Putting my first website online...

mikem1986

In the next few weeks im going to be putting my first website online, i just wondered if when you upload it to wherever your hosting is, what structure do you have to put it in with files and folders etc or can you have it anyway you like as long as all images and links point at the correct files?

[MaccA]

Hi mike,

typically, when you log into your hosting area you will already have a folder structure set up for you.

If there are other functions included with your hosting package then you may have several folder. You should put your web site in a folder called something like "public_html" or "www". Your hosting provider will probably have lots of tutorials on how to upload your content.

As far as the file structure goes after that, as long as you have the main homepage labelled correctly and in the main folder as mentioned above then all other files, links and images can go anywhere you like (with the main folder or sub-folders of it) as long as your links are set up correctly.

The main page of your web site (homepage) should be named using a certain convention as web browsers are programmed to look for certain pages when you just put https://www.mydomain.com into the address bar. Examples of these are index.html and default.html.

Hope this helps

[MaccA]

mikem1986

Thanks Macca

will it matter that i have several files called index.html?

i have 4 folders you see and within each one is a index.html but the actual home page sits outside of that...it looks a bit like this

*Website - Index.html
____*Web - Index.html
- Page2.html
____*Print - Index.html
- Page3.html
____*About - Index.html
- Page4.html

Will it search outside of the 3 folders first for index.html?

[MaccA]

Hi mike,

it will only search for the pre-assigned file names in the "root" (top level) folder, and not in sub folders, so you should be ok.

However, your setup does mean if someone went to "www.yourdomain.com/Print/" they would automatically get the index.html file in that directory instead of a "page not found" error. This may be how you want it, or it might not matter to you.

Another thing to note is that web pages are case sensitive. It wont matter on the naming of the Index.html pages but it does mean your links to the Print folder must have a capital P in it or your own web site wont find it. (Unless of course the actual folders are all lower case and you've just used upper case in your post for good grammar). However, if the links are working on your own PC then they should work when you've uploaded it as well, but its worth bearing in mind for future development.

Good luck

[MaccA]

mikem1986

Was a case of good grammar lol

can you recommend any good hosting sites Macca?

and 1 other thing, when paying for domain names and hosting, do you pay on a monthly basis or a one off fee for the whole year/2 years?

Cheers

[MaccA]

Hi mike,

the hosting company I actually use is because I used to know one of the owners quite well. I don't chat with him much anymore but I still like the service his company offers me.

They are called Flump (funky name?!?!) and can be found at https://www.flump.net. I've no idea if their prices are good as I've never looked around, they always seem fair for what I get. And the support is great. Whenever I post a support ticket (which is free, a lot of web hosts charge you for support) I usually get an answer within a couple of hours.

I pay annually for my hosting which is good for budgeting but also means I've constantly forgetting to renew it

[MaccA]

mikem1986

Ive been told 123reg is good but im kinda shopping around at the moment

People have recommended godaddy too but they dont seem to support .co.uk websites

sra

mikem1986 wrote: »

Ive been told 123reg is good but im kinda shopping around at the moment

People have recommended godaddy too but they dont seem to support .co.uk websites

They do .co.uk
It helps on their site if you immediately change "my cart" on the right to GBP - Even if you don't intend buying anything. Just change this so that all prices appear in pounds when you browse.

If you want to use them you should look around the sites of some podcasters (do a search) like here because they advertise with them heavily and there's usually a discount code available.
The discount codes even work when you renew plans (I have it set to autorenew just in case I forget, but I can still manually renew with the codes if I do it before the autorenew kicks in).