Building a Website: The Basics

Maybe you have a small business you want to promote, family photos
you want to share, or a portfolio you want to show the public.
Or maybe you simply want to keep in touch. Whatever your reasons are,
building a website is becoming the easy way to meet your personal and
business needs. Anyone with a computer can build a website, provided
they have the patience to learn the basics.

To build a website, you need four things:
1) something to put in it;
2) a place to put it;
3) a way to put it there;
and 4) an address that people can use to find it (like a phone number).
This quick guide discusses all four steps and shows you the easiest way
to get them done.

Your content

Usually, when you decide to make a website all you have is a concept of what
you want, but you need a clear idea of what your content will be, and more
importantly, how you plan on making it. Most websites are a combination of
text and images, sometimes with video, animations, and other little add-ons.
Whatever you decide to put in, you’ll need to make them in the language of
the internet: HTML.

HTML stands for hypertext markup language. It is the code that your browser
uses to display your material the way you want it to. Your browser reads your
HTML file — the text file containing the code, like a set of instructions on
where to put everything.

So, to build a web page, you need to write HTML files. You have two options:
write the code yourself on a text editor, such as Notepad, or use a website
builder such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver. The latter are also called
“What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWIG) editors, which means
you design the page as it will appear on the site. The program automatically
generates HTML code corresponding to your layout. It’s best to learn a little
of both, as you’ll need to manually tweak your code more often than you think.

Your server

Once you’ve got all your pages in code, you’ll need to put them on the internet.
To do this, you need to put them on a server, which is basically a very powerful
computer with a permanent connection to the internet. The server is where all
your content is stored and distributed to your site visitors.
Needless to say, servers can be very expensive, so most people simply outsource
this requirement. Basically, they rent the server (or part of it) from a provider
or host. There are free hosting services on the internet, but most of them offer
less than basic services; if you want the full range of features, get a paid
hosting service. Hosting services cost around $50 a month on average, and often
an initial setup fee.

Your FTP client

So, you’ve got your HTML pages and a good hosting service. The next step is sending
the files that make up your website to your server, so that they can put it on the
internet. The standard method of sending files is File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
To use FTP, you need a small program called an FTP client. This usually comes with
WYSIWIG editing software, but there are also freestanding ones such as WS_FTP and
FileZilla. Simply type in the username and password your server gave you, and start
uploading your files.
You should keep a copy of your HTML files on your own computer. When you want
to make changes to your site, simply change the corresponding HTML code, and
replace the old file on your server with the new one.

Your domain name

By default, websites are given numerical addresses. A typical address or uniform
resource locator (URL) would look something like 192.78.2.0. But you can’t expect
people to type that in every time they want to see your site. That’s why you need
a domain name.

Domain names are simply readable versions of your numerical URL, such as “http://www.yourcoolnewsite.com.”
Not all websites need a domain name. For instance, most free hosts put your site
under a subdirectory, so that your address reads like “http://yourserver.com/yoursite”
or “http://yoursite.yourserver.com. “ However, having your own domain name lends your site a great deal of credibility, and helps it turn up better on search engines.

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