What Are Website Hosting Services And Which Is Right For You
Website hosting services are basically the plot of internet land that your website storefront sits on. If you have a website, it needs to be on the web, and these hosting services are the landlords that put up your site and keep it running so your customers can access and see it when they type in your URL.
There are different types of web hosting services that cater to the varying types of businesses. Some web hosting companies will build your entire website, while others will just give you the plot of land and the shovel and leave you to it. Depending on your business model and size, youll choose a hosting company based on the factors explained below.
Choose A Domain Name Registrar
Namecheap
Although cost is definitely a consideration, choosing a domain name registrar is a bit more complicated than looking for the cheapest option. Some low-cost domain name registrars may lack adequate privacy protections and, depending on your needs, you may want to consider using the same company to register your domain name and host your website. For instance, A2 Hosting and GoDaddy are also web hosting services, which means you have a one-stop shop for purchasing and registering your domain name and hosting your website.
On the flip side, you may be able to sign up for a web hosting service that also offers domain registration, such as DreamHost or HostGator. But it is important to read the fine print in these situations as the domain name registration may only be included for a year or two, after which point there may be additional fees involved. Not all web hosting companies give you the option of registering a domain name, however. In this case, youll need to purchase and register your domain name with one company and host your website with another company.
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, it’s 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.
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Use A Name Generator Tool
Using a name-generating tool can spark ideas in your mind. Even if youve come up with some ideas that need slight changes, a name-generator tool can be useful. Here are some tools you can use.
If you use the exact name suggested by the generator, checking whether its available or not is a must. That tool might have given the same suggestions to other people.
What Is The Difference Between Shared And Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is the equivalent of owning your own home. It is entirely yours, and no one else can use it without your expressed permission. For dedicated hosting, the server is dedicated to powering a single domain giving you the most power, bandwidth, and memory.
For an in-depth comparison, see our helpful guide on .
Dedicated hosting is not for everyone and generally provides more resources than the average business requires. Dedicated hosting is ideal for very large companies that regularly experience a high volume of internet traffic or sales, or require a large amount of disk space. Dedicated hosting grants you the greatest flexibility, customization, and security of the three types of hosting but is also the most expensive.
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Choose A Domain Name Suffix Such As Com Or Net
After settling on the domain name, consider the suffix. The most popular suffix is .com, although .net and .org are also popular. These are considered to be top-level domains, or the highest-level domain suffixes in the domain naming system.
There are also other varieties to consider, such as country code top-level domains. These domain names end in a suffix that is particular to a specific country. A website in Germany might end in .de, for example.
Finally, there is another class of domain name suffixes called “sponsored, top-level domains,” which are sponsored by a specific community related to the domain name. For example, .gov is for the U.S. government and .edu is for education organizations.
For most websites, .com is the best suffix for its ease of use, but if you have a specialized website, you might consider a country code or sponsored top-level domain.
Web Hosting Pricing & Value
Some choose web hosting providers based solely on price. While that’s not a great strategy, you should certainly take pricing into consideration. The best providers offer plans for every budget and in some cases, signing up for longer subscriptions will qualify for extra discounts.
Also, leave some room to grow. Choosing a web hosting plan that meets your website’s current needs is great. But, with any luck, your site will grow and expand over time, and your needs may change. Since switching to a new web hosting provider is a major hassle, consider one that offers scalable plans. Along the same lines, you may want to pay attention to how many email accounts are provided. Whether or not you believe you’ll need dozens of email addresses, it’s nice to have the option to create as many as possible down the line.
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I Don’t Have A Website Yet Why Do I Need A Domain Name Now
Registering your domain name now ensures that you own the domain name that may not otherwise be available when you want it.Once registered, the domain name is yours, provided the domain renewal fees are paid each year.You can park the domain, use it, sell it or lease it to other individuals or companies.Domain parking is included free with all our domain name registrations and transfers.
Ensure Its Easy To Pronounce
Pronunciation is essential in creating a memorable domain name. If its not easy to pronounce, how would people remember it? Ideally, your domain name should roll right off the tongue.
You can check whether your domain name is easy to pronounce or not by writing it on paper and asking people to pronounce it. You should choose a different option if more than 20% didnt pronounce it correctly.
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What Do I Do Once I Have Bought My Domain Name
After buying a domain name, you can connect your domain name to a website to publish it to the world. When people type in your connected domain name, theyll see the website youve built. Of course, youll also need a server to host your website on.
First, make sure you write down your login information for your domain registrar of choice. This login information is important when it comes time to connect your domain to your website or renew your domain registration. You can always contact your registrar for help logging in to manage your domain, but its easier to store your login information somewhere safe. You can use a secure password manager if you want to store this information on your phone or computer, or you can simply write it down on a piece of paper and keep it somewhere safe.
When you use a website builder like Mailchimp, you can easily connect your domain name in just a few minutes. Youll also need to choose a web hosting provider, which essentially acts as a server to store the files that make your website work. You can purchase both your hosting package and your domain name separately and connect them to your website using a website builder. However, you also have the option of purchasing a domain name directly through Mailchimp when you build your website.
Bring your brand to life with your own website. Design from scratch, connect a domain, analyze traffic, and optimize for SEO.
Finalizing The Domain Name
After you go through several possible suggestions, now it’s time you make up your mind and buy a domain name. Make sure the selected domain name is available and no other website has the same domain name. Among all options make sure you choose the unique, out of the box domain name that will stick with the visitors and have a solid impact on them, so they definitely visit your website once.
