Claude Code Tutorial Part 7: Going Live with Your Website

Part 7 of 8 of Building a Website with Claude Code. See all parts.

Going live

Domain names

Buy your domain from a reputable registrar. UK-friendly options:

• Cloudflare Registrar: domains at cost (no markup). Free WHOIS privacy. Requires you to use Cloudflare's DNS.
• Namecheap: competitive prices, good support.
• Gandi.net: European, trustworthy, more expensive.

Avoid registrars that lock you in with confusing renewal pricing or that bundle "extras" you don't need.

A .co.uk domain is roughly £10 per year. A .com is roughly £12. Don't pay £100 for a "premium" extension you don't recognise.

Tip: Renew the domain for two or three years upfront. Set up auto-renewal. Use a calendar reminder one month before expiry as a backup.

Hosting choices for UK teams

Pick based on your site type:

For a typical first project, Hostinger is the easiest starting point. About £3 a month, comes with a free domain for the first year, supports Laravel, MySQL, FTP, and SSL out of the box.

Deployment basics

Deployment is moving your code from your laptop to the hosting server. There are three common ways:

1. Git push deployment: you push your code to GitHub, and the hosting platform automatically rebuilds and deploys. Best for static sites (Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel).
2. FTP upload: you upload files directly to the server. Old-fashioned but works everywhere. Common on shared hosting like Hostinger.
3. SSH deployment: you log in to the server and run commands. Needed for more advanced setups.

Claude can drive all three. Tell it which one you're using and it will configure things.

For your first launch, the simplest path is:

1. Buy hosting.
2. Buy a domain.
3. Point the domain at the hosting (the registrar gives you DNS records to set, the hosting provider tells you what to point to).
4. Upload your site.
5. Wait an hour for DNS changes to propagate.
6. Visit your domain and check it works.

Warning: Before uploading, double-check that no sensitive file is in the upload. Specifically .env, database.sql dumps, and .git/ directories. Your hosting provider's document root setting determines what's publicly accessible.

The launch checklist

Run through this before sharing the URL:

• Custom domain works and shows your site (not a parked page).
• HTTPS works. The lock icon appears in the browser. (Most hosts auto-issue SSL via Let's Encrypt.)
• Every page loads in under 3 seconds on a phone.
• Title tag and meta description are filled in on every page.
• Favicon shows in the browser tab.
• Contact form sends mail (test it).
• Privacy policy exists and is linked from the footer.
• Cookie banner appears (if you have non-essential cookies).
• No console errors visible in the browser's developer tools.
• Mobile view checked on a real phone, not just a desktop simulator.
• Sitemap exists at /sitemap.xml.
• Google Search Console set up and sitemap submitted.
• Analytics set up and tracking page views.
• Admin password is something a human couldn't guess.
• Backup of the database and the code stored somewhere safe.

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