How to host your own website

Even if I build them a new website with a new domain name on new hosting it doesn't really solve the problem because there is likely to be duplication of content somewhere along the way and search engines will prefer the, in their eyes, more established site over the new one when it comes to ranking.

I have also seen examples of websites built using WordPress, built by someone who then decided that web design is not for them. The website is broken, presumably because of some server changes somewhere that are no longer compatible with the website code. This results in odd bits of code that float about on the page and look really unprofessional.

Unless you own the domain name in your own name, there is not much you can do about this situation. You might talk to another professional website designer but unless he or she can log into your hosting package they are not going to be able to help with this situation either.

How can I host my website online?

For this reason, I always encourage my clients to get their own domain and hosting package, with my help of course. I advise them to take care to use their normal email address so they receive notification of any items that are about to expire such as the domain name or the hosting package.

 This way my clients have ultimate control and can at any time, terminate the website or let someone else reuse the domain name, without my involvement. It also ensures that if anything happens to me, my clients are not left stranded in the situation described above.

I would also advise that the boss of a company doesn't delegate this task. If the person you delegated to uses their own email address and password and somewhere along the line you have a falling out they may leave and never be heard from again. For a while, your sites will continue as normal but one day the domain name or the hosting will need a payment made to renew it. It is far better if you personally own the contract with the hosting company.

The process of signing up to a hosting company, purchasing a domain name and hosting is not difficult for most people and hosting companies generally make this process super slick. Like many businesses, the process of cancelling services is more opaque but ultimately you can just cancel your payment arrangements.

Once the domain is set up and hosting is provided, that is the point where I will need to access the hosting package for the technical work of setting up FTP accounts, SSL certificates, email addresses etc so I always ask my clients to use a password that they don't mind sharing with me.

Does it matter where I host my website?

Yes, it very much does matter. If you were building a new house you would want to make sure that you are building it on solid foundations and the same goes for your website. Your website may well become an invaluable asset for your business to attract new customers so you need to make sure that the hosting service of the company you choose:

1. Has reliable servers and backup arrangements so that they can operate at approaching 100% uptime.
2. Can provide the necessary speed of hosting which is increasingly essential to get good rankings. A target to aim for is a hosting site that can deliver your web pages within 2 seconds or less.
3. Provides regular updates to the technical environment where necessary. I can't begin to tell you how many web hosting setups I have seen that are running on software that has passed its termination date for support.
4. Has a good technical support team that can answer queries and are easy to access.
5. Has a free SSL option. Most businesses don't need any SSL service higher than the most basic one called Let's Encrypt. This is what generates the lock icon next to the URL in a browser window and lets you know that your site is secure. Watch out for hosting companies that try and charge you extra for this service. It should be part of their service offering and not an add-on.
6. If you are going to use a domain-specific email address such as info@mydomain.co.uk you will need to find a hosting company that provides these free domain emails with a large amount of storage to hold your historic emails. You don't want to frequently find that your inbox is full and you can no longer receive important incoming emails without logging into your hosting and purging old emails. 

You generally get what you pay for so it would be a mistake to opt for the cheapest hosting if you are going to be reliant on your site to support your business. Please talk to me about hosting before you purchase anything and I will talk you through it.

Should I buy the domain and hosting from the same website?

It is possible to have the domain name registered with one hosting company and point it to hosting at a different hosting company by changing the name servers that the domain points to. There is probably not much of a technical disadvantage to doing it this way but most of my clients like to have all their website resources in one place so that they can keep track more easily of what needs renewing when and their payments are all sent to one provider.

I personally don't provide hosting or domain registration services. I will build you a website for a one off payment so there is no ongoing costs from me to consider - unless you want significant changes to the website at a later date.

Can you host a website yourself?

By this I mean can you run the hosting from your own computer and put the site onto the internet that way?

Well the short answer is - yes you could in theory but don't do it, even if you have the technical capabilities. Websites need to be online 24x7x365 or as close as possible to that. The computer/server the website is hosted on needs to be switched on constantly. It needs to have regular backups so that if you have a hardware failure, the site can be switched to another server at a moments notice. The operating system will require periodic updates. This is out of the scope of all but organisations that dedicate their business to providing hosting.