First thing you will need is a Domain Name. A domain name is the www.domainname.com bit that can be seen at the top of a webpage. In the very early days of computers and networks, they need a way of identifying each computer. They started by using numbers known as IP (internet protocol) numbers. As the numbers of connections grew a more effective system was needed. In 1985 it was replaced with a simpler and easier to remember system called the Domain Name System. Rather than having to remember a batch of numbers like 121.222.300.2, all you had to remember was www.company.com'. Now you can buy your own domain from a Domain Registration Company.

Once you have a domain you are going to need somewhere to ‘host' your website. Hosting is where you are paying a company to store your website on their servers (servers are the computers that actually run websites). You cannot have a website live unless you have hosting. Some Domain Companies offer web hosting; others will give you a free Domain Name if you buy one of their hosting packages. You normally pay yearly for hosting and it could be as little as £10 a year to over £100 per year. You can also host your website yourself by turning you own computer into a server, but I am not going into that here.

If you buy a domain from one company and hosting from another you will need to phone your domain company and have them point your domain at the address of your hosting space provided by your hosting company. This can get confusing so I will not go into it here, but if you want to save yourself some grief, but the domain and the hosting from the same company.

Right, so you have a Domain Name and you have Hosting so what is needed next? Well for one you will need one or more webpage's to put up. Let's say for that you have a website built by someone and you have all the files in a folder on your computer. Well, you will need a way to transfer them to your server space (hosting space). When you signed up for you hosting you will have received some hosting access settings, probably named FTP settings. Now FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and you will need the FTP settings to access your server space. These settings should have come with a username and a password. An FTP client is a piece of software that's sole job is to connect to server (hosting) space and upload and download webpages. I would recommend FTP Surfer but there are plenty of others and all completely free. You just need to download one and create a profile and add the settings.

If you built your website yourself using some kind of software there should be a way to add these FTP settings to the publish area of software. Some work better than others. The best professional web development software like Dreamweaver sometimes causes problems when uploading files so you are better off getting your own FTP client.

Now if you have uploaded your files and you can see them all in your directory in your own server space on your domain but cannot see them when you type www.mydomain.com into a browser what is wrong? You have probably made the mistake of not naming your home page index.html. Every home page is called index.htm. or index.php depending on what programming language your site is built with. If you have the home page called index then you have probably uploaded them to the wrong directory. Check the details that were sent to you when you set the hosting account up as you were probably told what folder to publish the files in. It could be something like public_html or mywebsite_html. There may be a few folders in your hosting account so it's important to know which one you need to publish your files too. If you'r sure your files are in the right folder but the site is still not coming up call your hosting company up for assistance. It will probably be something very simple. Once you have done it right you will be well on your way. It's just the first time that will seem strange and unknown. Web developers are using FTP all the time to publish websites and it becomes second nature to them. As it will you once you have done it a couple of times.

Good luck with your website. If you managed all of the above but can't find your website through the search engines don't go ringing up your web hosting company or web Development Company as it is not their fault. Sites that come up on the first 2 or 3 pages have been optimised to do so. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of making a website come up in the search engine result pages (SERP's). This is completely different to web design. Very few web designers have SEO skills and only build websites for customers' according to their needs. If you want your site to be found in the search engines you need to find an SEO company to do the specialised work for you.