Key Steps to Publish Websites
Typically, there are three key steps in publishing websites listed below; however, the required efforts can be different depending on the choice you make in the first step.
- Select and sign up on a platform or for infrastructure services
- Setup a web server and upload website documents
- Register your own domain and set up a DNS server
1. Select and sign up on a platform or for infrastructure services
There are several ways to establish website infrastructure.
If it is a website with only front-end coding (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), it is easier for you to host the website using website hosting platform services.
If you are creating a web application with backend coding, you should consider using a public cloud (IaaS or PaaS), VPS (Virtual Private Server), or rental server as these platforms or infrastructures have more flexibility in building servers. In this course, as we cover only HTML and CSS, we'll explain the case of using website hosting services.
Even for website hosting platform services, there is a variety of platforms. Depending on the platform, functionalities are different. For example, Firebase is a web hosting platform that offers multiple serverless backend functionalities such as user authentications. GitHub Pages is a web hosting platform connected with the Git repository platform GitHub. You can choose your platform depending on your needs. In this chapter, we'll use GitHub Pages as a case example to host our practice demo website.
2. Setup a web server and upload website documents
When you use a website hosting platform, this process is easy as the web server is already managed by the service platform. What you need to do is to upload your website documents.
If you choose a public cloud, VPS, or rental server, you need to set up your own web server. We don't cover this part in this course but we'll explain the process for building your own web server in other relevant courses.
3. Register your own domain and set up a DNS server
When you use a web hosting platform, the platform may give you a domain name owned by the platform provider. The domain you get is usually a sub-domain of the domain owned by the platform. When you build your own web server using a public cloud, VPS, or rental server, you run your server using a public IP address.
In both cases, if you want to use your own domain like google.com, you need to buy and register your own domain. Once you get your own domain, you can set it up in a DNS server to map your domain to the IP address of your website.
We'll explain domain and DNS further in the next topic.
You can also learn this topic offline. Click 
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More Topics to Explore
Chapter 1. Overview of Website Development
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