But since we started creating websites we’ve seen technologies, deals and protocols come and go, along with cowboy deals and service contracts that you wish you’d never set eyes on! But hopefully in this article we can provide you with the knowledge to purchase your domain and hosting with confidence, knowing you’re getting a good and sustainable deal.
Domain Name
Buying your domain name (Your website address) is an exciting process and can really start the ball rolling. This is why most Clients come to us with their domain name already sorted. If you’re reading this and haven’t bought your perfect domain name yet we’d recommend doing it straight after reading this article; there’s nothing worse than finding out someone’s already bought the address you had your heart set on.
It’s a simple process, but if you have any questions feel free to get in touch and we can help you out. We’ve listed below a few of the top domain providers, we receive no benefit from them, it’s simply a list of domain providers we’ve used and have been happy with their service.
We would however point out a couple of things, the market is flooded, and every company is offering its own deals to try and sway you, here’s a couple of things to watch out for:
- First year deals: the initial quote you’ll be given is usually the price for the first year only, so although it might appear an amazing deal for the first 12 months but then they’ll increase the price. So make sure you check the price increase for the following years.
- Free SSL Certificate: I’ll be discussing the importance of an SSL Certificate in a follow-up post. But in a nutshell: yes, you need one. Some domain providers offer a free SSL Certificate with any domain purchase, but be careful, this is a red herring. If you check the small print it will most likely say the certificate is only valid for 12 months, after which you’ll have to buy a new one. When in fact if you were to purchase your certificate through us, or anyone else, it would be for the full lifetime of the website, so is a one off purchase. A 12 month ‘Free’ certificate is clickbait and a false economy.
- Free email: To be fair some of the pricier business plans come with a good email plan. But if you’re on a budget watch out for free email offers on cheap domains, the biggest small print letdown we’ve seen is when the email actually turns out to be a forwarding tool. So in effect you can receive emails to your choice of email address but these emails are forwarded to your free email provider, Gmail for example, meaning you have to reply from your Gmail account and not from your choice of email address, which can sometimes look unprofessional.
- Free Domain Name with Hosting: This deal seams ideal if you intend to arrange your own hosting, however, you need to be doubly careful with the small print! Sometimes these deals do not include popular domain names such as .com or cool new ones like .tech or .biz. You might also be tying yourself into additional costs if the price of the domain is increased after the first 12 months, same with the hosting package. And if you want to change your hosting company for price or performance issues you might not be able to take your domain name with you.
Having said all that there are good deals out there. If you have the time to research companies and do price comparisons (including all the small print) then you can save money while receiving a good service. But remember, we can help with all this, we continually research providers to help our Clients and provide our own trusted hosting service so your website is safe and secure.
Hosting
When it comes to hosting your website (this is basically where on the internet your website is saved) you may already have a hosting plan set up from a previous website or you might prefer to organize these recurring payments yourself. In any case we’re more than happy to work on your choice of hosting platform, we’ve experience with working with all the main players in this field and will be happy to help or advise where needed.
If you’re keen on researching and organising your own hosting services then there are good packages to be had. Our biggest piece of advice is to follow the things to avoid we listed in the domain section above, do your due diligence and remember, there’s nothing for free in this world, amazing deals can turn out to be false economies in the long run.
Here are some of the most important things you should be looking for when researching hosting providers:
- Control Panel: A control panel offers you a user-friendly interface so you can view all your settings, tools and manage your website easily. Without this you’re reliant on using FTP programs and code to manage your hosting.
- Web Host’s Uptime: Due to poor maintenance or unstable servers, long website down-times and unexpected outages can damage the trust your users have with your websites and can lose you business. Make sure your potential provider has an uptime guarantee and research to see if they meet this standard.
- Technical Specifications: Research your potential hosts technology and provisions. Are they offering as much bandwith, processing power and disk space as other providers. Are their servers on the latest and fastest operating systems, and do they provide innovative technologies to speed up your website?
- Security: Does your hosting provider go out of it’s way to make sure your site is safe? The internet can be a dark place and you need to ensure your website is safe and sound. Your potential provider should be equipped with advanced security measures to help protect your site from malware or DDoS attacks, and may include access management, malware detection, automated backups, and updates.
- 24/7 Customer Support: This is a no-brainer, you definitely will have lots of questions, so make sure your provider offers a live chat help facility that’s answered by real people and not bots. They usually also have access to settings and tools to fix any mistakes you might make or help you set up certain processes.
- Online Reviews: Ah we all know reading online reviews can be a real ball-breaker and leave you gasping from all the BS! But in this case it’s a necessary evil, but be smart, use a trusted review engine such as Trustpilot.com or similar; and double-check providers claims on the options listed above.
Conclusion
That pretty much covers everything you’ll need to know to set up your own hosting and domain. As mentioned it can be fiddly and time-consuming but it’s definitely worth it as a dodgy provider will leave you with a dodgy site and can negatively impact your brand. It can sometimes also be difficult and time consuming to move your website to a new provider if you do find yourself with a less than helpful provider.
However, we can help with this! We provide our own lightning-fast hosting services that provides a high level of security and stability to ensure your email and website never goes down. And, in the very unlikely event that it does go down, we monitor our servers 24/7 to ensure things are fixed and back up and running ASAP. If you’d like to know more feel free to drop us an email.
