Checklist for your first web site
Starting out a website involves a few main ingredients that you need, as well as many optional pieces. In this article, we will discuss the essentials you need to at least be viewable on the internet. Main components are having a domain name and web hosting for your files, the actual physical files like HTML, that make up the design of the page and the option to secure your content against non encrypted attacks. Let’s take a look.
Registering a Domain Name
To help people browsing the web to remember how to get back to your site, you need a domain name. A memorable domain name is something like google.com, which everyone knows. Upon getting your initial site up and running, you could choose the route of a cheap domain name provider to help start your web business. Their features are quite similar to the bigger companies, if not the same, and are a great cost effective solution.
Web Site Hosting
You need a location to store your web site files. If you have an image, a PDF file or flash presentation, for others to see it, there has to be a location always ready to show those files. This is where you can look for a cheap domain hosting provider to help you. At a price of five dollars or less a month, you can normally get an inexpensive hosting solution that will host your sites files.
Web site contents
The web site is comprised of files, including HTML files, Image files, Videos or Flash. A web developer can create this for you or you will do it yourself. The site will look better if a person with the better skills is creating it. Web hosting sitebuilders or Dreamweaver may be used to get your site up and running quickly. Again, quality is directly in relation to the tools used and skill level of the person doing it.
SSL Hosting (Optional)
Having your hosting secured is an optional practice for most sites as there is usually just static data. For those sites, that are collecting more precious information, especially credit card data, will want to buy ssl certificate to protect their users data. The data is protected by a web server certificate that changes your site from http to https, indicating to the user it is secure. The transformation to an https site is what makes the site use the certificate to encrypt the transmitted data, so it is kept away from prying eyes. It is a necessity for these sites, but not for regular sites.
Those are four basics you need to start any web site and will get you started. You then need to decide what additional components you may need to also include in your web site package.