When you start to make a website, it’s easy to get caught up with thinking about the details. It’s true that framing that amazing cat video, realizing your super blog idea or getting your killer e-commerce concept up and running is important to your site’s future success. But it’s just as important to get your site found on the Internet to assure it has a long and happy life.

This is the first part in a series of articles on how to do just that: getting your site found online. Over the next few weeks, we’ll cover the basics, such as how search engines work, and see how applying a few basic principals when you create a website can go a long way to making it a success.

If you’re anything like me, then you’re probably feeling a little excited at the thought that the holiday season is upon us once again. I put it down to my severely rose-colored memory of childhood Christmases (those creative “memories” gifted by aging). Though there are many occasions each year worthy of celebrating, end-of-year festivities are really my favorite.

When the holiday mood finally strikes you this year, why not go all out and spread a little seasonal cheer through your personal website or online business? For those looking to get merry on the web, here’s a few ideas to make a website that reflects the true spirit of the season.

Work is continuing apace on the next version of your favorite free website builder, with the doomby development team currently busy working on preparing a totally new engine to drive your sites and the site manager. When it’s released in the first half of 2012, the new doomby will not only make it easier to make a website than ever before, it’ll also make website development faster, and more flexible.

Here’s an inside look at one of the up-and-coming changes to your free website builder tools: site accounts.

Starting out with a new website can be a lot of fun. Getting hands-on with tools to make a website is a little like finger-painting: your hands get dirty (ok, not really), and you get instant results with fairly minimal effort (plus it can be a whole lot of fun). Though you can create a website to share photos online or publish a personal blog for close friends and family, a lot of beginner webmasters are looking for a way to start their own online business, or to communicate with a wider audience. And for that to happen, you’ll want to get your site found in search engines with appropriate keywords.

Keeping tabs on your site’s key word ranking on search engine results pages will give you an insight into its potential for attracting visitors, and you’ve probably already using external tools like Google Analytics to follow your search engine traffic. Using a rank checking tool complements Analytics, by helping you find out just how easy it is for visitors to find your site on search engines.

Here are a few free key word ranking tools you can use to do just that.

One of the great things about making a free website is that you can publish what you need, simply and instantly, to a global audience. Publishing stuff online is a great way to rapidly diffuse content to the widest audience possible, and the kinds of website builder tools available these days mean just about anyone can do it. But what if you went to all that trouble to make a website, and had no way of knowing just how many people actually saw it?

You’ve always had access to a suite of integrated statistical tools in your doomby website manager. They’re great for keeping track of your visitors, but we thought we could make them even better. Doomby’s new stat tools are just a taste of what’s in store for the doomby website community next year, with our next version steaming ahead and on track for release in the first half of 2011.

Here’s an overview of the latest updates to your site tools.

We’ve recently taken a look at the basic principals of giving your website a good start in life. Much of the work of ensuring your site is visible on the web takes place on your pages, or through link building.

But there’s more to your website than meets the eye; your site code contains invisible meta information that defines key aspects of your site. Search engines often use this information as a way to classify and rank your pages for relevant search terms. It’s therefore just as vital to pay particular attention to this meta information when you make a website, as it is to choose the right keywords.

We’ve been somewhat inspired by our latest recruit Claire to invest a little time in jazzing-up our photo albums lately, and thought that our birthday week would be a great time to introduce you to the latest site updates. As usual, the beneficiaries of all our hard work are those of you who really dig being able to make a website with as little effort as possible (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?). In order to take advantage of the latest addition to our free website builder tools, all you need to do is just apply the new slideshow display directly to your site from the manager.

Here’s what’s in store for those looking for a new way to display online photos.

It's been a busy twelve months, what with feature additions, moves and wildlife spotting. Though it feels like it was only yesterday, 12 months have now come and gone since doomby first hit the spotlight. Yes, it's been a year already since Awelty's leap onto the international stage with the release of our very own homegrown free website builder: doomby.com.

In that short time, we've passed a lot of milestones, and welcomed a stack of new members into our community. And for those who are wondering whether we're pleased that we've helped even more people, from more countries, to make a free website over the last 12 months? Yes, we are ... but we're only just getting started! Thinking back over the last year, it really has been a busy time here since doomby burst onto the scene. Here are a few of the highlights of doomby’s first year.

You can blame it on the bronchitis, but today I feel like getting all mushy and talk about “the feeling”. It’s been a while since the feeling first hit me, but it happened a couple of months ago, sitting at home thinking about my job. It was one of those weird gushy feelings that you get when you have a real, positive emotional attachment to something, like puppies or your mother (most of the time). At the time, it struck me as odd to have that feeling, given I was thinking about a job that didn’t entail saving forests or wildlife, curing illnesses or feeding the starving masses. And the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed to feel such a strong, emotional attachment to working for a company whose business is providing others with the tools to make a website.

Since that day, I’ve thought a lot about why I genuinely love my job. I know that a big part of the reason is that I work with a bunch of people who I really like working with. And it doesn’t hurt that my morning commute takes about as long as it does to read this sentence. But I also think it’s pretty darn neat to help others express themselves, in just about the most public way possible.

If you've chosen to use the free version of doomby's e-commerce pack to make an online store, then you'll know how easy it is to set up your products with just a few clicks. On the other hand, if you've chosen to subscribe to the full e-commerce pack and get unlimited products for your online shop, then you may find it a lot easier to use a spreadsheet like Excel or Numbers to quickly add information for a large number of products in one go. Or if you are transferring your store from another e-commerce platform, perhaps you already have an existing online store catalog just waiting to be imported.

Rest easy – you can now import and export products in just a couple of clicks. It's just one of the ways your favorite free website builder has made it even easier to make a website, quick and easy!