My Favorite Techie

Today there are several web site design choices to consider when thinking about putting together a website. In the beginning, there was only one option and that was to learn HTML, the language of the web, and construct each page in an editor or web design software. Not only did you have to learn the skills to develop pages, but maintenance got to become a problem as the site got larger and larger.

Now there are many more web design choices to consider when considering publishing a website. There is the traditional site which can be built using a web editor such as Adobe Dreamweaver or CoffeeCup. No longer do you have to start from scratch knowing nothing. You rely on the skills of others to get you started. However, there are a number of sites now that offer templates already setup which allow you to just pick out what suites you, change a few parameters here and there and then add some content.

I like to recommend this solution to clients who want a very simple site with a few pages and not too many features. The more features you wish, the more you will have to get into learning special programming languages. Simple sites are still the greatest, but have their limitations. One of the biggest is the need for the web editing software and that is not available on every machine you may use.

The next best thing to consider is the use of a content management system to setup your site. Don’t worry about the fancy name. It actually is more a friend to you than you think. Content management systems make it very easy to create pages. If you know how to operate a word processor, you can create and edit pages. The best part is that the software resides on your web host, not your computer. Therefore, any computer with Internet access can be used to work on your website.

Just like traditional websites, there are numerous templates available for your choice of CMS (content management system). The biggest three solutions out there are WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Just search the name of the CMS and template in your favorite search engine and you will be inundated with options for templates. If for some reason nothing suites your taste, there is always someone who would be willing to design or customize one for you.

I hope for those of you considering building a new website, this post has helped you get your mind around the options a little better. If there are any questions, feel free to drop me a message.