content

Liam Byrne

Chet Zar wrote: »

My experience would be more on the content development/marketing side - so really I just need to get the bones of the site and place and have the ability/access to add and edit content as I go along under the sections I mentioned above.

I would therefore suggest playing to your strengths in that regard, and focussing on that while getting someone else to put the site together.

If you're looking at a CMS, then the outline quotes I mentioned above would be at least €150 - €200 off.

Chet Zar wrote: »

Budget is not a major issue but I wouldn't be looking to shell out hundreds just yet as there is no guarantee I will make my money back or that the site will even take off!

While I understand this catch-22, I would respectfully suggest that the phrase "shell out hundreds" implies that budget IS an issue. If we were talking thousands, then fair enough, but if you want a professional site that reflects your business then a few hundred is an investment, not a cost.

Chet Zar wrote: »

any revenue at first would come from advertising through driving traffic to the useful content on the site.

I'm not even sure what the site is about, in that case; a 9 page site would not appear to have enough content to generate any worthwhile level of advertising or subscriptions.

Yes, the forum could generate advertising if there were lots of topics being discussed, but that normally only comes with having a substantial, established site.

Chet Zar wrote: »

Seems like I have two options - 1) hire a designer mate to do some work part-time to get me set up or 2) try to set it up myself using some sort of online app like Joomla or WordPress (although this seems more suited to blogs?).

WordPress is great for blogs, not so much for a solid professional web presence.

Chet Zar wrote: »

If I'm going to try out 2) then my question as above is where do I start. I do realise that to get it looking good the free apps are prob vastly limited. Comments in general welcome.

Again, it all comes back to looking professional. I would certainly suggest investing in a template for about €50 in order to give yourself some chance of having a professional-looking site.

Chet Zar wrote: »

EDIT - Just read Liam's post above - cheers Liam - re the content this will come from two sources:

1) myself - me writing the content, plus others helping out possibly

2) from the forum on the site - user generated discussion and content

Glad I was some help. But again, this doesn't quite match up with the original description of the site as a 9-page site.

Chet Zar

Liam Byrne wrote: »

I would therefore suggest playing to your strengths in that regard, and focussing on that while getting someone else to put the site together.

If you're looking at a CMS, then the outline quotes I mentioned above would be at least €150 - €200 off.



While I understand this catch-22, I would respectfully suggest that the phrase "shell out hundreds" implies that budget IS an issue. If we were talking thousands, then fair enough, but if you want a professional site that reflects your business then a few hundred is an investment, not a cost.



I'm not even sure what the site is about, in that case; a 9 page site would not appear to have enough content to generate any worthwhile level of advertising or subscriptions.

Yes, the forum could generate advertising if there were lots of topics being discussed, but that normally only comes with having a substantial, established site.



WordPress is great for blogs, not so much for a solid professional web presence.



Again, it all comes back to looking professional. I would certainly suggest investing in a template for about €50 in order to give yourself some chance of having a professional-looking site.



Glad I was some help. But again, this doesn't quite match up with the original description of the site as a 9-page site.

Ah, I'll clarify that. I meant around 9 tabs, but with lots of pages under these tabs. I would imagine each tab would eventually have dozens of pages.

On the budget, couldn't agree more with the point your making. If I had an actual business then I would happily pay thousands to invest in a solid web presence, but given I don't have anything to sell and all potential revenue would come through advertising initially I kinda need to keep costs down until I launch the site. While I don't want to say what I'm working on the idea is that the site will offer lots of useful content and the people will use it as a 'dedicated one-stop shop' - a site recognised as a go-to resource. I actually think I'll need to hire some writers part-time as I won't have the time or the knowledge to cover everything. Getting the content up there will be the biggest challenge I reckon, but definitely a professional looking site is needed too to get and keep visitors..

Liam Byrne

Chet Zar wrote: »

Ah, I'll clarify that. I meant around 9 tabs, but with lots of pages under these tabs. I would imagine each tab would eventually have dozens of pages.

Then you definitely need a professional to sit down with you to work out a comprehensive and extendible navigation scheme.

Chet Zar wrote: »

I actually think I'll need to hire some writers part-time as I won't have the time or the knowledge to cover everything. Getting the content up there will be the biggest challenge I reckon, but definitely a professional looking site is needed too to get and keep visitors..

