A domain is like a street address, it tells the world where to find your website. It is also called a URL or address.
Domains are rented from a domain registrar, and ICANN, the “Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers”, looks after the domain name system and IP Addresses. The ownership of a domain is the ownership of the rental. Domains are rented as a method of trying to ensure domains are used and not bought once and never available again. Like preventing derelict houses in a street.
Different domain endings mean different things. For example:
Website Hosting is like saving your photos to the cloud. Hosting means renting your little part of the cloud to run your website.
The cloud is a data centre with lots and lots of computer servers. So instead of having our own computer server we rent some server space in a data centre. This is hosting.
There are different types of hosting, depending on what you need to do:
We have chosen our hosting provider for the following reasons:
An SSL certificate adds security for your customers.
A website without an SSL certificate was like a postcard sent in the mail in the olden days, there was a picture on one site of the card and the address on the other, and EVERYONE could read what was written.
An SSL certificate adds a sealed envelope around the card, protecting what is sent from prying eyes.
Google thinks SSL is so important, sites without SSL get ranked waaaay down low.
Don’t have a website and want your own, personalised hosted email you can access from anywhere? You will need a domain (eg myfamily.rocks) and you can stop using your gmail or live or hotmail address.