Domain name, hosting and website - How to

[leon]

If you are not sure if you actually need a website or if you need it now, check this first - Why, as a game developer, you need your own website?

This post will try to explain everything you need to know about domain names, hosting and getting your first website up and running.

1. Domain name.
Domain name is the "address" of your website. Something like yourteamname.com or yourgame.com. You purchase a domain name for 1 year (or more). I recommend buying it at http://www.godaddy.com/.

Tip: If you are about to finalize an online purchase and you see a field for a discount code, Google for "webstore name discount code" first. This doesn't apply do domains and hosting only, of course.

When buying a domain name for branding always buy .com, unless it is already taken (in which case you might consider renaming your group or game name). .org, and .net are options, if .com is taken, but stay away from .info and other cheap domains, because they are associated with spam.

Not as professional, but free option (still more professional than cheap domain like .info), is to get a subdomain - like yourteamname.somedomain.com.

Check out redeyesblackpanda's Free Website Hosting for VN Related Sites for free subdomains related to visual novels (like vnovel.com).

2. Hosting.
In order for your website to display and run on the web, it needs a host computer (users web-browsers are clients).
Hosting is renting computer resources, that run your website(s). You usually rent hosting for a month.
I recommend http://www.hostgator.com/.

Be careful before paying for a year or even multiple years in advance. Make sure you are happy with you hosting provider first.

Most domain registrars and hosting companies offer both domain names and hosting. You can get both domain name and hosting at either GoDaddy or HostGator, but since GoDaddy's primary business are domains, you can expect better and cheaper service buying and handling domains. Likewise HostGator is specialized in hosting, so you'll get better offer for hosting there.

If you do decide to get both domain name and hosting at one company, Go with HostGator for both. Having good hosting is much more important than where your domain is registered.

If GoDaddy is too expensive, you may also try http://www.namecheap.com/ or another domain registrar, but make sure you buy from an established and trustworthy company. As an alternative to HostGater you can check http://www.bluehost.com/.

Host will effect things like website loading speed and will ensure your website is displayed at all. This can be a big issue with a lot of hosting companies. If you are trying to find a cheaper solution, make sure to research the company behind it first or your website might end up being hosted at someone's home computer and at the mercy of their internet outages.

If you will get the traffic from Google (if not you can skip the next paragraph):
Make sure that the hosting computers are physically located, in the area that you are targeting in Google. If your website is in English language, make sure the hosting computers are located in the U.S. If your website is in your native language, get hosting from a local company. If you are not familiar with the hosting company, make sure to check where their computers are located, not just the offices. Many U.S. hosting companies, have their computers located in Europe or elsewhere, for lower maintenance costs.

Good hosting provider will cost you around $5-$10 a month.

If your website is VN related, you can get hosting for free: Redeyesblackpanda's Free Website Hosting for VN Related Sites. No strings attached, professional hosting ($10/month range) on your own domain or on a subdomain, if you don't have a domain.

3. Website
There is one more thing you need to do, before we get to the website. You will need to set the DNS records. First, to get your DNS numbers from the hosting provider, check the first two emails they sent you - they are probably there. Then you enter the DNS numbers at your domain registrar.

Then you need to wait, for the DNS records to be updated woldwide. It usually takes a few hours, but it can take up to 48 hours, so don't panic, if nothing happens for a while.

Once they update you will see a change on the website - enter your domain name in the web browser. It will display a default page from your domain registrar. Once the DNS'es update, it will display a blank page or a default page from your hosting provider.

The easiest way to build the website is to install Wordpress. Wordpress, that started as a blogging platform, is a content management system (CMS) and is just as effective for static sites.

Your hosting provider probably has automatic installation enabled, so you probably won't even need need to download it and go trough the installation.

Download: http://wordpress.org/download/ (click on "handy guide" for installation instructions).