If you are hiring writers, then €1,000 or €1,500 or so is a tiny investment.

Once upon a time, the Enterprise Boards had grants for stuff like this; not sure if they do nowadays, with the recession, but if you're likely to be employing people they might be worth a shot.

Chet Zar

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Then you definitely need a professional to sit down with you to work out a comprehensive and extendible navigation scheme.



If you are hiring writers, then €1,000 or €1,500 or so is a tiny investment.

Once upon a time, the Enterprise Boards had grants for stuff like this; not sure if they do nowadays, with the recession, but if you're likely to be employing people they might be worth a shot.

Do you mean €1,000 or €1,500 is tiny as regards hiring writers as in it won't go far...or just tiny overall?

Reckon that'll be the way to go though, choose some mates with the knowledge to come up with content for it, working on it part-time, pay them something for their efforts and build up content that way!

Liam Byrne

Chet Zar wrote: »

Do you mean €1,000 or €1,500 is tiny as regards hiring writers as in it won't go far...or just tiny overall?

I mean that if you're going to hire writers and pay them, then €1,000 or €1,500 for a website would be tiny by comparison to their wages.

cormee

Liam Byrne wrote: »

WordPress is great for blogs, not so much for a solid professional web presence.

I disagree - WordPress is fine for any professional SME website, it just depends on how you customise it. As Matt Cutts says, WordPress has 80-90% of the mechanics of SEO built into it, it has thousands of plugins, installs in seconds, is extremely robust and costomisable, it has a massive community to help with support and it and its plugins can be upgraded with the click of a button, no FTP needed.

What functionality are you looking for that WordPress lacks? Or why do you think it is not suitable for a professional web presence?

Some of the larger organistations who use it as a CMS include Zdnet, Spotify, Mozilla and National Geographic.

Chet Zar

cormee wrote: »

I disagree - WordPress is fine for any professional SME website, it just depends on how you customise it. As Matt Cutts says, WordPress has 80-90% of the mechanics of SEO built into it, it has thousands of plugins, installs in seconds, is extremely robust and costomisable, it has a massive community to help with support and it and its plugins can be upgraded with the click of a button, no FTP needed.

What functionality are you looking for that WordPress lacks? Or why do you think it is not suitable for a professional web presence?

Some of the larger organistations who use it as a CMS include Zdnet, Spotify, Mozilla and National Geographic.

I really like WordPress blogs so would be delighted to use it to set up a website! Is it easy to get started with re setting up a site?

tomED

cormee wrote: »

As Matt Cutts says, WordPress has 80-90% of the mechanics of SEO built into it

And has a major issue with duplicate content... but that's besides the point.

I agree with Liam here, although wordpress is great for small businesses and getting a simple web presence - it's not a truly professional solution.

cormee

tomED wrote: »

And has a major issue with duplicate content... but that's besides the point.

If it's set up by someone who knows what they are doing it doesn't.

tomED

cormee wrote: »

If it's set up by someone who knows what they are doing it doesn't.

Wordpress is notorious for being terrible for handling duplicate content regardless of how it's set up.

lostprophetsie

tomED wrote: »

Wordpress is notorious for being terrible for handling duplicate content regardless of how it's set up.

Thats not 100% correct, there are many ways to ensure your Wordpress blog doesn't have issues with duplicate content. Cormee is correct, if the blog is set up by someone who knows what they are doing it can be avoided using several methods.

Also this article from Google Webmaster Central, although old hasnt' changed Link

Apologies I seem to have gone way off the topic

tomED

Yeah I agree it's completely off topic now - but let's clear things up here for everyone. "Out of the box" wordpress is terrible at handling the content. Of course you can install plugins etc to prevent this.

My issue with Cormac's initial post was matt's cutts quote about the "80-90% of the machanics of SEO". My point was that there are issues with Wordpress that can also have a negative effect on your websites perfomance in the search results. So in other words, just because Matt Cutts says it has all these wonderful SEO features - doesn't mean it is the best or even a good solution. Hence my "besides the point" comment.

In relation to the duplicate content - without getting too deep, sites are negatively effected by having duplicate content. I don't think this thread is the place to explain how, but it is an issue.

Chet Zar

tomED wrote: »

Yeah I agree it's completely off topic now - but let's clear things up here for everyone. "Out of the box" wordpress is terrible at handling the content. Of course you can install plugins etc to prevent this.

