There are two main components to setting up every website. The first part of is registering your website or blog’s domain name (ex. acmecompany.com). Some of the most popular domain registrars are GoDaddy or Network Solutions.
After you’ve registered the domain name, you’ll have to set up website hosting. That’s the place where your website files will live. I personally use Site5 but there are tons of great hosting companies out there. Hosting agreements are typically paid for monthly or annually.
Once you’ve set up hosting, you’ll have to tell your domain registrar where to point your website domain so any visitors coming to your site will directed to the right place. To do this, you’ll have to edit your nameserver. After you’ve paid for hosting, your hosting company will send you a welcome email with directions on how to do this. What you will specify for nameservers will typically be something like dns1.site5.com or dns2.site5.com.
Here are the instructions for changing nameservers within your GoDaddy account.
1) Log in to your GoDaddy account
2) Click on “All Products” in GoDaddy’s navigation menu and then click on “Domain Management”
3) You’ll see a list of all the domains you have registered. If you’ve only registered one, you’ll see one in the list. Click on the domain name you want to edit.
4) You’ll see a selection of options going across the top starting with “Organize” and ending with “Delete Selected.” Click on “Nameservers” and then “Set Nameservers” in the drop-down menu that appears.
5) The “Set Nameservers” dialog box will open. Make sure “I have specific nameservers for my domains” is selected. By default, the nameservers will be something like ns19.domaincontrol.com and ns20.domaincontrol.com.
6) Enter the nameservers supplied by your hosting company. Click the “OK” button.
7) You’ll get a message confirming that your changes have been submitted. Be aware, it could take up to 24 hours for the changes to take effect. They usually happen much quicker than that.
You should now be good to go. Within 24-48 hours you should be able to access your hosting control panel and begin setting up your website. Good luck!
