Creating multiple pages on my web site

[DonF]

Sorry to post such an elementary question. I really did search for this information.

How do I get my web site to have multiple pages, rather than one very long page?

Thanks very much.

DonF

[Early Out]

When someone points a browser to www.yourdomain.com, by default it coughs up the index.html file, if there is one there. But you can create other pages with other names. So, your main page might be index.html, but it might contain links to other pages, like dogs.html or cats.html. So, there would be a link on the index.html page like this:

<a href="dogs.html">Click here to see my page about dogs</a>

[Justin]

Hi,

You need to create other related pages and link them together using navigation bars. By default your home page (the first page of your website) will most probably be named "index.html" or "index.php, depending on the scripting language you're using. E.g., create your first page and save it as "index.html".

After that create a second page and save it as "aboutus.html" or "profile.html". This should be the page where you'll tell the world about your website.

Next, create the third page and name it "contactus.html". This should be the page where you'll inform people how to contact you.

Depending on your need, create other related pages and don't forget to link all the pages together using navigation bars.

I hope this helps.

Sorry to post such an elementary question. I really did search for this information.

How do I get my web site to have multiple pages, rather than one very long page?

Thanks very much.

DonF

[Internet Marketing Badger]

Also sometimes it isn't necessary to have a navigation bar (side bar or menu bar at the top of your pages.) It depends on your goals for your site.

For instance, sometimes people like to design their site as one main sales page promoting a product. Since the goal is to have your visitors view your sales pitch and (hopefully)click through to buy your product, you might not want to have any other distractions on your main page like a sidebar linking out to articles because that can detract from your sales page.

If you DO want to add a few extra pages to your site you can either put the links to those other pages way down in the footer or just at the bottom of your sales page. And like the others here have mentioned, you'd just create some simple pages like a contact page, probably a disclaimer page (always important when you're selling something) a privacy policy page (critical if you are collecting names and addresses) and maybe an About page. You could put links to these somewhere on your main page but not create an actual sidebar or menu.

The main thing is that if you want more than one page on your site you will need to figure out your navigation structure - do you want a menu bar at the top or a sidebar at the side pointing out to your other pages? Or do you want to keep visitors on your main page - like if it's a sales page - and basically "hide" or de-emphasize those other pages? If so, putting the links down at the bottom of your main page should work just fine.

If you're stumped about how to design a nice page structure, you might want to download a free template to help you with a design. For inspiration it's always fun checking out the free templates at Open Source Web Design:

http://www.oswd.org/

Some of the templates are for blogs and others are for websites and all are free to download. You should get some more ideas about ways to design internal links for your pages there.

Jennifer aka "Internet Marketing Badger"

[Darenju]

Hi Early Out thanks for your information, I have followed you cues and it has worked to an extent. Now I have the link bar but when you click on the link I get the following error message:

The requested URL /<a href="italiano.html">Click qui per italiano</a> was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/2.2.8 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at www.dmlandroversparesricambi.com Port 80

What am I doing wrong???????

[Early Out]

You're using Frontpage, aren't you. If so, I'm afraid I can't help you - I've never touched the beast.

In short, however, it's trying to do you a favor. It wants just the URL that you're trying to go to (italiano.html) and the label you want to put on it (Click qui per italiano). Then, it will create the proper HTML code to take you there (the kind of code I laid out above). What's happening is that you're giving it all of the HTML code, and then it's applying its own logic to create that same code, resulting in sort of double tag, which won't work.

[Darenju]

Hi Early Out, I'm using PageWizard which is on the Bluehost cPanel.
I'll try what you have said. Thanks I'll get back to you soon.
Thank you.

[Early Out]

I'm using PageWizard which is on the Bluehost cPanel.

Equally mysterious to me, I'm afraid. Another one I've never touched.

[Darenju]

Thanks, I've tried just putting the name in but it has made no difference. Any ideas? What have you used to start a web site as I'm totally new to this.

[Early Out]

I'm really the wrong person to ask. My own website is just a photo gallery, so I use Jalbum to create it - but Jalbum isn't general-purpose website creation software.

Most people advise learning some HTML, and starting off by creating pages by hand. When you want to get fancier, then it's time to look to something like Kompozer (free) or Dreamweaver (not free). There's also content management system software available through the Control Panel/SimpleScripts link, like Joomla and Drupal.

A lot depends on what kind of site you're trying to create.