Why Does My Business Need A Website
Today, 91% of consumers look online to search for goods or services, and 84% view a business with a website as more credible.Owning a website is crucial for small business owners in order to gain credibility and get found by both new and existing customers.
With Website.com, we provide the tools to publish your online presence as fast as possible.
Promote Your Site Offline
When you just start a new blog/site, you cant expect instant traffic from Social Media or Search Engines.
It takes time to build an audience in Social Media and get traffic from Search Engines.
However, you can get instant traffic by promoting your site offline. Here are a few things you can do to drive traffic to your blog/site.
- Put your site URL on your business card.
- Print your site URL on pens, mugs & other goodies and give those for free.
- Make a customized t-shirt for your blog/site.
- Sponsor an event where you can promote your site.
- If you own a car, put your URL on the side of your car.
You can do many more things to promote your site offline. Just be creative!
Over To You
Hope this post helped you to create your site.
If you have any other questions about what to do after buying a domain name, feel free to ask us via comments.
However, if you found this post useful, help me by sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Use A Web Host As A Glorified Email Service
Yes, even if you don’t want a website, you can still sign up with aweb host and use youraccount purely as an email service.
On most web hosts, you can create a large number of email accounts and unlimited email aliases. Since web hosts routinelydeal with email sending and receiving as part of the business of web hosting, they usually also have a variety of spamfiltering facilities, web mail,autoresponders, vacationmessages, mailing list support, and all the usual things you associate with an email service.And you can even install your own webmail interfaces if you don’t like the default one provided.
As for the website that comes with it, you can just ignore it, or use it as a storage space for thingslike email attachments that are too large to send by email, or images that you want to link to fromyour email or social media accounts, and so on. That said, if you don’t want your attachments to be accessed by people other than your email recipients, you probably shouldn’t put iton the site, since anyone can then download it. .
That said, if you want to create different email addresses at your own domain for different people, each with their ownindividual logins, this is available as a standard feature on a web host .I have not investigated this on an email service, but I suspect that you will need to subscribe to a higher-pricedplan to get it.
Anyway, whichever option you go with, read the relevant section below for the additional steps to take.
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Strategy #1 Monitor Your Site Performance Metrics
When youre first getting started, you just need to get your website built and make sure its running live on the web. But over time, you want to see exactly how visitors are interacting with your site.
Look at KPIs like uptime and speed. If your site is constantly going down or has slow loading times, it will hinder the long-term success of your site.
The best web hosting providers, like Hostinger, will have built-in resources on your dashboard to monitor these KPIs.
Keep a close eye on these. If something is wrong, you need to determine what exactly is causing the problem.
For example, lets say your pages are loading slowly. Do you have too many large multimedia files like uncompressed images and videos on that page? Are there too many redirects? Is another website on the same shared server causing your entire site to load slowly?
You cant fix a problem if you dont know whats causing it, and you cant identify the cause if youre not constantly monitoring your metrics. Make a habit of doing this on a weekly or monthly basis, at a minimum.
How Do I Get A Free Domain Name
Nobody really gives out a domain name for free online without getting something in return.
Fortunately, many website builders will offer you a free domain name registration when you purchase, say, an annual plan.
Of course, after that first year expires, youll be forced to pay the fee for the annual domain name renewal. Sometimes, the site will bug you to renew the domain through their own renewal service, which is priced at say, $15 per year instead of the usual $10 or so fee. If thats the case, then dont be afraid to buy your domain through a third party site.
Unless you win a contest, or get a domain through a friend, theres no way to get a free domain name online without paying at least something in return.
Recommended Reading: How To Migrate Users From One Domain To Another
Find Your Domain Name On Your Chosen Domain Registrar Website
Weve already covered choosing your domain registrar. Once you do, look up your chosen domain name to see if its already taken. If it is, the domain registrar will present alternatives either for the domain itself or for the TLD.
It may offer choices such as .net, .org, and .info. Generally, we recommend sticking with a .com TLD because its highly recognizable.
How To Point A Domain Name To Another Web Host Server
Do you want an easy no-fuss way to point your domain to a different web hosting provider?
Its a technical process but most domain registrars and web hosts have made it really easy to do.
In this step by step guide, well show you how to easily change your domain nameserver so that it points to a different web host.
