How to search domain names and set up a website

Finding a memorable address can make all the difference when creating your own internet brand. Searching for and buying a domain name can be confusing, but it’s the first step in setting up a professional-looking website.

How to buy a domain

Enter “domain registration” into a search engine and pick a web host that also acts as a registrar. Well-known examples include 1and1, Go Daddy and Tucows, and all charge an annual fee for the most common website suffixes such as .com and .org. More obscure suffixes such as .net and .biz are normally cheaper, and there are free ones such as .co.cc offered by lesser known registrars.

Web hosts normally always double as domain registrars, offering combined registration and hosting packages. Shop around to find the right hosting package, then register your domain with that host. This will avoid having to redirect or pay to transfer your URL from one registrar/host to another.

It’s possible to register a URL and not a host, then redirect your domain name to a blog or a site created through a service like Google Sites. But if you want the flexibility that comes with designing and building your own website, then you’ll need to find a host on which to install it.

Finding a web host

You should already have found a number of web hosts which offer shared hosting packages suitable for most websites ranging from simple, low traffic personal sites, right up to medium-sized business.

Renting an entire server, as part of a dedicated server package, is really only suited to large company and corporate websites with high traffic demands.

Shop around for a web host and weigh up future-proofing against budget constraints. For example, if you anticipate lots of traffic then go for a package with plenty of bandwidth. If you want to store pictures, music and video on your server then you’ll need lots of disk space. Other factors to consider include the number of email addresses and sub-domains.

Designing and building a website

Some hosts offer a simple website creator tool, but these can be cumbersome and basic. Apple’s iWeb software is simple to use and can produce great-looking websites, but again without many features save for a number of web “widgets” such as images galleries and RSS feeds.

Unless you’re familiar with web programming languages such as HTML, PHP and Java, and can use web design packages such as Adobe Dreamweaver, the best way to create a feature-packed website is to use a content management system (CMS) such as Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal. Make sure your host meets the basic system requirements of your chosen CMS.