My issue with Cormac's initial post was matt's cutts quote about the "80-90% of the machanics of SEO". My point was that there are issues with Wordpress that can also have a negative effect on your websites perfomance in the search results. So in other words, just because Matt Cutts says it has all these wonderful SEO features - doesn't mean it is the best or even a good solution. Hence my "besides the point" comment.

In relation to the duplicate content - without getting too deep, sites are negatively effected by having duplicate content. I don't think this thread is the place to explain how, but it is an issue.

OP here again, I guess I am the only one with the power to let you go off topic

After some thought and after getting an insight into just how tricky it is to get a professional website up and running, I've decided to in fact leave it to the pros! I'll be getting a design company to work on it.

Now I'm interested in the duplicate content thing - how does this happen then?

cormee

tomED wrote: »

Yeah I agree it's completely off topic now - but let's clear things up here for everyone. "Out of the box" wordpress is terrible at handling the content. Of course you can install plugins etc to prevent this.

My issue with Cormac's initial post was matt's cutts quote about the "80-90% of the machanics of SEO". My point was that there are issues with Wordpress that can also have a negative effect on your websites perfomance in the search results. So in other words, just because Matt Cutts says it has all these wonderful SEO features - doesn't mean it is the best or even a good solution.

Your first paragraph seems to indicate you don't understand the problem. It's caused by incorrectly configured .htaccess and robots.txt, not by WordPress, neither of those files are WordPress core files and solving the problem, if it actually arises, only requires about 3 minutes editing per file.

If you're unable to edit those files you can simply add the Duplicate Content plugin direct from your WordPress admin interface, no FTP needed.

Chet-Zar - Don't worry about duplicate content, it's not one of your major concerns at this stage.

As I said earlier if WordPress is installed correctly the problem will not arise.

tomED

cormee wrote: »

Your first paragraph seems to indicate you don't understand the problem. It's caused by incorrectly configured .htaccess and robots.txt, not by WordPress, neither of those files are WordPress core files and solving the problem, if it actually arises, only requires about 3 minutes editing per file.

If you're unable to edit those files you can simply add the Duplicate Content plugin direct from your WordPress admin interface, no FTP needed..

cormee wrote: »

As I said earlier if WordPress is installed correctly the problem will not arise.

Sorry Cormee but that's not true. It's just not as simple as that. There is more you need to think about to prevent duplicate content issues with a Wordpress site.

Michael Gray does a good job explaining it - http://www.wolf-howl.com/video/make-wordpress-search-engine-friendly/

Bottom line is if you install Wordpress by default, it's installed correctly....
But if you want to make it search engine friendly, you have to go the extra mile to make it so.

@Chet-Zar - Duplicate content really is off-topic and as Cormee says, not something you should be worrying about at this stage.

I was merely using it as a way to inform people that Wordpress isn't search engine friendly by default as Cormee was and is suggesting.

cormee

tomED wrote: »

S
I was merely using it as a way to inform people that Wordpress isn't search engine friendly by default as Cormee was and is suggesting.

You are wrong.

"Matt Cutts praised WordPress for being a fantastic choice for an SEO-friendly blog platform. WordPress automatically solves a ton of SEO issues, bloggers might have. It is a fantastic piece of software, it makes your site easily crawlable by search engines, solves some 80-90% of mechanics of SEO and is the first big step anyone can take towards creating a popular online business."

http://www.howtomakemyblog.com/seo/googles-matt-cutts-wordpress-the-best-blogging-platform-for-seo/

So are you saying Matt Cutts (from Google) is wrong?

Regardless of whether it's being used for blogging or as a CMS, the above applies to WordPress when configured and installed correctly.

tomED

cormee wrote: »

You are wrong.

"Matt Cutts praised WordPress for being a fantastic choice for an SEO-friendly blog platform. WordPress automatically solves a ton of SEO issues, bloggers might have. It is a fantastic piece of software, it makes your site easily crawlable by search engines, solves some 80-90% of mechanics of SEO and is the first big step anyone can take towards creating a popular online business."

http://www.howtomakemyblog.com/seo/googles-matt-cutts-wordpress-the-best-blogging-platform-for-seo/

So are you saying Matt Cutts (from Google) is wrong?

Regardless of whether it's being used for blogging or as a CMS, the above applies to WordPress when configured and installed correctly.

