This is the second post in my How to market yourself series, a personal account of the best marketing techniques you can employ for yourself or your business. Read my introduction to this self-marketing series here.
There are three things you need to do when setting up your website.
- Decide on your website address (URL)
- Register it
- Find a web host
How to decide on your web address
Many people spend hours thinking up a catchy URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or website address. The most important SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) point is to include some keywords (separated by hyphens). Your URL doesn’t have to be your name or your company name so why not increase your chances of being found in searches before you’ve even written a web page? So, if you are a web designer, why not try web-designer dot com? (OK, it’s already gone, but you know what I mean).
You can test out domain names at any domain name registrar. Which brings me on to the next thing you have to do.
Register your website’s address
Once you have decided on the name of your website it is necessary to register it. I use GoDaddy. There doesn’t seem to be a much cheaper option and GoDaddy are the market leaders. You can also try 123-Reg, particularly if you’re based in the UK and want a .co.uk domain.
One thing I would suggest is not to use your domain name registrar as your host. I like to keep the two operations separate because if you have a problem with one it is easier to move.
Cost: You’re looking at around $10 a year. When you register a domain name, your contact details are included in a publicly available database known as the Whois database which can lead to spamming. You can spend slightly more to hide these details.
SEO point: Search engines may prefer if the domain is registered for a longer time into the future so that you don’t look like a fly-by-night website. For this reason, it’s better to register for five years rather than the minimum one year.
How to choose a web host?
The web hosting industry is highly competitive with seemingly hundreds of companies offering similar packages. Here are some of the things you need to take into account.
A great way to market yourself and get search engines to include you in their search results is to blog. The blogging software I recommend is WordPress.
The minimum specifications for the hosting of a WordPress blog are PHP 4.3 or greater, MySQL 4.0 or greater and the mod_rewrite Apache module. PHP is scripting language; MySQL is a database server. These are fairly standard specifications and will be offered by most quality web hosts but make sure you check! I recommend a few hosts here.
Other than that here are some more important points to look out for:
- Disk space. Once you have a host you will find it useful for a number of things not just your website. It is another bit of computer space to use. You can use it as your own personal FTP site for storing information. If you think you need this facility go for a web host that’s offering tons of disk space.
- Monthly transfer / Bandwidth. This refers to how much your website is accessed. For example, if your website consists of one page of 1MB (very unlikely) and is visited by ten people a month, you would need more than 10MB of monthly transfer to facilitate this. Of course most website pages are less than 100K so, unless you are expecting huge amounts of visitors, 10GB/month will be enough at first and your web host will be able to offer you more as your website increases in popularity. Keep your eye on it though. How?
- A control panel. cPanel is the most advanced web hosting control panel in the industry, designed to simplify administration of a website and I would recommend choosing a host that offers it. Through the cPanel you can set up and read email, manage and edit your website’s files, monitor your website’s traffic (making sure you don’t exceed any bandwidth or space restrictions), and loads of other things including backing up a MySQL database which is essential for good WordPress maintenance. cPanel sometimes comes bundled with Fantastico which is a set of scripts which automate the installation of, but not always the update of, CMSs such as SMF, phpBB, Drupal, Joomla!, WordPress and over 50 others, although I would not install WordPress this way.
- The validity of your web host. I would only choose a web host that had a professional looking website. Also, I would definitely insist on 24/7 email support, personally I wouldn’t mind if it didn’t have phone support.
Cost: You’re looking at around 8$/month for a decent shared hosting package. Shared hosting is fine if you are only going to have one website and you’re just starting out.
An important SEO point: The most important point for search engine marketing is the location of your website. If, for example, you are interested in the UK market you should use a UK based web host. However, if for example, you are a UK company wanting to market your services internationally, then I would choose a US host.
Recommended web hosts for WordPress users
I’ve researched this by asking WordPress professionals in forums and LinkedIn groups about the most reliable shared hosting and the following three companies came up with the most votes:
So, I’ve got a web address and a host, now what do I do?
