I have all of my HTML pages done. Pics selected. Runs like a champ on Notepad ++.
Are my next 2 steps to register the domain name and find a host?
If so, where do you advise me to go for both registration and hosting?
Thanks
Hi @kratvillelaw and a warm welcome to the forum.
To get started you could try searching for free web hosting and also free domain registration. Both are not as good as paid versions but the knowledge gained will help in your final choice.
Tools required are FileZilla and once again search for online validation tools. W3.org and Google have quite few choices. Try them all and bookmark your favourites.
Also search for performance tools which will reduce time taken to render your web pages.
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If it’s just HTML files, then deploy on Netlify.
I wouldn’t use another free host other than GitHub pages, but Netlify is simpler. Counter to @John_Betong’s comment, both of these options are about the best you can get, paid or not.
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The problem with offering recommendations is that the SitePoint audience is international, and I may not be in the same part of the world as you. I can offer some general guidance.
As far as domain registration goes, I’d simply do a search for providers, and then look at online reviews. Pick one which is well-established and has good reviews.
You can use a similar method to find a hosting company, if you don’t want to use the suggestions above. For a small, static site shared hosting is probably the place to start.
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@TechnoBear I would absolutely not recommend shared hosting to anyone in 2019, especially static. That’s a method of hosting that’s about 10yrs out of date and only favors the provider, not the customer. There are plenty of ways to host static sites better, faster, easier, and cheaper. If you need a backend there are better ways for that too.
The link I provided is free and is literally drag and drop files. It is a provider who is well respected in the industry.
Please get up to date. You are leading people down a bad path.
As far as domain registration, unless you’re in a special country then most of the main registrars like Namecheap, Ghandi, or Google work fine. There’s no reason to confuse it. As long as you stay away from GoDaddy, you’re good.
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Netlify is a great option and by far my #1 pick, most people will never need anything more than the free tier. GitHub Pages is free as well. GitLab offers a similar service to GHPages. AWS S3 can host tons of traffic for pennies a month. There is also Google Cloud, Alibaba (if you’re on that side of the world), Neocities, and probably plenty of others I’m leaving out. I’ve honestly never needed anything past the first 3. I am currently championing Netlify at work as opposed to AWS for our pure SPAs.
Hosting static files is trivial and there are plenty of legit options without resorting to some oversold shared hosting platform that’ll give you a response time of 3 minutes for a simple site.
That sounds as if you’re tarring every provider with the same brush. I have some small sites on shared hosting which score 100 in Google’s PageSpeedInsights.
I wasn’t suggesting Netlify is not a good service, merely offering another suggestion, as there is seldom a “one size fits all” solution, in my experience.
I’d go as far to say there is seldom never a one size fits all.
Cost, admin UI, uptime, storage limits, bandwidth limits, number of databases, email handling, support, etc.
That is, there are a lot of variables. Chances are any given host will have some aspects that are “great” and some less so. Depending on what is required, the “less so” might be non-starters. And over time requirements can change.
I guess if cost was not of concern one could get more than they need (eg. 2TB storage for a 10MB site) but I have the feeling that for most cost is a primary concern.
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When most people look for shared hosting, they will not find hosting that will ever achieve even 70/100 on Google Page Insights. They will find hosting that oversells machines to save a buck.
There are most certainly 1-size-fits-most in static host providers. They are used for everything from a personal site hit once a year, to millions of unique visitors a day. They support everything from Git to an in browser drag and drop GUI. Everything in my list falls into this category (with the exception of Neocities, I don’t know how well they scale).
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If you’ve done all HTML pages using PHP or ASP DOT Net and your site is now on local host, then you can take domain name and hosting service. NameCheap(Dot)com is one of the best hosting service providers and here you’ll find all customer support fully. Their 24/7 online chatting system is very excellent, and you’ll find each solution to your problems if you face when registering domain.
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In 2019 you can’t go wrong with a cloud vendor that makes it easy to deploy static sites. I’ve never used Netify or Git for a hosted cloud solution but my needs have never been that simple. I’m most familiar with AWS but more a simple static website hosting that on s3 and setting the vps, caching, routing, and dns might not be as a simple as a hosted static could solution.
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Hey @kratvillelaw,
You have told about only HTML pages. But you did not mention other programming languages like CSS, JavaScript, PHP etc., which will be used along with HTML.
For example if you have HTML + CSS + JavaScript + JQuery then you can go for Blogger.
If you have used HTML with PHP then go for WordPress.
As you were new do not go for paid plans, instead, buy a Custom Domain and start with Blogger. After having 1 year experience on that move to WordPress.
During that 1 year
post regularly and try to gain more audience into your mail list. Also, you need to search for different tools that can be used to get used to WordPress, Keywords, and other SEO tools.
If you can invest more money then go for Custom Domain (Bluehost or DreamHost)+ WordPress + Yoast SEO plugin + Some other Plugins + Semrush etc.
Starting with Blogger + Custom Domain is better when you cannot invest money. If you go for Blogger then choose only Bootstrap Template.
Hope that info may help you.
I’m struggling to see how this might help the OP. I think it is clear that the website is just HTML (and possibly CSS) without any server or client side programming.
I don’t see how he will get his HTML online using either Blogger or WordPress.
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hey @Gandalf,
Yes. With HTML he can get into Blogger. WordPress requires PHP and it is not easy as CSS or JS.
So he has two options based on his coding.
- Take HTML + CSS + JS + JQuery, create a theme and add it to Blogger.
- Take HTML + CSS + JS + Bootstrap (compared to above Bootstrap templates are best for Blogger).
OR
He has two options for either downloading free/paid 3rd party template.
- Blogger with free/paid templates
- WordPress with free/paid themes.
with the 3rd templates he cannot use his work (HTML code).
While it would be helpful if @kratvillelaw returned to this topic and responded to the replies made so far, I think it’s probably safe to say that somebody who has created HTML pages and is asking about domain registration and hosting is not interested in converting their site to use a CMS, but simply wants the requested information.
Let’s keep the discussion on-topic and not muddy the waters.
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I was facing the same problem for my site. I went to W3school website and found some information regarding “how to make your website go online” and it said to buy a domain and hosting plan. i bought my domain and hosting plan from go daddy. That was the was the first time i made a website go online. i was very excited since then i used couple of domain hosting plans but the best is to buy hosting from go daddy.
Thanks
Perhaps they’ve improved of late, because they did have a poor reputation as a hosting provided; very good for domain registration, but not for hosting.
Either way, as the OP has never returned, there seems little point in continuing to offer advice.
Thanks to all who contributed. Thread closed.
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