You”ll have to bear with me during this article, i”m trying to go right back to basics myself to be able to explain this as best as i can. I remember when i first created a few web pages then didn”t have a clue what to do next so i hope this article goes some way to explaining whats involved.
A browser is a piece of software that when clicked enables you to view websites. The most popular web browsers are Internet Explorer and mozilla firefox but there are many other browsers including safari, netscape navigator, google chrome and a few more. It’s a good tip to download different browsers and different release versions of the same browser whilst testing your website as web pages can look different in each one. This is one of the main challenges that face a web designer but it’’s slowly improving.
Anyway back to how you get the website or web pages you”ve created to be viewable by someones web browser half way around the world. First you need a domain name and some web hosting.
What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is the name you type into a web browsers address bar, an example – www.google.com / www.dragonsdesign.co.uk. Domain names don”t cost much, normally around £8 – £10 per year. The hardest part is thinking of one that isn”t already taken, use you imagination. A good tip if your a registered business and your name has been taken try adding web or online on the end for example if your business is called super plumbers and the domain name is already taken try www.superplumbersweb.com. It is also good to try and include key words in your domain name like plumbers in the previous example, this will help search engines rank you higher in the results pages. Keep reading the hosting part next for where to purchase a domain.
What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting enables you to have you own bit of space on the web, it’s like renting an office from a big block of offices, obviously there’s big offices that can hold a lot of stuff, have the latest mod cons and there are small offices that are suitable for smaller businesses. Web hosting can range from £1.99 per month to £20 per month. I think the best thing to do is have a look around 2 of the best hosting companies www.1and1.com and www.uk2.net. If your a UK business a UK hosting company is recommended.
So what is web hosting? A web hosting company holds all your web pages on a server (your rented space) somewhere in the world. When someone types your domain name into the web browsers address bar, the server receives the request and sends your page back through the Internet to be displayed on the users browser on their computer, whether they are in Moscow or new york. Pretty cool hey?
I ll tell you how to put your files on your web hosting space in a mo but first a top tip would be to purchase your domain name from the same place you purchase your web hosting. This is to do with your domain name having the right nameservers to work with your web hosting. Dont worry about what this means, just trust me.
File Transfer Protocol
Don t worry, we re not going to get all technical on you, the file transfer protocol (better known as FTP) is exactly what it says, a way of transferring files such as .html files over the Internet to your web hosting space so people are able to request them.
First of all your home page should be called and saved as index.html as this is the default page that is requested when you type in the domain name. So if you type in www.example.com in your browser you are really requesting and receiving www.example.com/index.html or www.example.com/index.php whichever language your website is written in. So to get this important message across i ll say it again, if you are writing your pages in html remember to save your home (front) page as index.html.
Next we need to transfer your beautifully crafted web pages from your computer to your web hosting space. To do this you need a FTP Client. A great FTP Client is FileZilla, download the client version. Once downloaded you need to log into your web hosting space via the control panel the hosting company sent you and set up a FTP account in there, it should be fairly easy and explained by your hosting company in the frequently asked questions section or somewhere around there.
Anyway once you”ve set the FTP account you will receiver a username and password to enter into the FTP client you. Open the your FTP Client (filezilla) that you downloaded earlier and enter your domain name, username and password and click connect.
You are then presented with a split screen, one side you”ve got all the files on your desktop and on the right hand side you”ve got the folders on your web hosting space. Usually there is a folder called public html or www on the web host side, this folder is the root folder for all your web pages, your domain name www.example.com points to the contents in this folder, so every file you want to be viewable to people surfing the net goes inside this folder. Select your homepage index.html on the desktop side and either right click and choose the upload option or drag and drop it to the right hand side and do this with every other file or directory your website hyperlinks to. The index.html file you created should be visible as soon as you open the public html or www folder. All other pages can be in sub directories of there own but the index/home page has to be in visible in the root folder.
There you go, type in your domain name into your browser www.example.com and you will see your home page, walllaaaa!
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