Web Hosting Q&A

Hey Grace, this is a great question - and one that I hear often.  Unfortunately, there's no clear-cut answer to this question, but I'll try to break it down into some digestable little nuggets to help you make sense of things.

When you're talking about DIY website builders (think GoDaddy, Weebly, Wix, etc), you'll be paying a recurring monthly fee, which will vary based on whatever bills and whistles you want/need.

Pro's

• Relatively easy to set up
• No web programming or design experience needed
• Short development time (often just a few hours of your time, if that)
• Depending on which service you go with, you'll have acessible tech support to help you with issues that may arise

• You don't really have a ton of customization over the end result, which means that your true brand personality might not shine through
• Other people's websites may look eerily similiar to yours
• You don't truly own the website, you're essentially just renting it.  If you stop paying the recurring monthly fee, your website disappears.
• Some companies have really lackluster tech support, and if something breaks, it may take a few days for someone to get to it

• You'll have a 100% unique website that allows you to express your true brand identity
• The end result, if you're working with a good company, will look exactly the way you want it to look
• The sky is the limit in terms of the number of bells and whistles that can be used
• No recurring monthly fees, you own your site outright

• Development time is longer
• If something breaks, you'll have to reach out for help, which typically won't be free
• You'll need to set up webhosting
• If you don't work with a good company, you'll find the process to be nightmarishly bad 

Here are some tips for you.

Good question. With more and more businesses going online, you need to consider the domain name for your website early on when you’re brainstorming business names to register. I’d argue that your business name, and subsequently your domain name is more important than your domain extension.
 
Between the default .com or .com.au domain extension, you could decide based on the obvious, whether you are targeting local customers or outside of Australia. Obviously, your customers outside of Australia may not even think of typing in the .au extension because they won’t know it.
 
Apart from that, search engines are smarter nowadays and the domain extension doesn’t influence your ranking, anywhere near as much as your content, your site’s SEO and off-site SEOs. You could be a local business with a .com domain, but Google will still figure out you are a local business based on your online listings, reviews, website content, etc. Or you could be a global business with a .com.au extension, and search engines will still figure it out. This is only if you have done your SEO right and put some effort in it. Customers outside Australia can always google your business name and should be able to find your .com.au web address if your SEO is good.
 
If possible, get both for your online address. The uncommon names or unique domain names are usually available across multiple domain extensions and are fairly affordable. This is good to protect your brand and online presence.
 

I've used Squarespace for a while now, and it's far more powerful and integrated than WordPress, which is what I'm used to. The e-commerce functionality baked in is a massive plus for me.

Hi Phil, I've thought hard about this one as I manage a web hosting co.s Partner Program :)

This is what I have discovered by talking to our existing and prospective partners, in no particular order.

Peace of mind. They want their client websites to be looked after, issues resolved quickly and good communication
Security and performance. Taken care of at server level so there is less to do with the platform (eg. hosting).
Expert, local support. This is a key one: to be able to jump on a call and speak to someone local who can address their issue, looking at their specific problem, and not just given them a canned response.
Based in Australia. For performance, compliance and better support.

Quite a few of our partners are looking to earn via referrals or reselling our services, as well as getting leads off us.

Hope this helps.

Lawrence