Step By Step Instructions

How To Set Up Your Domain Name & Hosting Accounts

We understand it is quite confusing having to find reliable and affordable tech companies that can provide you with a domain name and hosting services.

A lot of our clients have come to us for help, after having a variety of issues with other providers, such as slow websites, no access to website files, being charged a lot for things that should be included in their plans free of charge or at much lower prices (like SSL certificates or backups), email spam, server outages causing their website being offline, overseas servers to name just a few!

You do not need to worry anymore as we have done our research and have worked with the companies we recommend below for quite some time now. When starting out with their online presence journey, a lot of clients ask us what the domain name and hosting are.

Simply put, a domain name is a website’s address on the web. When you want to visit a website, you type in the domain name in your internet browser’s URL bar.

Web hosting is the location where the files, making up your website, are stored. It’s the home where your website rests.

We have written a short article about the differences between the two. We recommend reading it before we start. In order to have a website visible on the internet, you have to purchase a domain name first. A domain name is made of words, making it easy for users to remember a website address. It is usually your business name, which makes it consistent with your brand and all your other marketing channels.

An example is torquaywebdesign.com.au, yourbusinessname.com.au, yourcompany.com.au etc.

Domain names are provided by domain name registrars, such as VentraIP. We have been working and recommending VentraIP for all your domain name needs for a while now. Great service and support!

Domain names are not expensive – they’re about $20/year. If you have already purchased your domain name, and it’s costing you more than that, we recommend transferring your domain name to VentraIP. Most transfers are free (depending on your original domain name registrar rules). Here’s the information about domain name transfers. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Transfer a Domain Name. It is a straightforward process, and it doesn’t disrupt the website or email connectivity if you have one up and running already.

Why do we recommend transferring your domain name? – VentraIP provides free DNS hosting, which enables adding DNS records that make connecting your server, emails and website a breeze. Well-known companies, such as GoDaddy, CrazyDomains etc. will charge you for this service (Premium DNS hosting) the moment you move your website to another provider. Other companies use platforms so complicated that entering those DNS records becomes such a headache, that from experience, transferring your domain name to a user-friendly VentraIP is the easiest and fastest option. It usually takes a couple of days (depending on your current domain name registrar), and it doesn’t disrupt the operation of your website or emails in any way.

If you have an Australian business, we do recommend purchasing an Australian domain name, which ends with .com.au. This will give you the best chance of ranking well in Google locally, in Australia, as opposed to domains ending with .com which are better for international markets.

To get your domain name, have your ABN or ACN ready and head to VentraIP to register it. In the top navigation menu, hover over Domains. If you’re registering a brand-new domain, click on Domain Search. Enter your preferred domain name in the Search box, and click the Search button. On the next page, you will see a big yellow button, Register, if it is available to register. Otherwise, repeat theses steps with different name variations until you find the one that is available, making sure your domain name ends with .com.au or .au.

Once your registration is successful and your account created, please keep your account login details handy, as those details will be required for us to be able to connect your domain name to your hosting server.

To transfer your domain name to VentraIP please click the button below, then in the top navigation menu, hover over Domains. If you’re transferring your domain to VentraIP, click on Domain Transfer. Follow the prompts.

VentraIP also offer hosting services, which are quite good too – please scroll down to view all the information about them and our recommendations. VentraIP utilise cPanel’s new WordPress toolkit, and their WordPress hosting plan provides the ultimate experience and control for your WordPress website. It is powered by VentraIP’s Sydney-based HP Enterprise servers’ superior performance, with the ability to increase or decrease server resources at any time. VentraIP Australia’s WordPress plan delivers the ultimate speed and security optimised for WordPress with our 100% Australian support.

Why we recommend them:

• 50% OFF at the moment!
• 24/7 Australian Support
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• Staging and Cloning
• ImunifyAV Code Protection
• Search Engine IndexingAllow or disallow search engine bots to crawl your website
• Smart Updates
• Security Advisor
• DDoS Protection
• One-click WordPress Install
• 10GB SSD Cloud Storage
• Unlimited Premium Bandwidth
• 200% CPU Allowance
• 2GB Memory AllowanceThis is the amount of memory your website processes can use before throttling is applied. You can view your memory usage inside cPanel at any time.
• Hourly Acronis Backups
• FREE Comodo SSL Certificate
• Godaddy, Crazydomains, Hostpapa, Hostgator (and many other substandard hosting providers), will charge you extra for the inclusions listed above. They will also set you up with an overseas server, which is very detrimental to any Australian business).

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.