Understanding what makes up a website can be confusing because there are so many different technologies involved:
Domain Name
Often the first step most people take when starting to make a website is getting a domain name. For your new website you must purchase (register) a unique name for it that isn’t already taken by another business. I recommend getting a name that ends in .com. We will recommend that you purchase this name yourself as it will become an asset to your business.
Website Hosting
Website hosting is provided by a website hosting company. It is the computer or “web server” that you rent to have you website be available worldwide and 24/7. We provide the website hosting for most of our clients.
Most businesses decide on having email address that are dedicated to their domain name such as james@jameswebdesign.com. For email such as this, I recommend one of two email providers; Google or Microsoft. Google offers professional email through what they call Google Workspace. Microsoft offers professional email through what they call Microsoft 365. It is crucial for ecommerce website or any website with a contact form to utilize one of these services to ensure that email sent from your website, such as an invoice, is reliable.
Payment Gateway
A Payment Gateway is an online services that acts as a connection between your website and your bank. This is required for an ecommerce website. The most common payment gateway options are Stripe, Square, and Paypal. Setting up the payment gateway is something you’ll to do yourself (with our help if you wish) because it will require bank and taxID information, etc.
WordPress
WordPress is a free software that helps us create websites. There is also a company called WordPress.com, but that is unrelated to how we use WordPress here at James Web Design. We believe that WordPress offers the best website platform for easily building modern, scalable, reliable, and secure websites for any business needs.
Responsive Website Design
A responsive website, like we make for you at James Web Design, is one that automatically and gracefully accommodates mobile phone users and tablet users by adjusting the layout of the page to ensure that it’s easy to read and easy to use on any device.
