You have now registered a domain name(s) and decided on your hosting company and hosting package.

Your next step is to plan out your website. You must ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is the main purpose of my website?
   It seems a simple question, do you want to:
   • To sell something, or
   • To generate sales leads, or
   • To make friends (then join Facebook!)
2. What Type of website do I need ?
   
   • Brochure type website (5-10 pages with text, images & contact form)
   • Gallery type website (5-10 pages with text, images, product/portfolio listing  & contact form)
   • eCommerce type website (Full ecommerce website with facilities for categories, products & credit card payment facilities)
   • Community website (you manage community business listings, forums, advertising)
   • Bespoke website (Doesn’t fit neatly into any of the other categories listed previously – Requires custom design, layout & functionality – needs to be built to be flexible for future growth, if any!)
3. What Web software should I use ?
   
   • Open Source (no license fee) / PHP.
   • Project with strong and active community support & development.
   • One that’s easy to install, customise & understand!
   • Friendly SEO urls – always a help!
   • Flexible, templates ready.
   • automatic paths to upgrade code, security patches etc.
   • One with lots of “free” plugins, modules.

Great! So you have registered a domain name – your next step is to decide on which hosting provider will match your needs and which of their hosting packages meets your website requirements.

When choosing Hosting, here is a quick checklist to follow:

• Support
  In our opinion, support is the top quality of any hosting provider you choose. Speak with friends who have a good experience with their hosting company. Many hosting companies rave about their customer support, but you can only really test this once you have an urgent request. Be wise to the fact that, choosing a cheaper hosting provider in the US may involve trying to contact them outside of their hours of business based on timezone differences. Look for 24/7 support where available.There are a number of highly professional companies based in Ireland which offer great support – www.hosting365.com | www.blacknight.ie | www.letshost.ie to name our current favourites!
• Price
  Price is a deciding factor for many decisions in life. Today, the price gap has closed, especially across the shared hosting environment. Make sure you choose a hosting package which meets your needs and that you are not paying over the odds for a whole load of extra space you will never use.
• Location of Server
  Some “gurus” in the web business continue to tell us that server location is important for online marketing to global specific markets – do we believe them? No.
  Why do we question their knowledge – basically it’s because of this research from Interleado.
• Control Panel
  One of our greatest efficiencies comes from knowing our way around CPanel. It’s our top choice because it is user friendly. Try using bespoke hosting control panels and it will wreck your head, endlessly…
  There are other good control panels out there but cpanel with fantastico for easy installation of programs wins our approval every time.