Most domain registration sites can do a whole lot more than just register a domain or two. Registrars often offer web hosting (including shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting), custom email accounts, SSL certificates for your site—basically anything you need to create a business website.
In fact, many domain registration sites are web hosting services first, domain registrars second. Go figure.
Well, they’re all valid domain extensions. But before you leave behind .coms forever, there are a couple things to consider.
Like professionalism. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: you probably wouldn’t trust this ranking as much if it were housed at Business.pizza instead of Business.org. So think about whether or not a non-standard extension would work for your business. It’s one thing to be Dominos.pizza, but another thing entirely to be MortsMortuary.pizza.
Then there’s price. In theory, gTLDs like .pizza were created to give people more domain options. The catch? They cost a lot more than the supposedly scarce .com domains tend to. That’s not always the case—a highly desirable domain, like google.com, would probably cost more than a variation like google.pizza. But generally, gTLDs cost more than their traditional counterparts—hence our pricing charts including costs for both.
Finally, there’s search engine optimization. If you want your website to be findable via Google and Bing, you might want to stick with a .com website. At least for now, search engines tend to favor .coms and other traditional TLDs over new gTLDs.
But as long as you understand those considerations, there’s no reason you shouldn’t choose a funky TLD for your business. Have fun with it.
Nope. You can buy a domain from any registration site you want and then make your website with a different host or website builder. So go ahead, register with 1&1 IONOS and then create a WordPress website, or buy your domain from Namecheap and build with Wix. Follow your heart.
Now, you will need to update your DNS (domain name server) to make sure your domain is properly linked to where your website is actually hosted. It’s an easy process that mostly involves a little copying and pasting, but the steps vary from registrar to registrar. But whatever registrar you choose should have a how-to guide (for example, how to connect a 1&1 IONOS domain with a WordPress site).
If you get stuck, just ask customer service.