Building a website – a beginner’s kit

THE MYTH OF BUILDING THE WEBSITE

The myth of building the website

Building a website… What do you associate with this activity? I guess you imagine a young, unsociable nerd, sitting in his room in the mess, eating instant soups from time to time, creating stuff that is entirely incomprehensible to the average man. Like it was some secret knowledge, reserved only for a few people in the world.

Well, in fact it was much more difficult to build a website many years ago, when you had to learn HTML code and CSS in order to create it. What if I tell you that these days almost everyone, who really wants it, is able to build it? I am serious. You don’t have to acquire special skills or learn code (but it’s useful) – all you need is to find some determination and time.

BUT… HOW TO START

How to start with building the website

For someone, who is not a tech specialist, terms like a domain name or hosting could sound very mysterious. Don’t worry! After reading this article, domain and hosting definitions won’t be a riddle for you anymore.

Let’s say there are some conditions you need to fulfil in order to run a website. Without meeting them, it won’t be possible to build it.

CHOOSING A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Choosing a Content Management System

First of all, you need to decide which CMS platform you want to use. The choice of the CMS we can compare to choosing the appropriate operating system. Okay, but what does this magic abbreviation mean?! Content Management System (CMS) is a platform that lets you create and publish all kinds of content on your website. You need to have this software installed on your host’s server. After doing that, you will be able to log in to your website and add some text, photos or videos.

It is a place, where you publish articles, choose and adjust theme templates or moderate comments.

The most popular and easiest to use is probably WordPress. According to W3Techs’s report (28.12.2017), WordPress is used by 29,2% of all the websites, while its competitors Joomla and Drupal are used sequentially by 3,2% and 2,3%.

Joomla and Drupal are great platforms to build the website.. for more advanced individuals. While deciding on using them, you should make sure that you have some technical coding background – if not, it’s going to be a big struggle for you. For example, Drupal is used by experienced programmers for creating websites with a high traffic, like these of big corporations. Unless you are a huge company or a programmer, we suggest you to use WordPress.

CHOOSING A PROPER HOSTING

Choosing a proper hosting

The code of your website is kept in many different files. These resources must have some “home” – a place where they can be held all the time. Server, with an appropriate hardware installed on it, is intended for that. Thanks to it, your website works no matter what time it is – without breaks. In order to connect your website with a server, you need to find a good hosting company – that offers you the access to different kinds of servers, suited to the type of your business.

Basically, hosting is a service of getting a space on someone’s server. Hosting provider is a company that sells you this possibility and also offers a server management and support.

While deciding on buying a server, you have a few different options. Let’s start with the cheapest one.

SHARED WEB HOSTING

When you have just started your business, the website is small and you don’t have much traffic – it is the most reasonable option. In this case, you share the server with other users. The biggest advantage is a small cost. However remember, that you are dependent on the others. For example, when one of the websites (located on the same server as yours) suddenly gets a lot of traffic, it can negatively influence yours by loading slowly. But anyway, for the beginners, it is the best option.

VPS HOSTING

If you are not satisfied with a shared hosting, but you can’t afford a dedicated server, consider buying a VPS hosting. On the one hand, you still share the server with others – but on the completely different basis. On the other hand, you have a specified space that is only yours. It means, other websites’ traffic will not influence on your website’s performance. VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a one server that is divided into smaller pieces that act like different, separate servers. In this way you can stay independent and avoid paying as much money as in the case of buying a…

DEDICATED SERVER

When you run a very popular blog with hundreds of thousands of visitors or you have an online shop with a hundreds of orders a day, you should definitely consider this option. In this case, you rent one physical server from a hosting provider. The biggest drawback is the price. However, having so much traffic on your website means that your business prospers very well – so money shouldn’t be a problem for you. This solution is dedicated for websites that need a very specific technology and the highest level of security.

When it comes to VPS hosting or dedicated server – in both solutions you are responsible for server management. It means you should have some basic technical knowledge in order to navigate it properly. However, you can also ask a hosting company to provide you with this service additionally.

CLOUD HOSTING

These days technology is evolving rapidly and as a result many different solutions show up. One of them is cloud hosting. It’s different from previous options – because there is no physical machine that collects data. It means, you use the resources of multiple individual servers in a network, working together. This solution is very comfortable – when your website gets a huge traffic growth, a hosting provider may easily increase resources for it, instead of shutting the website down.

While looking for a reliable hosting provider, consider MSERWIS services.

DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION

Your name’s domain is the address where your clients can open your website. Thanks to that, your website can be identified easily.

Do you know how to check if the domain is available? I guess that your first idea will be to enter the name in the google search engine. You must be aware that it’s not enough. Empty website, without any content doesn’t mean that is free to use. The best way to check if it’s really available is to verify the name in the good registrar’s search engine.

