A website is essential in today's environment with more and more people moving to the Internet to find products and services. Website design is the process of creating a website and making it available on the Internet. The basics steps required to create a website and have it available on the Internet are not obvious for the uninitiated and so this article outlines the main aspects of website design.

There are three main things that are required in order to have a website.

DOMAIN REGISTRATION
In order to have a website available on the Internet you need to have your website name (URL) registered so that the name of your website is known and points to the right place. URLs can be registered by most ISPs, website developers and website hosting companies. Indeed, IT Solutions offers domain registrations. You can of course register a domain name yourself but you will need to be able to provide DNS servers on your application. DNS servers are servers on the Internet which tell your browser how to find a particular website.
Domain registrations are done at the appropriate authority for a particular domain. For example, co.za domains can be registered at http://co.za and org.za domains can be registered at http://org.za.

HOSTING
Once a website name is registered, you then need a hosting provider for your website. There are many cost effective hosting providers locally and internationally. IT Solutions also provides a cost effective, reliable hosting service. For more information on choosing a hosting provider, see our choosing a hosting provider article.

WEBSITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
With a domain name registered and a hosting provider organised for your website, you then need your website to be created. There are many excellent website designers and website design companies locally who provide outstanding website design and developing services. IT Solutions being one of them. It is recommended that you use a local designer as it is always easier to communicate the look and feel you would like for your website to someone that you can either meet face-to-face or chat with on the phone. While it certainly is possible to use an international designer, it can be difficult to communicate and explain exactly what feel you would like for your website via email. Once again, you can design your own website and with a bit of knowledge about graphics, html and css you would be able to create a decent website. There are many tutorials available on the Internet on these topics.

With these three aspects covered you will have successfully acquired a website that is available to the world. The next step is to market your website so that it appears when it should.