Are you overwhelmed by the many, or mainly 3 website essentials? One of the common questions we get from our clients is, “Do I need hosting when I already have a domain?” Our answer to that question is, yes – just like how you need an address when you have a house. The 3 main aspects of a website are, long story short, domain, hosting, and DNS. In this post, we will explain why building a website is just like building a home.
The Physical Home: Hosting
Your website files need to be stored somewhere, and that is where hosting comes into play. Website hosting is needed to store your website files. This means everything ranging from simple images on the site to your stylesheets and codes. There are many hosting plans with different price ranges out there in the market, but which to choose? You would want to find something that is secure, fast, and reliable.
The Address: Website Domain
The first aspect of a website is the domain. Simply put, domain is the address of your website. A piece of information where people can type down to locate your website. An example of a website domain is: www.example.com.
Now, some of our clients also ask: “Can I have more than one domain?” The answer is YES! You can certainly have more than one domain, but here’s the catch: you cannot have more than one primary domain. Meaning, you need to fix on one primary domain, where other domains can forward to.
Now, you may be wondering: if you can only have one primary domain, what is the point of having more than one anyway? There are multiple reasons and benefits to having more than one domain, and a few of these reasons are listed below:
- Possible typos – if your website domain can easily be misspelled, it is always good to have a backup domain to direct your potential visitors to the correct website. Otherwise, they will be led to confusion instead.
- Domain extension – Perhaps there are a few extensions you would like to use to prevent people from taking your domain name in different forms (.com, .co, etc.)
- Lengthy domains – If your primary domain needs to be a long one based on your business name, chances are people are going to have a hard time typing that out. It is always best to provide them with a shorter alternative.
As you can see many of the reasons are centered around your users. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have a user-friendly website, and domains play a role in making sure of that.
The Navigator: DNS
Now you have your domain name, and your physical website. You are ready to connect, but what is next? Well, the next thing you have to do is tell your domain how to get to the website and this can be done by setting up DNS records. You would need to point the DNS to the correct address in order for it to take the user to the correct place.
All in all, the hosting, domain, and DNS are three separate aspects of a website. Please do keep in mind that they may or may not be all in one place. If you have a website, please make sure you save the information to all these locations in a safe place.
Our Conclusion
To sum it all up, the hosting is the physical home of your website. Secondly, the domain is the address of your website. Last but not least, the DNS is the navigation that points the domain to your website. We hope this has been insightful on how all 3 website essentials work together as one. If all this is still confusing to you, please feel free to reach out to us, we will be happy to chat!