Do you own your website? (Part 4 - website hosting)

Submission by Robin Clapp - Web Design by Robin

This is part 4 of the series "Do you own your website?".  Today you will learn what website hosting is and how to purchase it.

I will ask a new client to perform two tasks when they hire me to design their website.
1) Pick and purchase a domain name for their website, which I covered in another blog article.
2) Purchase a hosting plan, which is the main focus of this blog article.  I will start by explaining what a website host is.

How does an internet browser know where a website lives?



It begins with registering your domain name with the whois database.  All domains are registered here.  This is how they know which ones are available and which ones are not.  The whois database record that contains the domain name also contains the address of where the website lives.  This address is normally that of a computer server that has access to the world wide web 99.9% of the time.  You want as little downtime as possible, right?

When you pay for your hosting plan you are paying for your website to be hosted on a server - giving it an address.  Once you know your server and website address it can be recorded in your domain name record and VOILA the connection is made and your website can be found.

Not all hosting plans are the same.

I specialize in content management websites, specifically in an application called Joomla.  The hosting plan needs to support the tool set I use. Not all hosting plans are the same. Godaddy hosting plans are a great fit for Joomla websites and are reasonably priced.  This is why I recommend their economy hosting plan to my clients.

Website Ownership
By completing steps 1 and 2, listed above, you have claimed ownership of both your domain name and hosting plan.  Now my favorite part begins, CREATING A REALLY COOL WEBSITE FOR YOU!

Robin Clapp
Web Design by Robin
Bringing Your Website to Life
Robin@Web-Design-By-Robin.com
508-622-1464