What Do I Need to Know About Web Domains & Hosting for My Website?

Web domains and hosting are an essential piece of the website puzzle – you can’t build one without them. But what are they? What purpose do they serve? And what’s the difference between them?

Web Domains

A web domain is what is used as the link to your website. It gives your website a home to live on the world wide web. Like a username, there can only be one of every domain. For example, Glow Creative’s domain is glowcreative.co.nz.

To run a professional website, a custom web domain is mandatory. Some website builders give you a free domain with their name in it (like yourbusiness.wordpress.com). However, this not only makes your URL long and hard to remember, but it advertises a business that is not your own. As a business, you want to come off as professional and independent.

With your own domain, you can create endless pages (like glowcreative.co.nz/blog). To do this, you need web hosting as well. One thing to remember is that purchasing your domain is just that. It isn’t a website yet, nor is it a platform to build on.

Web domains are usually charged on an annual basis. You can choose whether you want to pay once every year, or pay for a select amount of years upfront. Make sure you renew when your web domain is due for payment to keep your website and emails connected.

Web Hosting

Web hosting is your platform. Let’s compare your website to your home:

• Your address is your web domain, the bit people find you by.
• Your land is your web hosting, the space you own that enables you to build.
• Your house is your website in its visible and usable form.

Web hosting can be the most confusing piece of the puzzle, because it’s not as tangible as your URL or website’s frontend. Hosting is your platform to build on. It’s the place where all those backend files are kept and coding hides away.

If you’re not familiar with how websites are built, have a quick think – let’s say you own a domain (check). Great start. But now what? Where on the web do you actually go to start putting a website together? The answer: a web hosting provider. They will provide a login and the technology to start building.

Hosting is probably the most techie part to get your head around. Good hosting providers are usually very helpful. Most will guide you through set up (or do it for you), once you’ve paid for your web hosting. Website hosting fees are an on-going subscription – as long as you want your website live on the internet, you need to be up to date with payments or your website will go down. Like web domains, hosting is usually an annual subscription.

If you’re using Shopify

You’re in luck! Hosting is built-in to your plan and you don’t even have to think about it.

If you’re using WordPress

You need to initially set it up, but overall you just set it and forget it (unless your site goes down).

Exciting news!

I am now offering WordPress hosting at Glow Creative (very excited to be offering a more complete package). This means you don’t have to use as many different providers when you build a website. I can set up, host, and build for you here at Glow Creative – details on hosting here.