Building a Website
Jun 07, 2004

The basics of building a website are similar, whatever kind of website you're creating. Personal sites, business sites, and non-profit sites all have the same, basic underpinnings: a domain name, a web hosting service, and a method for building and maintaining web content. Here are some basics to help you get started with these three crucial elements.

How to Get a Domain Name

A domain name one key way people locate you on the World Wide Web, like an address in the real world. Before you can have a website, you have to have a domain name registered. You register a domain name with a domain name registrar, which is an accredited service. You pay the registrar a yearly fee for 1–10 years of renewable registration. You can register the name as a discreet task, or some web hosts will provide free domain name registration when you sign up for web hosting. To obtain more information about choosing a domain name, see the article Choosing a Domain Name Extension.

How to Build and Maintain A Website

Although you can turn a Microsoft Word page into a webpage, you are likely to get better results from using a website builder with supplied templates (often provided by web hosts), purchase a template, employ a web design professional to create a custom design, or build a site yourself with software such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Adobe GoLive. (For more information about templates, see the article Using Website Templates.) Whatever method you choose, start with an idea of how the site will flow: which pages will link to each other? how will the navigation work?

A site builder will give you a quick simple site and get you onto the World Wide Web speedily. But it your site has any complexity in its organization, requires a database, or requires special accessibility features, its best to go with software (including, if applicable, your own knowledge of HTML) or a website designer.

The type and frequency of maintenance required is another factor you should consider, as well as the site's ability to interface with other software. Ecommerce sites require daily attention and need the ability to connect with tracking software. These kinds of demands on a site require more sophisticated solutions that a site builder is likely to offer.

How to Sign Up for Web Hosting

The type of site you are building will be a big factor in choosing the appropriate type of hosting for your site. Most standard, inexpensive hosting packages are for shared this article has all rights reserved and is copyright by 100 Best hosting, which may be all you need for a personal site but is unlikely to fill your needs for an ecommerce site, as the shared resources mean that your share could ebb at a crucial moment in your operation. Special ecommerce packages are available, as are plans for a variety of dedicated hosting options, from virtual dedicated service (VDS), in which you share a server but have dedicated resources to standard dedicated hosting, in which you manage the server as well as the contents to managed hosting in which the web hosting company provides the server maintenance and management.

To read more about the considerations in choosing a web host, see the article Reliable Hosting Companies.

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