Starting A Website

September 20, 2011

Looking at starting a website and some ideas on how/where to start with it.

I have a website name in mind but would like to know where to begin with it.

I gather I need to register the website I am thinking of and not with who I am going to get it hosted with, from what I gather that makes sure I own the website name and the host does not put it in there ownership.

I google domain register and I have no idea who is good or bad, same for web hosting so I am looking for suggestions/reccomendations please.

Jason

September 21, 2011

Looking at starting a website and some ideas on how/where to start with it.
I have a website name in mind but would like to know where to begin with it.
I gather I need to register the website I am thinking of and not with who I am going to get it hosted with, from what I gather that makes sure I own the website name and the host does not put it in there ownership.
I google domain register and I have no idea who is good or bad, same for web hosting so I am looking for suggestions/reccomendations please.
Jason

Get yourself down to the newsagents and browse/buy a couple of computer mags... All will be revealed! It's actually reasonably simple to set up a site, getting decent web pages and lots of hits however can be a bu*ger though!

September 21, 2011

It depends what you want a website for, is it a hobby website or would you be looking to sell things from it?

There are plenty of free websites out there and they will do you fine but they are no good for commercial use. You need to sit down and plan what you want from your site, if this is for your new business venture then you need to think about a gallery of pictures, how they display, contact forms, data capture and the like. It takes a long time before your site will be seen by search engines, so dont expect overnight success, you might also consider using Google Adwords, a form of advertising, which gets your site ranked quicker, however there is a cost. The main hosting people out there only want you to use their products, remember you get nowt for nowt in this world so the free websites will limit what you can do. Sit down and think about what you want from it, getting that right will save you grief in the future. If you need any help, PM me

Kingo :thumbsup:

September 21, 2011

For someone that is not a computer guru, or even that familiar with computers, it can be quite intimidating to start a website from scratch.

Things to consider.

Domain Names

The first thing you will need is a domain name. This is the www. extension of your website. For instance, http://www.the-best-web-hosting-service.com is the domain of this website. It can be very difficult finding a good domain that isn’t already taken, and you will more than likely need to go for a .com domain name. This is just one step for starting a website though. (see what not to do when picking a domain name)

Also, just because you buy a domain at GoDaddy doesn’t mean you have to host your domain there. You can switch your DNS to any server you want to use. In fact, I wouldn’t use GoDaddy for web hosting; just for domains. I do buy my domains from GoDaddy, but host with Hostgator; all you have to do is switch your DNS (or cut and paste your name servers in the control panel).

Software: For Your Website

In order to create a website you are going to need a program to design your website, however they are quite expensive, nearly £200 for Dreamweaver and £100 for Microsolf’s version of Dreamweaver, which is called Expression. Of course these will take some training, because these programs are not for the novice user. However, there are many hosting services such as, BlueHost, GreenGeeks, and Hostgator, which all offer sitebuilders to help you in case you are not a web developer.

Unless you have deep pockets you are probably not going to want to pay several thousands of pounds for a site design, plus maintenance. In fact, you can start a website for much cheaper than that! Typically novice webmasters will install WordPress on their site and install various plugins and widgets to help customize their page the way they want it. To do this you need to use Fantasitico to install WordPress.

Testing Your Website

Believe it or not starting a website requires a lot of testing. This is a commonly overlooked factor that people fail to do until their users start contacting them because of accessibility issues. In order to have a successful website you need to make sure that people can use your site easily. This is the main ingredient that allows your site to be a successful one (along with excellent content).

You need to make sure your site looks alright in all the major browsers; Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, and Opera. Additionally, I like to be a control freak and see what my site looks like in almost every browser possible at http:///www.browsershots.org. When you create a website you don’t want it to look broken on different browsers.

Along with that I always try to make sure my sites are W3C compliant (not just for seo reasons) but to make sure their are no bugs on my website. It is a good habit to get into. Along with that I always check my site for malware with this site http://www.unmaskparasites.com (from time to time). Furthermore, I recently wrote a post on finding 404 errors and broken links, along with using an .htaccess file to make sure my 301 redirects are setup properly.

Website Cost

Another thing people commonly want to know is how much is it going to cost to start a website? This is kind of an intricate question to answer, because it depends on your purpose of the website. When you start a website you need to ask yourself is it for my business, personal site, eCommerce site, blog, ect. It can be very cheap if you don’t need to purchase any software or sitebuilders and only have to pay for a yearly domain, and web hosting (either per year or monthly). If you are interested in a cheap yearly fee; Also, if you would like to save £50 a year and get a free domain please check out this GreenGeeks review. Also, personally, I use InMotion hosting for this website because they offer a ton of different plans, and I simply love them!

Web Hosting: For Your Website

So now that you are all excited on starting a website you need to pick a place to host it with. Without web hosting your site would not be functional.

Web hosting is the server that pay for which all your files are going to live on.

However, there are hundreds if not thousands of hosting companies out there so it can be impossible to determine, which one is right for you, unless you have a little assistance.

Another question when starting a website that people commonly have is what is the best web hosting service? Well, again this is a question that has more than one answer. For instance, the best hosting could be different for a blog vs someone that is starting an eCommerce business.

You can expect to pay anywhere from £100.00 to £250.00 a month for web hosting.

SEO – And Your Website

Another common question people have is, now that I have started a website; how come nobody is coming to my website?

The black and white answer to this question is no one knows about your site being published yet. There is no magic god that you can pray to that tells people that your site is up and waiting for visitors.

I wish there was though. You need to get backlinks in order to get people to your website.

You could hire someone to do your SEO for your website, but that can also cost a few thousand pounds per month. In fact, SEO can work well , but it can generally take 2-3 months before you see results in the search engines (I know it is a long wait!).

It depends how hard your keywords are too.

Along, with doing SEO there are some simple things you can do which will help your site get noticed in the search engines. Here are a list of places to submit your website:

Yahoo Directory

Business.com

BOTW.org

Submit to Google

Submit to Yahoo

Submit to Bing

In conclusion, don’t be intimidated on starting a website, because it is actually pretty easy to do. Whether your site is a blog, eCommerce shop, personal site, etc you can do it with a little work.

It might take a couple months to get everything up and running the way you want, but can be a lot of fun. Just remember to follow the above tutorial if you want to get your website up and running today.

Please not if you are looking to start a website and don’t have a lot of money to invest read WebHostingHub Review (they are one of the cheapest feature rich hosting companies).

Also, it is worth your time to check out this GreenGeeks review if you want to get a free domain and save £ 50.00 a year on web hosting.