HOW THE INTERNET WORKS
This might seem like an odd choice for the first blog post on our redesigned website. However, we are often confronted with basic misunderstandings with new clients about some of the fundamentals of the world wide web. So we figured it might be useful to offer this post as a a resource to clients and the world. This all might be an overly didactic exercise. If so click here. Perhaps it is. This isn’t meant to insult anyone’s intelligence.
We don’t know how to repair car engines. So we certainly do not expect that everyone arrives with a knowledge base about some of these rudimentary issues.
URLs: Before the entangled adventure begins, one must purchase a domain name. Whether you use GoDaddy or Network Solutions you must first purchase a name. Manage your expectations as most obvious ones are already purchased by legitimate entities or squatters. If you are interested in who owns a name you can use a any WHOIS tool to search. Although that information is often privatized. It likely goes without typing but your goal should be to obtain a name that is easily expressed and spoken. *Grain of Salt Warning – this comes from someone who established a company called Alloneworddesign.com. Say that three times fast. Often people think we are AlloneWorld, which is a great reggae band name but not our firm.
First and foremost, do this step yourself! Don’t let any designer/developer register your name. You need to be the owner of your destiny and website name. Perhaps they are taken out by the proverbial bus or simply decide to change professions and become an Alpaca trainer. Worse, they can be unresponsive if you want to use the services of another agency and mysteriously become unreachable. We’ve encountered this more times over the years that countable on a human hand. So if you want to avoid ransom notes or hours of tracking someone down on their Alpaca farm, definitely make this completely owned by you or your company!!
HOSTING: The zeros and ones that create the pixels and the magic that makes your site visible need to live somewhere. This is where hosting comes into play. While there are certainly a multitude of platforms that combine steps 1&2 (WIX, SHOPIFY, WEBFLOW…et al) we’ll focus on the traditional setup.
The host can be the where you register your name or a completely different place. Usually, a reliable developer will offer hosting through them. While it might not be the absolute cheapest solution it might be a far superior experience for your users and customers. We offer hosting at affordable prices via WordPress specialists that optimize hosting for that platform exclusively. This CAN be done through a reputable developer. If you followed step 1 and registered your URL in your name, you have complete control of where the pixels live and can change at will.
RESPONSIVENESS: No matter what the purpose of your website is intended to be, you definitely need to be slick and visible on the phones. People its 2024, and a large chunk of your traffic will come from those pesky devices, love em or hate em. As a caveat (to be further explained in another post, understand that this step should be completed after all other portions of the website have been designed, developed and approved). Don’t worry we’ll be diving into more granular issues in future post. Here is a diagram of all of these words for the more visually inclined learners, like your’s truly.
Start here and don’t try and break the internet as we all need it!
