What steps are necessary to ensure that the website functions correctly after it has been hosted and the domain name registered?
The domain name was purchased by me, followed by acquiring hosting the subsequent day and then transferring the website to the host using FTP software. I have been provided with instructions through email regarding the registration of the domain in the registrar's database and activation of the hosting service. Does everything seem in order so far? Is all that's left is to be patient?
This marks the birth of my initial web project...
Congratulations on starting your first web project! You've made significant progress. Here are the following steps that you'd typically take from this point to ensure that your website functions correctly:
Review Registrar's Instructions: Go through the email instructions provided by your domain name registrar carefully. They will guide you on the registration process and any necessary settings.
Ensure Nameservers Point Correctly: Since you've procured your domain and hosting services from different entities, you will need to point your domain to your hosting service. This is typically done by entering the nameservers of your hosting service into settings of your domain registrar account. Your hosting provider usually supplies these nameserver addresses.
Wait for DNS propagation: Once you've entered the nameservers into your domain registrar account, it can take anywhere from a few hours to 48 hours for the DNS to propagate. This is the "be patient" part. You can check the DNS propagation using tools like https://www.whatsmydns.net/.
Check File Structure: Verify that your files have been transferred properly to the correct directory on your hosting service using your FTP software. Sometimes files can get misplaced or folders can get omitted during the transfer.
Testing: Check each page of your website individually to make sure they all load, display, and function correctly. Look for any broken links, images, or scripts. Double-check your contact forms and any other interactive features of your website to confirm they work correctly.
Security Measures: Ensure you have necessary security measures in place. This might include SSL certification (most hosting providers provide this), setting up secure user permissions, and ensuring your website software is up-to-date.
Performance Optimization: Optimize your website for speed by ensuring you've done things like compressing your images, minifying your CSS/JS files, enabling Gzip compression and leveraging browser caching.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Setup: Have the necessary SEO infrastructure in place - create a sitemap, use SEO friendly URLs, optimize meta tags, etc. You might want to use a plugin to help with this if you are using a CMS like WordPress.
Backup Setup: Have a backup process in place, either through your web host provider or with a third-party tool. Regular backups can save you from losing your work in case of a server crash or site compromise.
Analytics Setup: Register your website with analytics services like Google Analytics to understand your visitors - where they are coming from, which pages they visit the most, what devices they use, etc. This can provide useful information to improve your website and user experience in the future.
Webmaster Tools: Take the time to set up accounts with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. These services provide important insights into the health of your website and can alert you to any issues that might affect your search engine rankings.
Testing Contact Information and Social Media Links: Confirm that all contact forms, email links, and social media links are working properly. The effectiveness of these contact points can affect both your site's user experience and business performance.
Check The Favicon: Ensure you have a favicon in place. Favicons are those little icons that appear in the individual tabs of web browsers. They help users identify your site in a sea of tabs and bookmark lists.
Proofread Content: Go through all of your website's content to look for grammatical errors, typos, or wrong information. Data or context, if inaccurately stated, can affect a site's reputation.
Update Copyright Year: See if there are references to the current year in your website (like in the copyright notice in the footer). Remember that these should be updated every year.
Mobile Friendliness : Finally, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. More and more people are using mobile devices to access the web, and search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their search results.
Perform Regular Updates: Ensure all the website's software components (CMS, plugins, themes, etc.) are regularly updated.
Check Your Website's Speed: Regularly test the load-speed of your website's pages using tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights. If the pages are taking too long to load, consider optimizing your images or investing in better hosting.
Broken Links Check: Use tools such as Google Search Console to regularly look for and correct broken links on your website.
Comply with Legal Regulations: Depending on your location and nature of your business, you may need to ensure your website complies with various legal regulations such as GDPR (if you are serving EU customers), ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and so on.
Website Monitoring: Use a website uptime monitoring tool to alert you if your website goes down, to minimize the downtime.
Regular Content Updates: Keep your content regularly updated. This includes blog posts, news articles, company updates, etc.
Backup Regularly: While it's important to set a backup, it's also crucial to have regular backups happening, either daily, weekly or monthly depending on the nature of your site. Also, store a copy of the backup in a different location to the website for utmost security.
SEO Checks: Regularly review your search performance in Google Search Console. Check for any drop in impressions or clicks, and check the Coverage report for indexing errors.
UX/UI Updates: User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) trends evolve over time. Keep up with the trends and continuously improve your interface and the overall experience for your users.
Remember, setting up a website is just the start. A website needs continuous nurturing and development over time to maintain its relevancy and success in the eyes of your users and the search engines.
Have you assigned a hosting service for the NS domain? If not, it is necessary to do so and then wait for approximately a day, or rarely more, for the dissemination of information across Internet servers.
To verify if the website is functioning, simply enter its name (domain) into the browser's address bar. How can you determine if a site is working? Just visit it, and that's all.
Make sure that the domain is prepared for use by checking its readiness. If it is not ready, access the IP address provided by the hosting mail while the domain name (or site name) is being prepared.
It is crucial to ensure that all necessary preparations are made before launching a website. This includes checking the availability and readiness of the domain name as well as the associated IP address. Taking these precautionary steps helps ensure a smooth and successful deployment of the website.