Website Hosting & Domain Names

Website Hosting

Website hosting is the “rent” you pay for your website to show up on the Internet. This is usually paid monthly. ThriveMarketing has partnered with WebDez to provide website and email hosting for its clients. Hosting Plans start from $25/month. If we design a website for you, we will facilitate setting up your Hosting account for you also.

Registering Your Domain Name

How is a Domain Name different than my Website?

• A domain name is the website address (www.YourCompanyName.com). A domain name registration typically is billed yearly by a domain registrar. Register your domain name.
• A website is the design and verbiage that you see when you type in your domain name into your Internet browser. A website is one of the services ThriveMarketing will render for you.

Why do I have to buy my domain name? Why isn’t this included with a website design?

Your domain name is like your company name. Domain name is another word for your website address, such as www.YourCompanyName.com. You wouldn’t have anyone but yourself, the business owner, sign your company’s incorporation documents and register your company name with the state. Likewise, you don’t want to have anyone but yourself register your domain name on the Internet. One reason is that the domain registrar will ask you if you are the legal registrant of your domain name.  Regardless of where your website is hosted, you will be safe in the knowledge that you own your domain name.

4 Tips for Selecting a Memorable Domain Name

• Search engines reward you for having keywords in your domain name. For example, if you were an auto glass company located in Central California, you could choose: www.AutoGlassCalifornia.com, www.CaliforniaAutoGlass.com or www.AutoGlassRepairCA.com.  Likewise, you could place your city name (www.SantaMariaAutoGlass.com) or your geographic area’s nickname (www.CentralCoastAutoGlass.com). 
  
• You can also choose to have your company name in your domain name (www.YourCompanyName.com). However, if it’s already taken by another company with your same name, you can add something after it, such as: www.YourCompanyNameOnline.com (added “Online”) or www.YourCompanyNameCA.com (added “CA” for California).
  
• Do NOT use Hyphens!  This makes your website difficult to repeat to customers.  It also makes it difficult to remember.  DO NOT do this: www.Your-Company-Name.com.
  
• If possible, buy a “dot-com”.  In other words, do NOT use a “.net” or “.org” extension.  They are difficult to remember, and if people remember your domain name, they almost always try to place a “.com” at the end.  If you don’t own the .com, your customers could end up at your competitor’s website!

Steps for Securing Your Domain Name

• Choose a Domain Registrar.  ThriveMarketing is a domain registrar (Visit www.ThriveWebsites.com to buy your domain). We can sell you a domain name for $6.95 / year. You will be informed automatically every year to renew your domain name.  If your credit card expires before the time of your annual renewal, you will receive an email warning you to go online to manually renew.
• Enter in your desired domain name on www.ThriveWebsites.com and pay for it online with a credit card.
• Choose a “5 Year” Renewal Plan.  Search engines reward those who renew their domain 5 years in advance. This shows Google that you are not a “fly-by-night” operation. They will reward you with higher rankings. We HIGHLY recommend that you buy your domain for 5 years OR MORE in advance.  You also don’t have to worry about renewing every year, giving you peace of mind.
• When you buy your Domain, you DO NOT need to buy Web Hosting. When you buy your domain, we will set up a Hosting Account for you and give you further instructions.
• If you need help with any of these steps, ThriveMarketing can walk you through the process, please email info@ThriveMarketing.net. 

Hiring a Great Website Designer

Now that you've secured a good domain name, make sure you have hired an experienced web designer. Remember, the reason 99% of websites fail is because they were built by a technician and NOT a marketer. Let ThriveMarketing's team of senior level marketing executives build your website by requesting a proposal now. If you have already hired us, thanks again for your business and you can now sit back and relax and let us guide you from here.