Website creation 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 key terms like domains and subdomains, and how to register your domain.

Glossary: website terms

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

• Website: A set of digital pages on the Internet, created by a person or an organization.

• Hosting: Renting or buying space on a server to house your website. HTML, CSS, images, and other content must be stored on a server to be viewable online. TaxDome hosts your site for free.

• URL (Uniform Resource Locator): A website address—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. It looks something like this: 103.100.175.219.

• DNS (Domain Name System): Sometimes called the phone book of the Internet. Web browsers interact through IP addresses, while people use domain names such as taxdome.com. DNS translates domain names into IP addresses so browsers can load the correct content.

• Domain name: The unique name of a website, which you purchase—for example, taxdome.com.

• Subdomain: A domain that is part of a larger domain. For example, if your domain is yourtaxfirm.com, a subdomain might be portal.yourtaxfirm.com.

Domain vs. subdomain

• Domain: If you don’t yet have a website, you’ll first need to purchase a domain name and set up your site with it. It can then serve as a login page for the TaxDome portal. For example, if your domain is yourtaxfirm.com, that is what your team members and clients will see in the address bar—no .taxdome.com needed.

• Subdomain: If you already have a website with general firm information, you can set up a custom subdomain (such as portal.yourtaxfirm.com) for accessing the TaxDome portal. Your main website continues to work as usual, while the subdomain brings clients and team members directly to TaxDome. You can also add a link to the subdomain on your main site to make it easy for clients and team members to find.

Register your domain name

If you don’t have a domain name yet, you’ll need to register one with a domain name registrar. First, choose a name for your website address and make sure it’s available. Then decide on an extension—.com, .us, .net, etc.

Note

To purchase a website address, choose a domain name registrar and register your address. Some popular registrars: godaddy.com , namecheap.com , gandi.net and networksolutions.com .

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

Share

Link copied