Publish Your Website to a Real Address
A website on your computer is a draft. This stage puts it where other people can reach it, and then checks it the way they will.
Pick a host for plain files
Your site is plain files, which is the easiest thing on the internet to host. Several well-known hosts publish a folder of plain files for free on a small site, and Hosting and Domains explains the words. Pick one, follow its instructions for publishing a folder, and you will get a working address on the host's own name within minutes.
Your own name, or not yet
A business should use its own domain name. It looks trustworthy on a van and a business card, and it is yours if you ever change hosts. Buy it from a registrar, then follow the host's steps to connect it.
Your name as a domain is worth having for a portfolio: it goes on your CV and in your email signature. Buy it from a registrar and connect it with the host's steps.
An event page can live on the host's free address. It only needs to work until the event is over. If you want a memorable name for the invitation, buy one for a year and let it lapse afterwards.
If you plan to write for years, buy the domain now. Moving a blog to a new address later means old links break and search engines start over. Buy it from a registrar and connect it with the host's steps.
A new name can take a while to work everywhere. If the address does not load straight away, give it an hour before you change anything.
Check it like a stranger
- On your phone, on mobile data, not your home Wi-Fi. Open every page. Tap every button.
- The padlock. The address should start with
https. Most hosts do this for you; if yours does not, turn it on in its settings. - A link preview. Paste the address into a message to yourself. If the preview shows no title or picture, ask the AI to add the sharing tags from Get Found.
- Nothing private. Look through the published folder. No notes, no spreadsheets, no keys.
Then add the address to your business listing on the maps service people in your town use, so the site and the map point at each other.
Then send the link to one person who hires in your field and ask them one question: "Is anything confusing?"
Then send it to one guest before everyone else, and ask them to reply using the button. If their reply reaches you, the page works.
Then publish your second post. A blog that is updated gets read, and the second post is the one most people never write.
You built a website
Planned, drafted, written, published and checked. When you change it later, the loop is the same one: save point, change, check narrow, publish, check live. Build the Site Around Your App covers the page that explains an app, and the next phase builds the app.
Video deep dives for this stage
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