Website Building 101: The Absolute Basics
If you've never built a website before, there are some very basic decisions
that you need to make and some steps you need to take before you start.
Where will you host your site?
Every website has to live somewhere and normally this can't be on your own
computer. You need a webhost company or, alternatively, an ISP (internet
service provider) that offers free webspace. Most ISPs offer something like
50mg of freespace to people who sign up with them to access the internet.
This is usually more than enough for most websites. Alternatively you can
pay a webhosting company for space. The deals offered vary so it's worth
putting time into searching for the one that suits your needs. As a beginner,
you are unlikely to need more than 50mg of space or lots of email addresses
so don't pay more for a deal that offers you you 5 gigabytes and 100 email
addresses.
What are the advantages of the two different
kinds of webspace providers?
Obviously, using your ISP's service comes as part of the connection package
and so costs you nothing extra. The ISP deals with any server problems and
usually offers some minimum support for new webmasters. The disadvantage
is that you have to abide by their rules which might limit webtools you
can install like scripts for polls, a quiz, javascripts, etc. You also can't
use your own domain name on free webspace. Instead you'll get a URL like
http://yoursite.yourisp.com.
If you use a webhosting company instead, you can use your own domain name,
eg http://www.yoursite.com. You can install most webtools like javascripts
on a shared server (the usual type for small to medium sites). Maintenance
and problems on the server are dealt with by the hosting company. If you
want a site to promote your business, it will look more credible if you
have your own domain name rather than the kind of URL that you get from
an ISP. The major disadvantage, apart from paying a monthly fee, is that
you will have no help at all building your site. You will have to find reliable
sources of information elsewhere. A few years ago, webhosting was relatively
expensive but prices have tumbled. Now you can find good packages at low
rates, for example,
Domain Names
As recently as five years ago, it wasn't too difficult to get the domain
name of your choice. Now, though, it can be very difficult because many
of the best names have been registered already. If you want to do a site
on teddy bears, for example, and your first choice is www.teddybears.com.
Unfortunately, that's gone and so have almost all the other extensions (.com
is an extension). You have to try another version, eg www.allaboutteddybears.com
but that's gone too. Don't give up, try all the variations you can and eventually
you should come up with something. You might decided to use your own name
instead, eg joebloggs.com but you could still find somebody else got there
before you unless yours is a very unusual name.
Generally speaking, the .com extension is the most popular because that's
the one most people think of when they are looking for a site. You could
register a domain name using any of the other extensions that are available,
though.
How do you register a domain name?
This one is easy. You use one of the many domain registrations companies.
These companies are also the easiest places to check whether the domain
name you want is still available. They usually have a facility where you
enter the name and then they will search to find what, if any, of the extensions
for that name are available and then present you with a list. You choose
which one (or more than one) you want, click the appropriate box, pay with
your credit card and the name is yours.
How do you point the domain name at your
server?
Remember, you can only do this with a paid webhosting company. When you
register your domain name, the registration company gives you an account
with them accessed with a user name and password. When you are logged in,
you can access a domain management page where you enter two pieces of code
given to you by your webhosting company. It will look something like ns1.yourwebhost.com
and ns2.yourwebhost.com. Most companies tell you it will take something
like 24 to 48 hours to take effect but it can happen much more quickly.
How will you know? Type your domain name into your browser and it will be
obvious when the name is pointed at your webhosting space.
These are the very first steps you need to take before starting building
your website.
Copyright © Carol Fisher 2006