How to recognise a good registrar? Ask a few questions:

  • How long does a company exist on market?
  • What kind of payment methods does he offer?
  • How does he ensure security?
  • What is his domains’ offer?

HOW TO CHOOSE A GOOD DOMAIN NAME

Choosing a proper domain name for your business could turn out to be a very long and difficult process. Bear in mind, that once you choose it, your business will be always associated with this name. It means, this decision may influence on your future business success or failure.

GENERIC OR ABSTRACT DOMAIN NAME

First of all, make a decision if you want your domain name to be associated with the core of your business. It could be the word that describes directly your product, service or geographical area. A good example is  www.visitlondon.com. It is a generic domain name and you can easily guess what is this website about, without even opening it. This solution has a one, big advantage – is very valuable when you decide to sell it.

The other possibility is to invent something completely new. If your business idea is very innovative, you may want to distinguish yourself from the others. The best way is to invent a catchy and intriguing word – like for instance www.google.com did it. It is the example of abstract domain name. Thanks to it you can be sure that your name is unique on the market.

Remember, that there are some useful tools that can help you create a perfect domain name – just take a look at Naminum.

DOMAIN NAME TRAPS

During inventing a domain name, you should be very careful. Have you ever heard about cybersquatting? It’s the situation when you use without permission another company’s trademark in your domain name. For example, you sell Lego blocks so you want to open online shop – www.legoshop.com. Bear in mind, that Lego Juris A/S may not like this idea, unless you get the official approval for that.

NEW DOMAINS

While looking for a name for your domain, bear in mind that since 2014 there is a possibility to use modern extensions, like .art, .pizza, .marketing or .media. Thanks to them, you can create a very innovative domains’ combinations, that will definitely help your business stand out in the crowd. Just take a look at domeny.tv, where there is a huge choice of them.

INTERNATIONAL BRAND PROTECTION

Let’s assume that your service got very popular in your country. Thanks to social media your brand started to be recognisable abroad too. You decided that it’s a perfect moment to grow internationally. But.. something went wrong. You wanted to register your domain name in foreign extensions, but they are already.. not available! Who did it before if not you?!

Be careful. There could be someone that was watching your business development and bought these extensions in order to earn money on you. How? He will simply offer you a very expensive resale. Prevent yourself from these kind of situations and buy foreign extensions before someone else does it.

DOMAIN SECURITY

How not to lose your domains? Remember, that by buying your longed-for domain you don’t become its owner. In that case don’t forget to renew it every year. Make sure that the data placed in registrar’s panel is up-to-date. It will help you overlook notifications about domain expiring.

Another important thing is not giving the access to your registrar’s panel to third parties. You will be able to make all basic changes by yourself. If not, you can always ask a customer service of your domain name provider for help.

And most importantly, don’t leave domain name renewal until the last minute. Memory can be faulty and the loss of your domain can be irreversible.

A PERFECT MIXTURE OF HOSTING, DOMAIN AND CMS

So you have already acquired these “ingredients”: domain and hosting. You have even chosen a proper CMS. However, you have no idea what to do with them next, how to make them work.

No worries. First, you will need to “mix” your domain with a server. How? Log into the control panel for your server and find the place where you can add your domain. Then, it’s necessary to get the name of your server addresses – there could be 2 or more, for example dns1.name.com, dns2.name.com. They should be written in the e-mail sent by your hosting provider, right after you signed up.

Then, log into your account created in the domain registrar. You need to find the page where you can change the name of your servers. It can be called: “My domains” or “Domains Manager”, it depends on the registrar. When you find it, put the name of servers in the panel – to those ones, you received in the e-mail. That’s all. Now your domain is connected to your server.

All that is left is to add the last ingredient – installing a chosen Content Management System on your server. If you decide on WordPress, follow further instructions.

Log into your hosting account and then enter the control panel. Look for the WordPress icon. Sometimes it can be necessary to find it through some popular software installation script, like for example Fantastico. Then start the process of installing the WordPress. You will need to choose a proper domain where you want to install your website and fulfill website and administrator details.

After installing, you can log into the WordPress panel (for example  http://yourwebsite.com/wp-login.php) and start creating the amazing stuff!

WHAT YOU NEED TO BUILD A WEBSITE WRAP UP

Building the website - summary

You have gained a basic information about things you need to build your own website. After reading this article, terms like CMS, hosting and domain are not a mystery to you anymore.

Remember, that it’s only the beginning of your big adventure with building the website. Then you will need to gain knowledge of many different areas – how to write good articles, basic information about SEO, social media management and advertising. We hope that we helped you to kick off with your business. Good luck!

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