Category: Getting Started • Est. reading time: 5 minutes
Before you build a WordPress website, you need two things in place: a domain and a hosting service. They sound technical, but the idea behind them is simple once you see how they fit together.
What Hosting Actually Is
A hosting service is a server, which is really just a powerful computer whose whole job is delivering content to the public. It runs day and night so anyone can reach the files that live on it. Your website, all its text, images, and its database, is stored there. The host gives that server an address called an IP address, which is a long string of numbers. Think of it like the difference between latitude and longitude and a street address. The IP tells computers exactly where your site lives.
Where the Domain Comes In
Now, could you imagine telling a friend to visit your site by reading off a string of numbers like 45.68.78.94? That is a mouthful. This is exactly the problem a domain solves. A domain is the human-friendly name that stands in for that number string, the part people actually type, like yourdomain.com.
Say you start a dog-walking business and grab the domain dogwalker.com. Every bit of what you publish, your articles, videos, and graphics, gets stored with your host on their server, and your domain is simply the friendly front door people use to get there.
The Good News
You can usually get your domain and your hosting from the same company, which keeps everything under one roof and a lot easier to manage. When you shop, we suggest choosing a host that gives you cPanel access, since that is the platform most of our WordPress guides work from.
The easy button: we offer both. You can register your domain and set up hosting with us in one place, already configured with cPanel and ready for WordPress, so you can skip the guesswork and get to building.
Ready to Get Set Up?
If you would like us to handle the domain and hosting so your WordPress site starts on solid ground, reach us at support@allydrez.com or 1-321-209-2004. Want to learn how it all works as you go? Our live, one-on-one Learn How to Use WordPress classes are at allydrez.com/learn-how-to-use-wordpress.