When dealing with a web site there are three things to manage and renew; the domain name, the content, and the physical location or host. This does not include privatization, e-mail hosting, spam filtering and other options or services you may have.
The domain name is the address that is used in a web browser to locate your web site or the portion of your e-mail address after the @ symbol. Our domain name is stratil.com. This domain name needs to be renewed on an annual basis. More than one year can be purchased at a time. You lease this name for the duration you choose. If you do not renew it, someone else will be able to. The longer the period you renew your domain name the better search engines rank your site. If this is not renewed people will not be able to send you e-mail or get to your site. For analogy sake, lets say you are trying to find a friend, Mr. Smith, that is living in a trailer house. This would be Mr. Smith’s name on the mailbox, which is associated with the street address of the trailer house lot.
The content is the physical text, graphics, pictures and layout that people see in their web browser when they go to your web site. This information can be static like a picture or paragraph, or dynamic like the time and date. Some people create this information themselves while others contract to have it done. It is completely up to you how often you update the web site content. Again, search engines rank sites higher with newer information. As your site becomes stagnant, your ranking will drop. Moving back to our analogy, the content of the web site would be the trailer house on the lot.
The physical location or hosting of the domain web site is where the content is actually stored. These packages can vary depending upon the size of the site, the amount of traffic on the site, if you are selling items on your site (need a shopping cart) and other related items. This is a service you can purchase monthly, but is most economical if purchased in annual amounts. If this is not renewed, nothing will show up when people go to your web site (e-mail may still work). The renewal of the domain name does not always come due at the same time the hosting of the domain web site comes due. This is because you can move a web site from one hosting location to another and it does not affect the renewal of the name. This is why a trailer house (mobile / movable) was used in the analogy. This would be the lot that the trailer house sits on.
If you want to move your web site, because you need a service your current hosting company cannot provide, this can be done. Simply put the wheels back on the trailer house (content) and pull it to a new lot (host). The address change happens in the background on the internet (usually less than 72 hours). So long as people remember the domain name (name on your mailbox) the internet will direct them to the correct or new lot (host), and there will be the trailer house (content).
Privatization of your domain can cut down on spam or junk e-mail. It may also reduce or eliminate fraudulent solicitations of renewals. It hides the relationship of the domain to the registering or owner’s information; which is otherwise public and easily accessible information.
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