In most cases you will want simplicity and power of Wordpress. This will allow you to focus on creating content for your site and not on fixing technical issues. You can install wordress in about 15 minutes (faster if its not your first time), but more importantly - updating and mantaining is easy and so is extending your website functionality trough wordpress plugins. Both (updated content, functional site with social plugins) are very important in order to get the visitors and to keep them.

Of course there is a variety of alternatives, that you may want to use for various reasons. You may also want a different type of site like a Forum, a Wiki or a webshop, for which Wordpress isn't the best choice. You may also decide to build the site from scratch. This will require manual uploading of new content or you can program your own CMS. While this will make designing the website easier, than customizing Worpress themes, it will also limit the site in functionality, such as commenting and implementing various social plugins.

[asciibard]

I've been using the web host 1and1.com for 7 or 8 years and have been very satisfied with them. Their hosting plans come with one or more free domains.

Alternatively, you can get a free (but not so customizable) domain name from many services like www.no-ip.com.

[PyTom]

Remember with free, you get what you pay for. If you don't own and pay for the domain yourself, then it can be taken away when the company that owns it goes out of business, or the person who owns it loses interest.

(I've been bitten by this in the past.)

[AxemRed]

Domain name is the "address" of your website. Something like yourteamname.com or yourgame.com. You purchase a domain name for 1 year (or more). I recommend buying it at http://www.godaddy.com/

Even before supporting SOPA, Go Daddy didn't have a particularly great reputation. I wouldn't recommend using Go Daddy without at least considering other options.

When buying a domain name for branding always buy .com, unless it is already taken (in which case you might consider renaming your group or game name). .org, and .net are options, if .com is taken, but stay away from .info and other cheap domains, because they are associated with spam.

.com/.org/.net have specific purposes:
.com -> commercial
.org -> non-profit
.net -> network/internet

[LVUER]

Oh, I thought GoDaddy is a good choice. Then what is your (or everyone's) recommendation? Is it preferable to choose international (US) based company/site when buying domain name or local (own country) based company/site (albeit a little more expensive)?

[leon]

@AxemRed: For me Microsoft always had a very bad reputation. It doesn't mean I'll stop using their products.

I believe GoDaddy had to bow to the boycott - and stopped supporting SOPA...

GoDaddy is one of the biggest (possibly the biggest) and oldest registrars. Reliability and reassurance that the company will stay in business are the most important factors for me in a registrar. Prices of domain names would be a factor too, but with differences of $1-$2 between different registrars, I prefer to stay with one company, that I trust. I also use it because domain transfer (if you sell it) isn't free. Transfers from one GoDaddy account to another are free.

Another thing I like about GoDaddy (registrar)+ HostGator (hosting) combo, is that DNS-es are almost always refreshed in a few hours, so I can start building a site soon after I buy the domain. With other registrars and hosts, this can take anywhere up to 2 days. Its not a lot but I'm very impatient, when I start building a new site.

The meanings of com/org/net were never more than recommendations and these recommendations were never really followed. Most of .net sites these days are not network related at all and a lot of .org sites are commercial.

I recommend .com for branding because its most common and easy to remember.

.com is also the top choice for SEO. Google sees .com domains most authoritative, followed by .co, .net and .org (in this order). This is because, .net and .org used to have special/cheap deals in the past and were absused by spammers.
.co domains are quite a bit more expensive (around $40). You may find special offers from time to time, making them as cheap as $10, but be careful - these offers are usually valid for 1 year - you will need to pay the full price next year. They are not a local TLD for Columbia, these days .co have the same meaning than .com and come second in terms of authority.

@LVUER:
The location of hosting computers is very important, because its a Google ranking factor. Location also affects the loading speed (which is another Google ranking factor, that is growing in importance).

Where you buy the domain however doesn't matter (just like it doesn't matter where the hosting company is located - only where their computers are). The only important thing about domain registrar is to go with a reliable company that will stay in business for a while.

Domaincheap.com is another company, that I know it's reliable. Their prices may be higher or lower, compared to GoDaddy and others, depending on time and domain extension (com, net, org, ...). I just trust GoDaddy a little more...

