Whether you are creating a website for yourself, your company, a special project, or whatever, the hard part is envisioning what you want the site to look like, what color schemes you want to use, graphics, and layout. Here are some things to consider:

1. Layout – This deals with how the page is going to look, where the navigation is going to be, the placement of graphics, tables, etc.
2. Color Schemes – This deals with what the primary colors of your site are going to be. Afterall, you want the colors on your site to be consitent and to compliment each other.
3. Main graphics – This includes the header of your page, how big the header is going to be, other major graphics that you may want to include as a part of the design of your site.
4. Tables – This is a part of almost any site, but it has to do with the order, structure, and look of your site.

Unless you are very creative and have had special designing classes, here is my primary suggestion:

Use Dreamweaver templates in building your web sites.

I have used many of them. Some paid. Some free. I have designed a few of them myself, but after a while, I ran low on creativity. I have also paid a firm in Dallas to create one for me.

I went to Google and typed in “Dreamweaver Templates. This pulls up a bunch of free and paid templates.

The free templates are not bad, and are good for creating a simple site. You will get what you paid for here… some free stuff. Let me caution you, though, on the free stuff. It may not be as free as you think.  Many times the programmers embed hidden or encrypted links from your site to theirs. This is especially true with WordPress templates. Be careful when you get something free, because you’ll end up paying for it one way or another. These are bad for hobbies and personal sites.

The paid templates are not bad. I got most of mine from Template Monster. They will cost you about $40-$60, give or take a little bit. You get a template with the HTML, Javascript, Flash, and CSS code. It has a bunch of graphics that come with it, and it’s all been laid out for you. You just need to make a few tweaks here and there to customize it. It would help if you had a program to edit the graphics, especially the PSD formatted graphics. I recommend Template Monster because you aren’t going to get any hidden or encrypted code. If you want to make money or run a small business, then try these paid templates. You can really get a professional look.

Custom Templates are great, but be willing to pay. I paid $1200 for my custom template. It was done by a company in Dallas, 123Triad.  They did great work. Generally speaking, you give them some design ideas, graphic ideas, etc. They send you back one or two ideas and work with their team to come up with a possible layout and design, and then you choose what looks good or sounds good. They give you 3-5 ideas for proofing. You make suggestions back and forth, and you finally have your finished design. The good thing about this is it is 100% unique to you and no one else can copy it. The custom templates are great if you are launching a major business or have been in business for a while and want to step up your professional appearance.

I suggest using templates, especially if you are going to be working on multiple sites over time. Fork out a few bucks, and you have a very professional look and design. It can also save you tons of hours of the initial design process.

Many of the current web editors have a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. You don’t need to really know HTML, CSS, or any other code. You just move things around, click on the icons, and build your website.

Dreamweaver, Frontpage, and others all have this. If you have this, do you really need to learn to code?

I would say… definitely yes. Let me give you 3 reasons why you need to learn HTML, CSS, javascript, or whatever:

First, the code is more simple. If there are two programmers who design a web page that look very similar – one did it by coding the page – the other did it by using the WYSIWYG editor – here is what I found.

The person who did the coding would have almost half, if not less, actual code on the page. If you look at the actual source code that a WYSIWYG produces, it is at least twice as much code than the coder’s.

Simple code is easier to manage, easier to edit, and simply looks better (which would be important if you are not the only one viewing the code).

Second, coded pages rank better than WYSIWYG pages. While this is a very general statement, if all things were equal, and you had the same two near-identical pages again, the simpler page would rank better because it loads faster and is more easily read by the browsers.

I have seen this when I go to Google. I can find two pages that are similar. The coded page gets ranked higher.

Granted, there are many, many, many ranking factors when it comes time to get your web pages ranked in the search engines, but why not put things in your favor and learn to code.

Third, learning to code will get you a better job. Again, a general statement, but, who would you rather hire if you were the boss? If all things are relatively equal, except that one guy coded his pages and the other guy was a WYSIWYG guy… hands down the coder gets the job.

Why? Learning code takes extra work. It takes extra commitment. It demonstrates you will go the extra mile to get the job done right, and best. That is the kind of guy that gets hired and promoted, over the lazier person who plays with his WYSIWYG editor.

Take it for what it’s worth… but learn to code. It will not be a skill you’ll regret having taking the time to learn.