If you are getting ready to launch your very first website, you may be wondering how many pages you should have in order for the website to be effective. While there is no magic number, the number you start off with really all depends on what you are using the website for.

Here are the two most basic web pages that should go on any website:

• Home or Index Page: The home, or index, page is the first page that people see when your website pulls up. This page should tell a little bit about your website and let the visitor know what they can expect to find throughout the entire website.
• About Us Page: This page will tell about you, your business, or both. Here you can tell how long you have been in business, why you chose the business you are in, and thing of that nature.

Actually, you could build a website with just those two pages and be absolutely fine. However, if you are in business to sell something then you may want to add a page about your service or products. You can also add a privacy policy page which lets people know that you will not be selling their information to anyone.

What’s important to know about website pages is that you can always add them or take them away at any time. The only page that has to be on a website is the home, or index, page. So, you can start out with a three page website and add pages as you go also. This allows you to build your website as you build your business. Even if you are not using your website for business, you can still build a great looking website as you see fit, one page at a time.

If you are going to have a website, then obviously you want to have people find it. This can be achieved at a much faster clip if you use some powerful promotion tools yourself and there is none better than link building.

Link building is a great way to promote your website and for every link that you have out there, it is like a road sign showing the search engines where to find you. With link building, your link will go on other websites and there is a variety of ways to get your link on other websites but the best two are:

• Through Article Marketing: Article marketing is when you write articles about your niche and then distribute them to article directories online. When you write these articles you have what is called a resource box on the bottom of the article. In this resource box will be a link to your website. The end result is your link to many different websites.
• Link Exchanges: Link exchanges are when you find others who have websites and have them put your link on their website in exchange for you putting their link on your website. With this method, be sure that you only exchange links with websites that are similar to yours or it will do you little good. For example, if your website is one that has you selling phones, don’t exchange links with a dog food website.

Link building is a technique that takes a little bit of time, but the result can be a great increase in traffic to your website. With more traffic comes more sales and with more sales comes more money to your bottom line. While there are many other ways in which you can promote your website, there are few that are as effective as good old fashioned link building.

Many people these days have a website, but if they are not using proper search engine optimization (SEO) then they are not going to get the traffic they are after. When you use SEO techniques for your website you are allowing the search engine giants, like Google, to actually be able to find you. Without using SEO techniques, your website will be lost in the vast sea of the World Wide Web.

Think of your website in the same way as you would a physical store font. Now, you fill the inside of your store with all the latest and greatest products and you have one of the nicest stores in the area. Then, you open for business, only nobody comes in. Suddenly, you realize that you forget to put signs up and unlock your doors.

This is the same with a website that has no SEO. Without SEO your website (inside of the store) may look really great and be filled with all the best products at the best prices, but it still won’t be found. Why? You forgot to put signs up and unlock the door so Google and others can find you.

Once the search engines do find you, thanks to proper SEO, you will begin to get listed. The easier they find you and the more times they find you, the higher you get on the list. That list is what millions of people look at each and every day when they go online to search for whatever it is they are after.  Don’t you want your website at the top of that list?

SEO is a necessity if you plan on using your website for anything. Unless you only want your friends and family to look at your website, you need to be sure that it contains the very best in SEO.

Why Use a Web Hosting Site Builder?

There can be several reasons to build a website: to promote your small business, sell homemade goods online, or even to create a new business venture. If you’re new to the world of website building and are perplexed by domains, web hosting, and HTML – there are all-in-one site builders designed to assist in the creation of the website you desire, and best of all, very minimal technical knowledge (if any at all) is necessary.

Benefits of Using a Web Hosting Site Builder

One of the primary benefits of using a web hosting site builder is the way it caters to those with little understanding or patience for technology. Also, the majority of site builders will allow you to upgrade to a personalized domain for a small increase in the monthly fee  (.com, .net, etc), but with little additional aggravation.

Examples of Web Hosting Site Builders

Homestead.com – Offers over 2,000 professionally designed website templates with multiple customizable elements – without the user ever having to work directly with HTML. Homestead also offers users the ability to create an online store and easily add product images, titles, and descriptions, and integrate the store into the user’s existing website. All funds are transferred via PayPal account, thereby earning the buyer’s trust. Homestead’s services are also affordable, with the Hosting/Site Builder package costing $5/month and the SimpleStore package starting at $9.99/month.

Yahoo! Small Business – Designed for those seeking to grow their small business, Yahoo! offers a wide variety of services for a low price ($7.46/month – $13/month, depending on how many months purchased). Yahoo’s web hosting comes with an easy-to-use site builder with easy customization, unlimited email storage, feedback and contact forms for customers, and a personalized domain name. Users of Yahoo! Web Hosting have access to 24/7 online, phone and e-mail support, and can follow Yahoo’s guidelines for submitting their website to search engines.

Tripod – Tripod has been helping clueless Internet users create below average websites since the mid 90’s, but how much can be expected from a completely free web hosting site builder? Using Tripod is a good way to get your feet wet, as it will slowly introduce you to the various elements needed to create a website without incurring any expenses. However, it is not recommended if creating a sleek, respectable website is among your goals.

Blogger.com – While not technically considered a site builder, blogger.com is a favorite amongst several professional bloggers. Free hosting is provided, customizing the look and feel of your blog is extremely easy, and it works seamlessly with the rest of your Google account. Little to no technical knowledge is required, as the page elements can easily be rearranged by dragging them with a few clicks of a mouse. Blogger also supports Google Adsense, creating earning potential for savvy Internet entrepreneurs without having to spend money on domains or web hosting.

