So you have decided to make the plunge into the online world and have finally realised just how much benefit it would be to have your own website. This article gives free tips on web design services and practices and on how to keep your web designer happy and on side.

I have a large number of websites to do with various subjects including providing information about becoming a foster carer, offering a manual article submission service and DVD authoring.

At the outset it is all about attempting to find a professional web designer. Due to the large amount of competition out there you should be able to find a quality professional web design company happy to build you a website from between £50 and £100.

You can find these companies on search engines, internet auction websites such as ebay, yellow pages, by asking family and friends, shop window advertisements or newspaper advertisements.

Always ask to see their portfolio of the websites they have already built, this way you can see if you like their style etc.

Also ask them if they would be happy to add a link from preferably the homepage of their website to your new website. The amount of people linking to your website is becoming more and more important and as a general rule the more backward links you have the more visitors you are likely to receive.

Once you have found the web designer you now have to think about content, colours and graphics for your website. It is always a good idea to have a word document already finished to send to the designer, with all of the aspects already decided.

After the site has been uploaded to the web it is then a case of submitting the website to the major search engines. By the far the most popular of these is Google but there is also Yahoo and Bing. It is free to submit your website to these search engines.

Always include your web address in any correspondence or any advertising.