"How to get my own business website?"

Floris

I'm just me :) Hi.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2001
Messages
60,096
If you are serious about your business, be serious about your online business as well.
Leave what you don't know to those who do know. But don't give away control.

Be in control of what you own. And let someone manage it that knows what they are doing.

Go with established and proven businesses that are affordable and recommended.
Do not go for the unlimited and cheapest options, they are simply a big mistake. Trust us when we say this.

You need a domain name. For at least a year. And that means you need hosting for at least a year as well.

If you have a three year business plan, pay for the domain name for three years ahead. With an official registrar, and not with the hosting provider. They are a hosting provider, not a domain provider.

You can pay hosting per quarter, year, but keep the freedom to change at any time. This mean having full access to your data, your software, and services. Be able to pick them up and change provider.

If you actually put your domain with a registrar, your "bad" hosting provider can't hold you hostage by not letting you take the domain with you. It avoids conflicts.

Point the domain to the hosting provider. And put your site on it. Done.

Make sure your domain is paid for, transfer lock is ON, and it's up to you if you wish to be anonymous online or not. I think it's utter BS to have WHOIS protection. Unless your business is in the business of hiding. What use is paying for WHOIS protection on the domain if your website has your contact details of your business anyway.

Get quality software that is actively developed, and maintained, comes with great support. Don't go with 5 year old stuff with poor support. It probably is being actively exploited, and as a business you're responsible for the customer data you hold on your server.

Encrypt. Store what you consider important not to leak to the public in a hashed and encrypted state. Communication of the website should be over https. Passwords should be stored correctly.

Backup. If you are under attack, if you are hacked, if you get DDoS. You just go to todays backup that's offsite stores so you have access to it. You put it on a different hosting provider, and you update your dns of the domain to point to the new hosting provider. Hopefully one with better security and better anti ddos protection.

Budget. Have a budget, but keep it small. Aim for quality and quality and quality. Overpaying usually means it's an illusion service that is a false sense of what you're actually needing. But have a budget to deal with situations.

Have a simple, easy to use site, that works on the desktop in the top 3 browsers, and works on android and iOS devices (phones, tablets). And take it from there. Do not want the 100% site. Make it work at 25% content and slowly increase with new features and content. But have the essentials working and working well. No use offering online ticket support if you have nobody to deal with it. No use having a contact form, if you dont' want to handle email. No use offering a broken shopping cart with 5000 products, if you can't ship 1 or take an order.

Social. Have your social covered. Even if you don't use it. If your name is supermanBusiness. Then have those domains, and social accounts .. covered.

But get a domain that works, register it with a respectable company, separate from the hosting company. Get a good quality host with great support. And don't pay too much for any of this. If a consumer can have a personal site for $200 a year. A business should be able to do it for less than $2000 with all software licenses and personal support.

Consider yourself to be either a business with an online presence, or an online business.
 
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