Do You Really Own Your Web Site? |
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If you have a website, chances are you hired someone to help you get it launched. If you did, you have three primary components under the umbrella of "a web site." There is your domain name, also known as a "URL" or your web address. There is your website hosting - the space you rent on a server out there somewhere, to put your website on. And then there is your web site itself, which is a combination of HTML files and images which are uploaded to that website hosting you rent. The most cautious rule of thumb is that you should have three separate providers - a domain name registrar, a website hosting company, and a website designer. The reason many web experts believe this is that if you have a problem with one, you still have control over the other two. For example, if your website hosting company causes you problems, you have your web content, and you have access to your domain, and you can easily shut off one hosting account, find another, and move your site. If your web designer goes bad, you can at least change access to your site, move it or provide the information to a new designer. Conversely, if you have all three components in one place, you run the risk of finding yourself without a web site, perhaps temporarily, or worst case, having to start from scratch. Although I'm personally a believer in keeping it all separate, the majority of business people don't think like that and a great many folks have gone for an "all in one" situation where the hosting, domain and website are with one provider. Whatever your scenario is, there is one absolutely critical piece of information you should take from this article. You MUST have administrative control over all three components of your web presence: domain, hosting and content. You don't have to DO anything with it - except print out the access information and stash it away. You can rely on someone to manage it all for you, like I do for most of my clients. But if you don't have this information, you don't really own your website! |
