What do I need to setup a website?

Many people surf the web and can find information they want or are interested in, but not many of those understand what it is they are actually viewing. And why would the end consumer want to, then they would end up looking at web pages the way I do instead of just enjoying them for what they are a display of information with a purpose rather than a bunch of code calling the browser to display combinations of text, images and scripts.

If you are going to own a website you will need to understand the basics though, even if it's only a broad overview. When you first setup a web page there are 3 basics things you will need for people to be able to see it.

1. A url- the internet address you type in to go to a page eg. www.mattyoung.com.au/blog
2. somewhere to store the files
3. an html page which tells the web browser what to show on the screen.

So if you want to set up a website you are going to have to address these issues.

Getting a url

If you have your own business you will probably want to have your own domain. A domain name is the first part of the url which ends in .com.au, .com, .org, .gov.au etc. For example my domain name is mattyoung.com.au, flickr is flickr.com and google has many domains registered such as google.com, google.com.au, google.co.uk etc. Each domain name requires registration with an official domain name registry. There are also resellers who are often cheaper than the domain name registries and they organise the registration for you.

It is best to shop around for a domain name reseller. Try searching using the terms 'cheap australia domain name':

Make sure that you will not be charged extra to point your domain address somewhere other than the reseller.

Once you have a domain name you can also have subdomains. Subdomains are a domain stuck in front of your main domain. You might use subdomains to organise different areas in a website. For example documentation may be in documentation.yourdomain.com.au. Subdomains do not need a seperate registration and so don't cost any extra. They are handled by the server your domain is on and generally point to a special folder where you store the subdomain site.

The name of your domain is an important consideration. It should reflect the name of your business and be easy to remember or logical to guess. To register a domain name ending in .au there are rules which determine who can have a domain name. For a .com.au domain name you basically need to have an australian registered business. Sole traders can register a .com.au domain with their name in it if they have an ABN. There are rules similar to these associated with all of the different Australian domain names. .com domains are more flexible and pretty much anyone can get a domain name.

Once you have a domain name the domain name register will point your domain name to wherever your domain is actually located. So you can 'host' your domain anywhere in the world and when someone types in your domain they will be pointed to where the files are.

There are other ways to get a url to place your information in. Many internet providers provide some webspace to host a site or similarly companies such as yahoo provide a space called yahoo geocities which is paid for by displaying ads on your site. In my opinion it is not worth using these for a commercial site. The url will be hard to remember and you will be restricted on what you can display. So it is better to fork out the extra money to get your own domain. When I purchased this domain the most cost-effective solution for me was with hostess

In the next post I will look at setting up somewhere to store your web pages.