Once you have bought and registered your domain name, and chosen a host for your website, you will then need to set up your web space. Follow these steps and you’ll be up and running:
1. Change Your DNS to Your Hosting IP Address
The company that sells you the domain operates your Domain Name Server (DNS). This company will allow you to log in and point your newly purchased domain to the IP address that you have been given by your web hosting company, ensuring your domain address is hosted on your web server. This process can vary depending on your DNS provider, but is usually accessed by a login and password through your domain name registrar. Changing your DNS can take a couple of hours, so bear this in mind when going through this process.
2. Add Your Domain in cPanel
Log in to cPanel with your hosting plan username and password. Click on Parked Domains, type in your domain, and click Add Domain. Your domain will now point to your hosting space. If you want to copy files to your web space you will need an FTP account, which should be provided with your hosting package. If you don’t have an FTP you can also use Filezilla FTP Client, which is a free open-source service at https://filezilla-project.org/.
3. Upload the Information
Open Filezilla FTP Client and click File -> Site Manager -> New Site. Enter your default domain provided by your web host, and then your FTP username and password. Click on Connect and your website should open in the browser interface on Filezilla. You can now open Notepad and type the following:
<h1>This is a test heading</h1>
<p>This is a test paragraph</p>
Save this notepad file as index.html and copy this file into your website’s root folder via your FTP. The root folder is usually called /public_html or /httpdocs.
4. Your Website is Live!
Type your domain into a web browser and you should see that your site is live! As per the above you’ll see a simple page that says “This is a test heading” and “This is a test paragraph”, proving that your FTP worked and your site is now live and hosting your information on your server via your domain. If you don’t see anything yet, or you receive an error message, go through the above steps again to make sure you didn’t make a mistake in copying the information into the right fields and folders. Also remember that some of these steps can take some time to save, so you might have to wait and try again a few minutes later. Congratulations, you’ve now got a (very basic) website online!
