If you are looking to have a website built, you might be wondering how much it costs to keep your website up and running. While you can devote parts of your budget to maintenance, SEO (search engine optimization), online advertising, content creation or running an online store, there are three essentials you need for a basic website:
#1 Domain Name
A domain name is the address that visitors use to visit your website. If you are a business, your address will usually end in ‘.com’. Registration can be renewed annually, but some domain registrars may offer plans that last two years or more.
Your domain registrar allows you (or most likely your web developer) to edit yours DNS settings to point your website address to the place where your website is hosted on a server.
It is a good idea to register your domain with a different company than you use for your web hosting to avoid having your domain “held hostage” in the case that you wish to change your website host but keep your same domain name.
#2 Website Hosting
Simply put, your website host keeps the files for your website stored on servers so that visitors can access your site. It is important to choose a web host with a good reputation. Too many website sharing one server will damage performance. Faster loading pages rank better, so your choice of web host does impact your SEO.
#3 Email Hosting
Technically, you do not need to have hosted email to have a website. However, if you are looking to build your brand or set up a company page on LinkedIn, you will need an email address that uses your domain name rather than a free email service, such as Gmail. Just like your website, your email needs to be hosted on a server. For security reasons, it is advisable to host your email with a different provider than your website host. To avoid landing in the spam folder, choose a reputable host, such as Google Apps for Work.
It is a good idea to consult with your web developer before signing up for website services. For example, your choice of domain name affects your SEO, which is your ability to be found using a search engine, such as Google.
If you are in Cypress, TX and are looking for help setting up your first website, feel free to give us a call or send an e-mail so that we can get in touch.