What do I Need for a Website
So you’re a small business owner or someone with an idea and thinking about owning a Website or Online Store but don’t clearly understand the technical lingo and are not sure how it all works. One option is to hire a Website developer or Web designer to build and manage your Website, clearly this is the expensive option. Small business owners or folks on a tight budget do have a second option to keep the cost of a Website at a minimum, build your own Website.
We as well as most Website Design Companies would prefer you hire us to build and manage your Web Site, again for the obvious reason; we make more money building Web Sites but if you can figure out how to use Facebook® or similar you can build your own Website with little or no experience.
Before we get started on what you need to build your own Web Site or Online Store there is one major difference doing it yourself verses a professional Web Designer. A professional Web Designer will produce better search results in search engines giving your site more visibility to people searching the Web. Don’t let this discourage you from building your own site, with a little effort and learn as you go attitude you too can produce satisfactory results.
What You Need to Build a Website
First you need to have a clear idea what you want on your website, let’s use an example. Bob sells used books in his spare time and wants a Website to help in his selling efforts. Bob decides he wants a page about him, a page describing his products (used books), a contact page and three pages of content with his used book titles and descriptions. Bob now has a clear idea he needs at minimum six pages. Bob is now ready to start a 1 2 3 process to build his Web Site.
1. Bob needs a domain. A domain is a name you use to identify the address of your Website. A domain is like your home address; just as a letter addressed to 52 Main Street, City, State, and Zip Code allows the post office to find and deliver your mail a domain name allows Web users to find your Website. Bob is now ready to purchase and register a domain name but what is a good name? Bob thinks it would be cool to have www.bobs.com but a better name would be www.bobsusedbooks.com. Why is www.bobsusedbooks.com better? It will produce greater results with search engines like Google®, Yahoo®, and Bing® to name a few.
Bob now needs to search his domain name to find out if it’s available (someone may already own www.bobsusedbooks.com). Bob goes to a domain search site to see if it’s available and register his new domain name (Hopefully Bob chooses us for his domain needs, Domain Search). Note: If Bob’s domain name is already owned our site will recommend variants so it is always a good idea to make a short list of domain names to lookup. Bob now owns a domain name and is ready to move on to step two.
2. Bob needs Hosting. Now that Bob owns a domain name he needs a place for his Web Site to live and be found. Hosting provides a Web server and private folder that stores Bob’s files that make up his Web Site. When a Web user types in www.bobsusedbooks.com the request is directed to the folder on the Web server at the Hosting Company. Bob goes to our Hosting Service and finds several plans to choose from. Hosting plans break down to two key factors, bandwidth and space. There are many other options for hosting you can learn more about in our article named “Types of Hosting” on our Blog site. Bandwidth is a measure of how much traffic is going to your Web Site, unlike some Hosting companies that charge for exceeding bandwidth we offer unlimited bandwidth with all our Hosting Plans. Space is a unit of measure that all your files, pictures or video take up in the private folder on the Web Server at the Hosting Company. In Bob’s case he decides on a plan that he can store many pictures that tend to take up more space than text.
3. Bob needs a Website. Even thou Bob may have no experience building a Web Site our Website Builder is so easy you will have a professional looking Web Site up and running in no time. As mentioned above if you can figure out how to use Facebook® or similar you can build a Web Site with our Website Builder. Bob can now purchase a plan that suites his Web Site and now has a fully function site to learn and grow with. Learn more about our Website Builder. View tours and templates or purchase a Website using Website Builder.
