All about domain, website and email hosting!
Do you run your business online? Or you have an offline business that you know you need to build an online presence for as more customers search on the internet for service providers? As well as a laptop or computer, if you want to run a business online you will eventually need a website and professional email address to ensure your brand looks legitimate and trustworthy when prospective customers find you. And in turn that means you’ll need a domain host, website host and email host. In this blog we’re demystifying this area of IT and setting out what each of these terms mean and why they’re important. Let’s get started.
What is a domain?
Securing a domain name is the first step in getting your own website. Every website has an IP address, and the domain name is a string of text associated with it which is much easier for people to search for. For example, no one would want to remember Nike’s IP address, but they can remember nike.com. It’s a bit like a postcode versus GPS or map coordinates. It’s much easier to remember a postcode and house number when you want to visit a friend!
A domain name gives you credibility and builds brand trust, as ideally, it’s closely aligned with your brand name. The minimum length of a domain is one character, and the maximum is 63 characters, and you can search online to find out if the domain you would like is still available to purchase.
What is website hosting?
Put as simply as possible, web hosting is housing, serving and maintaining the files which make up a website. Web hosting enables your website to be published on the world wide web so that other people can access it. You’re basically renting space on a server which belongs to or is in turn rented by the company which hosts your website. The quality of website hosting can impact how quickly your website loads and runs and how secure it is, so it’s important to research your website host to make sure what you’re buying is suitable for your business. For example, if you store lots of large files, say for your video production company, on your website for clients to access, you’ll probably need a different server package to someone with a basic four-page website.
What is email hosting?
Lots of us have a Hotmail or Gmail account – and they end @hotmail.co.uk or @hotmail.com and so on. They are owned and hosted by Microsoft and Google. A professional email address which ends with your domain name – so for example our email addresses here at Black Nova Designs end with @blacknovadesigns.co.uk – which is seen as more trustworthy and reliable. In order to have an email address linked with your domain name you need to give the email host access to your domain.
How does it all link together?
It isn’t technically necessary to have the same company in charge of domain hosting, website hosting and email hosting – and you can even have a fourth company involved who design your website! We sometimes get customers who have already snapped up their domain name and just want a website and web hosting, others just want to move their hosting to us! One clear benefit to having all these services with us is that you have one point of contact for everything. If one morning you get a call from a staff member to say the website is down, you know we’ll already be working on it. If your services are dotted around there’s a chance that you’ll spend valuable time just figuring out which company to call, let alone fixing the issue.
More questions can be answered on our YouTube Video
What we offer at Black Nova Designs:
Our website hosting is UK-based, fast and secure, and our server is monitored 24/7, 365 days a year. If you already have a website then you can move the hosting to us, and we’ll take care of all the techie bits.
If you choose to have your website designed by Black Nova, you receive a year’s free website hosting worth £100 included. After the first 12 months it costs £100.80 a year but it’s fast, secure UK-based hosting so we never see people move their hosting away after the year is up!
If you’re planning to commission a website but haven’t started yet, we will register your domain in your name, so you always own it, and it costs from £11.99 a year. Some other companies will register your domain but not necessarily in your name, so you aren’t in full control. Your website will become an important website asset, so we think it’s vital that it fully belongs to you.
There’s no obligation to have your website designed by us if you have a domain registered by our team.
Email Hosting
Our website hosting comes with a free email account but lots of our customers choose to upgrade to a higher spec Exchange package for £5.40 per month. Either way you will have a professional email address linked to your domain, but the Exchange package offers more functionality.
If you would like to explore any of the options above or get more clarity on domain, email and website hosting just get in touch. Our team is always happy to demystify technology for our customers and help them get IT working harder for them!