What are the technical requirements for a website?
Ok, we’ve gone over what you need, in general, for a website in the previous post. Now we’ll look at the technical elements you need to get a website up.
The technical components are:
A domain name
A domain registrar
A web/DNS host
Email hosting
A website platform/CMS
Domain names
Everything on the web lives at an IP address specific to that item. To make things simple though, we use a domain name to access websites, rather than IP addresses.
Domain names consist of a word or phrase such as in my case, atelierreed, followed by a domain extension (also know as a TLD or Top Level Domain). For me, I have the .ca and the .com domains. The name itself can be anything that makes sense to you - your name, your business name, your catch phrase. It just needs to be as short as possible, relevant and ideally, memorable.
What domain extension you use depends on what’s available, and whether there’s a specific purpose to your website. For instance, .com domains can be hard to get for simple terms as many names are either taken, or being squatted by holding companies (yeah, there’s a crappy business case out there for holding domains hostage for potentially extravagant sums).
Common extensions besides .com are country based ones such as
.ca for Canada
.co.uk for the UK
.de for Germany etc.
which are only available to citizens of those countries. Some country ones are also used more generically such as .tv from Tuvalu.
There are also organizational based ones like
.org for organizations
.edu for educational institutions
.shop which is used for e-commerce
some of which are restricted.
In the last decade, many more have been opened up and you can get very creative with your domain extension now. Options include
.band
.cafe
.joy
.quest
and so many more.
Best practice had been making sure you got the .com, but nowadays, people are more aware that there are other options. So if you can’t get the .com, it’s not a big deal. And something uncommon can be memorable. But do think about securing additional ones like your country specific TLD, any that pertain to your industry, and others like .net, or .co that you might want to keep from competitors.
You can direct multiple web domains to the same website, which is a good practise when people might be expected to type in a .com but you want to use a country specific one like a .ca or .au. Just keep in mind many of the specialty TLDs will have premium prices. Domain names are purchased and renewed annually (though you can renew for several years at once to make it simpler), so costs can add up.
Domain registrars
So how do you get a domain name? You have to purchase it from a domain name registrar. There are quite a few out there, but watch out for what they charge. Some like to do a bait and switch and charge you a very low fee for the initial year but will have very costly renewals (GoDaddy is a good example here - Do Not Recommend).
I don’t recommend buying your domain name from your hosting company or website platform, such as Squarespace or any other website builder. The reason to keep your domain registrations completely separate is it’s a lot easier to move your website to a new platform/host if you don’t have your domain tied up with your old one. Same goes if you need to transfer your domain to a new registrar, having it tied to your host or platform makes that complicated.
Registrars I recommend are:
namespro.ca
porkbun.com
cosmotown.com
dynadot.com
There are others out there as well, just keep in mind that some don’t offer all types of TLD and you may need a country specific registrar, if you’re going for a country specific TLD.
Do a search on the registrar for the domain name you want. If the one you want is taken, think about a different way to say it, a locality if that’s relevant, adding in an additional word to differentiate it, or something memorable that will work instead.
You can use a hyphen but people may have trouble remembering names with them, so it’s not typically a best practise. You’re better off to settle for a different TLD than hyphenate a name.
When you register the name(s) you want, make sure to register it for several years if you know you’re going to keep it. That way you don’t lose it if you forget to renew after the first year. You really don’t want to let it lapse, there’s a whole industry of scumbags who snap up expired domains and try and extort people to let you have them back. Also make sure to set up privacy settings so you don’t get so many spammers contacting you.
DNS/Hosting
Once you’ve got your domain name, you need to have somewhere to keep it. Some domain registrars also have web and DNS hosting. You need to be able to manage your DNS settings, which can be done with your registrar but is often done with a separate hosting company, especially if you want email hosting with webmail service.
DNS stands for Domain Name Servers and you need to be able to control those settings so you can add DNS records. The DNS records are used to direct traffic such as pointing the domain name to your Squarespace site, setting up verifications for services such as your newsletter platform or Google Search Console.
