So you are interested in setting up your business online. The first step is to search and find a good domain name. The second step to find a web hosting company that will give you a place to park your domain or setup your site. The third step is the design of your website on your new domain name.
The Domain Name
You want the domain name to be something is easy for people to remember. It can be the name of your company or some other memorable name. Your domain name shouldn’t be complicated or hard to remember. You can get domain names from many domain registrars such as Godaddy or Domain.com. Some domain registrars such as 1&1 Hosting may even offer a free domain name if you get a one year hosting with them.
Domain names start from $1 to over a $100, depending on the domain extension. You own your domain name once you purchase it. You can usually decide to own it for 1 year to 10 years. You always have the option of getting it renewed once the contract is up on the domain name. You can always transfer your domain name to a new registrar or host..
Find out if the domain name is available.
You need to find out if the domain name is available. If the .com of the domain you want, always opt for that, but if not available, then try one of the over 200 extensions or TLD’s, such as .online, .guru, .attorney, .web, .express, .design, etc. Some companies also purchase other domain names that end in .net or even .org to have it redirected to their dot com name if a customer happens to type in the wrong domain name when looking for your company and you may want to not let anyone else such as competitor grab your name in other extensions.
Finding your web hosting
Your web hosting is a company that parks your domain name with them and they make sure that your site is running smoothly. You can get cheap web hosting fees each month or sometimes you can even get them for free. Hosting fees typically start at around $2 per month to $20 per month. There are many companies that offer web hosting just make sure to get a few recommendations from other people before signing up with any other web host. Even we offer hosting, but you must have your web design done by us to get hosting and we often will give you free hosting.
Sometimes web hosts do have maintenance time and often have updates to do each month. One thing to see about each web host is if they offer backups of your website to you or if you have to do backups of your website yourself. Make sure that the web host that you decide to go with has friendly customer service and has reasonable rates.
The design of your website
For web design it is always best to hire a professional web designer if you can afford it. If you cannot afford it, then your site may not look that good, but at least make an attempt to create one yourself. It is pretty simple these days to do your own design. They have these easy website builders available with most web hosts. Some of them are simply drag, click, and drop easy website design programs. You don’t even have to know HTML coding for most of them. It is pretty easy to figure out. You just include whichever text that you want on your website and your pictures that you want on there. Make sure to see if the web host that you decide to let host your website has a website builder program available.