Custom Website (Basic): Glossary & How-Tos

Having an online presence has a big impact on your business's success. Without a website, people might even question whether your firm’s legit. So when you do have one, it gives people confidence that you are... well, actually, a real firm. As a bonus, having your own site looks amazing—especially for clients who aren’t yet familiar with your services.

At TaxDome, we offer different ways to help you with your site, from adding our client portal to it to providing you with an intuitive website builder. Plus, we provide hands-on help!

Covered here:

• Glossary: Website Terms
• Domain vs. Subdomain
• Setting Up a Client Portal on Your Existing Website
• Your Domain Name & Your Website
• Register Your Domain Name & Build a Website

Glossary: Website Terms

A cheat sheet of the most common terms you need to know:

• Website: What is a website exactly?! Basically, it’s a set of digital pages on the World Wide Web, aka the Internet, which has been created by a person just like yourself or by an organization. 
• Hosting: This is when someone allows you to rent or buy space to house your website. Website content such as HTML, CSS and images must be housed on a server to be viewable online. And guess what? When TaxDome hosts your site, it’s free!
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator): a website address, such as what you put in the address bar; for example, taxdome.com. 
• IP address (Internet Protocol Address): a sequence of numbers that identifies your computer on a network. Computers use IP addresses to communicate with one another over the Internet. On a Mac, go to System Preferences, then Network, to see your IP address. It looks something like this: 103.100.175.219
• DNS (Domain Name System): It’s sometimes called the phone book of the Internet. We access information online through domain names like taxdome.com. Web browsers interact through IP addresses. DNS translates domain names into IP addresses so browsers can load Internet data.
• Domain name: the unique name of a website, which you must purchase. For example, taxdome.com
• Subdomain: a domain that is a part of a larger domain under the DNS. For example, if your domain is yourtaxfirm.com, then the subdomain might be something like portal.yourtaxfirm.com.

Domain vs. Subdomain

Not sure you know the difference between a domain and a subdomain? Read on.

Domain: If you don’t yet have a website, you’ll first need to purchase a domain name (think: a URL) and set up your site with it. It can then serve as a login page for the TaxDome portal. Say your domain name is yourtaxfirm.com, then that is what all your team members and clients will see in the address bar, and you won’t need to tag on .taxdome.com.

Subdomain: If you already have a website for your firm, you’ll need to set up a custom subdomain (e.g., portal.yourtaxfirm.com). This way, you can use your main website as always, but the subdomain will bring your clients to TaxDome. You might also want to add a link to the subdomain on your landing page to make it easy for clients and team members to log on to their TaxDome portal.

Setting Up a Client Portal on Your Existing Website

Already have a website? Use it to get your clients to their TaxDome portal. There are two ways to do this: either add a link to the TaxDome portal on your website (the easiest way) or create a subdomain on your site to keep your URL (this is more involved).

1. To add a link to the TaxDome client portal, go to your TaxDome Settings, select Firm Settings, then TaxDome Portal URL. Copy the URL (it will look like this: https://yourtaxfirm.taxdome.com). Now, create a button, link or menu item with it on your site. If you don’t know how, ask your site builder to add it—or contact us, and we will help. 
2. When you create a subdomain on your site, you keep your URL in the address bar. For example, clients see https://portal.yourtaxfirm.com/ in the address bar rather than taxdome.com. For more details, go here. After you’ve completed the steps, add a link to the subdomain on your website.

Tip: If you want us to help with your website, follow the steps here.

Your Domain Name & Your Website

Buy your domain name ASAP, even if you’re not building your site right away. More than 100,000 domain names are registered every day, so the sooner you buy it, the more chances you'll get the name you want. 

Let TaxDome host your site for free:

1. Set up your domain so that it is linked to your TaxDome portal. To find out how, go here.
2. Use our site builder. We have tons of templates to choose from! To learn more, go here.

Tip: If you want us to help you transfer your domain name and build your website, go here and follow the steps.

Register Your Domain Name & Build a Website

What should you do if you don’t have a domain name or site yet? You’ll need to secure a website address with a domain name registrar.

First, choose a name for your website address. Then, make sure the domain name is available. To do that, go here and pick your best option. Decide whether you want to use .com, .us, .rocks, etc. We offer helpful tips here.

Note: If you want to purchase a website address, you need to choose a domain name registrar, then register your website address. Some recommended domain name registrars: godaddy.com, namecheap.com, gandi.net and domain.com.