The first steps in building a website.
With your business idea and detailed plan in place, you are nearly ready to start building your first website. However, the operative word here is nearly, as there are certain steps that you need to take before you can start the site building operation.
The first thing that you need is a domain name under which your website can be built.
Most importantly, this must be a domain name that is related to the website that you are about to launch, because by having a domain name that is related to your website, you are doing something that is search engine friendly, and this is extremely important and advantageous.
You will no doubt have used a major search engine like Google, Bing yourself, and you will, therefore, know that when you type in a particular search word or phrase, the search engine presents you with a page of results that are related to that search term.
In order to do so, the search engine algorithm tries to find individual web pages or advertisements that feature the same phrase you just used to search.
In online marketing terms, the search engine looks to match the keyword terms that you have used when building your site to the search phrase, and the domain name of your site plays a very important role in this.
So, you need to register a domain name that either matches the name of your website or one of your main keyword phrases, to help the search engines find your site.
However, because domain names have to be unique – there is only one Google.com or Yahoo.com – you should try to create a shortlist of half a dozen domain names that match your site in this way.
Once you have done this, you need to check the availability of these names using a domain name registry company such as Godaddy.
Now let’s imagine that you are creating a website that is going to hit the weight-loss market, let’s say you have decided to call your website ‘Total Weight Loss Essentials’.
This should be a good name because it tells prospects and customers exactly what you do, it is easy for them to remember, and it contains weight loss related keyword phrases such as ‘total weight loss’, ‘weight loss essentials’ and ‘weight loss’ itself.
Ok, now is this available as a domain name (always use a.com if possible, because it is what people choose when they search by domain name from memory.If available go ahead and register it.
The next thing you need to do is set up a web hosting account, an account with the company that will rent you a space on their servers (internet connected computers) where you can ‘house’ your site to present it to the world.
There are dozens of web hosting companies, but amongst the best in terms of service provided and monthly hosting fees charged is Hostgator.
Now, you have a domain name registered through one company, and web hosting set up
with another. You, therefore, need to tie the two together by changing the DNS, It will take anywhere between 6-48Hrs for the DNS changes to take place, but all you can do now is wait for it to happen. Once it does, you’re ready to start building your site.
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