Hosting & Domains Recipe for Success

You need a reliable domain and hosting service to ensure your website is both deliciously appealing and smoothly running. Here’s your guide to registering domains and hosting websites.

Hosting: The Pantry for Your Website

Your website is a collection of files that must be stored on a publicly available server. Think of hosting as the pantry where you store all the ingredients (files) for your website. Hosting companies offer you space on their servers (shared hosting) for a fee. Depending on your business, the size of your site, and the traffic it receives, you may want to invest a little more than the basic hosting to store your files on a business server (often called business hosting). This ensures your site has the resources to load quickly for your customers, just like having a well-organized pantry makes cooking a breeze.

Choosing a Hosting Company: Picking the Perfect Pantry

Just as you’d choose a local grocery store with the freshest produce, look for hosting companies in the country where your main customers are and who also have local technical support.

Important Factors to Consider:

• Disk Space How much disk space will be allocated to you.
• SSL: (Secure Socket Layer) provides a level of protection for visitors to your site. The SSL certificate encrypts the data they enter so that no third party can intercept it. Google prioritizes sites with SSL certificates, which you can spot with an “https” in the URL and a green padlock icon. Some hosts offer free SSL certificates. Others charge for them.
• Firewall: Protects your website from malicious activity, just like a lid protects your pot from spilling. This is an annual cost that you pay to your hosting company.
• Backup Options: Just as you might keep extra ingredients on hand, hosts often offer a backup system for an extra fee. These usually will back up your site on a daily basis, which is helpful for e-commerce sites. Ensure you understand the details of what you’re paying for.
• External Storage Space: It’s wise to have an external backup option, like Amazon S3 or Dropbox, to keep at least a month’s worth of backups.

Register Your Web Address (Domain)

Your domain is the name of your website, much like the physical address of your business. You can register the domain by visiting any domain registry such as DreamHost, Name.com, or Namecheap, or through your hosting company.

Steps to Register Your Domain:

1. Choose a Domain Name: Make it memorable and as short as possible. You’ll be sharing your URL often, so keeping it simple helps avoid errors. For a little SEO boost, try to include your main keyword in your domain if it fits naturally with your business name. For instance, MainStreetPhysio.com.
2. Select a Registrar: You don’t have to register the domain at your hosting company.
3. Annual Cost: Registering the domain is an annual cost that you pay to the domain registrar you choose. Don’t forget to renew, or you risk losing your domain.
4. Domain Privacy: Most registrars offer domain privacy to protect your contact information from the public. For a small fee, this can help prevent spam or phishing emails.

Pro Tip: Always check the fine print and understand the terms of the domain and hosting services, much like reading a recipe carefully before starting.

By following these steps, you’ll have all the right ingredients to create a successful website hosting environment. Happy cooking and creating!

Download a pdf copy for reference.