If you’re going to be having a Wordpress website or use another platform that requires separate hosting (Squarespace does not, it’s a hosting company and website platform), you’ll also need a separate hosting company (registrars are not necessarily hosts).
Again, hosting companies vary in quality and price. I would avoid any that not only offer a low fee but high priced renewal, but also avoid companies owned by vulture capitalists. Newfold Digital, formerly EIG buys up hosting companies and of course service then craps out. You can Google their holdings but Bluehost, HostGator, Site5 etc. are some of them. I wouldn’t recommend any of them.
Go instead with some solid hosting that might be more expensive but check out the reviews for service and see what you can find. If you’re outside of the US, you should look for companies in your country (or the EU if you’re there), as data sovereignty is important.
For Canadians these are some of my recommendations, based on billing in CAD, no massive jump in costs on renewal and servers in Canada. As well as not finding too many complaints about them.This is the short list I’ve compiled for my own use:
Email hosting
One of the reasons to have a separate host is also for email hosting. Once you buy a domain name, your registrar, unless they’re a hosting company also, generally does not provide email hosting. So you need somewhere to host your email and as a business, you’ll need several email addresses.
If you’re an Apple user, you can use your iCloud for email hosting, but you can also get email hosting from your DNS/web host as previously mentioned. Some companies will provide separate email hosting for a small fee.
There are free options but it’s best to pay for email hosting to get enough space and be able to have multiple addresses. Proton mail has a paid option, some hosting companies like namespro.ca in Canada or ecohosting.co.uk in the United Kingdom have email hosting at reasonable rates.
You’re going to need multiple email addresses such as yourname@yourdomain.whatever plus something for support like hello@ or info@. If you have any additional staff, they need their own emails, plus if you have things like a shipping department or accounting, they need general ones too. So it’s best to have a reasonable priced email host.
Just a gmail account isn’t good enough, not just because it’s less trustworthy looking, but you need to have control of your own email. It’s critical infrastructure for your business.
Website host/platform
And finally, you need somewhere to host your website and some sort of content management system (CMS) to build it. (yes you can do it all from scratch if you want, but who has time for that these days, you’ve got a business to run)
If you’re using Squarespace (my fav) it’s a hosting platform and CMS in one. So is Showit, Framer, etc. If you’re using Wordpress, it is as well, and they also have CMS/builders such as Kadence, Bricks etc. If you use Wordpress, you need hosting and your options are your webhost for your DNS/email plus a Wordpress template or builders like Kadence including hosting with the CMS, but you might still might want to have separate email hosting.
There are differences in cost for many of the platforms but annual costs for a website builder/host is often not that different between them all. And some offer more benefits, which may even out costs.
I’ve chosen to use Squarespace over many of the others I’ve tried, including self hosting sites, Wordpress sites and even Wix. I’ve stayed with Squarespace for over 12 years now and ease of use has been the main reason.
As it’s built itself out, it’s added on a pretty good e-commerce option if you don’t have complex logistic needs, and also now offers membership and course options, built in scheduling for appointments and some types of classes, and are building out their email marketing. That last isn’t quite there yet if you’re looking for more advanced options but we’ll see how that works out as they go. Your website blog is integrated, unlike Showit, and it’s very well built to meet accessiblity standards, which is another area Showit unfortunately still needs to develop better.
Squarespace have recently released a host of options to make it easier to get creative with your designs without having to code CSS as much, and have really improved on design capabilities for the average user. So I’ll keep recommending that as my first choice for website builder/CMS and that’s what I’ll build your site on, if you want any custom web design services.
TL:DR
In conclusion, you need several pieces of internet infrastructure to get a website online. A domain name, bought from a domain registrar, web/DNS hosting, email hosting and a website platform/CMS like Squarespace.
Make sure to watch for bait and switch pricing with expensive renewals, research who you want to use and keep in mind there’s lots of big companies out there with poor service. When it comes to the really cheap ones, you get what you pay for.
