Domain name and web hosting explained for beginners

Quick answer: what is the difference between a domain and hosting?

A domain name is the address people type, such as yourbusiness.com or yourbusiness.com.ng. Hosting is the service that stores your website's files and sends them to visitors when they arrive at that address.

You need both for a working website, and they are usually bought separately or as a bundle. If the domain expires, people cannot find you. If hosting stops, the address leads nowhere. The two are linked by DNS settings, which tell the internet where your site lives.

What is a domain name and how is it structured?

A domain name has parts. In www.yourbusiness.com.ng, the extension (the end part, called the top-level domain) is .ng or .com.ng, the main name is yourbusiness, and www is a subdomain. You can create other subdomains yourself, such as shop.yourbusiness.com.

You rent the name from a registrar, a company accredited to register domains, normally for one year at a time. When you register, your details are recorded in the domain's registration record, and you are the registrant, the legal holder. Always make sure that is you or your business.

Different extensions suit different needs. A .com is globally familiar. A .ng or .com.ng signals a Nigerian business. Both are fine. Some extensions have rules about who can register them, and .ng domains are managed by the Nigeria Internet Registry Association (NiRA) through accredited registrars.

How do you choose a good domain name?

• Keep it short and easy to say on the phone and spell from hearing it.
• Use your business name where you can, so customers can guess it.
• Avoid hyphens, numbers and unusual spellings that people mistype.
• Say it out loud. Check that run-together words do not form something embarrassing.
• Check availability on a registrar's search page, and look at the matching social media usernames.
• Avoid trademarks belonging to other companies.
• Consider buying close variations such as the .com and .com.ng, and redirect them to your main site.

Try not to change your domain later. Changing your address means redoing business cards, email addresses and search visibility.

What is web hosting and what types are there?

Hosting is a computer, called a server, that stays connected to the internet and stores your site's files, database and email. Visitors' browsers ask it for pages.

• Shared hosting: many websites share one server. It is the cheapest option and suits small business sites. A busy neighbour can slow you down on poor providers.
• VPS (virtual private server): you get a guaranteed slice of a server. It costs more and needs some technical management or a managed plan.
• Cloud hosting: resources are spread across several machines and can scale as traffic grows.
• Managed WordPress hosting: hosting tuned for WordPress, with backups and updates handled by the provider.
• Dedicated server: an entire server for you. It is rarely needed for small businesses.

Most small business websites do well on a good shared or managed plan. Move up when traffic or features demand it.

How should you choose a hosting provider?

Look beyond the headline price. Ask these questions:

• Reliability: what uptime does the provider promise, and what happens when it is missed?
• Speed: modern servers with SSD or NVMe storage and a reasonably current PHP version. Server location also affects speed, so consider where most of your visitors are.
• Backups: are automatic backups included, how often, how long are they kept and can you download them?
• Security: free SSL certificates, malware scanning and a firewall.
• Support: can you reach a real person quickly, on chat or phone, when the site is down?
• Control panel: cPanel or similar, which makes email, files, databases and backups straightforward.
• Limits and renewal price: storage, bandwidth and email limits, and what the plan costs after the first term, which is often higher.
• Payment: whether you can pay conveniently, in naira or dollars, and whether you receive proper invoices.

Read recent reviews from real customers, and be wary of unlimited claims without limits stated in the terms.

How do you register a domain and connect it to hosting?

1. Search and register at a reputable registrar. Enter your own details as the registrant and use an email address you will keep, such as one you control, not a designer's.
2. Turn on domain privacy if offered. Some extensions hide your personal details from public lookups.
3. Turn on the registrar lock to prevent unauthorised transfers, and enable two-step login on the account.
4. Buy hosting and note the nameservers or the server's IP address that the host gives you.
5. Connect them. Either change the domain's nameservers at the registrar to those the host gave you, or leave the registrar's nameservers and add an A record pointing to the host's IP address.
6. Wait for propagation. DNS changes can take from minutes to a day or two to spread around the world.
7. Install SSL so the site shows the padlock. Most hosts issue a free certificate from the control panel.

If you do not see your site after a day, check that the nameservers or the A record are exactly as the host specified, and that the site files are in the correct folder, usually public_html.

What are DNS records and why do they matter?

DNS is the internet's address book. The records stored in it tell browsers and mail servers what to do with your domain. You manage them where your nameservers are, which is either at the registrar or at the host.

• A record: points a name to a server's IP address, so your site loads.
• CNAME record: points one name to another name, often used for www or services.
• MX records: tell the world where to deliver email for your domain.
• TXT records: hold verification and email-security information such as SPF and DKIM, which help your emails avoid the spam folder.

Change records carefully. A wrong MX record can stop email arriving, and deleting the wrong one can take your site down. Before changing anything, take a screenshot or copy the existing records so you can restore them.

How do you get business email on your own domain?

An address like [email protected] looks more trustworthy than a free webmail address and stays with the business if staff change.

• Through your host: create mailboxes in cPanel. They are cheap and good for small teams, and you read them with webmail or an app.
• Through a dedicated email service such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. They cost more per user but provide larger storage, better spam handling and easy setup on phones.

Whichever you choose, set up SPF and DKIM records following the provider's instructions, and test by sending to a few different mail services. If you use a separate email service, remember that its MX records live in your DNS and need to be kept when you move your website.

How do you stay in control, renew on time and move providers?

Control means owning the accounts that matter.

• Keep the registrar login yourself, with your own email and a strong password, and add two-step login.
• Give your designer or developer access rather than ownership.
• Turn on auto-renew and keep a valid payment method. Put the renewal dates in your phone calendar.
• Keep a record of your registrar, host, nameservers and important DNS records.

If a domain expires, it usually goes into a grace period during which you can still renew, sometimes at a higher price, before it is released. Do not rely on that.

To move hosting, copy the website files and database to the new host, test it there, lower DNS settings if needed, then switch the nameservers or A record. Keep the old account until the new one is confirmed working, including email. To move a domain to another registrar, unlock it, get the authorisation (EPP) code and start the transfer at the new registrar. Newly registered gTLD domains generally cannot be transferred for the first sixty days.

Moving is straightforward when planned, but email and DNS details are easy to miss. If you are unsure, get a technician to handle the move so there is no downtime.

Frequently asked questions

Written by the ICT AccessPoint team

We repair laptops and build websites and business systems. Have a question this guide did not answer? Message us.

This guide is general advice. Every device and business is different, so if you are unsure, ask a technician before you act.