What is a web site
Setting up your own web site is much easier than you think. But first of all what actually is a web site...
What is a web site?
A web site is a collection of files that exist on a computer connected to the internet. It has an address, or URL. This address / URL (e.g. gmdlcc.com) simply points to the computer.
We call this computer a server.
index.html
index.html is a specially named file on your web server. This file gets automatically opened when you go to the web page. Each folder can have one index.html file.
So you don't need to go to gmdlcc.com/index.html - you just need to type gmdlcc.com.
/
The folder that contains your files on a server is called the root folder. Its address is simply /.
To get to a folder within the root you can go to /foldername, this folder often has an index.html file in it that opens automatically.
/folder
You can have as many pages as you want in your root folder. But its normally convenient to make sub folders for new pages (these sub folders can also contain image folders, css files, whatever you want).
For a simple micro-site or demo page, you would probably want a folder for all the images and you may only have a single index.html file.
If you have 2 or three pages these might be index.html for the home page then something like about.html and contact.html.
For larger sites (or if you never want to type .html) put each new page in a folder like so about/index.html contact/index.html.
Where can i get my own server
You can pay for one, but there's a lot of free ways of getting simple web pages online. For a portfolio, or site that you want to frequently change its worth looking at things like Cargo as its free for students.
For projects, experiments, microsites etc you can publish for free with Glitch, Netlify and Github.