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There are a number of elements needed to set up a web site, some are common to all sites and some are needed only by those with more advanced requirements. Most firms would use the services of a web design company, and they would guide you or manage the whole process for you. There are one or two traps to avoid when the design company manages everything, namely arranging for a domain name and hosting company — details are in the relevant sections.
This is the www.somebody.com address used to access individual sites. These names are unique and once someone has registered that name, it is not available to anybody else. Whilst it is not expensive to register your own domain name, it can be tricky finding one that has not already been taken. When choosing a name it is best to avoid names that include less-common words, words that are difficult to spell, or those that have alternative spellings.
The .com part is called the domain extension, today there is a wide variety of extensions such as .co.uk, .info, .biz, .tv, and .me. See the full list of each country's domain extension.
It is usually best to register your domain name through the web hosting company that you intend to use as it saves you a little administrative work in transferring your domain name to a different hosting company for which there may be a small charge.
Beware of scams: expect to pay between about five and twenty pounds per year for your domain name, some people will try to panic you into buying a domain name before it is taken by someone else and charge a hundred pounds or more for the name only.
If your web design company or other third party is registering for you, make sure they register it in your name and payment is arranged through you. A few companies will arrange everything for you, use their name, and pay through their bank. It may be done with the best intentions but they will have legal control over your domain name and where it is hosted.
You can check for available names, or read more about domain names with the relevant controllers: Nominet for UK entries,, or try Icann for global entries.
The controllers do not provide domain names themselves, accredited registrars do this. Many registrars are web hosting companies. The controllers have lists of accredited registrars via links on their site.
You do not need to have your own computer with specialist software connected to the Internet 24 hours a day, every day. It is usual to hire space on someone else's computers (web servers) to store the pages which make up your website; web hosting companies provide this service. A reputable web host uses computers that are specially designed for handling websites and housed in temperature controlled, air-conditioned secure buildings. Their staff will maintain the computers and software and provide new equipment as necessary, all at no extra cost to you.
The web server has software that delivers pages requested by users, although Microsoft Enterprise Server is becoming more common, the most popular software by far is still Apache Web Server, which is used more than all other web server software combined.
Your package will typically include e-mail facilities allowing you to have me@mysite.com and possibly a few dozen more.
Restrictions on your site include the amount of disk space available for your text, graphics and database tables. A second restriction is the amount of data received and sent out from your site. Unless your pages contain many high-resolution graphics or you are providing video or sound files for people to download, the amount of space and bandwidth is usually sufficient — but make sure as the charges for exceeding your allocated amount are invariably high.
There is often no need to get every facility you may possibly need in the future; you can usually start with a modest package , as many hosting companies will allow you to upgrade to a higher specification package just by paying the difference in price. However, make sure that this is the case with your chosen company before you sign.
Be aware that small web-design companies that offer web hosting services are unlikely to have their own web server - they are more likely to be acting as sales agents for the company which hosts their site. Check your agreement to ensure that you have control of your website should anything go wrong with the design company.
Hosting packages cost from under £5.00 per month for a no-frills account, to around £40.00 per month for a fully-fledged e-commerce system. A package that includes database and custom scripting facilities is around £10.00 per month. Payment is usually taken by credit card, in advance.
To make a start in your search for a suitable host you could do worse than to try these: Internet magazine's top ten hosting companies or Future publishing 2002 winners. Netcraft produce a list of hosting companies with high uptimes.
As far as people visiting your site are concerned it doesn't make the slightest difference whether your site is hosted on a site based on Windows servers or whether it is hosted on Unix system, or a free Unix-like system such as Linux (actually Gnu/Linux, to give it its full title) or any other system. No matter which system you are using, and no matter which system they are using they will be able to access your site.
Linux based hosting is most widely used — about 60% of websites around the world use Linux and about 20% use other versions of Unix. This compares with about 20% using Windows — see the current state of play. Linux has traditionally been the most robust and secure system, though Windows XP Enterprise servers are sturdier than their older servers.
Linux has the widest choice of tools, programming languages and database systems on offer; Windows tend to use Active Server Pages (ASP) with Visual Basic as the main programming language and MS SQL Server as the database server. Some cheaper Windows hosting packages offer MS Access but usually this is only suitable for light duties as it was only intended for small workgroups.
Programming on the web is normally referred to as scripting. Scripts that run on the web server are called server-side scripts while those that run inside the browser from the web page are known as client-side scripting (things such as browsers that make use of information from the web are called web clients).
