Features

Websites have changed over the past few years. Once you could cobble together a few pages of HTML and consider yourself a cutting-edge web designer. Now big budget websites such as the BBC and Amazon, where content changes by the minute, are the benchmark of how dynamic sites can be. Can your humble site keep up, and can you do it without taking a course in website development or hiring an expensive designer?

Luckily, it is possible to make your site look a million dollars even on the tightest budget. Over the next few pages, we'll show you how to upgrade your site to make it smarter and more interactive without breaking the bank.

Getting your own domain

If you host your site on the web space that came as part of a dial-up or broadband package, you'll know its main drawbacks. For a start, your web address screams 'Amateur!' You can instantly add a more professional look to your site by giving it its own domain name, and this costs less than you might think.

First, check that the name of your choice is available. Use a domain registrar such as www.ukreg.com. Many obvious names are taken, so you may need to be flexible. A .co.uk domain name is registered for a fixed two-year term and can be picked up for around £3 a year, while more expensive .com sites can usually be bought annually for around £10.

You don't need to buy more web space and can continue to use your existing web space if your domain

The question is, how do you choose from the wide range of hosting options available? Commonly, you're offered a choice between Linux and Windows-based servers. Your decision here will probably be influenced by your choice of web design application or programming language. Adobe's Dreamweaver integrates happily with databases that run on Linux machines, as does PHP. However, if you are using Microsoft Expression Web you won't get very far unless you use a .NET-compatible Windows host.

Packages offer a set amount of storage and a bandwidth limit for a monthly fee. SupaNames (www.supanames.co.uk) offers a Linux-based server with 150MB of space and a database for around £15 a year, rising to £90 a year for 3.5GB space, 5,000 mailboxes, 10 databases and FrontPage extensions. We tested 15 web-hosting packages in Labs, Shopper 242. The Best Buy award-winner was eUKhost's Gold package, which offers 5GB of storage, 50GB per month bandwidth allowance and unlimited email accounts for £4.60 per month.

Service reliability is critical. Professional sites cannot disappear for days on end. Before choosing a host you should ask if it has a guaranteed uptime, which is measured as the percentage of time that the server remains accessible online. Even 99.9 per cent uptime means that you could potentially suffer over 40 minutes every month when nobody can access your site. However, 99.99 per cent uptime reduces your site's non-availability to an average of 52 minutes a year. That could be worth paying more for if your site makes money.