Hosting, Domains & SSLs | 5 Tips for a Successful Web Project, Part V

Written By

builtmighty

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This is the final post in our series: 5 Tips for a Successful Web Project. To recap the list:

Understand what Scope Creep is and how it impacts your project
Consider that writing your own content might be harder than you think
Assign a single point of contact for communication/decision making
Make a plan for acceptance testing
Figure out Hosting, Domain Registration and SSLs

Today’s post discusses Hosting, Domain Registration and SSLs.

One of the first steps in any project is when a client provides basic information to their development agency regarding website registration and access. Though it may seem simple, a number of projects get hung up at this starting point because the point of contact doesn’t have access to the necessary credentials.

Be prepared to provide:

The location where your domain is registered
The login credentials to access that domain
The IP address associated with your registration
Your hosting service provider and admin login credentials (CPanel, SFTP/FTP, or SSH)

If you don’t know your IP address, your domain registrar or hosting provider should be able to tell you.

If you don’t know who your domain registrar is, you can find out via a locator site like: register.com

If you don’t know who your hosting provider is, you can find out via another type of locator site like: whoishostingthis.com

If you run an e-commerce site and are currently hosted with an entry level hosting service, it can be a good idea to establish an account with a hosting service who either specializes in supporting e-commerce, or has a great reputation for stability and response times. (If your email was hosted with the same provider as your website, your email domain would have to be moved as well. If so, be certain to have the administrative login credentials for your email handy, as well.)

If your site employs credit card transactions, data transfers or logins, then it is neccessary to apply a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate when your site is pushed live. This adds the “https” to the front of your URL and provides a secure connection between the web session and the browser to protect confidential data.

There are a number of organizations who issue SSL Certificates. They generally have a one year fee associated with them and vary in price depending on the limits of their warranty, as well as whether the validation of the certificate is for the domain only, or the domain and the company. If you’re struggling to navigate the options, Built Mighty can help by recommending the appropriate service for your site.

This brings our series to a close! It is my hope that the information presented helps you understand some of the most common pitfalls in a web development project, as well as strategies for circumnavigating those pitfalls and keeping your project on track and on time.