What are the steps in setting up a new Joomla website?

First, you must have a domain name. Choosing a domain name is not such a simple matter. Among the things to consider -

• Domain name should match your company name
• Ideally, it will have your keyword phrase within the name
• Domain name should be in keeping with your branding
• It should not too closely resemble a competitor's name
• Your domain name should have a dot-com extension
• Domain names should not be too long

If you do not know what we mean by "keyword phrase" or "branding", you should back up and do more reading before continuing. CompuSolver.com is posting tutorial articles and videos that will help to get you up to speed.

Once you've chosen your domain name, you need to register it with a good registrar. Domain registrar companies vary widely in their contracts and fees. We recommend GoDaddy.com but whatever you do, be sure that YOU are the one who registers your domain name. Never let a web designer/developer, etc. do this for you - Never, Ever!

Be sure and purchase your domain for at least two years. Search engines give less priority to domains purchased for only one year, and some may give even more priority for domains purchased for five or more years.

You will create an account with the registrar that allows you to log in and do things like change hosting servers or even transfer ownership of the domain name. Be sure and keep this login information in a safe place. Be sure and register an email address that is not connected to this domain and one that you will keep forever. I repeat - forever. Losing your login info is a hassle, but also losing the email address you registered with will mean that you'll nearly need an act of congress to get control of your domain.

Once you've got your domain name, you need to set your "Nameservers", aka: "DNS". Look for "Nameservers" on your registrar's menu, click and you'll get a form like this one -

Before making any changes, use your browser and go to your "url" (http://www.mydomain.com) to see what type of page your registrar has you parked at.

In this image, we have "Nameserver 1:" and "Nameserver 2:" filled in for our hosting server on SmBizHosting.com

If you're hosting with us (and where else???), this is how you'll do your DNS.

The change doesn't happen instantly. It doesn't even happen at the same time for everyone. Each Internet Service Provider company (ISP) updates their DNS database at different frequencies and times.

It could be a matter of minutes or it could take hours, even a full day (but usually only an hour or so) to update for you.

Use your browser to check your url again and you'll probably get an error page with "..cannot display the webpage". When you no longer get that page, but the page your hosting company has you parked at, then you'll know that your new dns has "resolved" for you. Remember, that not everyone may be able to connect to your new server just yet.