I have concluded that trying to design a web site for the first time is like trying to knit a jumper that has to fit every single person in the world; when you don’t know how to knit. For a tiny few it will be just right, for some it will be close enough, but for most people it will be far to big or they won’t get into it at all; and of course you need to learn how to knit.
I don’t consider myself to be a web designer or developer by any stretch of the imagination. Over the past year I have been teaching myself html and CSS. I’ve created about half a dozen websites now and every single one of them has at some point had me nearing the point of wishing to throw my mac out the window. On the list of most frustrating art forms to practice, web design has got to be fairly high up there. And as for increasing your page rank.....
Though I have to admit, when you do actually manage to get a design to do what you want, it is immensely satisfying. Like completing a Rubik’s cube or getting those little bits of twisted metal that come in christmas crackers apart.