Website basics to help you understand the basics of having your own website.
As a website designer, I often find people confused when we first get started. They’ve bought a domain, what else could they possibly need? There is in fact yet another step in order to have their website built. When I ask them about setting up their hosting, this is where I find they are often confused. Hopefully I can help clear the air!
Before getting started, a domain can also be referred to as a web address or URL.
Buying a Domain
The first thing you do is purchase your domain or web address, this is the URL that people will enter to visit your website. Tye cost of this is typically around $12 but can vary depending on who you purchase your domain through. There are countless places that sell domains: Google, HostGator, GoDaddy, etc. You will have to renew your domain annually, unless the company you purchase it through offers multiple year contracts.
Hosting Your Website
Whether you go with WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify or one of the many platforms available for building your website, you have to pay a monthly fee to keep your website visible. Depending on who you choose to host your site, this monthly fee could be anywhere from $4 to $30 dollars, possibly even more. Often you can prepay for a year or more at one time and save big time on the hosting fee.
As a personal preference, I build websites on the WordPress platform and recommend HostGator (affiliate link) for web hosting. Most companies that provide hosting services offer easy to use website templates that could easily be used for launching a business if you want to wait to have a custom website designed.
What platform is your website built upon? Let me know in the comments below.
KateOGroup uses HostGator for hosting services. While they may not be perfect we don’t have a lot of complaints about them either. KateOGroup is an affiliate of HostGator. We’ve included our affiliate link throughout this post.
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