How to Get Started With a Website

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If you're new to web design and web hosting, this article provides an overview of what you need to create a website and how to get it online.

Contents 1 What you need 2 Getting a domain name 2.1 Choosing and registering a domain name 2.2 Using a domain name 3 Choosing a web host 4 Building a website 4.1 Creating a website 4.2 Getting your website online 5 Attracting an audience

What you need
With few exceptions, every website needs:

• A domain name (unless you want your website to be on a subdomain of another domain, such as sitename.example.com)
• A web hosting account
• Web pages or a website builder to upload to your web hosting account
• An audience (not a necessity for the website's existence, but it's the reason behind almost every website online)

Getting a domain name

Choosing and registering a domain name

Numerous factors need to be considered when choosing a domain name, especially if the domain is for a business website. For details, see How to choose a domain name and The dos and don'ts of domain registration.
You can register a currently available domain name through any domain name registrar. The web host you choose will probably be a domain name reseller, which means that you'll be able to register a domain name through your web host. However, the usual advice is to register your domain name with a domain name registrar other than your web host. That way, if problems develop with your web host, you have the option to change your domain name settings and move your website to a different host.
You can also bid on an expiring domain at an expired domain auction house. Be sure to do a search for the domain and find out what it was used for before registering it. You don't want a domain that's been blacklisted from search engines.
Register your domain name as soon as you find one that you want. It might not be available the next day.

Using a domain name

After you have a domain name registered, you'll need to add the nameservers that your web host provides to your domain name record. Your web host will tell you what nameservers to use after you sign up for a web hosting account. Look for the nameserver fields at your domain name control panel and enter the nameserver names there.

Choosing a web host

If you have only one website, you probably want a shared hosting account. That is, unless your website is very big, will be getting a lot of traffic, or needs to have its own server for some other reason. With a shared hosting account, you'll have your own space online, but your site will be on a server with other clients' websites.
For advice on choosing a web host, see the articles in the Choosing a web host category.

Building a website

Creating a website

You have several options to create a website:

• Learn HTML, CSS, and web design principles, and design your own website.
• Buy an existing website template.
• Hire a designer to design your website for you.
• Use a content management system (CMS), for example, Joomla or Wordpress (a blog CMS that can be customized to be used for other types of sites too).
• Use an online website builder (some web hosts include website builders in their hosting plans).
• Use a combination of the above.

A CMS will allow you to add and update website content with no coding knowledge required. They have available designs (skins) to choose from, or you can design your own or hire a designer to design one for you. If you don't use a CMS, you'll need to know at least minimal HTML and CSS to update website content on your own.
A business website should look professional. Don't try to cut corners in this area. On the other hand, if your website is for personal use, it can be a useful learning experience to create it yourself.
For e-commerce website needs, see E-Commerce hosting.

Getting your website online

An FTP program will enable you to upload web page files from your computer to your web hosting account. The control panel that comes with your web hosting account may have a file manager, which provides another method to upload files.
Some control panels have options for users to upload some scripts directly to their websites, including CMS scripts.

Attracting an audience

Once your website is online and ready to be seen, attracting site visitors is usually the next goal. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving the position of web pages in search engine results for targeted keywords.