Planning to launch your online presence? We know it’s all very exciting. But if you don’t know exactly what you need to do, then it can turn into a daunting process. What is Domain Name and Hosting? How to build a website? What exactly is the next step after building the website? Is the information on the Internet reliable? And how do you know if you do the right things first, or the right first things right?
Let us assist you with a detailed guide to get your website started. The very first step that you will have to take is to decide your domain name and hosting service is best for your website.
Ready? Let’s get started!
Pick a domain name
Picking your domain name is a simple process – If you know how to choose the right one! You can either keep your company name as your domain name or something that represents your business. Most commonly, businesses prefer to choose their brand name as their domain name.
Easy to Remember
Make sure your domain name is simple to remember and pronounce. Otherwise, it can remain unnoticed and they won’t even remember.
Remember: Not more than three words in your domain name. The smaller the domain name is the better to recall. Do not use words or sentences with more than one spelling or meaning. There are high chances that they’ll get misspelled.
Also, avoid using hyphens or special characters in your domain name to avoid any confusion
Explore It On Your Own
Do a study to find out which domains exist. As you may already be conscious, there are millions of live websites. So, it is clear that the domain name you wish to purchase may not be available unless you purchase it at a huge price from the current domain owner. But this shouldn’t be a subject to worry about! You still have a lot of options. See if your domain is available using a domain name finder.
Pro tip: Make sure you remember your target market when selecting your domain name. What are their search habits, which keywords/phrases are they using? To top up your rankings, seek to include one or more keywords in your domain name.
Domain Extension
A lot of people believe that all they need is the “.com” domain. However, if you find it very hard to grab a.com domain with your brand name, you can always try buying other extensions such as .shop, .biz, .us, .info, etc. But before that make sure that the domain extension represents the type of online business you have. Think about .org sites as an example- it’s mainly for non-profit organizations or .shop is mostly for online shopping sites or .blog is for blogging sites. Identify which domain extension fits best to your business and then pick one.
Domain Privacy
You are required to include your name, address and phone number when registering your domain name. This information is made freely accessible on the internet to everyone. This information may be misused by the spammer/hacker for domain hijacking, phishing attacks, spam calls/emails and SMS, identity theft, domain-related spam, etc. Therefore, it is vital that you opt-in for privacy protection for your domain that lets you hide your actual contact details. Most web hosting companies provide WHOIS protection that will safeguard your contact details and only information about the domain registrar is available.
Domain Trademark Issues
Do not use domain names that have registered trademarks. If you choose a domain name that already contains a word or a phrase that has a trademark then you may land into trouble.
For example, if your web address contains the word “Microsoft” in its domain name, the brand called Microsoft would be infringed. Not only that but even if your domain name has a spelling close to that of trademarked content, it can put you in chaos. As a result, your domain name will face trademark infringement and it can cause massive damage.
It is best to avoid selecting any such domain names that cause problems with the trademarks.
Where to Register your Domain?
When your domain is finalized the next move is to buy it from a domain registrar. It is recommended that you buy a domain and hosting from the same company as this will make it easier to handle everything in one place. Some providers will also allow you to move existing domains that you have already registered on their account.
Tips to choose a web hosting company
Web hosting services come in different forms. Depending upon your requirement you can pick one.
Web hosting is mainly divided into the following categories:
Shared Hosting
As the name implies, several websites are hosted on a single server in shared hosting. And on that server, they share the same resources. This is a form of web hosting that is very widely used and is also cost-effective. It is ideally suited for Websites of small to medium scale.
Dedicated Server
A dedicated server offers full server access. Furthermore, the resources of the server services are only utilized for your websites. This means no other website will use the same resources as yours. Dedicated hosting offers total protection and versatility and is suitable for high-traffic websites.
VPS Hosting
In a VPS, a physical server is partitioned in multiple virtual servers. You are allocated one of the server’s partitions which can be used to host your website. So, you get your website dedicated resources and the environment.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is a type of hosting in which a website is digitally hosted on a cloud server. To meet your project’s needs it automatically scales every web application in real-time.
This type of web hosting service lets you sell the web hosting plans that are offered by a web hosting company.
Once you decide which form of web hosting suits you, do some research on some of the best web hosting providers in the market. Web hosting providers play a major role in the website rankings. So, instead of choosing your web hosting providers based on the pricing choose the one that is reliable if your website traffic is important to you.
Price Factor
If you are a new user, most web hosting companies will offer massive discounts, but renewal rates would be comparatively higher. Make sure you ask them for any expense relating to your website, which features only require one-time payment and which features you will need to pay in the future. This way, your hosting service will never bother you, nor will any unexpected bill payments occur.
Decide How Your Website Should be Built
If you don’t have the programming skills to create a website and also don’t want to over-spend by hiring a developer, you can always choose a web hosting company with their web hosting plans to include a reliable website builder. These website builders are simple to use because you just need to drag and drop the content and photos to create your website.
Server Reliability and Customer Ratings
When you shortlist the web hosting provider, don’t forget to check what their current customers think about their service. Are they happy with the efficiency of their servers, customer service, pricing, etc? Does the website work well? Do they have website security issues or backup issues?
Although, on the other hand, considering the price is significant, it is also vital that you check if the hosting company is reliable and whether their customer service is easy to access. When your website runs into a problem, you should be able to contact their team without any trouble. Because in the end, it would be your loss, you can lose your customers and future leads if your website crashes or the data gets stolen.
Bottom Line
We hope the process for a domain name and hosting service is no longer a matter of concern for you. Just make sure you take all of the above details into consideration while you build your website. By now, Domain Name and Hosting process should be clear and you can easily opt for the best.