Something that I have to explain to all of my website clients (often more than once) is the difference between domain registration and web hosting. The short 8 bars: Registering a domain name (like webdancers.com) gives you the right to use that name on the internet. The name is used as a shortcut to connect people to your email and website. Without the domain name, people would have to identify you using a long, ugly numeric address.

If the domain name is a shortcut, then domain registrar is like a directory of shortcuts. When a person types a domain name like ‘webdancers.com’ into their web browser, the registrar does a quick lookup and determines where to send this request for a web page. It then sends the browser to my web host, where the actual files that make up my website reside. The web host magically figures out on which of their many servers my files are located, et voilà, a web page is delivered.

Another very reasonable question about domain registration and web hosting is whether or not to buy them from the same company. Every major domain registrar also offers web hosting and the reverse is usually, though not always, true. And while it is somewhat more convenient to get a single bill for these services, I have always kept them separate. Why?

You can read an extensive explanation at 10 Reasons Why Your Domains and WordPress Should Be Kept Separate but let me hit a few of the highlights.

Control. It’s essential that you maintain control of your domain name. If a disagreement should arise between you and your hosting company, you don’t want them to be able to hold your domain name hostage. If you and your hosting company have to part ways, you want to be able to take your website backup (you do have a backup, don’t you?) to another host and redirect your domain name there.

More and better options. Domain registrars offer a much wider selection of top level domains than web hosts. So if you want to register a name ending in .ninja, you’ll want to go to a dedicated registrar. Likewise, web hosting companies offer a wider array of hosting services, including web and email, control panels and different server platforms.

Stability. It’s possible that your site or host could experience outages. If your domain is registered separately, you could temporarily redirect your domain to a backup site or maintenance mode page hosted elsewhere to minimize the downtime your visitors experience.

It really all comes down to not putting all your eggs in one basket. By keeping domain registration and web hosting separate, you’ll be able to choose the service providers that are best at each task, rather than finding one company that has all the features you need, at a price you can afford.

For the record, my preferred domain registrar is Namecheap.com (terrible name, good company) and my hosting is at Stablehost.com. Both have given me very good service over many years. With over 50 websites under management, my needs are somewhat different than the individual consumer but the principles remain the same.

Until next week...