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Where to Start
The hardest part about creating your first website is knowing where to start. We hope
the information that follows will help guide you. At the very least, you need three things
to get your website up and running: a domain name,
server space at a hosting company, and website pages.
Domain Names
The domain name is an internet address that people will type in their browsers to access your
site. It will also be the name at the end of your business email address. The domain name for
this site is anglesolutions.com. Your domain name can be almost anything you
want but it should be as simple and as descriptive as possible.
It doesn't have to end in .com, but that is the most common business extension.
The hardest part about getting a good domain name is finding one that is available.
Domain names must be registered and are paid for on a yearly or multi-yearly basis. Where do
you get a domain name? It's easiest to get one from the same place that you get your hosting account. We offer some of the most affordable domain names and hosting available. Check out our hosting site here.
Hosting
Hosting is probably the most confusing aspect of getting a website online. There are so many
companies to choose from and the hosting plans usually contain plenty of technobabble. Most hosting
plans emphasize storage and bandwidth allowances.
Well, storage makes sense because the server is where you will store all of your
website related information such as web pages, pictures and downloadable forms,
etc. A typical amount of storage offered for a business site can be 3 to 10
GB (gigabytes). A gigabyte is 1 billion bytes. What can you do with a billion
bytes? You could store the encoding for a human gene sequence. That's a lot of
storage. Most small businesses can put a 7 to 10 page website up and keep the
space under 5 MB (megabytes). A megabyte is a million bytes or enough space to
store a 600 page novel. A typical web page is about 25 kilobytes so, don't get
too caught up in the big numbers in the hosting plans; chances are you won't
need that much space.
The term bandwidth is often used when describing the speed of your internet connection,
but in that context they are really referring to the amount of data being transmitted
in a specified time period. In hosting, bandwidth is referring to usage -- how
much data your website is transmitting in a one month period.
The factors in bandwidth usage are the size of your webpages (plus pictures, animations, etc.) and the
number of times those pages are viewed over a one month period. If you have a large amount of internet
traffic to your site you could exceed your hosting company's bandwidth allowance. However, like
storage, the bandwidth allowance is huge and often much more than most small
companies will ever need. Hosting companies offer anywhere from 50 GB to 200 GB of bandwidth usage for general
business accounts. So, the obvious question is:
With a 150 GB bandwidth allowance, how many times in a month could your
entire site be viewed if you had 10 pages averaging 100K each.
Answer: 10 pages at 100K each equal 1,000K or 1 megabyte. Your 150 GB limit is equal to 150,000 MB.
So if each visit used 1 megabyte you could have 150,000 visitors. (If you have that many visitors to
your web site each month you won't be worrying about exceeding your bandwidth).
So, small businesses should not be too concerned about storage and bandwidth. What then should you look
for in a hosting company?
- Reliability -- Do they offer guaranteed uptime?
- Technical support -- 24/7, manned by real people, preferably here in the U.S.
- Tools -- You may not understand them but if you want special routines on your site,
the ability to use forms, java applets, or you need to use a database,
your hosting company should provide all of those at no charge.
You should be able to get all of that for under $5 per month. In fact, Angle Solutions offers an economy plan for less than $4 per month. Check out our hosting packages here.
Website Pages
This is usually where we come in. Many people create their first site on their own. Often they will use
the tools provided by hosting companies for "do-it-yourself" sites. You can create a workable site with
these tools but you often can't create the site you really want. We have re-developed many of these sites for
our clients. Usually we have added functionality and created a more professional looking site from
their existing material, but we have also undertaken complete redesigns. If you have an existing site
that you would like to upgrade, give us a call and we will give you a free quote.
Contact us for more information
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