Your new host should give you 4 useful pieces of information so that you can set up a website.
- IP address. An IP address is a unique number that every computer connected to the internet is assigned. It consists of 4 numbers separated by dots. This is the IP address of your server’s computer, not your personal computer.
- Your username.
- A password. These first 3 are necessary for uploading files to the server.
- Domain Name Servers/System/Service (DNS). A very important link between your domain name and IP address.
If, as I suggest, you register your domain name with a company other than your host you will need to return to your domain name registrar’s website and and fill in the name servers (usually one primary and one secondary) you got from your host.
That done, wait 24 hours (usually much less) and you can create your new website.
Next, use your favourite FTP client (eg. Filezilla) and, with the IP address, username and password, you can log on to your host. You may find quite a few directories. Look for one called “public_html” or similar. This is where your website should go.
Use your favourite text editor (eg. TextEdit for Mac; Notepad for PC) and make a new plain text document, write a message in it “hello!” and save it as “index.html”. Upload the “index.html” file. Now if you type in your domain name in a browser it will display your message.
Congratulations, you have just created a website!
As always, I welcome comments, especially to notify me of anything I’ve missed!
Thank you. This helped shed light on some of the questions I was having regarding my new website. Keep up the good work. I can’t wait until the later parts when you get into styling.
It really surprises me how so very little people have websites…you would think any business would have one by now! the good news is its less competition for those who do have the websites i suppose 🙂
Good write up, I will have to forward this to my Dad who wants to start a site.
Dear me, that was a shock to see the new site desig, it looks great. Are you going to update the favicon, or maybe its my browser cache?
Great article, however, I was always led to believe that choosing web names with hyphens was not recommended, as they are harder to remember, and look quite spammy. Am I wrong?
**Yeah, it was my browser cache, updated now** 😉
Is that really true about search engines favouring sites that are registered several years ahead?
I’ve never heard of this before but maybe I should start doing this because I register all of my websites just 1 year at a time.
Jon, thank you for coming, I’m dreading the bit where I talk about styling because it’s going to be so difficult! Coming soon!
Chelle, you’re right, but it’s a good thing – more work for me 🙂
Dave, I hope this helps your Dad.
Andrew, hyphens are the best keyword delimiters in URLs (Yahoo! recognises underscores, Google does not). Lots of them in a domain name does look spammy, you’re right. Those pesky little favicons always take ages to re-cache! I hope you like the new design, I’m still not finished with the header.
James, I’ve just looked this up and it is true, although (like the hyphens) I’m not sure that it’s a really important point. But, registering for 5 or 10 years is not going to break the bank and may well end up saving you money!
great information for anyone with the desire to start a website.
It’s a very informative article. Some people prefer to name their domain with their real name for branding purpose. Some people prefer to name their domain with the keyword to enhance SEO capability, which one is the best? it depends on each individual preference, for me, i go for SEO purpose when i name my domain.
@Rob, Yeah, really like the site design, very clean-cut and fresh – and glad you got rid of that massive “do-follow” badge in the sidebar, I think you attracted way too many spammers with that graphic.
Rob, i really have never heard about the SEO point you have made ‘search engines prefer if the domain is registered for a longer time into the future’. This surely cannot be an effecting factor in rankings. Maybe the age of the domain i can see being a factor but not this?
Its really a step by step tutorial to build your own website. Nice article dude. Thanks for sharing with us.
A very informative article I must say..I have one question though, why is it important that the website must be old. I have heard that the site must have high page rank, but old website is better for SEO I didnt know.
Thanks for this eye opener.
I enjoyed reading this tips. Thanks for posting. In addition to the local host, the domain extension also plays a vital role in getting local relevancy in search engines. Say for example .fr, .de, .uk etc. Am I right?
Thank you. I have announced this your post in philipphine forum,this is a nice forum.
Excellent post Rob, very nice starting point for anyone thinking of setting up a website.
Although am not ‘that’ new to this business, still very useful information. keep up the good work.
Nice guidance for beginners as well seniors who are all want to start a website.
