I met with my friend and dive instructor Elvin, instructor for Juz Swim and Scuba People, today. Helped him with his website from a couple of months back and he finally asked the all important question. Why can't I be found on Google? Well... simply. Because Google and the rest of the world doesn't know about juzswim.com.sg. Who would?
Looking back, when I did his website, I probably should have mentioned that he should submit his own sitemap to Google and also register for a Google Account in the first place. And no both of them are Free. Is free bad? No it just means it's free. The web is filled with good and free stuff. Let me write a first part of the series on getting started with web. Beginning with hosting and domain registration.
What's domain registration?
Domain registration is just the registration of the name of your website. This is just a name. The name doesn't do anything. It doesn't contain you website nor can it contain your website. It's just a name which will have to be configured to your hosting.
What's Hosting?
Hosting is the generally used term for the physical/virtual space used to contain your site. It's a part of a server/computer where you contain your website. You can access this using an address using a string of numbers like 123.123.123.
What is their relationship?
Your domain name is a name representative of your IP address. So that when yourdomain.com is typed into the browser, it automatically goes to 123.123.123. And thereby showing your site.
How much does this cost?
Generally, if you were getting a site just to put up some content about your business, you should consider using a shared hosting. Which is a lot cheaper and trust me 1Gb of space goes a long long way. Shared hosting generally cost less than $10 a month while Domain registration is an annual fee which is around $10 for a .com. Some shared hosting services come with free .com registration like the one I use. So you should be paying around $130 a year for your hosting and domain registration.
This cost is usually not included in your web development fees.
What should you look out for?
The general advice is to take the hosting that is adviced by your web developer. Just because if something screws up he can't blame the hosting company. Sometimes your web developer may suggest that you take up hosting that is a little more expensive than another company. My advice, just do what he says. There are some many technicalities in choosing a web host I would need an entire series just to talk about it. Most of it will be technical anyway. Even if it's $200 or $300 a year, think about if that $100-200 is so unaffordable to your business that you want to run the risk of your website screwing up.
After selecting the company, you will have several packages to choose from. My advice here is to go with the smallest plan and then upgrade as needed. You'll need to know firstly how many domains you are expecting to use. I have a total of 5-10 domains at any one time so it made sense for me to go with the corporate plan on osprohosting.com just for the number of hosted domains included in the plan. Yes, I have to pay for the registration separate from the hosting plan for each of those domains.
Next check the amount of space and traffic that you are expecting. I get around 25000 GB. I don't think I even use 100GB each month. My sites aren't that heavy (nor popular I guess).
What's next?
Next up get your site content and images/videos ready. Get a web guy to help you arrange that information loaded on the hosting. I'll be writing a next part on Content Management Systems another time.
If you have any questions. Do feel free to leave a message.
Getting a website
