When building or commissioning a website it won't be long before you come across terms like "domain name" and "web hosting". For someone building website for their small business these terms can be confusing at first, but never fear, learning about domain names and web hosting needn't be confusing!
In this article we'll give you an overview of these terms so that you can move forward with confidence. By the end of the article you'll be all clued up and wondering what all the fuss was about.
A domain name can be thought of as the website's address whereas web hosting is where the website is physically stored. If we use the analogy of a delivery driver and a parcel, the domain name is the address written on your parcel and web hosting is the actual house that the driver takes your parcel to.
When you use the internet, entering the domain name tells your browser software where to look and the browser then retrieves the information (the website) from a server that is owned by a web hosting company. The web hosting company "host" your website which is to say that they provide some space on their server for you to store your website. To amend our previous analogy, the domain name is the address and the server is the actual house the driver goes to.
If you are planning to build a website for your business then it's likely that you will need to pay a subscription fee for both your domain name and web hosting. Most web designers can provide you with a package deal that includes both the domain name and the hosting with the added bonus being that you don't have to deal with either.
Alternatively, you can purchase domain names and web hosting from companies on the web such as Namecheap or GoDaddy. It is worth consulting your web designer first to make sure you get the service that is most suitable for your application.
A domain name is the text you enter into a browser to access a website such as "google.com" which takes users to Google or "jimimac.co.uk" which takes users to our homepage. Behind the scenes the domain name is mapped to an IP address that points to the server where the website is actually stored.
The domain name is usually made up of two parts; the domain which is the text before the dot and the Top-Level Domain (TLD) which is the text after the dot.
Lets start with the second part; the Top-Level Domain or TLD. Some TLD's are available for individuals and corporations to use and some are reserved for particular organisations. The most common TLD is ".com" which is an abbreviation of ".commercial" and is used by brands wanting to attract global visitors. In the UK ".co.uk" is commonly used by small businesses where as the government uses the TLD ".gov" for all of its official government websites and pages.
The text before the dot is called the "Domain" and often includes the name of the organisation such as "Google" in Google.com. The domain combined with the top-level domain or TLD is referred to as the "domain name" or can be thought of as the "website address".
In some cases the domain name may also include a subdomain at the start of the string of text eg "admin.google.com". Subdomains are useful when you want to keep sections of your website separate even though they all belong top the same brand.
As the blog section of this website grows we might decide to split it up from the main part of the website to better organise information and resources. If JimiMac.co.uk was to do this we might use the subdomain "blog.jimimac.co.uk".
The whole string of text used to find a website is called the Uniform Resource Locator or URL and is made of different parts including the domain name (combination of the domain and TLD), any subdomains (such as "blog." or "admin.") along with the bit at the very beginning which is called the "protocol".
In the past most websites used the protocol "http://" which stands for "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol". Today most websites have upgraded to the "https://" protocol which stands for "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure" and as the name implies is a secure, encrypted connection that increases the security of the connection.
The HTTPS protocol is particularly important for websites dealing with user information and card payments. Google will now warn users when they try to access a site that doesn't use an encrypted HTTPS connection.
Domain names can be bought and sold easily on websites such as namecheap.com. Websites that sell domain names usually have a search bar where you can enter your desired domain name and check to see if it's available to purchase. The search will usually show you some variations and alternative TLDs with prices being higher for more popular TLDs like ".com" and lower for TLDs such as those
Web hosting is a service that allows individuals and organisations to make their websites accessible on the internet. It involves storing website files and data on servers (these are basically buildings full of hard drives or computers) that are connected to the internet, enabling users to access the website anytime, anywhere.
There are a range of companies providing web hosting services out there on the internet but not all web hosting is the same and different business owners require different types of web hosting.
Multiple websites are hosted on a single server, allowing them to share resources. It offers a budget-friendly solution but may have limitations in terms of performance and customisation.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting provides dedicated resources within a shared environment, offering improved performance and control compared to shared hosting.