Unlike with the host, choice of registrar doesn't effect performance. Any registrar will handle your domains pretty much identically (it won't effect things like the loading speed). You only need to deal with them when you are buying, selling or extending your domains.

About local domain extensions (TLDs):
For the search engines, local extensions (.us, .in, ...) represent physical location of a company that owns the website. renai.us for example is located in the US. This is only important if you actually have a brick-and-mortar store or office and the website represents it. Website mywebshop.in will show higher in Google, if you are searching from India. Local results are much more relevant, when someone searching for a shop or business.

In terms of authority for the search engines, local extensions are on par with .com (but only for local rankings).

Local TLDs do not have anything to do, with the language the website is in; only the physical location. A website can be in a different language or support several languages.

Neutral TLDs (com, net, org) do not have a physical location by default, but you may specify it for Google, if you activate Google Webmaster Tools (which gives you a lot of info about how Google sees your site, as well as a few settings). You can't set the location of local TLDs. So if your TLD is .in - your location is India, if its .us - your location is US. If its .com - your location not specified by default, but you can set it to any country in Google Webmaster Tools.

Local TLDs have no benefit over neutral ones. You may want to use a local TLD, if your website represents a physical location and .com is not available.

[PyTom]

As best as I can tell, Google doesn't distinguish between gTLDs when it comes to search placement. (Matt Cutts has said this on several occasions.) The important thing is to have a single, master domain - if you have foo.com, foo.net, and foo.org, and two of them are not redirects to the master, you can run into problems where links are scored to different domain names, and even a penalty if google thinks you're a content farm.

For most people, you don't need to worry about it. Buy a domain name you like, and stick with it.

The biggest bit of SEO someone can do is to Google proposed game titles to see if they're in use before committing to one. I'll use as an example a recent game that has a moderately problematic title - if I search adrift or adrift game on Google, I don't get the game on the first page of results. (What's worse is that I get the ADRIFT game engine, which could be confusing.) Adrift visual novel does make it there, however.

All things being equal, it's nice to pick a title such that if someone recommends "Hey, xyzzy is a good game", people can throw it into google and find it easily.

The important thing here is that we're not actually competing with anyone for google rank. This isn't like someone trying to ensure their pharmacy is #1 in selling snake oil. If you pick a title that isn't used much, it's actually easy to rank on top of google for it - without resorting to SEO tactics.

[AxemRed]

I believe GoDaddy had to bow to the boycott - and stopped supporting SOPA...

...publicly...

Does anyone know if Go Daddy still buys up customers' expired domain names and offer to sell them back at a very large markup?

.com is also the top choice for SEO. Google sees .com domains most authoritative, followed by .co, .net and .org (in this order). This is because, .net and .org used to have special/cheap deals in the past and were absused by spammers.
...
...these days .co have the same meaning than .com and come second in terms of authority.

Do you have any reliable source for this information? It sounds very odd to me.

[leon]

.com is also the top choice for SEO. Google sees .com domains most authoritative, followed by .co, .net and .org (in this order). This is because, .net and .org used to have special/cheap deals in the past and were absused by spammers.
...
...these days .co have the same meaning than .com and come second in terms of authority.

Do you have any reliable source for this information? It sounds very odd to me.

http://web.archive.org/web/201007231619 ... tional-use

Many internet marketers claim, that they tested this and .co does have a an effect on ranking in Google, placing it between .com and .net.

I would only recommend it, if your budget for SEO promotion is several $1000 or if you can get it cheaply or if you are out of other options (yourcomanyname.com is taken). If your SEO budget is a few $100, saving a few $10 on the domain and spending them for promotion or quality content for your site, will have a much bigger effect on ranking and traffic.

However, when buying a domain name for SEO, getting the highest keyword density in the name is much more important than the TLD.

[AxemRed]

.com is also the top choice for SEO. Google sees .com domains most authoritative, followed by .co, .net and .org (in this order). This is because, .net and .org used to have special/cheap deals in the past and were absused by spammers.
...
...these days .co have the same meaning than .com and come second in terms of authority.

