Making a website can get complex. And I mean, a full website, not a blog or a site with static content. I mean more a website with a business backend that intends to accomplish something. Like a shopping site, a product review site or something like YouTube maybe. You're going to need logos, designs, icons, background patterns and somewhere to store all these things. And if you have a great idea, and just getting started in the web development world, then these sites can help you make that process much easier and hopefully avoid some headaches that come with web development.
Manage That Project
There are plenty of websites out there to help you manage your projects with multiple people, or alone even. I'm only going to cover a few free ones here, because free is awesome and you shouldn't need to pay for anything to make a website. We're going to need a service that offers a few important features for this. Those include file uploads, permission settings, text and image editors and chat capabilities.
This is my #1 choice for project management, for many many reasons. Mainly that Google Drive is pretty much supported on almost every device nowadays, so your work goes with you wherever you go. And secondly, its 100% free. It's main use isn't as a project management platform, but it's so flexible that it can do just that without a hiccup. It's got tools for creating documents, images and spreadsheets and you can add whatever files you want as well.
And you can share full directories. Which is how I use it. For each new project that I create I make a new directory, and whoever else is working on that project with me gets access to that directory. We can then, share files or, because we're logged in to Google already, jump on Hangouts and have a chat.
You can even edit documents with multiple people in real time. You can have a Hangout's meeting while working on your next set of specifications, all without leaving your page.
Slack is a relatively newcomer in the work productivity scene, and it is growing in popularity fast. It is currently valued at somewhere around 2.8 Billion and is used by many organizations for internal communications. It isn't 100% free however. For basic use with a small team you can use the free account without any hiccups, but for anything medium to full size you'll have to pay up the monthly cost.
And the Rest
There are hundreds more project management solutions out there, some free and many at a cost, but in the end they all pretty much the same thing. They allow you to upload files, attach a comment, and notify someone that you did so. I'd still only recommend Google Drive, because it offers all of those things for free in one simple layout.
Background Patterns
For when you need to spruce up your design, SubtlePatterns.com has tons of free, and subtle, background patterns to use. And best of all, they're free. The website is created by Atle Mo, a designer from Norway and what an awesome website it is. All patterns are free to use and you can purchase a plugin for Photoshop that adds all of these awesome designs directly into your Photoshop panel.
Images and Icons
Because websites are boring without them, sometimes you need a little extra hmphth. You'd be surprised how a small pencil in an edit link makes it look more noticeable and user friendly. Here are a few of the best places to grab a few free for commercial use images and icons.
This is my favorite site for grabbing icons because it's so simple. It features over 100,000 icons and a super simple layout. You also have multiple image formats to choose from for each icon such as PNG, SVG and even ICO. They also have different sizes for each icon and many icon sets are downloaded free for commercial use.
Close 2nd on my list. FindIcons also has thousands upon thousands of commercial free to use icons as well as many premium icons that you can purchase
Validate Your Work
Make sure that your work was done correctly by validating it against several different specifications.
While not 100% necessary, having HTML that follows proper standards will help search engines better parse your content, and more importantly it will make your content more cross browser compatible. This is the official W3C html validation tool and it's a good last step to cross off the list near the end of your project.
SEO is definitely important for any website. Unless you get featured on tech blogs and never have to worry about getting visitors again that is. But for most people that won't be an option. So you need to make sure to dot your i's and slash your t's, so that search engines can parse through your content better. Bing Webmaster Tools offers an SEO validation tool that will analyze your website and tell you where you come short.
Walter Guevara is a Computer Scientist, software engineer, startup founder and previous mentor for a coding bootcamp. He has been creating software for the past 20 years.
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