Build Your First Website In Simple Steps

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Build Your First Website
Use your computer with confidence
Author’s acknowledgements:
Publisher’s acknowledgements:
Contents at a glance
Contents
Top 10 Website Tips
	Build a free Google site
	Create a static website with WordPress
	Change themes in WordPress
	Choose an attractive colour scheme
	Create a custom banner
	Prepare photos for your site
	Add a YouTube video
	Configure your site with widgets
	Examine source code with Firebug
	Test your website’s performance
Know your options
	Build a free hosted website
	Create a free hosted blog
	Use a Web hosting service
	Build online with a content management system
	Build offline with a Web design application
	Code your site manually with HTML and CSS
Get started with a Web hosting service
	Find a Web hosting service
	Research a Web hosting service
	Create an account
	Explore the hosting service’s control panel
	Register a domain name
	Create a subdomain
	Assign an add-on domain
	Park a domain
	Create a redirect
	Check the server’s status
	Create an e-mail account
Transfer files with FTP
	Access your hosting service’s FTP features
	Navigate folders on your server
	Create a new folder
	Upload files with FTP
	Download files with FTP
	Install a dedicated FTP client
	Enter login information
	Connect to your FTP server
	Upload and download files
	Create a new FTP account
Set up a content management system
	Explore your options
	Install WordPress
	Log in to WordPress
	Navigate WordPress
	Enter a privacy preference
	Enter a site title and tagline
	Enter the site’s address
	Enter your front page preference
	Enter a permalinks preference
	Adjust discussion settings
	Edit your profile
	Add a user
Design an attractive colour scheme
	Use colours to set the tone and evoke emotion
	Use a colour wheel
	Explore sample colour schemes
	Use Color Scheme Designer
	Install ColorZilla for Firefox
	Pick up colours from an image
	Pick up colours from a Web page
	Change a colour’s saturation
	Change a colour’s value
	Translate colours into codes
Choose a theme
	Find free themes
	Find premium themes
	Choose a theme’s appearance
	Choose number of columns
	Choose column widths
	Choose fixed or flex width
	Choose functionality
	Check theme reviews
	Install a theme from within WordPress
	Download a theme
	Upload a theme
	Activate a theme
Customise the header
	Know your header options
	Install a custom header theme
	Configure the header in a custom header theme
	Add background shading to a text-based header
	Identify the header’s dimensions
	Choose a header image
	Upload your header image
	Add text
	Add shadows and effects
	Add a border
	Download your banner
	Upload your banner to your site
	Add the banner to your theme
	Hide site title and tagline
Configure your site with widgets
	Add widgets to your site
	Enter widget settings
	Create a text widget
	Rearrange widgets
	Remove widgets
	Find and install more widgets
Accessorise your site with plugins
	Explore 10 valuable plugins
	Find free plugins
	Investigate a plugin’s details
	Install a plugin
	Change plugin settings
	Update plugins
	Reduce spam with Askimet
	Track your site’s statistics
	Add a photo or slideshow gallery
	Add social bookmarks
	Troubleshoot plugins
Add and format pages and posts with HTML
	Create a new page
	Create a new post
	Add an e-mail contact form to your site
	Format a page or post in visual mode
	Display a page or post in HTML view
	Explore essential HTML tags
	Choose whether or not to allow comments
	Preview a page or post
	Publish a page or post
	Edit a page or post
	Delete a page or post
	Back up your site’s content
Configure a template with cascading style sheets (CSS)
	Open a style sheet to edit
	Edit a style rule
	Define class selector style rules
	Define ID selector style rules
	Apply style properties with 
 and  tags
	Assign CSS measurement values
	Define font properties
	Define text properties
	Assign CSS colour values
	Format unordered lists
	Format ordered lists
	Define hyperlink properties
	Create a box
	Add borders
	Set margins and add padding around elements
	Add a background image
	Position elements on a page
	Add a scroll bar
	Download and install Firebug
	Use Firebug to inspect an element’s CSS
Configure your site’s design with a premium theme
	Adjust the theme’s design options
	Adjust the theme’s site options
	Adjust column numbers and widths
	Change background colours
	Change a font’s family, size and colour
	Use themes within a premium theme
	Override design elements with custom CSS
	Add a header image
	Add pages to the Navigation menu
	Configure the Navigation menu
	Customise a theme with hooks
Add graphics and videos to pages and posts
	Establish a media management strategy
	Adjust the quality and size of images
	Upload images to the WordPress Media Library
	Insert an image from the Media Library
	Insert an image using its URL
	Insert a thumbnail image
	Resize an image
	Edit an image in WordPress
	Align an image
	Add space between image and text
	Add a border to an image
	Create an image link
	Specify alternative text
	Upload a video to the Web
	Embed a video in a page or post
Test and improve your site’s speed
	Test your Web page’s loading speed at Pingdom.com
	Download and install Google Page Speed
	Test page speed with Google Page Speed
	Speed up your site with W3 Total Cache
	Adjust W3 Total Cache’s settings
	Minify CSS and JavaScript files
	Reduce the size of an image file
Raise your site’s search engine profile
	Register your site with search indexes
	SEO your content
	Implement an effective link strategy
	Improve search engine optimisation with a sitemap plugin
	Improve search engine optimisation with an SEO plugin
	Add SEO data to posts and pages
	Tag pages and posts
	Install SEO Doctor for Firefox
	Audit your site with SEO Doctor
Manage your site with Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics
	Access Google’s Webmaster Tools
	Add your site to Webmaster Tools
	Check your site’s configuration
	View data in ‘Your site on the Web’
	Examine diagnostics for your site
	Create a Google Analytics account
	Add a Google Analytics tracking code to your site
	Access Analytics for your site
Generate income from your site
	Sell through affiliate programs
	Add pay-per-click advertisements
	Add a Paypal shopping cart to your site
	Coordinate your site with an eBay account
Top 10 Website Problems Solved
	I installed a WordPress plugin that messed up my site. What should I do?
	I installed the W3 Total Cache plugin and am now getting an error message when I try to log in to WordPress. What shoould I do?
	I forgot my username/password for logging in to WordPress. How can I find out what it is?
	How do I move my site to a new domain without losing traction with search engines such as Google?
	What could be causing my site to take so long to load in a Web browser?
	How do I add more space between an image and the text that wraps around it?
	I pasted the YouTube embed code on my page and, when I open the page, all I see is the code. How do I get the video to show?
	My sidebar appears below the content on my page. How do I move it up so that it appears alongside the content area?
	How do I register my site with search directories?
	How do I add an image to a sidebar in WordPress?