There’s a lot to cover, but this should give you a broad idea of what is involved in setting up a site.
Site Design
Are you going to design the site yourself or have someone else do it?
DIY – This gives you greatest control, but you’ll need experience in graphic design to create anything but the most basic of pages. Popular web design software options include: Dreamweaver, Frontpage, NVU, Coffee Cup…to name but a few. Price varies widely from $0 to $500+.
This helpful questionnaire will assist you in the process of selecting a web design software that meets your needs.
RentaCoder.com – The cheapest way of getting a site built for you. Advertise your site design as a job and allow designers to bid on it. You get to control how much you spend, although you do get what you pay for, so be sure to use a designer with good feedback.
Local designer - You could find yourself paying between $200 and $50,000 for a local web designer. In my experience, graphic designer’s skill levels can vary enormously so it pays to view samples and get testimonials before picking one.
Template or an off-the-shelf ecommerce package - These vary in price, see: how to setup an online store.
Register a domain name
This is the fun part, selecting a name for your website! Tips for choosing a good domain name include: a name that’s easy to remember, that includes your most important keywords, and that uses simple words. With regards to SEO, adding hyphens between words (e.g. http://www.pet-supplies-online.com/) has some SEO benefit and helps to increase readability. If you want additional kudos (and you have the spare cash!), you can buy older domain names that have expired. These will cost considerably more, but have a greater weighting with search engines. Cost = $7-$29.
Selecting a web host
Spend some time researching the options before you decide. A poor web host can mean your site is down more frequently. Factors to consider:
- How much space will you need? This depends on how many pictures you have and whether you’ve got audio and video files, which take up much more space. The average site only uses about 5 MB of space – you’ll be able to tell how much space your site will need from the size of your files.
- How much downtime does the host allow for? A good host should have 99%-99.5% uptime. If it falls below this figure, the host should offer compensation.
- How easy will it be to upgrade? Make sure you can upgrade quickly and easily as your needs change.
- Compare the number of POP3 mail accounts and aliases on offer and what kind of access you are allowed and how. Read the host’s FAQ and make sure you understand and feel comfortable with the set up.
- Are they are hosting any Adult Sites? These sites often use up substantial server resources, which could potentially have a negative affect on your site’s stability. For that reason large companies should get their own dedicated server.
- Good customer service and support? This is a biggie because if something goes wrong, I guarantee you’ll want an answer as soon as possible. Unfortunately there are many web hosting companies for which customer support is very low on the list of priorities. The best way to check this is by sending the company a test email. You can also search the net for user feedback and experiences on forums.
- Cost You should be able to find what you need for $10-$25 a month, although some hosts do offer cheaper services than that.
A couple of recommended webhosts are:
Change the DNS records
Currently your website is in a temporary location – you can upload to it, but if you want to see what your site looks like, you’ll have to copy the piece of code from the web host into your browser.
After signing up with a host, you’ll be sent an email with your details, including your name servers. What you need to do now is make sure the requests for your website go to the server specified for that host, e.g. http://www.yourdomain.com/. To do this, you need to change the DNS records.
Log in to your web host site. Inside your account you’ll be able to change the DNS details to the name servers in the email from your web host. This takes between 7-24 hours to update across the Internet. After that time, you’ll be able to type in your domain name and your website will appear.
Uploading your webpage
Uploading a page is simply copying it from your computer to a web server where people will see it. It’s very easy to do.
In the email from your web host you’ll be given a URL to access your cpanel. Just copy this information into your browser window and login by entering your username and password (also in the email). Go into the file manager and click upload. Then browse for the file you want to upload.
Got questions about creating a website? Just post them as comments or log on to the member’s forum and we’ll be happy to help you out.