Read Also: Who Owns My Website Domain Name
Sell Your Domain Name
Stuff happens. Maybe inspiration struck at 3 a.m., when an amazing new domain name woke you from a dead sleep. And that other domain you already registered? It can still help you out.
You can get it in front of interested buyers via domain aftermarket sites that only take a small percentage of the sale.
One such aftermarket option is GoDaddy Auctions.
For an annual fee and a percentage of the sale, you can list your domain name for auction or set a buy now price and GoDaddy will handle all the details.
Related: 5 tried-and-true tips for selling domain names for profit
Why Is Websitecom The Best Choice To Make My Website
With Website.com, experience the freedom to create a unique and professional website on your own. You can start with a designer-templateand personalize it, or hire our design experts to make your website for you.
When you choose Website.com, you’re choosing the best tools to create a professional website: a drag and drop website builder, royalty-freeimages and video backgrounds, free secure web hosting, and a committed support team. You can even make an online store entirely for free.
With over 1 million websites built with Website.com, you’ll be in good company.
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Option A: How To Get A Free Domain Name With Web Hosting
Hosting is one of the few required costs for building a website on WordPress. Get the most out of your web hosting plan by choosing one that includes a domain, email accounts, and a WordPress site builder. Hosting companies usually include automatic or one-click WordPress installation, and the best have site builders to simplify the process of building a WordPress site.
| PROS | |
|---|---|
| Free domains, email addresses, and site builders with hosting plans WordPress users will need anyway | Renewals can get pricey after 12-, 24-, or 36-month introductory pricing expires |
| Free .com domains and other top level domains | Most plans require a minimum 12-month contract to get a free domain |
| You own the domain as long as you continue to renew your plan | |
| Looks professional and credible | |
| Automatically connects your domain to your WordPress site and makes it easy to set up business email addresses |
Get An Online Store Thats Attached To Your Domain
With a custom ecommerce site, you can sell your products, track your orders, collect payments, and manage your inventory all in one place.
Youre looking at basically the same options for creating an online store hire a pro or do it yourself with an easy-to-use online store builder or an ecommerce plugin for WordPress and the like. We like WooCommerce.
Since GoDaddys Online Store is built into the Websites + Marketing structure, you can build your store quickly and start receiving payments immediately. Youll have easy access to appointment setting, inventory management and more, all while staying mobile-friendly.
But, what if youve registered a domain name thats perfect and invested the effort into launching an online store and no one ever finds you?
An ecommerce solution like GoDaddy Online Store can help. How? It includes a built-in SEO wizard, smooth integration with Google My Business, and that enable you to easily sell products on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Etsy and manage your orders and inventory all from one place.
Nice!
Related: How to start an online store in 3 steps
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Is A Free Builder Worth It
If you just want to create a basic site without an online store, then a free website builder is a solid way to get started. Keep in mind that free plans come with less storage, slower load times, and fewer SEO and marketing tools. If you know that you need Ecommerce facilities, lots of storage space , extra customer support, and/or a lot of webpages, free site builders are unlikely to work for you.
That said, free website builders are ideal for testing the waters and having a ready-made platform to share with contacts and social media followers. And if you decide youâre ready to implement more features, many companies offer easy and cost-efficient upgrades. With Wix, for example, you can choose from 4 premium upgrades that provide increasing amounts of bandwidth, storage, and access to analytics and marketing tools, thereby allowing you to scale up at a rateâand costâthat meets your websiteâs needs.
How To Build A Website For Free Using A Previously Purchased Domain Name
If youve already purchased a domain name in the past, or if youve acquired a domain name from someone else, then connecting that domain to your free website hosting account is straightforward.
Typically, all you need to do is login to the site where you registered your domain name. then, modify the NS records for your domain according to the instructions provided by your custom website builder
Once youve done that, it tells your domain to look at your web hosts servers for content information. Then, your domain will be filled with content from your free web host.
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What Is Domain Hosting
As the name suggests, domain hosting refers to services that host domain names for your website. They sell domains and register them to an owner for a specific subscription fee. It is very different from a web host, where you can purchase both a domain and a web hosting account from the same place.
When you buy a domain from a domain name registrar, the registrar will be your domain host. This means every domain-related requirement is taken care of by the registrar, such as managing IP addresses in the DNS records.
