As a business owner who has a website, you must be curious about how a website works. But you rarely have the time to check the weather let alone dive into loads of technical information on the structure of a website.

That’s why we created this simple guide that explains the basics of web hosting without getting too technical or boring you to death. And it only takes less than 2 minutes to read!

So, what is a website? A website is the online home for your business. It’s where people can find you online and learn more about your products, services, history, etc.

Imagine you have a local business. It needs a space where you can display your products, right? Well, in the online world, this space that you need to rent (the space your website “occupies”), is called hosting.

It is not entirely an online thing, though. The hosting space you rent is on an actual server you can touch (think a giant computer that’s online ALL. THE. TIME). This server has a specific software that lets it host all the bits and pieces of your website (texts, images, files, etc.). When a person types your website’s name (the domain name), they actually connect to this server and it gives them the information they need (and they see it displayed on your website).

Just like you would pay rent for your local shop down the street, you have to pay for your hosting (the rented space on the server). The ongoing hosting fee you pay your hosting provider means that you won’t be bothered with any technical aspects of properly running a server as they do it for you. You can, of course, host your website even on your personal computer, but this is not recommended for people with no technical knowledge. I mean, at all.

What about the IP address? The IP address (short for Internet Protocol) is nothing more than the server’s address. Every server in the world has their own IP (address), making it easy for different devices connected to the Internet to find it. And that’s it!

What was the difference between hosting and domain names again?

Don’t worry, you are not the only one who is confused by the two terms (hosting and domain names)! Most business owners don’t know the difference between hosting and domain names. So, here it is again:

A domain name – this is the address of your website (e.g. www.mywebsite.com)

Hosting – this is the space your website occupies (where all files, texts, and images are stored)

See, you don’t have to be a web developer to get the basics of web hosting! Besides, at TCP we make it even easier for you as we help small businesses own their website for a small fee so you can do what you do best and just leave the rest to us!