What is a domain name?
A domain name is a unique name of your website, the URL that you type in the browser to open a specific website. E.g., google.com or nordstrom.com, or montereystastyolivebar.com. A good practice for a great domain name is to be short, clear, and easy to remember.
Domain name registrars & payments
You can check if the desired domain name is available and buy it at the
specific providers called registrars: e.g. NameCheap,
Bluehost,
Network solutions,
GoDaddy. There are many different registrars, and they offer domains
at different pricing and different levels of customer support.
Here is a good article about possible drawbacks.
WHOIS and keeping data private
WHOIS is an online public database that allows you to look up certain contact information about an individual,
business, or organization that registers a domain. Since each and every new domain must be
registered with WHOIS, you must fill out the appropriate information needed before your domain is
officially registered. You might want to keep this information private and hide it. It's possible to do this with 'WHOIS domain privacy' -
an additional option provided by your domain registrar. Some domain registrars will charge for this option additional, others provide it for free.
The website content can be static or dynamic. Static content is commonly used for a single landing page and usually contains information about your business or personal brand.
There can be a portfolio, business info, working hours, location, contact us form, or other business-related information that wouldn't change frequently. In some cases, you still
can place a schedule, payment info, and some third-party tools.
- Freedom for developer to implement features
- Ability to fully adapt website to different browsers and devices
- Friendly pricing
- Requires professional help or specific knowldge to update the content
In case you would like to have a website with dynamic content, like recent news, blog posts, or any other information that can be easily changed you might want to consider
hosting with website builders or CMS(content management system). Website builders, like Wix or WordPress, provide tools for non-technical
users to create or maintain their websites.
Usually, it's more expensive than static hosting and the price will grow if you would like to add some features, like forms, or picture gallery, or third-party app.
Also though these website builders are very powerful they still have some limitations. There are might be some issues with the mobile view or hard-to-fix bugs with different browsers.
But you can easily add, remove or edit text, pictures and even page layout without any special technical knowledge. Once the developer sets up everything for you, you would be ready to fully
take control of the website and its content.
- Freedom for website owner to add/remove/update content without developer or special knowledge
- Variety of templates and user-friendly controls
- Potential issues with mobile view
- Price is usually high
