Getting Started

There are of course many, many things you'll need, to create a professional website, but to have your own space on the Web for the rest of the world to see, there are just three essential requirements:

First, you'll need a 'Domain Name'

A domain name is a unique human-readable 'web address' that gives any Web enabled device, the information needed to find your website.

Although most of the time we use search engines to find websites, you can directly type a Domain Name into a Web Browser's address field. Example Domain Names would be; 'www.oxfam.org' or 'www.google.com'. Domain Names can easily be purchased via the web. For more see: Domain Names

Second, you need a 'Host'

The word 'host' stems from the idea of a 'hired' computer that hosts your website's files and 'serves' (web server) them to the world. For most it's impractical to host your own website (24/7 access), so you pay someone else to do it for you.

There are thousands of specialist website hosting companies available for you to choose from, with most offering a variety of 'hosting packages'. Selecting the best hosting option for your website will depend largely on your specific requirements.

For more on hosting; the options, pricing, set-up, etc go to: Web Hosting

Last, you'll need some actual 'content' for your website

Most commonly this would include any media that can be read and/or interacted with via a Web Browser. A simple example could be a series 'hyper-linked' web pages with text and images (like this site).

So there are the basic technical necessities for having a website, but there are still many very important things that need to be considered in preparing your website. The next section is designed to help you make the right preparation and avoid the many common pitfalls. So next to: Website Planning