Every car needs a place to live, a registration to identify it, and a reliable engine to keep it running. Websites work much the same way.
It’s the unique identifier that helps people find and recognise your website online. Without a domain, visitors would have no way to locate you.
Your website hosting is the garage where your car is stored.
It houses all the important parts of your website, including pages, images, files, and content. Without hosting, your website simply can’t be accessed on the internet.
Your email hosting is like having a professional communication system built into your vehicle.
It allows you to send and receive emails using your business name (such as you@yourbusiness.com), helping you build trust and maintain a professional image.
Don’t worry if all of this sounds confusing. We’re here to help every step of the way and make the process as simple and stress-free as possible.
Just as every car requires a registered licence plate before it can legally drive on the road, every website needs a registered domain name before it can be accessed on the internet.
Registering your domain ensures no one else can use it, giving you a unique identity online.
Think of hosting as your website’s garage.
After you register your domain, your website needs a place to live and be accessed online.
Good hosting keeps your site fast, secure, and running smoothly for visitors.
Here’s a quick guide to the key terms for building, running, and maintaining your digital presence.
Email hosting is necessary for any business wishing to have a branded email address.
For example, mediaBoss’s email is hello@mediaboss.com.au
We recommend a cloud-based service for email hosting, as it offers better performance and reliability than cPanel hosting.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard is a great choice. It combines all the essential features of a hosted email service with the full suite of Office apps you use daily, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, Skype, and OneNote.
With a single subscription, you get email hosting plus web, desktop, and mobile access to these powerful tools.
If you only need the web versions of apps like Word or Excel, consider the Microsoft 365 Business Basic plan.
Cloud hosting services operate on a network of multiple servers rather than a single traditional server.
This setup ensures that if one server fails, your emails remain unaffected, avoiding costly downtime.
In contrast, cPanel hosting relies on a single server where all services (web, email, database, DNS) depend on that server being available 24/7, creating a single point of failure.
This makes cloud hosting a much more reliable and high-performance choice for businesses.
Hosting Performance
A fast website offers a better user experience overall for the user, which is imperative to how they feel about using your site and your business.
This is important because a slow website will put visitors off and make them less likely to stay, thus increasing your website’s bounce rate.
Reliability & Uptime
A good web host will automatically monitor your website, alerting you when things aren’t running as expected. It is common knowledge that a site with poor web hosting will suffer issues because the host is not paid to protect the website.
A good host will act on these alerts quickly, understanding the risks and effects it has when your website is down.
Data Backup & Data Recovery
Most of the time budget hosting services do not include backup.
A cybersecurity breach or a simple human error can wipe your website clean of everything you’ve ever worked for in a matter of seconds.
A good web hosting company can provide a variety of data backup and data recovery options to meet your business’s specific needs.
Security
Compromised websites can damage a business’s reputation.
If you don’t have secure website hosting, you’re susceptible to breaches and hacks that can take down your website, compromise sensitive data, and more. Oftentimes, when businesses take advantage of budget website hosting, they’re getting what they pay for.
Secure web hosting should provide (at the very least) malware protection, SSL certificates, firewalls, and top-of-the-line security measures for physical data centres.
Technical Support
Getting Support when you need it is critical. Most ‘Offshore’ or ‘Budget’ service providers are nearly impossible to call and are generally only contactable via ticketing systems.
A good web host company is locally based and available by phone or email with a fast response time.
Please note: mediaBoss does not provide support for IT services, including email setup or technical issues related to computers, laptops, or software applications. If you need assistance with email setup or other technical support, we work closely with a trusted IT referral partner who can meet your needs.
