What Is Web Hosting
Web hosting is the act of storing a website’s data on a server or series of servers. Imagine a website as a work of art. That art needs to be housed somewhere for people to see, and web hosting is like a gallery where your art can be stored for others to view.
Data centers are filled with servers that can house hundreds of websites.
Namecom Domains Support Review
It lacks live chat and phone support, which are taken as the most effective means for instant support. However, it has a rich knowledge base with several questions answered. You need to create either support ticket or contact the support team via social media accounts.
Domain Restoration Fee: Varies by TLD. Please visit their site support for further pricing details.
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How To Choose The Best Domain Name
Last updated on June 14th, 2021 by Editorial Staff | Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us.
Choosing the right domain name for your website is crucial for your success. If you choose the wrong domain name, then it can be a hassle to switch later on without hurting your brand and search rankings.
Thats why its extremely important that you choose the best domain name from the start.
When first starting out, it can be hard to come up with catchy business name ideas with a perfect domain name.
In this article, well share all the tools and tips you need to get domain name ideas, choose the best domain name, and register your new domain .
14 Tips for Choosing the Best Domain Name
When starting a blog, choosing a domain name can be stressful because you dont want to make a mistake.
To make the process easier, we have a simple 14 step framework that you can use to pick the best domain for your website.
Lets take a look at these tips one by one with more details.
1. Stick with .com
There are plenty of new domain name extensions available today, from the original .com, .net and .org to niche extensions like .pizza, .photography, and even .blog.
We always recommend choosing a .com domain name.
In our opinion, newer domain extensions like .ninja, .photography, and others can make your business appear less trustworthy.
Also Check: How To Make My Domain Https
Domain Name Vs Ip Address: What’s The Difference
With a domain, you dont have to enter a long set of numbers in the address bar. Instead, you only need to type an easy-to-remember domain name and it will get you to your desired location.
To better understand how this works, take a look at this brief explanation of the entire process:
Domain names and information are registered and maintained by domain registries. They work with domain registrars in order to provide registration services to users. The end-users select the registrars that provide the registration service and that way registrars become designated for the domain chosen by the user.
Finally, only the designated registrar is able to modify or delete information about domain names in a central registry database, and that is the reason why users sometimes switch registrars. This is called a domain transfer process between registrars and it is governed by specific domain name transfer policies.
With contributions from
Always Go For The Com
Let me say this again: Wherever possible, always go for a .com domain. Exhibit A: This site.
Technically speaking, the .com is just one of many domain name extensions that are available . Some of the other popular options include, .net, .org, .co, .edu, .biz, or even things such as .shop, or .blog.
And while all those fancy TLDs are tempting, getting the classic .com is nearly always the right thing to do. Two reasons:
What all of this means is that if your perfect .com is taken, then perhaps you should either forget about that name entirely or try contacting the current owner to see if theyre willing to sell the domain to you. Warning! This could be expensive.
Recommended Reading: How To Find Expired Domains With Backlinks
Whois Privacy And Protection
When you buy a domain name through a registrar, you must, by law, provide them with accurate details about who you are and where you live. And lying about it has serious consequences.
But now you are putting your personal information out on the weband this is dangerous.
If youre not extremely careful to take the steps to protect your identity, you become a beacon signaling every hacker, scammer, and identity thief looking for the easy take.
We know hearing this can leave your insides quivering, but its the truth.
WhoIS Privacy and Protection is a service that hides your personal details, like your phone number, address, email, and more. This privacy service keeps your personal details inaccessible through public records and to predators looking to exploit you online.
We want this to be crystal clear why this is important.
Some domain registrars charge for this service and some offer it for free. But if you have no clue what this really does, its easy to just brush it off and try and save a few bucks. That can be catastrophic in the long run, allowing malicious cyber bullies to play hot potato with your identity.
Whenever you are purchasing a domain, its recommended you always get this service.
The one exception is if youre registering a domain under a business entity, with a company address, email, and so forth. This is public information anyway, so attaching a domain name to it is no problem.
Start With Your Brand Name
Your domain name should reflect your brand, and vice versa. For maximum brand recognition and URL retention, see if your brand name is available for purchase. Your brand differentiates you from competitors, and including your unique brand name in your domain can help you stand out.
Pro tip:
If your ideal domain name is already taken, head over to the domain itself and see if there are any links to purchase it or contact forms to reach out to the owner. If not, conduct a WHOIS search to find contact information you can use to reach out with an offer.