Conclusion
Using a website builder is a great solution for small business owners seeking to expand to the Internet without having to spend large amounts of money on a webmaster and various start-up costs.  They’re ideal for artists or homemakers wanting to sell their goods online, and they serve as a good tool for those looking to learn about website construction. Web hosting site builders offer endless possibilities, but at very affordable prices.

When searching for a web hosting plan, it can be difficult to make the best selection based on skimming overviews, as they all offer the same basic service: hosting. Top web hosting providers provide numerous included features, designed to attract more customers than just a simple web hosting package alone.

Unlimited Disk Space
One of the most common features offered by website hosting providers is unlimited disk space, meaning you can create copious amounts of pages, photo albums, and forums without any additional charges. However, be sure to read the fine print or talk to a representative, as there are limitations to how the “unlimited” disk space can be used. The majority of web hosting customers will never exceed the “unlimited” space parameters, but if you plan on creating thousands of pages of rich content with large files, it may be worth investigating exactly what “unlimited space” actually means.

Uptime Guarantee
“Uptime” is the amount of time a website is accessible, or online. This is outside of the control of the website administrator and rests in the hands of the hosting provider. The most commonly used hosts will provide a very high uptime percentage, usually around 99%. Some of these providers have elected to advertise this service as a “feature”, and back up their promise with a guarantee, thereby earning a prospective buyer’s trust. HostGator offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, which is the equivalent of 45 minutes of downtime per month.

Free, Easy-to-Use Control Panel
Web host providers have realized that a large portion of potential customers have very limited knowledge of how to work “under the hood” of a website. A built-in control panel with a basic layout is a huge bonus for someone just learning the ropes of website building.

Unlimited Subdomains, Parked Domains, Add-On Domains
If you’re in the process of building an Internet empire, the right web hosting provider can help you rule the web by allowing you to host hundreds of domains in various forms. Subdomains are part of a larger domain (mail.yoursite.com and forum.yoursite.com are examples of subdomains of yoursite.com), parked domains are domains that exist with no actual content, but often display advertisements that serve as a monetization tool; add-on domains are standalone domains, such as yoursite.com, your-other-site.com, your-favorite-site.com, etc.

Unlimited Email Accounts
Another top web hosting feature is the provision of limitless e-mail accounts. This comes in handy if you have multiple administrators for a particular website, or if you own several domains and want to utilize different e-mail address for each website. Determining how to manage these dozens of e-mail accounts is up to the user.

Google AdWords Credit
An increasingly popular credit given by web host providers is a free, $100 AdWords credit. AdWords is a great way to generate traffic, as your website will appear at the top of Google’s search results when someone searches for specified keywords or phrases. If you’re starting a blog, this can be a great way to gain early exposure and establish a small base of subscribers.

Web Hosting Providers
Justhost.com: Provides all features discussed, with the exception of a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
HostGator: Offers most features, and prides itself on providing hosting services to over 5 million websites.
GoDaddy.com: Provides several features at varying price levels, for as low as $1.99/month.

Read online backup reviews to find the best storage space.

Promoting your website is an ongoing process and as important as it is to promote your website online, it is just as important to promote it offline as well. When you have a steady mix of both online and offline promotion, your website can really begin to see a huge difference in traffic.

Here are some easy ways to promote your website offline:

• Shirts and Hats: Have t-shirts and hats with your website address printed on them and wear them everywhere you go. This turns the average passerby into a potential website visitor and makes you a walking advertisement.
• Your Vehicle: You can have your vehicle wrapped with a special kind of vinyl that will make it a rolling billboard. Make sure your website is plastered all over it and don’t be afraid to get a bit obnoxious. The more attention you gain the better. Even when you vehicle is parked, it is still going to bring attention.
• Flyers: Flyers are a great old fashioned way to get the word out about anything and you can use them to spread the word about your website as well. You can create a flyer with your website on it and then have it duplicated for a relatively small amount of money. Then you only need to find a few busy parking lots and get to work. In no time at all, your website’s name will be under the windshield wipers of countless potential viewers.

Promotion of any kind for your website is good promotion, but you should never forget about the multiple opportunities that you have offline to get people going to your website. Instead of just going about your everyday life not thinking about website promotion, you can use just a bit of imagination and effectively market your website and really get your website’s traffic flowing.

Article marketing can be a great way to promote your website, but only if you go about it in the proper manner. If you don’t follow simple guidelines with article marketing you could in fact just be wasting your time and that will do you and your website no good at all.

Here are some common mistakes to avoid with article marketing:

• Writing about Irrelevant Topics: You need to be sure that the articles you write about will all pertain to your website or the industry in which you work. The last thing someone wants to do is read an article you wrote on children and then click the link at the bottom of the article and end up on your electronics website.
• Writing an Advertisement: People search online to read articles that are interesting and informative. The last thing they want to see is an advertisement on your latest sale. Besides, if you write in an overly advertising way, many of the article directories will not take the article in the first place.
• Writing about Boring Stuff: Write about stuff that is exciting so it will make for an exciting read. Boring subjects are not good to write about as a bored viewer will leave as fast as they came and likely never see the link to your website.

If you are going to take the time to do article marketing you should be sure that you make it worth your while. Article marketing can help you generate a lot of welcomed links and a lot of ‘back-door’ traffic to your website, but not if you make common mistakes. Take your time and write an interesting, informative, and relevant article and you will see that the methods of article marketing is one that will do serve your website well.