So, you’re thinking about starting a website…

Any would-be entrepreneur who has recently started to think about launching their own website might be scratching their head and wondering, What’s web hosting? Don’t worry; you’re not the only one! With so much information to take in and so many details to keep track of when starting any kind of online business, web hosting can seem daunting. But there’s nothing to it! Let’s take a look at what web hosting is and how it works and then see if you have what it takes to start your own site. (Hint: You do!)

Step 1: Get an email address

If you want to start your own website, first thing’s first: get an email address. You can use your current email address if you like, or purchase one from a domain registrar. It will be the address for both your site and any company correspondence. It’s also important that this email is not used for any other purpose – it should only be used for business purposes.

Step 2: Get Web Hosting

There are many hosting services available and it can be difficult to find the right one. But before we get into that, let’s go over what web hosting is. Web hosting is basically just a company that stores your site files for you on their servers so people can visit your site from anywhere in the world (as long as they have internet). With web hosting you’ll need to choose between Shared and Dedicated web hosting. Shared web hosts divide up their storage space among multiple customers, so if your site gets too popular and someone else’s sites start using up all of the bandwidth, then your site could experience slowdowns or even downtime.

Step 3: Choose An Online Marketing Platform

The next question is whether or not you’ll need an online marketing platform to get people to your site. If so, what should it be? The answer depends on the type of business that you have and your budget. The three most common online marketing platforms are Facebook Ads, Google AdWords, and Twitter ads.

Step 4: Start Building A Website

This is the longest step in the process and will likely take up most of your time. However, it’s also the most gratifying because seeing your site go live is so rewarding! I recommend going with a CMS (Content Management System) like WordPress or Drupal. These platforms are open-source and have tons of plugins available for download which can make building your site much easier. They also come with the added benefit of being able to manage your site from one central location. Once you’ve picked out your CMS, it’s time to start building pages using either HTML or CSS (or both). This is where all of that research will come in handy!

Step 5: Update Your Website Regularly

The final step in the process is to maintain and update your website. In order to do this, it’s best to build your site on WordPress or another content management system (CMS) that will allow for easy updating. Otherwise, you’ll have to update your site by hand every time there is new content. Having an auto-responder set up on your contact form will also help ensure people can get back in touch with you when they need to.

Step 6: Complete your online marketing platform setup

Now that your site is built, it’s time to set up the tools to help it get discovered and rank higher in search results. You’ll need to do two things: add the site to Google Search Console (formerly known as Webmaster Tools), and submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools. Google will let you know if there are any errors or warnings on your site that might be harming its performance in search results. One of the best things about this tool is that it can also alert you when someone has attempted to spam your site with links or content. If there are no issues with your site then all you have left is creating a sitemap for Bing.