Domains and Hosting or How to get your site on the internet
The internet is a collection of computer connected together. To access a website you vgo to the computer where that website is saved and ask that computer to send you the files for that website.
This means that to get your site on the internet you need to have:
- Your site hosted - this means saved on a computer that is always switched on and that other computers can access
- A domain - this is effectively the address of where your website is saved.
To get a domain you need to buy and register it. There are lots of companies who will do this for you for a small price.
To get hosting you need to choose a company you want to host your site with and then pay them to host it. You can often buy a domain and hosting from the same company and will usually get an introductory offer that makes it cheap to get started.
Be aware I have used the term buy but rent might have been more accurate as hosting and domain names need renewing every so often - each year, or every two or three years depending on what package you choose.
Some host will offer free sites but these will be limited in terms of pages, types of content, and how you make them , and the address of the free site might not be as friendly as you want . However if you only need a couple of pages with a bit of text and images and a phone number then this may well be your best option.