So you’ve got an idea for a new business/SME, and you’d like to build a website. You’re bursting with great ideas for content, offers, photographs and information, but you don’t know how to put it all together or, perhaps more pertinently, where to put it all together.
One of the first decisions to take is what to do with hosting, which is essentially an area where people store their websites and the information contained therein; files, images, podcasts, and the HTML coding that dictates where everything goes. Usually ‘hosting’ actually refers to the company that is holding this information in its servers.
There are generally four types of web hosting services; shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated and cloud hosting. Shared hosting refers to a hosting package where your site shares the same server with others, as well as possibly the memory itself. For this reason, costs are typically low but there could be issues if the sites experience high levels of traffic.
Conversely, VPS refers to a storage solution under a number of different virtual servers, which means that each site will share server space with a few others. It’s typically more secure than a shared system, although again spikes in traffic may affect performance.
The ultimate in exclusivity, control and performance is a dedicated server system, where just one server hosts your site – but this is more expensive. The final solution is a cloud host, comprised of multiple servers working together to create one server, to handle high levels of traffic.
There are many things to weigh up when considering which one to go for, but one can clearly see that if costs are a concern for a small business, then shared might be the way forward. Ask the server company for honest advice, providing projected traffic and web hits for your available budget, and don’t forget to shop around. Most servers will offer a number of options, for payment plans (monthly, quarterly etc), bandwidth limits, and number of domains (see below).
The next, or concurrent step, is to think about domain names. This is literally the name of your site, or perhaps more specifically the web address. It’s important, therefore to get it right – it needs to be new and unique as a minimum (although there are many more rules of thumb which need to be applied for a good name – click here to see what we mean). Search for domain registration websites to ascertain if this is achievable (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers dictates this), and if the suffix is appropriate (ie for co.uk, do you live in the UK?) There are other considerations for the name which you may wish to research, such as Top Level Domains such as .com and .org, which are more regulated.
Once you’ve established your name, and the server you’ll use and how you will pay, it’s time to start building the site. There are a huge number of online builders such as WordPress, Wix, Moonfruit and others, which will allow you to build a site quickly, and then add pages as and when they become relevant. A quick landing page with products/services and contact details is a good start. If you don’t have the time yourself there are a huge number of freelance website builders online (or probably in your area), who may offer a more bespoke service for a price. They might also be able to advise you on hosting plans – which helps you to decide on the options outlined above.