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The Best Domain Registrars Of 2022
At the top of our best domain registrar list and perfect for small and medium businesses, Domain.com offers some of the most popular domains across over 25 country codes, and also sells premium domains as a broker.
With nearly two decades of online presence, the company – which is one of the worlds biggest domain name registrars – expanded in web hosting and now ranges a number of products including a full design service and web hosting.
Domain.com prices tend to be average but we have managed to blag a 25% discount off almost everything in your cart*. Non-premium TLD start from $2.99 for the first year . In line with the rest of the industry, they rise significantly after the second year).
You need to pay for privacy protection, a reasonable $8.99, plus you can add email, web hosting, SSL certificates and malware protection, none of which is compulsory. You can stick with its basic website builder which is free with every domain: you get a drag and drop website builder, tons of mobile-friendly templates, up to six pages, SEO tools , Paypal integration and even access to stock image library.
Support is more than adequate with 24/7 chat, email and phone support. Domain.com may not have the cheapest prices but it provides a very balanced offering.
Bluehost also gives you the option of auto-renewal, which saves you the trouble of manually renewing your website domain and ensures that there are no accidental lapses which could lead to the name being poached.
Read our
Dont Sweat It Too Much If Your Perfect Domain Name Is Taken
If the domain name you really desire is already taken, this is not the end of the world. Sometimes, you can actually still get your hands on it.
Heres what you can do:
- If the domain name is not in use , then theres a very good chance the owner only bought it to sell it later on. Youll likely find some contact information on that parked website. If theres no info, use who.is and get the owners email.
- If theres a website on the domain, you can still try your luck and contact the owner asking if theyre willing to sell the domain off. Low chance of success here, but still worth a try.
- If the domain is completely empty and theres no contact info to be found, try looking through known domain-flipping marketplaces, such as GoDaddys marketplace , Sedo, SnapNames, or Flippa.
Buying an existing domain name is a different process from buying a new one, so it requires some additional caution. We talk about that in No. 13.
One more note, domains you buy from someones hands cost MONEY . Sometimes good money! A safe estimate here would be a minimum of $250, but more like $1,000 or more.
If you cant afford that, dont worry too much either Which brings me to:
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Hostinger The Best Domain Registrar For Most
Hostinger is the hosting provider we place at the top of our list for best web hosting services. They offer every type of web hosting your site might need, and they excel at delivering top-notch, shared WordPress, cloud, and VPS hosting.
But on many of their plans, youll also get a free domain name when you sign up for hosting.
Hostinger couldnt make this any easier on you.
Just sign up for hosting by heading to their website, then click Start Now.
Youll see a few different options for shared hosting there. We recommend going with the Premium Shared Hosting package, as its the cheapest shared hosting plan that includes a free year of your domain name.
Keep in mind, that $3.49 per month rate comes with a four-year upfront commitment. So, you will have to pay $167.52 at checkout for your hosting plan, but you secure it for 48 whole months.
You can opt for shorter terms of one or two years, or even month-to-month pricing. Just be aware that youll likely pay more per month and youll have to confront a higher renewal rate sooner.
After youve signed up, setup is a snap. Hostinger has an incredible guided process for getting your site up and running.
The setup wizard tailors the setup process to your comfort level with site building and will automatically install a site platform for you with one click.
Once you find one that fits your brand keywords and ideal site URL, just select it and youll have it secured without paying a thing!
Should I Sign Up For Shared WordPress Hosting With A Free Domain
There is no standardized formula across web hosting platforms that offer managed WordPress hosting. Some companies provide free themes, developer tools like WP-CLI, preinstallation of scripts, and a sandbox environment for staging or testing changes.
Other companies offer NGINX or LiteSpeed servers for high performance with Varnish Cache and Redis installed for better web page caching.
Web application firewall support, anti-virus scanning of site files, and DDoS protection are other valuable WordPress hosting features. Companies that offer these options on a managed WordPress platform are recommended.
Key Features of the Best Managed WordPress Hosting Plans:
- Free Themes: Look for Managed WordPress plans with free theme offers for design.
- Security Tools: Web Application Firewalls , anti-virus, and DDoS protection.
- Developer Utilities: Command-line tools like WP-CLI, Git, SSH connections, etc.
