Structure of Your Website

Domain name and its parts

A domain name has 3 primary parts:

• The name itself, plus the .com, .net, org, .info, .biz or one of approximately 500 other extensions
• The administrative owner of the domain (you). You must provide valid contact information, especially a valid email address for yourself, or ICANN, the ruler of domain names, can nullify yours. However, you can opt for whois privacy from your registrar (company that registers domain names).
• “Nameservers” – the part of the domain that directs where your visitor traffic is sent – that is, which hosting service you are using to host & display your website code files and images to your visitors.Note: The company where you register your domain can be the same company where you buy your website file hosting, but they don’t have to be the same, and even if they are the same, they will bill domain name renewal separately from your file hosting. They are legally required to do it that way.

 

Hosting service

The hosting service rents you disk space for your code files and images that make up your website. A reputable hosting service (yes, there are some disreputable ones) will offer you:

• File Management – where you can see the hierarchical lists of your folders and files, and where you can upload, download, and preview your files
• Database Management – where you can create and manage databases (usually mySQL databases). This is very important for some types of websites.
• Email management – yes, you can, and should, create email addresses @your own domain name. It gives your business or organization a more professional public face.

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Everything else, which editor or CMS you use, your site’s color scheme and page layout, how many pages you have, what you say on them, what information you collect from your visitors, what special programming you have your site perform, is all dependent on the above being in place.