Terminology

There’s a lot of technical terms that get bandied around, and they can be confusing for a new author. I’ll try and break them down here, but you’ll understand better as we go through the process.

Domain name: Your URL, web address or site name. Usually ends in ‘.com’, it’s what you’ll tell people to visit.

Top Level Domain: the last part of your domain name. Usually .com, it can be a country-coded one like .co.uk, or a ‘novelty’ one like .ninja.

Registrar: The company that, well, registers that name for you. You buy it from them, and they point it at your website. (In reality it’s a bit more complex, with resellers, country code administrators and a whole stack of turtles all the way down, but for our purposes you pay a registrar, and they give you the name).

Hosting: Looking after the files that make up your website. This is the job of a ‘hosting company’. Depending on who you pick, they might simply give you some buttons to press to set everything up, or provide a basic computer in ‘the cloud’ which you set up yourself. (I’m going to recommend the easy options).

SSL or Certificate: What gives you the little padlock in the browser. All browsers now are moving towards warning visitors when a site isn’t secure, rather than notifying them that it is. You don’t want them implying you’re not trustworthy, so you need one of these. You shouldn’t be paying extra for it, it really ought to be included in your package.