With dedicated hosting, a website gets its own server exclusively, allowing for maximum performance, customisation options, and control. This type of hosting is ideal for high-traffic websites or those with specific requirements.
Websites hosted on a network of interconnected servers benefit from cloud hosting, ensuring scalability, flexibility, and high availability.
Web hosting companies include a range of extras with their hosting packages so it's worth considering what extras might make your life easier.
Opt for a reliable web hosting service that ensures speedy website loading, minimal downtime, and seamless performance to impress your users and keep them satisfied.
Safeguard your website against cyber threats and data breaches by choosing a web hosting provider that offers effective security solutions like SSL certificates and firewalls. These days most providers include all the necessary security solutions as standard but it is worth checking if you plan on storing user data or taking payments.
Take advantage of the customisation and control options provided by web hosting services to design and enhance your website according to your specific business requirements and branding preferences. If your web designer is building your website using WordPress or an e-commerce platform then your hosting company might have packages specifically designed for those platforms.
With many web hosting packages, you can also enjoy the convenience of having professional email addresses associated with your domain name, giving your business a more polished and credible image. While we usually recommend using Google's "Workspace" platform to create your branded email addresses, in some cases it might be more suitable to use the service provided by your hosting company.
We hope this article has been informative and has helped to demystify the concepts of domain names and web hosting for you. Understanding the difference between the two is not as complicated as it may seem, and with a little knowledge, you can navigate the online landscape with confidence.
Remember, if you ever feel unsure, your web designer is always there to assist you and provide advice.
Building a new website for your brand can be a stressful job. With so much to consider it’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the things you need to plan before anything can be designed or built. What pages do you need? What should the text say? Will the designer understand your vision?
The key to success for any project is organisation and great planning so we’ve put together a list of things you should have ready before approaching a web designer to design your website. Do not even think about planning your pages or thinking about the final design until you have this whole list sorted.
In reality it’s quite easy to put this stuff together once you know what you need. Whether you're building your website yourself or commissioning one from a web designer the process is the same, so let’s get started!
Your brand is the centre of everything you do whether you are a startup, a local business, an individual or a multinational corporation. Creating a strong brand identity will provide answers and support for everything else you do, including building or commissioning a website.
If you’ve already worked on your brand you might have a lot of what we’re about to talk about figured out but if not then defining and developing your brand identity is a vital step.
A brand is more than just the name or a logo, a brand stands for everything that you’re about as an organisation or individual. What your brand really does is communicate your approach to the solutions you provide. What does that mean? Take a look at a famous brand such as the fashion house Burberry. When you think of Burberry what might come to mind is their distinctive tartan pattern or their iconic trench coat design.
What these are really though are expressions of the company's approach to solving the original problem that the founder Thomas Burberry was trying to solve, how to clothe people involved in outdoors activities who at the time had to wear heavy and uncomfortable outwear.
Burberry’s approach was to provide stylish, modern and well engineered solutions where quality and design trump cost-effectiveness and mass production. Burberry isn’t made for everyone but those who it is made for will pay the premium for high quality and iconic design. This comes across in everything that the company does.
When commissioning a website it’s important that you can communicate your own brand clearly. Aspects of your brand will inform the design and make sure that the final product hangs together well. In order to develop your brand and communicate it effectively you will need to consider the following.
Once you have clear answers to these questions you can build a brand around them. Brand name, logo, colour schemes, image choice and even how you write copy for your website will all stem from your answers to these questions.
Once your branding is sorted you’ll need to gather assets for the website.
These assets should be collated and made available to your web designer in one well-organised folder (probably as a zip file) and shared using a cloud link service such as Google Drive, Dropbox or WeTransfer.
Below we give a run down of each type of asset along with a brief description and some important things to remember.
The brand name of the organisation or individual that the website will promote. As mentioned previously, your brand identity is the cornerstone of everything else that your business or organisation will do going forward.
