1-866-363-5633
www. Expression - Web - Tutorial .com


Expression Web Tutorials:  Learn How to Build Web Sites with CSS & HTML  ~  A Place For Beginners


Expression Web 4:  Publishing a Web Site

Publishing a Web Site:  Tutorials

In this section, you will learn how to Publish a Web Site using Expression Web.

What do I need in order to publish a web site using Expression Web 4?

1.  Domain Name.  First, you need to purchase a domain name.  A domain name cost somewhere around $10 to $15.   The domain name becomes the web address for your web site.   

For instance, www.Expression-Web-Tutorial.com is a domain name that I purchased for my web site.   

Read about How to Choose a Domain Name

Before you buy a domain name, please read about web hosting below.......

2.  Web Hosting.   When you buy web hosting, you are actually renting space on a server.  This is where your web site (web pages, images, videos, etc) will be stored until someone types your web address (domain name) into a web browser or finds your site in search engine results pages (SERPs) 

Either way, the browser tells the server, "hey, server, I need this page!"  The Server responds by retrieving the page and 'serves' it up to the browser. 

Of course, I simplified the entire example in order to keep this simple.  The point is, you need web hosting and a domain name.  Most web hosting providers will include the domain name in the pricing of the hosting. (not all, but most)

Buy Web Hosting

There are so many web hosting providers out there.  Who do I recommend?

I have had good experiences with Hostmonster,  Hostgator, and Blue Host.  As a Web Designer, I do Sell Web Hosting.  If you are interested in purchasing my Web Hosting, check out the cpanel demo and choose a payment plan. 

 What I like about these hosting providers:

C-panel, and excellent customer support.  No problems with downtime. 

Excellent Traffic Stats.  Different Email platforms, included free.

C-panel is the platform or user interface that you use when you are logged into your account.  It makes everything easy to find and easy to work with.  You can take a look at the cpanel demo on my site.  You will need to log in with demo as the username, and demo as the password.

Fantastico:  This is an entire suite of software add-ons that are free of charge and easy to install.  Do you want a forum?  No problem, and it's so easy to set up.  Just a few clicks here and there and you are off to the races.  Also Includes WordPress, Shopping Carts, Content Management like Joomla, Drupal.  Course Management like Moodle.  Realtors will like the Realty Add-on. 

 

Now I know some of you have a domain name already.  That's perfectly okay.  For you folks,you will need to find out how to change the Name servers so that your domain name points to your web hosting. 

To do this, login to your web hosting account and search the knowledge base for "How to Change DNS" or "Name Servers".  DNS stands for Domain Name Servers.

Most if not all web hosting providers provide tutorials on how to do this. 

 

 

What Else Do I Need Before Publishing My Web Site?

Well, make sure you named your home page correctly. 

You can run all kinds of reports in Expression Web 4 to make sure all is working correctly.  For instance, to check for broken links, click on Site View - then look at the bottom of the editing window and choose Reports. 

You will see a Site Summary of Categories you can check.  Broken links, Page Speed, Old Pages, Unlinked Files, Linked Files and so on. 

Of course you can also run a variety of Reports.  Click on Panels and choose Accessibility, CSS Reports, Compatibility or any of the other reports you can run. 

You can validate your pages with Expression Web, or you can use a W3C validator.  Be sure to also Validate your CSS while you're at it.