- Advanced Caching: Platforms with pre-installed Varnish Cache and NGINX solutions.
- CDN Integration: A free Cloudflare CDN account will offer the fastest page load speeds.
Most shared web hosting platforms on Linux and Windows servers will provide runtime support for WordPress with MySQL and PHP. Shared hosting plans with cPanel and Softaculous allow developers to install WordPress along with 400+ other open-source scripts for site building.
It is more common to find support for unlimited domain names with WordPress on shared hosting plans.
Recommended Reading: How To Make A Website With Custom Domain
Read More About Godaddy
- Read our GoDaddy review for a complete overview of the web hosting provider’s performance and capabilities
Founded in California back in 2008, GreenGeeks proudly claims to be the world’s #1 green energy web hosting provider, and this isn’t just marketing speak: the company takes real action to back it up.
This doesn’t just involve designing its platform to be as energy-efficient as possible GreenGeeks also promises that for every amperage it uses, it invests three times that in renewable energy, helping to reduce future carbon emissions.
GreenGeeks’ star products are its powerful shared hosting plans. Even the cheapest offers unmetered bandwidth, a free domain for a year, nightly backups, 50 email accounts, multi-user access, and free SSL for the lifetime of the account. Prices start low at $2.95 a month on the three-year plan, although they jump to an above-average $10.95 on renewal.
GreenGeeks’ VPS and dedicated server plans are available for high traffic sites. These look a little more expensive than most providers, but that’s largely because they don’t have any ‘70% off for the first year’-type introductory offer. But they’re well specified – even the baseline $39.95 a month 2GB plan includes 10TB of monthly traffic – and deliver far better performance than the shared offerings.
What Are The Benefits Of A Hosted Email For My Business
There are a number of benefits of using hosted email for your business.
First, hosted email gives you excellent performance and security. Since your business is the only organization using your email server, you can take advantage of all the available computing power to send and receive mail. Thats important for large businesses with many people sending and receiving emails, especially if those emails contain large attachments.
In addition, hosted email is flexible. If you need more storage space or more computing power in the future, your email host can simply connect another server to the one youre already using. More important, that connection can be temporaryso you can scale your email capacity up and down based on your businesss needs. While scaling up self-hosted email is possible, its expensive and theres no easy way to scale back down.
Another benefit of using hosted email for your business is that you can create an unlimited number of new email addresses at your custom domain. As a result, its easy to make an email for every employee at your organization, as well as to open email accounts for general purposes like customer support or sales.
Finally, using hosted email gives your business control over managing your email system. You can decide how big the maximum attachment size is for every new email address. You can also set up encryption or filters for organizing incoming mail.
Recommended Reading: How Do Domain Names Work
What To Do After Purchasing A Domain Name
After registering a great domain name for your business, the next steps are:
Signup for web hosting a hosting provider is responsible for making your website available on the internet when users type your domain name in an internet browser.
There are a lot of options to choose thats why we created a guide to help you make the right choice. Our best managed WordPress hosting guide will help you choose the best provider to build your online business.
Create a website creating a website is very easy these days. Follow our step-by-step website guide and get started in minutes.
Optimize your website after creating a website, the next step is to optimize it so that people can find it on Google and other places on the Internet. A good digital marketing course will teach you everything you need to know about website optimization and marketing.
Best Web Hosting For 2022
We compared some of the most popular web hosting services so you don’t have to.
Zachary McAuliffe
Zach is a staff writer for CNET, covering software, apps and services. Prior to joining CNET, he wrote web copy for the television station WCPO in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he’s not writing, he’s reading. When he’s not reading, he’s catching up on shows with his wife and their dog.
Alison DeNisco Rayome
Managing Editor
Alison DeNisco Rayome is a managing editor at CNET, now covering home topics after writing about services and software. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
There are a lot of great reasons to start your own website. Whether you’re looking to create your own blog, kick off a side hustle or build a portfolio, there’s no better time than right now to build a website. It’s an exciting process, too. Picking your own personal design to represent yourself is one of the many exhilarating parts of building your new website. However, there’s a lot more to it than just clicking around and hitting save when you’re happy.
First off, you need to have an idea for what your site should contain or be about, and you have to choose a company to house your website. The number of web hosting services can be confusing and the choice can be hard. So we looked over the data for 22 web hosting services to make things a little easier on you.
For some important terms to know about web hosting, jump to the bottom of this article.
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