Dom...you're just the lastest in a very long line of novice webmasters to be handed this advice. I personally had it howled at me via the phone (although I'm sure he could be heard quite clearly without one!) in an exasperated British accent!
Now that we've talked about *why* you're building a website...let's discuss a little *how* you're going to build one. Note to Dom: I'm not talking to *you* here, specifically, I'm just talking.
We're going to start with one page. Your index.html page. This is going be the most important page of your site so you want to get as much bang for your buck out of it.
Because this page is so important, it's going to take more than one post to explain all the various aspects of it. So, bear with me. I am about to get verbose.
Search engines nowadays (or at least, this is the general wisdom of webmasters and sites dedicated to SE knowledge) think highly of the top of the page. Back in the day, webmasters used to use the *bottom* of the page to slam in keywords. Today, use the top.
Here again, I'm going to remind you that you are not building for *looks.* This isn't going to be pretty. It's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be spider food.
At the very top, in size
put keywords. If the title of your site happens to be "Big Boobed Blonde," you can put *that* in font. Those are keywords. However, if you've decided to name this site "Naughty Nancy," which you are most certainly free to do, do *not* put that on the very top in font. Who in the hell is going to type either "naughty," "nancy" or "naughty nancy" into a search engine except that one guy looking for his ex-girlfriend from high school and doesn't have a credit card anyway? Put keywords up there. Underneath it, in the tag, put more keywords. (Why do SEs like the and tags? I have no fucking clue and you're never going to make money if you keep asking me dumb questions. Know it. Learn it. Live it. They do, OK?)
As we are skipping over banners at the moment, we move on to your site title. You may either put "Naughty Nancy" in size font=+4 (or the actual point size if you know how to do that. I don't so I just hand code things in "basic html." Oh. You use Dreamweaver or you're very profficient in css? Good for you. I'll go make coffee and you go find somebody who will say "geeze, I started making so much more money when I started using Dreamweaver and learned css!")
Well, I'm back. Did you find anybody? No? I didn't think you would.
Now, you may also make a graphic logo for your "Naughty Nancy." If you just said "Oh, goodie, I love to make graphics" sit back and put your hands in your lap before you get a good slap. All you're going to do is make a rectangular box the same color as your background and write "Naughty Nancy" in it. That's it. Nothing fancy, nothing special, most of all...nothing eye catching.
Think about that for a moment. A really nice "eye catching" logo. Now ask yourself...what is it catching the eye *from*? You guessed it. Your sponsor banners. The very thing you *want* your surfer to focus on is the thing your pretty logo is drawing their eyes *away* from. Duh.
Yes, you could just write the title in a color and big font. BUT...you can't put an "alt" tag on that. If you make the same thing as a logo, you can put an alt tag on it. Guess what you put in that alt tag? If you said "Naughty Nancy," you're in real trouble. No. The graphic says that. SE spiders don't read graphics. They do, however, love to gobble up alt tags. So what you put in your logo alt tags are...keywords.
OK...you've been howled at enough. So far you have an ugly page with SE food on it. Good.
Next, we'll be talking about text and how to use it; the ever necessary "warning" and how *that* can also be used for SE food; linkback buttons and your own enter link.
One baby step at a time. That's how everybody learns to do it.
Have a nice day. 