HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
1.
Optionally, register a domain name. If you want your website to appear at a URL
like mycoolsite.com or mycompany.com, you need to register that domain name if
you haven't already. There are a number of domain registrars, just enter domain
registration in your favorite search engine to see a large number of ads and search
results for companies that offer domain registration.
2.
Pick out a web hosting company and sign up for an account. It may be the case
that you don't need to do this. If you're going to be putting your pages on an inter-
nal or external server belonging to your employer or your school, you won't need
your own hosting. But if you're creating a new website that will be available on the
Internet, you need some sort of hosting arrangement.
3.
Associate your domain name with your new website, if you have registered one.
Your domain registrar and hosting company should provide instructions for setting
it up so that your domain name points to your hosting account. That way when
users enter your domain name in a URL, they'll get the content that you upload to
your server.
4.
Start uploading your content. When your web hosting is set up, you can use what-
ever tool you prefer to start uploading web content to the server. Many hosts pro-
vide a web interface that can allow you to upload content, but usually it's much
easier to use a file transfer tool that supports File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Secure
Copy (SCP), or Secure FTP (SFTP) to get your files to the server.
There will be a more extensive discussion of web hosting and how to publish your site in
Lesson 20, “Putting Your Site Online,” but I wanted to give you a head start if you're
eager to start publishing on the Web.
Designing a website, like designing a book outline, a building plan, or a painting, can
sometimes be a complex and involved process. Having a plan before you begin can help
you keep the details straight and help you develop the finished product with fewer false
starts. In this lesson, you learned how to put together a simple plan and structure for cre-
ating a set of web pages, including the following:
Deciding what sort of content to present
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Coming up with a set of goals for that content
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Deciding on a set of topics
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Organizing and storyboarding the website
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Publishing your site on the Web
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