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Okay I Have A Web Host. How Do I Get My Site Online?

Description: This is the step that a lot of people are daunted by, but it's actually quite straightforward and logical. Read on to find out how it's done.

When you design your website, you will use one of the many software packages available to help you do it. The design process itself takes place offline. There are plenty of free or paid programs out there, such as Dreamweaver, that make the process quite straightforward.

Once you have designed your website it's time to get it online. Assuming you have got your domain name and your web hosting sorted out, it's simply a matter of getting each web page uploaded onto the server that your web host has provided for you.

The method for transferring the pages onto the server is called FTP, or file transfer protocol. To be able to transfer the pages you will need the log in details that your web hosting package provided you with when you signed up for their service.

Once you have your details at hand, you will need to visit the correct domain in order to be able to upload the pages. This will be as follows:

ftp.domainname.com

Domainname.com is for the example only. So if your site name is widgets.com, instead of typing in www.widgets.com as you would to find the actual website, you would type in ftp.widgets.com to be able to enter the page which will require your log in details.

Once you have entered your log in, you can proceed to upload your pages onto the server. While this is the process you would follow to upload your website for the first time, you would do exactly the same thing to update or add any new web pages in the future. The process will be similar for all web hosting services; however it's always wise to check exactly what the procedure is in each individual case.