A website or an individual web page can be created in a number of ways and with a wide variety of computer programs.

This particular page is devoted to the core essentials of the web page creation process. It would be impossible to cover all the programs, web page types, editors, etc. that are available, so this page will concentrate on the concept of how to build a website and make web pages.

A website is composed of one or more web pages. Each web page that you visit in a web browser is a file that has a file extension related to the type of web page it is. For example, "mypage.htm" could be a web page that is made in HTML as the file extension, or the letters after the "." period in the file name, tell web browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer, how to read the content of the file.".htm" is the extension that means "HTML".

Other ways of creating a webpage include using extensions and versions of authoring such as pages using XML, CSS, ASP.NET, AJAX, XHTML, XSLT, PHP and JavaScript, amongst many others. The scope of this page does not include explaining all of these types, but the previous list links to a Wikipedia page about each respective type that goes into detail.

Of particular note in this list is CSS, which is a way of styling web pages more universally and simplistically than in HTML alone. PHP is a scripting language that tells the interpreter to perform dynamic functions and can be used to, for instance, create a log file where visitors to a site can write in a visitor's log.

And, JavaScript is a type of script that can be added to web pages or used to make web pages entirely in which a simplistic version of the C programming language is written directly in a file and is interpreted by the web browser that reads each web page and then displays the page and performs functions outlined by the JavaScript.

HTML is not a programming language like BASIC or C++ but a script or list of instructions that are similar to text in a text editor on a computer. In fact, HTML can be written in any text editor, such as the OpenOffice text editor.

Although HTML does not read exactly like normal English language, it is one of the most easily grasped and implemented forms of computer creation. A website, however, can also be made in part or in totality with Adobe Flash, for example. Making a website in Flash is very complicated compared to making it in HTML and it requires advanced knowledge as well as expensive Adobe software.

There are only three primary things one must have to begin making the simplest of websites:
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(1) A program that can write HTML (or make some other type of web page), such as a text editor (like the Notepad in Windows, OpenOffice Writer, MS Word) or an advanced "What You See Is What You Get" (known as WYSIWYG) web page editor (like the freeware KompoZer or Adobe Dreamweaver).

(2) A place to put your web pages called a server that hosts your website. This is the place where your files are stored on a hard drive on the server and where your web page files can be accessed by people exploring the internet. Hosting companies, like FatCow.com, can host space for your files.

Yours and all hosted file space exists under what is called a domain name. For example, this website hiartx.com, stores its files under the domain "hiartx.com".

Domain names and space can be purchased or you can put files on free domains. Domains are of the form QQQ.XXX where QQQ is any name of varying length, like "henryshouseofinternetchickenandwaffles" and where XXX is typically a two or three letter extension such as ".com, .net, .org, .tv, .gov", etc.

New extensions are being added ocassionally and your website typically must reflect the extension as in a ".org" site must be a non-profit organization and a ".gov" site must be a government site.

(3) A program that can transfer your files from your computer to your server, called an FTP or "File Transfer Protocal" program. These programs, like FileZilla take your files and upload them to the server.

Uploading is sending files or information and Downloading is receiving files or information. FTP programs let you delete files, create files, rename files, make folders, etc. just like programs can do on your own computer with files and folders in directories on your hard drive.

A highly simple version of an HTML web page:

The name "index.htm" is the file name that will automatically be loaded first when someone goes to a particular domain on the internet. For example, in the root file directory of this website's domain, when you type in "http://www.hiartx.com" in a web browser, the first page that appears is "index.htm".

So, if there is only one web page on your whole website, it should be "index.htm".

A website has to be found in order for people to see it:
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There are two keys to getting your web page found on the internet.

The first thing is (1) to have good and relevant content on the web page in question. Search enginges, like Google and Bing, search the web for the content of web pages and index them accordingly. Content includes writing, images, video, music, or anything else that makes your particular web page stand out concerning a particular word, idea, theme, or anything else. There are a great number of search engines, some of which search in different ways than others.

This web page you are reading, for instance, has a decent amount of written content concerning web page creation. However, because there are millions of other web pages devoted to this same subject matter, there have to be other ways in which to make this page stand out above the others.

The second part of having a web page found (2) is having the proper META tags in the header portion of your web page. META tags are descriptions and lists of keywords that help most search engines determine what the relevant content of your web page is. For example, in the header portion of this web page (you can view the source of any web page by clicking on "view" and "page source in most browser options menus) these are the header tags:

<meta name="description" content="A web page devoted to explaining how to make a website and an overview of the process of what tools, knowledge, and software are needed to make a simple web page and eventually a web site that can consist of at least one web page on a server as well as having domain space and a domain name or using another's domain name.">

<meta name="keywords" content="website, web, page, tutorial, examples, explanation, world wide web, site, internet, ftp, url, explained, domain, software, HTML, education, website making, make a site, internet site, intranet, web addresses, website form, navigation, hyperlinks, hotlinks, graphics, graphical links, anchors, frames, tables, authoring, WYSIWYG, what you see is what you get, real-time">

The description is just that and the keywords are words that specifically relate to this page and are words probably found on the content of this page.

To make a beautiful website, you'll need to make some graphics:
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