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How To Find Out If A Domain Name Is Available
With millions of active websites on the internet, a lot of domain names have already been claimed. Before we move on to discover how to purchase a domain, we need to know how to find out if a domain name is available.
Domain lookup tools are provided by the majority of registrars, and will allow you to check if a certain domain name is available to purchase or if it has already been registered. If you want to see if a domain is available for use, check out our domain lookup resource from Nexcess. Itâs completely free, convenient, and user-friendly domain lookup tool.
If a domain name is unavailable, some tools can also provide information on the current domain registrar, registration, registry expiration dates, and more.
Choose A Domain Registrar
A registrar is a company that reserves and manages domain names. While the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers manages all domains worldwide, a registrar deals with them on your behalf.
Wix.com is a registrar and also a web-hosting service, meaning you can not only purchase a unique domain but also create your site on the same platform. With the purchase of a premium plan,you get a free domain name for a year.
Alternative registrars include businesses like GoDaddy, Domain.com and NameCheap.
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How To Buy A Website Domain For Ever
As we explained, domain names are not for complete sale. Essentially, you are reserving domain name usage for a set period . But you can keep renewing your domain name as many times as you want to.
While you cannot buy it out for good from a registrar, you can hold on to your domain name for as long as you are paying your renewal fee.
What Is Domain Name Hosting
When you buy a domain name, you are purchasing the right to use that name exclusively for a certain predetermined length of time. On the back end, your domain name host will register that domain name using the Domain Name System , so that you can use it for websites, email, or other domain services.
Domain name hosts usually offer more than just domain name registration services. Many of them will offer hosting for websites as well as domain names. They will also provide data storage services and security features to protect your domain name from theft.
The most common way to use your domain name is for a website, but many hosts also allow you to use it for one or multiple email addresses, or to forward users to another domain.
Domain name hosts typically offer technical support, since you might need their help to set up security features for your site, connect a website builder, or do some other technical task.
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The Low Down On Uptimes
If youre looking into web hosting, youll hear the term uptime guarantee a lot. Uptime, which is the percentage of time that a hosting service is up and running, will be guaranteed by various companies with a certain percentage of time to be up. That doesn’t mean they will definitely go down for the other percentage of the time, but they can say without fail that they will be up for at least that amount of time.
This is important is because you dont want your site constantly being unavailable or unreachable to your customers. Otherwise, why have a website at all? Quality brands like HostGator and Bluehost offer a more than 99% uptime guarantee, and thats really good for your business.
Prepare To Purchase Your First Domain Name
Take a few minutes to do a final check.
- Does it fit your business?
- Will it be easy to find?
- Will it be easy to promote?
- Is it catchy or memorable?
- Did you stay away from using slang? Numbers? Hyphens or underlines?
- Does it pass the friends tests?
- Did you make sure that no one else is using it ?
- Is it going to stand the test of time?
- Do you love it?
If youve checked off all the boxes above, theres just one last thing to do
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Check For Domain Availability
When users enter a URL in their browser, the browser sends a request to a global network of servers that are able to locate your website using something called the domain name system .
The DNS is a universally recognized, decentralized system for naming websites. This is what allows computers, phones, and any other device that can access the internet to find the webpage a user is looking for.
Checking domain availability only takes a couple of seconds, and nearly every registrar and hosting service has a free domain name search tool that allows you to do this . Here are a few tools for quickly checking the availability of a domain:
Remember that domain names are universal, so if a domain name is unavailable from one provider, its unavailable from all of them. Whats great about these tools is that theyll often suggest similar domains that are available if yours isnt.
If your domain name is unavailable, you might get a message back about brokering the domain. This means that the domain name is taken, but the registrar offers a service wherein they will negotiate with the domain owner on your behalf to try and get them to sell their domain name.
Although snagging your first-choice domain name might sound enticing, its important to understand the risks associated with attempting to broker a domain name.
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Choose The Best Domain Name Option
When youre checking for available domain names, youll often find that your first, second, and tenth choices are already taken. Some of the different approaches you can take when this happens are:
- Keep searching. Let your creative juices flow, and continue to search until you find something you love or at least like.
- Choose another extension. If the .com isnt available and youre set on a certain name, consider the .net or .org if you think it will work.
- Reach out to the owner. Maybe the domain is already owned, but its not being put to much use. You could reach out to the owner with an offer.
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Have A Few Different Options In Mind
The last thing you want is to give up in frustration because your dream domain isnt available. You will be able to check if its available by searching for it within the domain search bar. To avoid this make sure you have a list of different domains to choose from.
After youve gone through the brainstorming phase youll probably have a ton of options to choose from. Narrow this down to your top five and head over to your domain registrar of choice to purchase the domain.
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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Whats The Best Way To Get A Free Domain Name
The best way to get domain names for free is through other services your business needs, such as web hosting. For example, Bluehost includes a free domain and five free email addresses with purchase of its $2.95 per month hosting plan. Select a hosting plan, follow the prompts to search for a domain, select an available domain, and buy web hosting. Learn more about the process with our step-by-step instructions for business domain name registration.
Look For Multiple Meanings
Some words have more than one meaning. Youd hate to register your domain and build out your site only to realize that your domain doesnt mean what you think it means.
You should also check to see if your domain name translates to a different or unfavorable meaning in other languages.
Hopefully, by now you can answer the question, how do I register a domain name? with total confidence.
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