3 Things Needed for a Website on the Internet
There is some confusion about what is actually required for a website on the internet. Here are 3 things required to have a website on the internet.
This is the first order of business. Purchase a domain name with a registrar like GoDaddy. We like Namecheap and Godaddy for domains and prefer the latter because they offer support by phone. They also have an easy-to-use interface. MyTipsHub has conducted a pretty good domain name registrar review.
Get a short and descriptive .com name. You don’t need extras or .net, .us, .whatever.
We tell new and potential customers to register their own domain name. This is mostly because we do not want them to buy a new website from someone else and lose the rights to their own domain name. It happens all the time.
The owner of the domain is the person’s name who it’s registered under. If that’s not you – it’s not yours even if you own the business and website.
The website is made up of computer languages, copy, and images. All data has to be organized and packaged correctly with the proper files in respective folders. Of course, the code has to be formatted correctly as well.
We have been developing mostly WordPress websites because they have a backend that is easy to login to and edit content, upload pictures and create new pages. Our customers can do this themselves and save money. There are many good reasons to use WordPress for a new website.
Before you lay down money for a new website make sure that you have a scope of work – in writing. This way, both you and the website designer have a clear understanding of the project and requirements. This can also serve as a legal contract.
Contracts or agreements should be short and simple because in the end – a contract is only as good as a person’s word. If a company needs a 10-page legal contract to do a website it may not be a good sign. A handshake isn’t either.
Once, you have a domain name and website, hosting is required to upload these files to the internet. A host is basically a computer set up as a server.
A hosting service has all of the website files. The domain name tells where the files are located.
A good website hosting company keeps backups of your website. This is critical to your business.
A website host usually offers email services too. That way you can get @yourcompany.com email addresses set up such as sales@yourcomapny.com. These types of email accounts can be acquired by Gmail too.
Caution: Email can be problematic because of new technology, software updates, and server issues. If you’ve ever had an email account you’ve probably experienced some issues.
A good hosting company is worth a fair price because they’re available to fix any problems that may come up with your website and/or email. Some of the top companies in the world have had their websites hacked. So has the US government. Your site probably won’t be a target, but if it is you’ve got support.
In order to have a website on the internet, you’ll need a domain name, website, website hosting. Most website companies offer hosting services and will register a domain name for you.
Getting your website found on the internet through search engines is a whole other field. That’s search engine optimization which we’ll cover at a later date.