This doesn’t have to be the brand’s final form, many brands develop over time. But it should be something you can build on for now and develop going forward.
The preferred primary domain name is the URL or address that your website can be found at, eg https://google.com.
This may just be YourBrandName.com or could include keywords from your industry (although this is much less important these days as SEO practices have changed in recent years).
It's down to you which domain name you choose but it also depends on what’s available (someone else may have taken your first choice). You can try out different domain names at a website like https://namecheap.com to see what’s available.
If you don’t have a brand logo yet you can either commission a designer to create a logo for your brand or use your brand name in a stylised font. Commissioning a logo can be expensive but if it’s done right it will give you a unique icon that you can build the rest of your brand upon.
Your brand name in a stylised font is the quicker and cheaper way to go and can serve as a stop-gap if you plan on adding a logo to your brand later on.
If you have a logo that has variations on colour or layout then provide all these variations along with guidance on when to use particular layouts or colours to really impress your web designer and make a friend for life. Logos and other graphics assets such as illustrations should be provided in high-resolution and standard formats such as PNG or JPG.
It’s advisable to provide any cornerstone fonts to your web designer in the either TFF or WOFF formats. If your font is not currently in this format you can use a converter like the one linked here.
We usually suggest that a brand should utilise a maximum of 3 or 4 fonts across marketing materials to maintain cohesiveness and a strong sense of brand identity.
It’s also important to check the licensing status of the fonts you use. Many fonts including all the google fonts available here are free to use for commercial products but some found on the internet or provided as part of a software package may be free for personal use only.
If the font you plan to use isn’t open source and you don’t have a licensing agreement with the author then you could be liable for expensive licensing fees so check first! If you need help with this your web designer should be able to check for you.
Creating a clear colour scheme including 1-2 main colours plus 3-4 secondary colours will help your web designer to align your website with your brand and keep all of your marketing materials feeling like part of a cohesive strategy.
Colours can be taken from images and videos you like and fed into colour palette generators like the one here.
At this stage you don’t need to have all of the text for your website finalised but it is a good idea to have important chunks of copy somewhat developed at least.
It’s very likely that your website will include copy describing your brand and what you do so it’s a great idea to have some drafts written in the style and vibe you want to present your brand, be it formal, casual, warm, humorous etc.
Establishing the tone of voice as well as some basic copy will help both you and your web designer develop the website inline with the brand. It will also significantly help you or any copywriters you commission to create more text for your other pages.
Images can make or break the look and feel of a website. Quality, high-resolution images will not only pull the website’s design together but also add context to the text while providing the added bonus of an SEO boost.
You can source images by either hiring a professional photographer or by using royalty-free stock photography services such as Unsplash. While stock images are a quick and cost effective solution, unique images from a photographer that showcase your brand will always provide the most benefit and give website visitors insight into what makes your brand special.
When providing images to your web designer it’s important to provide hi-res versions, clearly labelled and in JPG format so that they can navigate through them easily and make your website pop!
Including other media such as video and audio can make your website more interesting to visitors and also give you an SEO bump. Video and audio clips can add lots of context to a subject that might be difficult to understand (or a bit boring) on a page featuring just text and images.
For video and audio, upload your files to a service like Youtube or Soundcloud that provide a link to embed their player into your web pages. This is much better than uploading the original file to your own website and will help to keep your website loading quickly.
It’s easy to get carried away and take on a huge project that’s complicated to plan and eventually finish, but it’s important to remember that you don’t need to do it all at once. It’s often much better to start small and add well planned extensions to the website later on.
Your budget will determine the scope of your project so it’s important to be realistic about what you can achieve within your budget. If you have to limit the scope of the initial project, make sure that your web designer understands how you want to develop your website in future so that they can design with that in mind.
Once you have all of that together it’s time to create a clear brief for your website. The brief will be really useful to both you and your web designer as it will lay out the important information about your brand, the scope of the project as well as expected delivery dates and deadlines.