The Advantages Of Using A Website Builder
The average cost of a website built by a designer can range between $1,000 – $8,000, but every time you change your mind, your bill can get larger. You also have to wait until your designer is available to make the changes you requested. And in the end, there’s a risk that you’ll end up agreeing to a website that you’re not actually happy with, just because you don’t feel that you can afford to ask them to try something else.
Using a website builder is much less expensive. The best website builders offer plenty of choices and give you complete autonomy over your project. With Wix, for example, you can choose from more than 500 templates across 70 categories, and experiment with fonts, color schemes, slideshows, galleries, and video backgrounds. The much-celebrated Wix App Market is a huge boon to Wix users, who will find more than 300 apps at their fingertips that they can effortlessly integrate into their website.
With a website builder, you are in control of everything, from the placement of the call-to-action button to the font on your homepage.
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For Those Using An Email Provider
Since every email provider does things differently, I won’t be able togive you a detailed description of what to do. Instead, I’ll tell you the general steps, so that you have anoverview of the entire procedure. Armed with that information, you will have a better idea of what to lookfor on your email provider and registrar’s websites.
There are essentially two things that you need to do. Set things up at your domain registrar’s end sothat mail sent to your domain is directed to your email provider. You will also need to set things up at youremail provider’s end so that they will actually accept the email sent to your domain.
Some email providers allow you to do this bypointing yourdomain to their service. If they say something like letting them host your domain, or host your DNS,or asking you to set your domain to use their nameservers , this is what they want.Step-by-step instructions on how to do this, including an explanation of what this mysterious “nameserver”thing is, can be found in my article onHow toPoint a Domain Name to Your Website. Don’t worry that the article seems to be talking about awebsite and you are only concerned about email. The steps are the same, since you are essentially lettingyour email provider take over your website’s address, even if you don’t have one.
When you have done that, log into your account at yourdomain name registrar.
Free Privacy Protection Forever
GoDaddy domains include free privacy protection** to guard your personal info by replacing it with proxy info in the public WHOIS directory. We also prevent spam with private email for domain inquiries. Plus, our Full and Ultimate Domain Protection plans include protection against domain hijackers and prevention of honest mistakes like accidental expirations and transfers. They also guard against unauthorized access.
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Why Do I Need A Domain Name
Here are some of the reasons why you need a domain name for your business or project:
- Memorability. Your audience can technically visit your website without a domain name by entering its IP address. However, since it consists of a string of numbers, it is difficult to remember. Domain names help a website be more accessible to internet users.
- Effective branding. A well-thought-out domain name will help communicate your project or business in a way that aligns with your brands values and mission.
- Credibility. Websites that use custom domain names are more professional-looking than those with a free domain name like yourwebsite.websitebuilder.com.
- Custom emailaddresses. Having a domain name lets you create unique and professional email accounts, like . It also makes your presentation consistent throughout different online channels.
- SEO. A memorable domain name with relevant keywords will positively impact your websites search engine optimization, improving its rankings on search engines.
Why Register A Domain Name
Domain names have been around since the advent of the web. The first domain name in history was Symbolics.com, which was registered on March 15, 1985. Today, there are more than 300 million domain names, with millions more added each year.
Your domain name is an important part of establishing your brand. No two domain names can be exactly alike, although they can be similar. Ideally, your custom domain name will be unique and distinctive, so users don’t confuse it with other domain names or different businesses.
In addition, domain names allow users to easily connect to other computer IP addresses. For example, you can type in an address like “Google.com” instead of Google’s numerical IP address of “172.217.13.78.” In other words, domain names make our lives a lot easier.
You might be wondering isn’t a domain name, then, simply a website? Although they are similar, domain names and websites have important differences. Your domain name is the address for your website it is what people use to find your website, which consists of pages, images, and other files.
Choosing a domain name is often the first step when building a website. Read on to learn how to register and buy a domain name.
While a website domain can be an investment, you can also find one for free, especially if you purchase it with hosting.
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How Long Does My Domain Name Registration Last How Do I Renew My Domain
How long your domain registration lasts can vary depending on the domain you purchase. Many domain name registrars will allow customers to register domains for 10 years at a time, but typically customers will register domains for one to three years.If you want to extend your registration, its easy to renew your domain with GoDaddy. You can choose to manually renew or set up auto-renewal, so you ensure it stays registered to you.