Great Blog Keep It Up I Found Many Things To Learn From your Blog
Hmm.. there are really lots and lots of different web hosters out there and it gets pretty difficult to choose a correct one or one that dosen’t close down the next day.
Hello everyone and thank you for the comments.
About the length of time of a domain name registration: Obviously a site that’s ten years old will have more bearing with the search engines than one that’s just been set up. But also, I believe (although I don’t think it matters much) that when registering a new domain name it’s best to register it for at least five years rather than the minimum one year. I have looked into this and although some people say it’s not necessary there does appear to be some evidence that Google factors this in.
T-Home asked about local relevancy searches. I’m not an expert about how regional domain extension (.co.uk, .de, etc.) effects this although if you want to target a specific area it’s also important to set this geographic target in Google’s Webmaster Tools (more later).
So, although this installment of my “How to market yourself” series seemed basic to start with it’s thrown up a few interesting questions and taught us a bit!
Thanks again, guys! 🙂
This is the first I’ve heard of Surpass — what kind of account do you have? I’d like to move a reseller account somewhere and am shopping around. Have you noticed any issues with the unmetered bandwidth?
This is a great post — you realize that about a dozen people have put similar information into “manuals” that they’re selling for $20 a pop? 🙂
Hello Joe Fission, Surpass are OK. I have noticed speed issues at the weekend. But generally they are an easy company to work with. I have a reseller account with them.
Yes, Loans Modifications, unique articles are good for SEO.
First off, GREAT GREAT GREAT article ROB!
This kind of stuff should be taught in college. Unfortunetly, we have to teach ourselves. There are a number of open source websites you can use like wordpress and blogger but as far as purchasing a URL, I strongly recommend going with GoDaddy.com. They provided great customer care, fast start up, and reliable service that is easy.
I just found a couple great UK GODaddy coupon codes here:
30% .coms and renewals- Slam3
This works great and saves you some money. Leave a comment if you have any questions. Thanks
PRIMUS1
PRIMUS1, thank you, nobody has ever used GREAT three times to describe one of my posts! I’ve purchased all my URLs with GoDaddy.com. Thanks for the coupon tip. I haven’t got to update any at the moment but when I do I’ll try this and if not Google. Great money saving tip, PRIMUS, thanks!
Hey Rob,
Very interesting site. I emailed this link to my son who is currently graduating from college and stepping into the work force. He used Godaddy as well Primus!
He used some different codes though. I puled them up when he e-mailed me back and they were as follows:
slam1 – 10% off
slam30 – 30% off .COMs and renewals
I used slam1 when I purchased some hosting from Godaddy UK yesterday. It worked great.
Thanks again Rob, I truly think this should be taught in the college classroom setting.
Thanks!
Jim
I like how you managed to sum up all the different angles of marketing, sometimes they is so much to explain and without going on and on you made it quite easy to understand.
I told my friend to read this article as he is just starting his own website design business.
Regards,
Richard
Thank you Jim for your kind words about the article as well as even more GoDaddy money-off codes!
And Richard cheers, if your friend needs any help setting up a website design company I can help!
Thanks for the codes JIM! They work great!
Tim
Hi Everyone,
I have a carpet cleaning business in Houston,TX that was doing pretty good until the economy went bad, and with it my clientele. I have a website for the business but I dont
know what I have to do the get it to show up in a search. Right now it’s somewhere in the yahoo/google netherworld (LOL).
Is there someone on here that can give me some insight or know of anyone that coud give me insight on how I can get my local website on the front
page of a Yahoo or Google search to increase my business without it costing me 5 or 10k $$$? If so please share with me.
I thank you and my hungry over-eating children thank you.
thanks,
Hey Tony,
Sorry to hear about your business doing poorly. What you need to focus on is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Start simple and pick yourself up SEO for Dummies. After reading it, you will understand how top sites such as Google and Yahoo work. With this being said, it will be easier to get your company to the top. You should also focus on using Google adwords and find out what customers your clients are actually searching for when using google.com.