Here's a full list of what a good brief for a website should outline…
Providing a brief containing this information to your web designer will allow them to give you an accurate quote and expected delivery timescale.
This might seem like a lot of work to do before you even order your website but it’s well worth it. While it’s fine if you don’t have 100% of the bits listed above together before seeking a quote for your website, you will need to have it all before the project is anywhere near finished so you might as well get as much of it ready beforehand as possible.
An added bonus is that by the time you have all of this in order you’ll likely have a very clear idea of what the website should look like in your mind and therefore be able to communicate your ideas easily.
The money you spend on a web designer is best used on them designing your website. The more time your web designer has to spend chasing you for hi-res images, copy or your social media links, the less time they can spend actually designing and building your website. So like life easy for yourself and your web designer!
In the end both you and your web designer want the same thing, a beautiful website that functions exactly how you want and provides lots of value to your visitors. The more organised and clear about the project you are, the better the final website will turn out.
For any business, organisation, brand or even individual it's more important than ever to have a great website. A well made, professional website can be the hub for your online presence as well as a place to receive enquiries, develop your reputation, and showcase or even sell your products or services.
But what type of website do you need? Well, that depends on the specifics of your brand, your target audience, and what you’re looking to achieve with your website.
With these questions in mind we’ve put together descriptions of the most common types of websites so that you can figure out which might best suit your needs. In some cases the answer may be simpler than you imagined, in others your brand might require a more thought out and complex solution.
If you’re thinking about creating a website for your business, this article will help you to map out your requirements and make you aware of the range of options available to you when planning your website.
Fundamentally websites display a collection of information or content. The three main categories of website content are static, dynamic and ecommerce with most websites combining a mixture of the three to achieve a well-rounded user experience.
Static content is information displayed on a website that does not change regardless of who is viewing the website or how it is viewed. Static content is added directly into each page on the site meaning that websites containing only static content are quick and easy to put together. Static content can be coded using html or even built using a drag & drop builder without any coding knowledge.
The issue with static content is that it becomes difficult to maintain and update if the website has more than a few pages as even small changes such as rewording text or changing an image need to be made either directly to the design in the drag & drop builder or by changing the html code.
Dynamic content uses templates and databases to display content which changes depending on factors such as the which page the user visits, the time of day, what country the site is accessed from etc. Because websites displaying dynamic content are built using templates and databases and require an experienced coder and good planning to build.
Websites that require regular updating are better off being built using dynamic content, often on a CMS (content management system) such as WordPress. The database and user interface allow easy updates to content without affecting the design.
If you want to sell products on your website you’re going to need a website with ecommerce capabilities. Taking payments requires safe payment gateways that people will trust with their credit card details and personal information.
Website plugins such as Woo-Commerce can be integrated into your website while platforms like Shopify provide a standalone alternative but require a subscription. Drag and drop website builders also provide eCommerce facilities too.
While websites can vary drastically in terms of design and layout, all websites include the following essential pages or sections that make up the core of the site and provide basic information about the brand to users.
These can be separate pages or combined as sections on one or more pages. For instance, the about section, product information and contact form often appear on the home page while the policy text usually appears on its own page. Each of these pages or sections require content which could include text, headings, images, videos, audio and forms.
It’s a good idea to think about this information before planning anything else on your website as this is the minimum that any user who finds your site will expect to see. No one would trust a website selling a service that doesn’t give any basic information about the company or contact details on how to reach them!
We’ve established that all websites use a combination of static, dynamic and ecommerce content, but these three types of content can be combined in lots of different ways to suit the specific needs of any brand in any industry.
Below we’ve listed a number of different types of websites that combine these elements along with a brief explanation of the benefits of each.
A profile website is a simple website that provides basic information about an individual or organisation and spans just a few pages. It includes the five basic pages or sections we mentioned above, often across only one or two pages that rarely require updating.
