Even before you think about embarking on a domain name purchase in India, you will be better off knowing what a domain is. In simple terms, a domain is a name a web user types into browsers to access your website. In other words, the domain name serves as the site’s address.
When internet users enter your unique domain name into a web browser, they will have access to everything that your website has to offer including videos, pages, and images. If domain name purchase in India is on your mind, then you should know that you have a variety of options.
Before starting your site or blog, you should make up your mind the domain name that you’ll use and the platform for hosting the site.
One major consideration is whether you will settle for a paid domain plus hosting plan, or a free one.
The decision that you will make will greatly depend on several factors, chief among them, what you aim to accomplish with the website.
It is important to note that you do not have to get the domain name and the website hosting from the same service provider, that is, you don’t necessarily have to host the site where you sourced the domain name.
Paying for Domain Names
One commonly asked question is whether you should pay for domains. Usually, you don’t have to pay a cent for sub-domains but for high-level domains, there are costs involved. If you are associated with blogging platforms, then you are entitled to free sub-domains
Getting a free domain name might at first sound like a dream come true and you might be very impressed. This is because the domain providers provide simple starting choices in addition to customizing your site with personal graphics.
They will go a step further and give you the freedom of setting up and hosting your site on the platform free of charge. But beware as there are loads of pitfalls relating to free-domains and they are outlined below.
Why Free Domain Plus Hosting is Not Recommended?
You Will Miss on Branding
If you use free domains, note that they will forever be included in your address (URL).
What this means is that if you choose a domain provided by the versions that are free on platforms, your address will have the platform’s domain as well. For instance, if my blog is ABC and the domain of the platform is XYZ, your address will look like ABC.XYZ.COM. This is what is known as a sub-domain.
Unfortunately, having this sort of domain limits your website from effectively branding itself as your domain name already has the name of the hosting platform included. This can work against a company, especially a company targeting high-value clients. The fact that the company cannot handle the cost of buying its hosting plus the domain name will look unprofessional.
You Won’t Have Full Control of the Website
An additional disadvantage of using a free hosting provider for your free domain is that you will not be entirely in control of your site. Some of these platforms tend to load advertisements on the site without your consent. To make matters even worse, you don’t receive a cent for the advertisements!
As if that is not enough, you will not have much say as far as how your site looks. You won’t have the flexibility of customizing your site or apply third-party tools to add to the site’s functions.
No Monetization Option
Majority of free platforms don’t allow monetized sites so if you mean to make money from your website, they are not the best bet. Even if the free platforms did allow you to have a site for commercial use, it would look pretty lame to clients that you can’t afford your hosting and domain.
This means that for you to make money with your blog, stay away from free hosting and domain platforms.
It is in your best interests to choose your own domain because you will get a clean URL and this will translate to better rankings by search engines.
This also means that you will not be limited to just one hosting service provider and you’ll be free to host your website wherever you want. Why is this crucial to your company? Well, as it grows, you might want to scale your business.
Final Thoughts
If you are not serious with your project and you are just blogging as a hobby like a personal journal, there is nothing wrong with having a sub-domain. But if you want to inject some degree of professionalism into your blog and make money while you are at it, have your own domain.
Remember, buying your domain name and a hosting account might seem like much work. But the results will be totally worth it and to cap it all, you will have absolute control of your website.
