Are you interested in launching your own website? You should start by selecting a reliable web hosting service. Read this article for some useful tips on how to get your website online.

Do some research on different web hosting solutions. There are thousands of services to choose from, but only a very small percentage of these services are actually reliable. You can eliminate a large number of web hosts from your decision by not purchasing a plan from a host with less than three years of experience. This is because most web hosting services do not last for more than a year or two. You should also call their customer service to get an idea of how helpful the technicians are and check their official message boards to look for complaints from clients. If you see a lot of complaints, find some bad reviews or the official site of a host does not provide a lot of information, keep looking.

You might be tempted to subscribe to a free web hosting service. You should know that these free accounts come with a small amount of storage space and sometimes restrictions on your usage of bandwidth. And you will not have access to any additional features such as emails, analytical tools, site-building plugins or the possibility to create your own message board. Most free web hosts will place ads or banners on your site, which does not convey a professional image to your audience. If you need to cut down on costs, find a free web host with a good reputation and upgrade to a better solution as soon as you can afford to.

You also need to register your domain name. Do not register your domain name through your web host. There are several services you can use to buy your domain name at a good price and some of these services offer web hosting solutions too. If you want to purchase your domain name and web hosting solution from the same service, create two different accounts. If you depend on the same service for your domain name and web hosting, you will not be able to transfer your site to a different service without losing your domain name if your host does not provide you with quality service.

Once you have purchased a web hosting plan and registered your domain name, you should log into your web hosting account to access your FTP log in information. Download an FTP client, log in with the information provided by your web host and you will have access to your server. Upload your webpages, your pictures, videos and other content. Organize it by creating some files if you need to. Make sure every element is properly named so all your links function. If you do not wish to create your site yourself, you should use the site-building tools provided by your web host. Put together a site using templates and selecting the elements you want to add.

Getting a site online can be a long process, but it is in your best interest to select the best web hosting service available. Give yourself a few weeks to do some research before making that final decision.