Custom Website (Basic): Glossary & How-Tos

If you’ve been wanting to create your own website but don’t know where to start, this guide is for you. We’ll walk you through everything—from understanding key terms like domains and subdomains to registering your domain. Let’s get started!

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 with general info, it's a good idea to set up a custom subdomain (e.g., portal.yourtaxfirm.com) for accessing TaxDome portal. 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.

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.

Once you own a domain - congratulations! You can now check TaxDome’s website and portal options to find out how to use it as your TaxDome portal link, build your website, and more.