Let’s face it – regardless of what kind of business you want to run these days; you’re going to need a website. Heck, even if you’re just someone who’s looking for employment – having a portfolio website will help you stand out from the crowd. But once you do decide to build a website – you’ll find that it’s easier said than done.

You’ll need to find a good hosting plan and then set up your hosting account as well. Don’t worry, though – we’ll give you the basics of this process right here!

Choosing a Web Hosting Plan

So, you’ve decided that you need to have a website. That’s great – but that means you need a hosting provider as well. And a quick Google search will give you literally thousands of companies offering hosting services; which makes the choice of a single one quite difficult. There’s no need to worry, though. If you consider all of the prerequisite factors of a good hosting plan, you’ll be able to choose a good one with ease.

For example – you need to learn what kind of features and support the hosting provider offers you. Learn all about their guaranteed uptime, as well as the kind of hosting they give you; do you need a dedicated server of your own, or will a shared hosting plan suffice? Most of this is up to you.

Also, and perhaps more importantly for individuals and small budding businesses – you will have to think about budgetary concerns as well. Hosting plans vary wildly when it comes to prices; from a couple of bucks per month to thousand-dollar subscriptions. Keep in mind, though, that there are perfectly fine hosting plans that are completely free! If you want to save some money on hosting, have a look at a list of such solutions we’ve found here. Even among those, however, you should carefully pick which one suits you the best.

cPanel 101

Once you’ve chosen your web hosting package – it’s time to set up your hosting account! While this is a process that can vary from provider to provider; in many cases, you’ll find that a lot of them use cPanel as the primary web hosting control panel. With that in mind, we’ll give you a quick intro into what you need to do in order to set up your account on cPanel!

What is cPanel?

To put this in the simplest terms possible – cPanel is a control panel, that you can utilize for the management of different elements contained within a web hosting account. There are multiple reasons why this is the go-to solution for most web hosting companies; cPanel has an intuitive and easy-to-access dashboard, plus it’s quite well-maintained; with regular security updates, interface improvements, and other fixes.

What is cPanel Used For?

Just like WordPress is an all-around solution for online content management – cPanel provides you with the easiest way to set up any kind of website with a hosting provider. Regardless of whether you want to promote yourself, your content, or make use of the latest e-commerce trends; you will probably need to know about this. You can use it to:

• Connect domain names with your hosting
• Set up website email addresses
• Install WordPress, or the content management system of your choosing
• Make website backups
• Upload your files to the server
• Check usage stats and bandwidth
• Tinker with a variety of security settings
• Perform different kinds of optimizations

And this is just scratching the surface. There’s no reason to feel intimidated, even if this may feel a bit overwhelming. In order to perform basic website management and maintenance, you won’t need to understand all cPanel features and options right from the get-go.

Logging Into cPanel

Before you log into cPanel for the very first time, the hosting provider you’ve chosen has to give you the prerequisite username and password. Also, they’ll give you the link you need to access your hosting account and cPanel in the first place. Though, if you don’t get the link and can’t contact the customer support for some reason; there’s a roundabout method you can probably use to do this.

Open up your browser, and enter the URL address of your website, after which you’ll type in :2083 (when it comes to HTTPS) or :2082 for HTTP links. In most cases, you’ll be presented with an interface where you can type in your username and password for cPanel.

cPanel Navigation Bar

When it comes to finding your way around the cPanel options – bear in mind that there are different versions of cPanel in circulation, and different interface styles within each version. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find what you’re searching for.

In the top right corner of your cPanel interface, you’ll see its navigation bar. It’s nothing more than a search field – but one that you’ll find to be immensely useful. Apart from that, the bar contains the logout link, a bell for notifications, and a user settings link.

With the search field, you’ll quickly be able to reach any crucial option you need to change in cPanel. Sure, once you get to know the entire interface you’ll be able to find any desired option manually as well. Until then, the search field will give you everything you need.

Also, the user settings link leads you to a page where you can alter the interface language, as well as the username and password and your contact information. Most importantly – you can also just reset all of the settings with the click of a button.

Conclusion

Once you choose your hosting provider and set up a hosting account with them, your quest to build the best possible website is far from over; in fact, it’s barely begun! Nevertheless, these are the most important first steps, that will lay the foundation of your online presence and inform everything else you do.