Website hosting

Websites are located (or hosted) on computer servers. The location of a website on a server is specified by a series of numbers, called the IP address (eg: 62.281.146.71). As this would be hard to remember your domain name (see below) acts as a forwarder to it instead.

Managed website hosting

When having a website created it is perfectly possible to have the files that make up the site sent to you for hosting where you choose. It is then up to you to upload and run the site and it's email systems. Almost all of my clients prefer not to get involved in this process and choose to let me take care of all the technicalities and make sure the site and email systems continue to work correctly. This is called managed hosting and includes both the rental of the computer space and my time running it, all for a single annual fee.

Domain names

This is the name people will look for to find your website on the net (eg: yourname.co.uk) and can be used as part of your email address (eg: you@yourname.co.uk). I can advise on choosing a good, search engine friendly name. There are numerous domain name extensions (eg: .co.uk, .com etc) and I can also advise on suitability. Domain names are registered through accredited domain registrars. I can do this for you and integrate the domain name with the website for an annual fee that includes registration.

Email systems

These are set up around the domain name and you can have as many addresses as you need (eg: you@yourname.co.uk, info@yourname.co.uk etc). There are various ways of using your email such as from your PC with programmes like Outlook or Mac Mail or though a web browser like Internet explorer or Safari using webmail. If you already use webmail (eg: Yahoo Mail, Hot Mail etc) then mail from your site can be forwarded to that. There are almost endless options when it comes to email and I can advise you on what will work best for you.

Search engines

The three biggest are Google, Yahoo and Bing with Google taking the lion's share of the market. Most people will use a search engine to find your site. Even if they know the domain name they will probably still type it into the search box. When people don't know who you are but are searching for particular keywords then the search engine will match the search words with the the same words on websites. So making sure you are indexed on the major search engines by name and the right keywords for your website is important.