Do you have any reliable source for this information? It sounds very odd to me.

http://web.archive.org/web/201007231619 ... tional-use

Google allows you to set the geographic location of a .co website to something other than Colombia (doesn't affect the site's ranking according to Google). Doesn't say anything about Google having a preference for certain TLDs over others...

[leon]

As best as I can tell, Google doesn't distinguish between gTLDs when it comes to search placement. (Matt Cutts has said this on several occasions./)

There isn't a clear answer to this. There's Google on one side and marketers on the other, claiming their tests prove Google is lying.

The important thing is to have a single, master domain - if you have foo.com, foo.net, and foo.org, and two of them are not redirects to the master, you can run into problems where links are scored to different domain names, and even a penalty if google thinks you're a content farm.

Another common problem are domains with and without www (domain.com and http://www.domain.com). A 301 redirect (permanently moved), must be used in these case, or the "link juice" will not be preserved.
I don't think Google will see such a setup as a content farm, because the content is exactly identical. Google will index such pages as supplemental results and will not show them in regular search.

For most people, you don't need to worry about it. Buy a domain name you like, and stick with it.

Exactly. I didn't want to get into SEO with this post at all. Selecting a domain name for branding is quite different and easy. You will want to rank for the name of your game or your team and that should be easy enough, without knowing anything about SEO. Except, if your game is names Adrift, or something like that...

Google allows you to set the geographic location of a .co website to something other than Colombia (doesn't affect the site's ranking according to Google). Doesn't say anything about Google having a preference for certain TLDs over others...

Google doesn't say much about their ranking algorithm in general... And they have been proven to lie in their official documentation in the past... That's one side.
Then there are rich internet marketers, claiming they tested this and TLDs indeed to make a change. That's the other side.

There is no definite truth. It's up to anyone to have their own opinion and there are hundreds of subjects on internet marketing forums about it. I certainly don't have the money to test this for myself, so I don't know for sure. But If there's only a potential that this can give me a little edge, I'm going to use it. Why not?

[LVUER]

If I buy my domain name from GoDaddy (US based company), will it be different from when I buy it from a local based company? I mean the law. Like if I buy it from GoDaddy, it means I'm tied with US laws while if I buy it from a local one I'm tied with my own local law.

[Hijiri]

If I buy my domain name from GoDaddy (US based company), will it be different from when I buy it from a local based company? I mean the law. Like if I buy it from GoDaddy, it means I'm tied with US laws while if I buy it from a local one I'm tied with my own local law.

(I am Not a Skilled Network Manager, but:)
Domain names are different from hosts. You can buy a domain name from almost anywhere, but what matters is where your site is hosted. Say, for example, your site is hosted on U.S. servers, then your site will need to follow US laws.

[leon]

If I buy my domain name from GoDaddy (US based company), will it be different from when I buy it from a local based company? I mean the law. Like if I buy it from GoDaddy, it means I'm tied with US laws while if I buy it from a local one I'm tied with my own local law.

(I am Not a Skilled Network Manager, but:)
Domain names are different from hosts. You can buy a domain name from almost anywhere, but what matters is where your site is hosted. Say, for example, your site is hosted on U.S. servers, then your site will need to follow US laws.

When someone plagiarized my content and I couldn't contact them directly, I contacted the registrar of their site. They responded that there is nothing they can do and I should contact their host (which they helped me locate). I was fed up with everything, so I dropped the whole thing...

Different laws do apply for domains, but they are related to registration data (privacy, requirement for actual data). But I don't know if registrars are responsible for the content too...

[firecat]

the thread needs a update, the first one would be replacing vnovel.com with wix.com since wix can offer a free website and allows you to customize any way possable, no programing needed. after that explain people about the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization), everything you had one said is kinda true but little outdated since we now have new ways to get google's attention. Lastly Tumblr seems to be a great way to blog, wordpress is like google blogger and rarely you get any visitors but with Tumblr you can share your blog just like you do with a tweet.