Over the past few months, we have received a lot of questions about Domain Names.  I wanted to take a few minutes to help clear the air.

1.  Is a domain name and a website the same thing?  No.  A website consist of pages, images and other files that are located on a Web server.  That Web server is typically called your Hosting Account.  A domain name, on the other hand, is part of the Internet address that points to the location of the website.  In the Web address http://www.ondigitalground.com, the domain name part is the "ondigitalground.com".  When you type this address into your browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, etc), and hit Enter, our website will come up.

2.  What is a custom domain name?  When you create a website, it helps to have a domain name that includes your business name or the flaship product, since those are what people are likely to remember an it will help drive traffic to your site.  For example, our company name is On Digital Ground.  Our domain name is www.ondigitalground.com.  Another good example is one we signed up a few weeks ago.  We have a carpet cleaning company who's company name was not available - Daniels FloorCare.  So, he wanted the next best thing - www.luvmycarpet.com.  This is catchy and will be easy for his customers to remember.  You can sign up for a custom domain name right now for as little as $7.49 per year in the On Digital Ground Online Store. 

3.  Can you have more than one domain name associated with a website?  Yes.  You can have as many as you like. 

4.  What the advantage of having more than one domain name associated with a website?  The simple reason is that it gives more ways for your potential site visitor to find you.  For example, I might not remember AYC Carpet Cleaning's name.  So, when I go to Google to look for them, I would type in "carpet cleaning san diego". When you do that, you will get a domain name called www.carpetcleaningsandiego.com.  That domain name belongs to AYC Carpet Cleaning and will take you directly to their website.  When AYC is telling a new client their domain name, they can just tell them to remember "carpet cleaning san diego" and that will take them directly to their website.  You can sign up for additional domain names right now for as little as $7.49 per year in the On Digital Ground Online Store.

5.  If I move my website to another web host and I already own the domain name, do I have to move the domain too?  Not necessarily.  You can leave domain names in one spot and just point them elsewhere.  To do this you need to change the Domain Name Server (DNS).  We typically don't recommend doing this yourself unless you know what you're doing.  That being said, a major advantage of moving your domain name to the account where you have your hosting is that it allows you to have everything under one roof.  Most hosting companies have a good control panel that allows you to manage everything (hosting, domain names, extras).  This keeps you from forgetting where your domains are sitting or what your passwords are.  

6.  What is Private Domain Name Registration and do I need it? We highly recommend it.  Private Domain Name Registration helps protect your contact information from spammers, telemarketers and other unwanted solicitations.  On Digital Ground offers Private Domain Name Registration on all domain names registered with ODG for only $7.95 per year - or FREE if you purchase 5 or more domain names.