Matt Cutt's isn't wrong, but you are wrong to suggest that it's 100% search engine friendly. As Matt Cutt's says it has a LOT of SEO issues solved, but not ALL. 80-90% functional is not good enough for me, not even close... but we all have our own standards I guess.

And can we clear up the "installed correctly" point. You keep insinuating that wordpress isn't set up correctly if you don't take actions to prevent duplicate content issues - but the reality is that Wordpress is "installed correctly" without any plugins or additional editing. You need to do these extra bits to help with it's SEO friendliness - not to install it correctly.

cormee

tomED wrote: »

Matt Cutt's isn't wrong, but you are wrong to suggest that it's 100% search engine friendly. As Matt Cutt's says it has a LOT of SEO issues solved, but not ALL. 80-90% functional is not good enough for me, not even close... but we all have our own standards I guess.

And can we clear up the "installed correctly" point. You keep insinuating that wordpress isn't set up correctly if you don't take actions to prevent duplicate content issues - but the reality is that Wordpress is "installed correctly" without any plugins or additional editing. You need to do these extra bits to help with it's SEO friendliness - not to install it correctly.

OK, now you're making quotes up for me. Nowhere did I suggest WordPress is 100% SE friendly.

You seemed to have two points - the first is you suggested WordPress "has a major issue with duplicate content" - this is not true, if WordPress is set up correctly it doesn't have any issue with duplicate content.

You also say "My point was that there are issues with Wordpress that can also have a negative effect on your websites perfomance in the search results." this is not true and you've offered nothing to support that claim, and Matt Cutts' quote above backs that up, and lets face it he knows a hell of a lot more about SEO than you do.

Finally can I just add that unless you have anything new to add to the discussion on the matter I won't be replying because you're just repeating the same thing over and over, while refusing to take onboard anything stated by Matt Cutts, myself or lostprophetsie so I don't see this conversation progressing to any meaningful conclusion.

tomED

cormee wrote: »

OK, now you're making quotes up for me. Nowhere did I suggest WordPress is 100% SE friendly.

You seemed to have two points - the first is you suggested WordPress "has a major issue with duplicate content" - this is not true, if WordPress is set up correctly it doesn't have any issue with duplicate content.

You also say "My point was that there are issues with Wordpress that can also have a negative effect on your websites perfomance in the search results." this is not true and you've offered nothing to support that claim, and Matt Cutts' quote above backs that up, and lets face it he knows a hell of a lot more about SEO than you do.

Finally can I just add that unless you have anything new to add to the discussion on the matter I won't be replying because you're just repeating the same thing over and over, while refusing to take onboard anything stated by Matt Cutts, myself or lostprophetsie so I don't see this conversation progressing to any meaningful conclusion.

Ooohhhh... touchy touchy!

You have "suggested" (not to be confused with stated) that wordpress is 100% search engine friendly by using Matt Cutts quote.... twice....

You go on (again) about it being set up correctly - but I think I've made my point clear on that one too.... twice....

I suggested a link to a video to explain the issues surrounding how Google can pick up content on a Wordpress install as duplicate content. You clearly didn't watch that video. If you want me to explain I will - but I thought that video made it very clear.

Not sure what you mean by Matt Cutt's knowing a lot more about SEO than I do - how have you come to this conclusion? He definitely knows more about the inner workings of Google, that's blatantly obvious since he works on the inside... bit naive to suggest he knows a lot more about SEO based on that.

Like everything else Matt Cutt's says, people take it and contrue it to their own meaning, without fully understanding it. We see this all the time.

In the real world it causes major issues, the whole "duplicate content" saga was created because people still don't fully understand it. I know respected SEOs that still don't get it...

Matt Cutt's quote clearly doesn't discuss the issues surrounding duplicate content in this statement... He also doesn't state what the other 10-20% that Wordpress hasn't got built in... so I don't really know where you are going with this one.

Suggesting that I am ignoring the posts by yourself or lostphrophets is laughable. I've constantly pointed out where I have issues with your suggestions. I've backed up my points - if I need to be clearer let me know what you don't understand and I'll go deeper, but I had a bit more respect for you and wouldn't have thought I needed to explain.

At the end of the day - the OP is looking for a simple website, wordpress is definitely an option, we're all agreed on this.... But it's not fair to make out that it's some sort of SEO holy grail, because it's not.