How To Start A Website – The Easy Guide
Filed under: Choosing The Best Web Host, SEO, Web Hosting Help, Website Talk, Wordpress and Blogging
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- 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. There are a handful of questions you probably have going through your head right now, and I will attempt to tackle as many questions that will help answer the question “How To Start A Website“, in this blog post. However, if you are interested in how to start a blog I suggest you read my post geared on starting a blog 
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). Please see switching your DNS from GoDaddy to Hostgator.
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 $400 for Dreamweaver and $200 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.
I am a web developer and unless you have deep pockets you are probably not going to want to pay several thousands of dollars 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; I would highly recommend you read my Fatcow Review. Also, if you would like to save $30 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 $2-$400 a month for web hosting. I actually have a list on this site which shows, what I feel are the best hosting services to meet your needs. Currently, have these categories:
Best Blog Web Hosting
Best Budget Web Hosting
Best Business Web Hosting
Best Dedicated Web Hosting
Best eCommerce Web Hosting
Best Green Web Hosting
Best Linux Web Hosting
Best Multiple Domain Web Hosting
Best Reseller Web Hosting
Best Shared Web Hosting
Best Unix Web Hosting
Best Windows 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 several thousands of dollars per month. In fact, see this article on 7 methods of SEO that actually work. Again, I also do SEO work, 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, ect you can do it with a little work. 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 my 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 $30 a year on web hosting. What other questions do you have about creating a website or other issues that are not covered in this article?
1and1 Hosting – Problems Persist
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- As a lot of you already know I have a 1and1 review and I encourage people to stay away from their service. Over the last couple of days I have been getting a lot of complaints on 1and1.com and they all seem to be billing issues. It looks like if you cancel you will still get billed, which is ridiculous. This is a video that shows how they don’t send out notifications when you domains and hosting expire:
Now, this video shows that it takes way to long for 1and1 to change nameservers or switch your DNS. I can’t recall anytime I have worked with InMotion, Hostgator, or iPage that took 48 hours for that! Anyways, here is the the video from an upset previous customer:
GoDaddy to Hostgator – DNS Change
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- So you want to switch your hosting to Hostgator, rather than use GoDaddy’s hosting. Well, let me congratulate you on this change. I approve this move . As you know, I am not a supporter of GoDaddy and would recommend using a handful of other web hosting companies before using their service. For my sob story see Why I won’t Use GoDaddy again blog post.
Switching your DNS in black in white is just cutting and pasting your nameservers and putting them in the right field. Not rocket science by any means. Does generally take a couple hours to switch over so don’t expect it to be instant before you can start FTPing your stuff to your new server.
So anyways I just took the time today to go to YouTube and find a video on how to switch your DNS on GoDaddy to Hostgator’s. Its really a painless process, and rather than explaining it I would just advise that you see the video below, in order to show you step by step on how to do it:
Web Hosting Problems – Don’t Be Dupped!
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- Every website needs an address or a location, much like a physical address. To be able to do this, the user has to have a hosting company. The hosting company provides the user with his or her web address, server space, bandwidth, and other applications and tools needed for a website. Along the way, users may find they have to grapple with various web hosting issues they never foresaw. Here are some common problems that you may have to face with web hosting companies:
Reliability, pricing, and uptime guarantee: some web hosting companies do offer inexpensive hosting services, but their services are not always so reliable, and short in uptime, and speed. So keep in mind that the company offers a minimum of 99% uptime. Be sure you inquire of their essential features and tools to have smooth operation of your website.
Lack of technical and/or customer support: Good web hosting services offer 24/7 technical, as well as customer support. Whatever time zone you are in, make sure you have access to a customer service representative to troubleshoot whatever problems you may have. Take no less than a real person to answer your call, not a recording.
Lack of add-on features and hidden costs: The web hosting company often offers all the essential tools and application support, but make sure these are within the price range of your package or plan. If not, you’ll find yourself paying for additional tools that are actually offered by other web hosting servers. So make sure there are not hidden costs for all the essential features you need for your website.
Some hosting companies may not include the “control panel” so vital for web hosting an account. This panel comes equipped with all the goodies which include PGP secure email, shopping carts, database creation, log analysis, and more.
Lack of high-tech servers: As a user, make sure your hosting company employs the latest technology and expertise, so they can give you the best services you will need.
Go do your research about the intricate aspects of the web hosting company before opening an account with them. Do not allow yourself to be lured into very cheap deals with “unlimited bandwidth” offers, but which you’d find have strings attached after all. Evaluate what you require from the start, and set your monthly budget. If your website is just a simple page, you’d definitely have very different requirements from one with a great potential for growth or using e-commerce.
So find time to talk with older, more experienced users, and be involved in blogs and forums to read unbiased user reviews. This would give you a fairly good idea of the kind of services offered by the web host company.
Differences Between Cloud Computing and Web Hosting
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- There is much confusion regarding the differences between web hosting and cloud computing. Many are now familiar with web hosting, and how people can create websites to reach others around the world. A web host holds data for a website on their server, and when someone from anywhere in the world searches for the website, its server makes the data available.
What’s Cloud Computing?
In cloud computing, data is held in a large data center or centers which are spread around the world. It is different from web hosting in several ways: the provider is given a lot more control; it is elastic, meaning it can handle decreasing or increasing demands; and it is sold on demand. The great advantage of cloud computation is its ability to cope with sudden spikes in demand of customers. Before, when there’s a quick rush of traffic to a site, the server cannot handle it, and visitors can no longer get to the site. This does not pose a problem in cloud computing, because it can deal with changes in demand levels quite easily.
Cloud computing can either be public or private. An organization or institution could create a private cloud accessible only to its members. While a public cloud allows other people to join, who can store their website files this way. After data is stored in the cloud, you can then back it up with plenty of computing power.
Here is how cloud computing works: if there’s a sudden rise in demand for a website, the server could call in other servers to help meet the demand. There is plenty of spare space in cloud computing, because not all websites or applications on file are going to be in demand all the time. Previously, any spare capacity is not utilized, but this is changing with cloud computing.
Cloud computing offers solutions to the many problems associated with web hosting. Site owners often work hard promoting their websites, and when these work and people go dropping by the websites, web owners need to be assured that their servers will not let them down.Or if your blog post suddenly becomes hot on the web with the tons of people worldwide who want to read it, cloud computing now makes it possible for you to do it.
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