First and foremost, make sure your site is hosted somewhere other than wordpress or blogger. You need your own URL with hosting provided by a company such as Godaddy.com. Godaddy.com offers great promotional codes that you can use when you are in a financial pich such as the one you are currently in.
The codes I use are as follows:
OK1 saves you 10% off you entire purchase
(for a URL and hosting for a year it should only be around $100 so you will save $10 with this promotional code)
OK30 saves you 30% off .com or domain renewal.
You can only use one code. Let me know if this helps and answers all of your questions.
~JBRONX
other from GoDaddy do you have any other suggestions which is affordable and reliable hosts for websites? additional tip is having a fast quality service that will add improvement for your new site.
I didn’t suggest GoDaddy as a host. I have no experience of their hosting. I recommended GoDaddy as a domain name registrar. I would use Linux rather than Windows.
I’ve been looking forward to this post after the first one. It’ s very informative. Keep it up.
It has helped me to reconsider my approach to building a successful website. Thank you for sharing.
thanks for sharing this great information.
I also think that for a professiona online surfer Linux is better than windows. It is a lot quicker and do not get bombarded with viruses.
I would always go for Linux over Windows servers. I’ve had experience of setting up WordPress sites on IIS – it sucks!
Your tip in choosing a web host is really useful. I am sure many would greatly benefit.
All,
We are going to renew some domains, over 20. They will each come up for renewal the next couple of months.
Anyway, I have found and tried go daddy promo codes but none work. Anyone have a coupon they use that does not expire?
thank you
A complete godaddy promo codes list:
UKTop10: 30% off domains
UKTop251 : 25% off order of $90 or more
UKTop9 : 20% Off Orders over $50 dollars
UKTop8 : 10% off anything
Hosting
CHN20 : 20% Off Hosting (1,2,3 yr accounts)
CHN1 : 10% Off Monthly hosting accounts
More based on order size:
BUCK2 : $5 off order of $30 or more
BUCKOFF : $10 off if $40 or more
Unique
BUCKSSL : $12.99 SSL ( 56% Off )
AUCTION12 : 50% Off auction accounts
Have these written down, don’t think they expire. Print these out.
A complete godaddy discounts list:
UKTop10: 30% off domains
UKTop251 : 25% off order of $90 or more
UKTop9 : 20% Off Orders over $50 dollars
UKTop8 : 10% off anything
Godaddy hosting promo codes:
RUSH20 : 20% Off Hosting (1,2,3 yr accounts)
RUSH1 : 10% Off Monthly hosting accounts
More based on order size:
BUCK2 : $5 off if $30 or more
BUCKOFF : $10 off if $40 or more
Unique
RADSSL : $12.99 SSL ( 56% Off )
AUCTION12 : 50% Off auction accounts
Used some of these for a while now. Print these out.
Thank you for the information. Good article.
This is a very comprehensive and good information-rich article. Nice work. Thanks for the information.
Setting up a website is easy, but to have it found by the search engines, that´s the tricky part. There are many free website builders like yola, weebly and so on, but you have to know how to get them found by your visitors.
You need to follow the others in this series: How to optimize for search engines and How to get links.
I love your articels
Thank you, Hilmi!
Hey im a beginner graphic designer and was wondering what you think about online portfolio and freelance sites and if you could name a few that are reliable and trustworthy. Because I can’t afford to build a safe website of my own at this point of time. And on an unrelated matter could you suggest a software that can relates to Adobe InDesign CS5(i’m looking for something with a similar pen tool) In does not have to be free but affordable.
I don’t know any reliable freelance sites. I would concentrate on your own site first it shouldn’t cost you much – $30 or so. Here is an article about alternatives to Adobe CS5. thank you.
I needed to thank you for this very good read!
! I certainly enjoyed every bit of it. I have got
you book-marked to look at new things you post.
Thank you. This helped shed light on some of the questions I was having regarding my new website. Keep up the good work. I can’t wait until the later parts when you get into styling.
Thank you, zadra