This section is a little off-topic but is included here (instead of in the 'Web pages and content section') for continuity. Client side scripting is used to check that the user has entered valid looking information on a form, to do animated menus and anything that is best done at the user's end. It is also misused to open pop-up windows with advertisements, alter the size of your browser and other annoying things. No surprise then that many people set their browser to disallow scripting off; this is a shame, as when it is used properly it can enhance a page and give functionality that is genuinely useful to the user.
The moral is: Don't let your design company make pages that are useless if scripting has been disabled.
Server side scripting is used things such as querying a database and security checks. Server side scripting cannot be turned off by the user.
If your website needs to do more than display text and graphics you will need a hosting package that allows you to run your own custom scripts. For example, websites that are capable of accepting information from the person visiting that site need to provide some response be it taking order details or looking up and presenting information from a database. A computer program known as a script is needed to process the information provided by your visitor and create a suitable web page on the spot.
If you plan to accept information from your visitors then your hosting package should include one or more of the following:
Be careful, ensure that the hosting package allows you to provide your own scripts; some packages only allow their own (pre-written) scripts to be run.
If you have more than a few products to mention on your site, or if you want to take information from visitors to your site then you should seriously consider choosing a hosting package that includes a database management system such as MySQL, PostgreSQL or MS SQL. Try and avoid cheaper packages that only include MS Access unless you are sure that you will only ever have a very small amount of information to store — Access is good for personal or small group use but was never designed for use on the Web. Packages that include database facilities invariably include programming facilities but do make sure that custom scripts are allowed.
Remember you will need to register under the Data Protection Act if you store anyone's personal details. It would also be very wise in these circumstances to select a package that includes a secure connection - look for SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or the more recent TSL (Transport Layer Security).
Your web design company will create the pages offline; they will then upload them to your server. Three methods are typical:
Your host provides pages that ask for the location of the pages on your hard disk and uploads them to the folder you specify on their disk (within your own allocated folder of course).
The second method is to use the File Access Protocol (FTP) to upload and download pages and graphics. Modern ftp programs look and work like Windows Explorer making transferring pages a simple point and click affair.
The third method is only found on more advanced and more expensive packages. This allows you to control your part of their machine as if it were our own using a secure shell.
Taking orders online is part of setting up an online shop; the other part is getting the money. Some traders will find it perfectly satisfactory to use a reservation system where articles that have been ordered by someone are put to one side and dispatched when the customer's cheque arrives. For situations where payment needs to be quicker, credit card handling needs to be considered. Even if your business has existing credit card facilities, it may be difficult and expensive to convince the credit card company to let you use the service over the Internet due to the risk of hacking and subsequent fraud.
There is a small number of companies that offer a scheme to provide you with online payment facilities (e-payment). You will need to register with them and usually pay a registration fee. Their secure site processes any payments for orders made on your site, they will take a percentage of the payment and credit you with the remainder a short while later. Since their business depends on confidence in their procedures you can feel sure that their security measures are second to none and almost certainly safer than ordinary point of sale systems used in small premises. Some of these companies are:
UK Government advice for consumers on the Web is given in A Consumer's Guide to E-Payments.
Many hosting companies offer packages that include the building blocks of a complete e-commerce system. They may include templates for the web pages, ready-built forms, and facilities for database, secure connection and online payments. E-commerce packages, unsurprisingly, are typically the most expensive packages on offer.
The way of promoting your site on search engines such as Yahoo and MSN Search has completely changed in the past year or two. In former times (before 2001), search engines would use programs that looked for web pages and searched their HTML for keywords and descriptions of the contents. Some authors abused the system by repeating the same keyword over and over again in an attempt to get their page higher in the listings. In those days, it was usual to get your entry in a search engine's lists for free.
There are still a couple of search engines that use keywords and the like but many search engines now use real people to examine and evaluate your site. There is a charge for this service from a few tens of pounds to a few hundred pounds per year with no guarantee that your site will be listed at all.
A recent development is 'pay-per-click' where the website owner pays a small fee to the search engine company every time someone clicks on their entry.
Web developers normally offer a maintenance contract for an annual fee. This should include minor changes and additions to text, the placement of new graphics and checking for broken links and fixing them where appropriate. Broken links caused when an external site moves their page from one address to another may be fixed if the owner indicates the new location, but obviously links that are broken because the page has been removed cannot be fixed.