Profile websites can be a great short term solution for individuals or local businesses who want to provide a point of contact for the public but don’t have the time or budget to commission a more complex website. They can also serve as a starting point for future expansion of the website.
This is a good example of a simple profile website... EllenOreillyMusic.com/
If you want to showcase your previous projects then a portfolio website combines all the basic elements of a profile website with a portfolio of past projects. The portfolio is usually built as a dynamic element and consists of an archive to display the list of projects, plus a separate page or section for each project.
The web designer will build a template that allows each project to be uploaded and edited using a simplified interface rather than redesigning and building each project page, which is important so that the owner of the website who is likely not a web designer can add and manage content easily..
Portfolio websites are often chosen by artists, designers and other freelancers.
Businesses that provide a service in a local area need a website that includes all the basic pages we mentioned above plus pages that detail the services the business provides.
These service pages need to compete well in terms of local SEO so that potential customers can find the business. This usually requires a separate page for each service that is optimised to rank for a keyword that includes the area such as “window fitters near Walthamstow”.
The type of businesses that may require a local services type of website include cleaners, music schools, driving instructors, beauty salons etc like this example... RachaelKatieCosmetics.co.uk
Larger businesses need a website that communicates the brand's core values and serves as a shop window to both potential clients, partners and investors.
The website can include all the basic pages mentioned above as well as extras such as a page that shows the team, portfolio pages to highlight case studies, and even need a user area where clients or employees can login for personalised content.
Corporate brands aren’t usually competing in a local area but instead need their SEO to be effective nationally or even globally. This usually means that they produce lots of content in the form of a blog, videos or podcasts that can attract traffic meaning that the website needs to be easy for people who don't code to upload content that will be displayed to users dynamically using templates.
If your business is providing lessons, tutorials, articles or videos then a website that allows you to monetise your content is likely what you’re looking for.
Monetisation of content can be done through membership and a paywall allowing some content to be viewable for free and the rest hidden behind a paywall that only members can access. Alternatively, users could be directed to the online shop where they download digital products such as pdfs, audio or videos.
Media websites allow the owner to publish and categorise content easily while displaying archives and posts to users on the frontend, making use of dynamic templates to ensure that users can navigate to all of the content on the website seamlessly.
This is a great example of a media & content website justinguitar.com/
Many businesses require an online shop to sell either physical or digital products. eCommerce websites allow shop owners to upload and categorise products, manage stock, take payments, create coupons and view analytics while making it easy for users to navigate to products and categories.
When users go to pay for the product they expect to find a secure payment portal that allows them to use common methods of payment such as Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
Some businesses such as gyms, yoga instructors or salons provide services that require customers to book and manage appointments and pay for the service through their website. Business owners can see schedules, manage bookings and view analytics in an admin dashboard.
Most industries have booking systems with secure payment portals created specifically for businesses within that sector that can be integrated into your website or run on a separate server.
Defining the purpose for your website should be your first priority when planning a website. Why are you building a website, who’s going to see it and what will they expect to find when they visit it? These are important questions that should lead you to a clear idea of what your website should include.
Achieving this clear idea is the first step in creating a well-rounded online presence for your brand. You don’t necessarily need to do it all at once either! As your business grows you may require additional functionality and luckily most features you could ever want from a website are easy to add on to an existing website.
Perhaps your business is a dog grooming shop and eventually you’d like to make content and sell courses and products on your website, maybe even including a membership option for regular customers but you don’t have the budget or time to implement this all at once? At first the most important thing is that potential customers can find out the basic information about your business, see a few pictures and read some reviews. It’s fine to start with a simple profile website and add the extra functionality later on as you get the budget or time.
Hopefully this article has given you an overview of the basics and can help you to think about what functionality you need from your website now and in the future. The next step is to create a project brief and asset bundle for your web designer, luckily we have an action plan on just how to do that right here.