You’ve just registered your domain name and that’s great news, it’s now time to avoid the mistake that so many make, by making sure your domain doesn’t sit idle, doing nothing.
We know what you’re thinking – ‘’I’ve bought my domain, but what’s the next step?’’
Don’t get stuck in a rut – Keep up the momentum!
You’re one step closer to building your brand and promoting your business online.
Getting your website online can be easy, providing you have tools that do the hard work for you. We’ll run through all the steps you’ll need to follow to build your site from scratch, efficiently and hassle free!
Before we get started, it’s a good to understand a few key points.
With every domain name registered with names.co.uk, you’ll receive one free email address. This includes 1 POP3 mailbox and 100MB of storage with access to our WebMail. If you need additional email addresses, larger mailboxes etc. you’ll need to upgrade your email hosting package.
Website Builder
Website Builder is a tool that allows you to easily build a fully-functional website, regardless of whether you are tech savvy or just starting out.
Web Hosting
Hosting is where your website lives. When you buy one of our hosting packages, you are buying space on our servers. You can then upload your files to our server and your website can be accessed from anywhere, at any time.
Let’s get started…
FREE one-page website
Now that you’ve registered your domain name, you don’t have to rush into building a full website. With every domain name that’s registered with names.co.uk, you receive a free one-page website, which you can create within your Online Control Panel.
It’s a good idea to create a holding page whilst you’re building your website – Just a little something that lets your customers know that your website is coming soon and how they can contact you, whilst you’re designing your dream website.
Setting up your professional email
You will need to create a professional email address. Having a custom email address shows you’ve created a business. You need to build trust with your customers – You’re building your business, so you want to show you take things seriously.
Our Email Hosting packages can be purchased separately, depending on the features and storage you need, or get it free with our Website Builder packages or Web Hosting packages.
Build your site
Before you go full steam ahead with building your site, you’ll need to think about the purpose of your website. If you’re building your website to only present your business, you may only need a Homepage, About Us, Contact Us and News pages. If you’re planning to sell online, as well as the above, you may need Product pages, Order forms, Help, Support and T&Cs.
We have some great information about the most important features your website should include, in case you’re having a bit of a mental block, which you can find here.
Once you’ve jotted down exactly what you need, it’s time to find the right package for you.
Depending on your technical skills, you have 3 options to consider:
Use a Website Builder tool
Our Website Builder tool is perfect for all levels of technical experience and knowledge and enables you to create a beautifully optimized, fully-responsive website for viewing on all devices. This is extremely important considering the increasing number of users now accessing the web using mobile devices.
To help speed up the design process, you can duplicate pages and drop any pre-made sections into your website, making the creation of your website fun and fast. The easy-to-use drag & drop editor lets you add images, videos, content and widgets to your website, including popups and those all important social media icons, to reduce development time.
Web Hosting
With our Web Hosting packages, you will have access to 100’s of free applications – we have pulled together a wide variety, such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, that you can install in just one click.
WordPress can seem confusing at first, but once you learn how to get around you’ll find that it’s easy to use. Plus, we’ve got a super helpful guide that explains how you can use WordPress to build the website you need.
Get it built for you
We have a dedicated Studio team, who will build you a professional, eye-catching, user-friendly website in just 6 weeks, without a hefty price-tag! All you need to do is tell them your vision and answer a couple of questions and they’ll jump straight onto building your website for you.
But it doesn’t stop there – maintaining your website can be time-consuming. Our Studio team will also take care of your sites upkeep for you. Plus, they’ll write you an SEO-friendly blogpost each month, update any content and refresh any imagery, to keep your website looking new.
Check out some of the Studio teams example sites, to help you visualise yours.
This is a fantastic option, if you have complex requirements, or if you would like your website built by professionals, so you can focus on other tasks.
Whichever option you decide to go with, you’ll have the right tools to speed up your website build. Of course, building a website for the first time can feel a little intimidating. You can rest assured knowing you’re not alone… We are here to support you and have the knowledge to answer any of your questions.
