Guides . Websites

How a website actually gets online

Getting a website online sounds like five things because it is. The easiest way to see it: picture your website as a shop on a street.

By the end, you will know why 'I bought my domain at GoDaddy' does not tell anyone where your website or email actually live.

The big idea

Picture your website as a shop on a street

Every piece of getting online has a real-world twin you already know. Hold this one picture in your head and the rest falls into place.

Your web address is the name on the sign out front. The street signs point people to the right building for your site and the right mailbox for your email.

The building and the mailbox can each belong to a different company. That is normal. Here are the five pieces, left to right.

The sign, the building, and the mailbox can each belong to a different company. That is normal.

The picture

Your website is a shop on a street

Five pieces, left to right. Each one has a job, and each can live at a different company.

Domain the name on the sign
Registrar rents you the name
DNS the street signs
Web host the building your site lives in
Email your separate mailbox

The five pieces

What each word actually means

Here is the plain meaning next to the shop version, so each piece clicks.

Domain
Your web address, like yourshop.com. It is the name on the sign out front, the thing people type and remember. On its own, it does not say where your website or email live.
Registrar
The company you bought the domain from, like GoDaddy or Namecheap. It is the office that rents you the name and keeps the name book. Knowing your registrar only tells you where you reserved the name. Nothing else.
Name server / DNS
DNS is the internet's directory, the town street signs. It tells every visitor which building to walk to for your website and which mailbox to use for your email. Change these and the same name can point at a new building.
Web host / web server
The building where your website actually lives: the pages, the pictures, the words. Some people call it the server. It can sit at a different company than your registrar.
Email
Your mailbox, and its own separate thing. Your email can be with a totally different company than your website. That is why one can go down while the other keeps working.

What happens when someone visits

The trip from your name to your front door

When a person types your address, a quick handoff happens behind the scenes. Same shop-on-a-street idea, start to finish.

  1. 1

    Someone reads your sign

    A visitor types yourshop.com into their browser. All they have so far is the name on the sign. Nothing yet tells them which building to walk to.

  2. 2

    They check the street signs

    The browser asks your name servers, the internet's directory, where to go. The street signs point it to the right building for your website. Separately, they point mail to the right mailbox for your email.

  3. 3

    They walk into the building

    The browser reaches your web host, the building where your website lives, and your pages load. If that building is dark, the site is down, even though the name and the mailbox are perfectly fine.

  4. 4

    Mail takes its own route

    When someone emails you, that letter follows its own sign to its own mailbox. That mailbox can hang on a whole other building. Your site and your email are two separate errands that share one name. That is why one can be down while the other is fine.

The part that trips people up

Why one login never tells the whole story

This is the knot we untangle almost every week. Someone says 'I bought my domain at GoDaddy' and thinks that answers everything. It answers one small piece.

  • Your registrar is just the name office: 'I bought my domain at GoDaddy' tells you where you rented the name. It does not tell you which building your website sits in, or where your email lands.
  • Your website can live somewhere else entirely: The building, your host, can be a different company than the registrar. Same name on the sign, different street.
  • Your email can live somewhere else again: The mailbox can hang on a third company. That is why your site can be down while your email still works.
  • The street signs decide where everything points: Change the name servers and you can send the same name to a new building or a new mailbox. The name never changes.
  • All three living at different companies is normal: It is not a mistake and it is not broken. It just means no single login shows you the whole picture.

Real questions we get

The questions clients actually ask

I bought my domain at GoDaddy. Doesn't that mean GoDaddy hosts my website too?
Not always. Buying the domain only makes GoDaddy your registrar, the office that rents you the name. Your website could be hosted anywhere. Your email could be somewhere else again. We can look and tell you exactly where each piece lives.
My website is down but my email still works. How?
Because they are two separate things on two separate buildings. Your website lives on your host. Your email lives with your mail company. The street signs point to each one on its own. One can break while the other keeps going.
Do I have to move everything to one company to make it simpler?
No. Plenty of setups work fine spread across a few companies. Sometimes it is cleaner to bring things together. Sometimes it is not worth the trouble. We will tell you straight, and only move what is worth moving.
Can Weber buy the domain for me, or do I have to do it?
We can register a domain for you and set the rest up around it. If you already own one, we can work with what you have. Either way, you keep ownership of your name.
Do you have to host my site, or can you work on the one I already have?
Both. We can host your site on our own server, or we can work on the host you already use. To do that, we usually just need access to the right accounts. That could be your registrar, your host, or a couple of others, depending on your setup.
How do you work on a site you didn't build?
We connect safely to wherever your site lives, make the change, proofread it in-house, and tell you when it is live. You do not have to rebuild or move hosts. Most of what we do is improving a site a client already has.

Keep going

Where to go from here

If you would rather stop thinking about street signs and mailboxes, here is what to look at next.

Not sure where any of your pieces actually live?

That is the exact knot we untangle all the time. Tell us your web address and we will trace where the domain, the website, and the email each sit, then keep it running for you. We can buy the domain, host the site, or work on the setup you already have. If this is getting confusing, or you would rather we just handle it, give us a call.

Get help with this Or call 717-299-1277

Not ready to talk yet? You may be after something so unique we have not built a page for it yet, and given our history of unexpected jobs, we are sure we will find a solution.