So you want a website?
Then you are going to need a few things before you launch it.
1. A website needs a domain name.
A domain name is not the same as a URL but it can certainly be found inside the URL. A URL is an online address, a domain name is different. For example, www dot yourdomainname.com, yourdomainname dot com is the domain name. Which means, you can have emails@yourdomainname dot com and host a website under yourdomainname dot com. You can now have URLs, yourdomainname dot com/mysite.html.
So, you need a domain name. What domain name should you choose? Firstly, it should be relevant to the topic of the website. For example, if it is a website about dogs you would like to have a word that somehow relates to dogs in some way. The domain name needs to be short so that it can be remembered by your visitors. How many domains can you remember that are 50 characters long?
Another thing about building a website is to avoid freebies. If you plan to make money off your site, stay away from free hosting or domain services. Because they almost always display some sort of advert or sign that are dead giveaways. Not very professional if you ask me.
- Freebies are counter SEO. SEO is search engine optimisation. Meaning, you want your website to be search engine friendly so that when people look for you or need your services they can easily find you via search engines. So, stay away from freebies and suspect offers.
2. How do I get a domain name then?
First you need to make sure the name that you want is available. You can do so by doing a domain search. Simply type in the name you want and see if it is up for grabs. If not, try different extensions as there are many. For example, instead of.com use.net.
3. Great I have a domain name, now what?
After you have a domain name, you need website space to upload a website. This is called Web Hosting. You need to select a reputable and stable web hosting company. This means a company who has servers that are up and running almost all the time, with as little downtime as possible.
Once you have signed up to a web hosting plan you are able to upload your web site and set up your emails. Usually emails come with web hosting plans. I recommend starting with a basic plan if you are new to all this and then moving up as you go. A 10 page web site for example is perfect to get a grip on the whole game. Once you have a feel for it, you can then evolve your website into something bigger and more popular.
4. And then?
Well, that's about it really. The hosting company will connect the domain name and the website together for you. All you need to do is build your site and upload it. The web hosting company will send you all the log on and ftp details to you in order to upload your website.
5. FTP??? What's that?
It stands for file transfer protocol. This is the method used to upload a website. You can find many useful programs and tools that do just that, ftp. A good one I recommend is filezilla. It is free and you can use it to upload websites. It is easy to understand, and uses a windows interface.
So... Anything else?
Yes... Have fun!
