A lot of different platforms work together to make your website and email work, and knowing who handles what can be pretty confounding!
To help piece it all together, here is an overview of all the different services that apply to your website's technical infrastructure. In many cases, one company could provide all of thse services to you; in other cases, it makes sense for different companies to manage different pieces of the puzzle. Each service does operate independently of the others, and each service generally has its own ongoing fees and set of login details. Knowing each layer of the service can help you keep track of who is responsible for what as well as a checklist of what login details you should keep on file should you ever need to make changes to these services.
Domain Name
Your domain name, e.g. yourbusiness.com.au, is registered with an accredited Domain Registrar, and the licence renewed every 1 or 2 years, much like a business name registration licence.
Usually, your web hosting company would also manage your domain name renewals, as the two services go hand-in-hand. But it's also possible to pay a Domain Registrar directly. In Australia, all domain names ultimately go through a central registry (AusRegistry, overseen by auDA); for global domains, the central registry is ICANN.
A Domain Name has a password (which may also called an EPP code or an auth code) that allows somebody to transfer your domain name from one registrar to another.
You should know which company you pay to renew your domain name(s), and you should keep your contact details associated with your domain up-to-date. Ideally, you should have a single company that manages all of your domains. Be especially wary of unsolicited emails or letters from other domain registrars who will try to trick you into registering your domain with them instead of your current provider.
You should take care that your domain name is renewed before it expires every year or two years. If your domain expires, after a certain period of time, it becomes available for others to register, and that can happy very quickly; if somebody else registers "your" domain name, it is generally only through a legal process where you have trademarked your business name that you can force them to give the domain back to you. If you use Precedence to manage your domain names, you can rest assured that we have a manual process that follows up domains that are about to expire even if you do not act on the renewal emails; you'll receive a friendly telephone call from us around the expiry date to make sure you are aware of its expiry. If you use a different domain management company, generally there is no human involvement, so take extra care that you are correctly receiving emails from them, and consider adding your domains' expiry dates to your calendar.
Web Hosting
A web hosting service chiefly stores your website files and is responsible for "serving up" your website to visitors who access your domain name through a web browser. You can think of it like a folder of yours on a very powerful computer with a fast and reliable internet connection.
Usually, your web hosting service also manages "DNS", which is what tells the world where each service on your Domain Name lives (e.g. your website is with Server X and your email is with Server Y).
A web hosting company will charge ongoing fees for providing this service, and often will provide some form of control panel (like "cPanel") where your web developer can manage your website files, and where you can manage your email, and update DNS settings.
You should know which company provides your web hosting service (and DNS, if separate), and know your login details for any control panel or client area they provide.
You should know how to contact them by phone if you ever think that your website is "down", as it is your web hosting company, of all the service providers involved here, that is most likely able to provide 24-hour and immediate support where necessary. In most cases, a problem with your website is going to be the responsibility of your web developer, but your web hosting company can usually point you in the right direction if you are unsure.
An email service gives you access to mailboxes at your domain name, e.g. info@yourbusiness.com.au, to send and receive emails.
Your email may be handled by your Web Hosting service, or it may be hosted on a different platform, such as Office 365, Google Apps, or a Microsoft Exchange server in your physical office.
If your email is handled by your Web Hosting service, it would generally not attract any costs apart from your Web Hosting fees, and normally you can manage your email settings through your Web Hosting control panel. If your email is with a different provider, you would pay them separately for that enhanced service. If your email is handled by a Microsoft Exchange server in your physical office, you would typically have an IT support company (or staff) who look after this physical server for you.
You should know who provides your email service. You should know your own mailbox username and password, and you should know how to how to add, remove, and reset passwords for other mailboxes within your organisation, or who to contact to do this for you.
If you have an email address that is not using your own domain name (for example, businessname@gmail.com or businessname@bigpond.com), you should change this to an email address that uses your own domain name (info@yourbusiness.com.au). Otherwise, you do not control that email address and you will lose access to it if you decide to not use Gmail as your email provider or Bigpond as your ISP, in the above examples. In addition, your domain name looks much more professional as an email address. Your Web Hosting or IT Support company can assist you with this transition.
Website
Your website is a bunch of files containing code, images, and databases, all stored together in your Web Hosting account. When somebody requests your website by typing in your domain name, the server behind your Web Hosting account runs this code in order to display your website.
Most modern websites will have some form of Content Management System where you can login to the website and make changes to it yourself. If you have engaged a web developer to build you a website, they would be responsible for providing you with ongoing support in relation to that website (for which you would generally pay an hourly or monthly fee). Your web developer and web hosting provider should have a good working relationship so that any problems with your website can be resolved between them.
You should know who your web developer is, how you can contact them for support and how much that will cost, and your login details to the website in order to make changes. You should also know what sort of maintenance or security updates are necessary to make to your website on an ongoing basis, and whose responsibility that is (yours, or your web developer via some form of ongoing fee.)
Other Website & Marketing Services
Your website may rely on other services provided by different businesses, and you may use online software and tools provided by other service providers, to manage your overall digital presence.
Examples of these might be:
- Google Analytics, to see details about how your visitors find and use your website
- Google My Business, to manage how Google displays information related to your business in its search results
- Google AdWords, if you pay Google to advertise in their search results
- Email marketing platforms, if you have an email newsletter
- Facebook, if you have a Facebook Business Page for your business, and/or advertise on Facebook
- Other social networks such as LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter
- Service businesses and consultants providing assistance with marketing, search engine optimisation, advertising, etc.
- ...and potentially many more
You should know what these services are, why and how you use them, what the login details are, and the contact details of service business that provides you with ongoing assistance or support with any of those platforms.
Internet Service Provider
An Internet Service Provider (ISP) provides your office with its connection to the internet. They are not related to any of your website services, but you should know who provides this service, because if you cannot access your email or website, it may actually be your internet connection that is down, rather than anything to do with your website infrastructure.
Whilst some ISPs will provide you with free email addresses (e.g. @bigpond.com), or the ability to send email through them, it is better to keep these services with a dedicated email provider (such as your web host).
IT Support
You may have a local IT or network support company that manages your physical network, servers, and workstations within your office, or perhaps just helps you with general computer issues on an ad-hoc basis. You would normally pay an hourly fee or an agreed ongoing support fee for their professional services.
They should be kept up-to-date with who manages all of the above services, as they can provide you with high-level advice and speak to other service providers on your behalf whenever you have an issue that might need a few different service providers to work together, or where you are not quite sure who is responsible for a particular problem you are having.
