Web Hosting Explained, Simply and Easily

Putting up a website for your business is a virtual requirement. It allows users to find out information about you and contact you quickly and easily. At the same time, the website must contain current information, and be able to provide answers to users' questions. This article aims to outline the items to consider in putting a website online.

Wikipedia defines a web site as follows - and be careful, there's some techno-speak ahead!

A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL), often consisting of only the domain name, or the IP address, and the root path ('/') in an Internet Protocol-based network. A web site is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network. A web page is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). A web page may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors.

Wow! What a mouthful. If you didn't understand much - or any - of the tech talk, we can change it to simple terms and personalize it a little, ending up with

My website is what I end up with when I type in the name of my business on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or another search engine. It contains information about my business and our products, services and values. It is one of the primary avenues for customers to contact me or find out about me, and potentially it allows me to sell my products and services online.

Stop and think about that for a moment - your website is one of the primary avenues for customers to contact you or find out about you. That's a pretty powerful statement. Your website operates 24x7 for you, letting customers find out about you and your business even when you are asleep or dealing with other customers. Slowly but surely the website is replacing many other forms of business information.

Now that you're convinced that a website is important, how do you make a great website that delivers your message to your customers? The first thing to figure out is the website's "look". Read on for some thoughts on implementing the proper look and feel for your website.