Domain, Hosting and Business Email: A Plain Guide for Shivamogga Business Owners

We regularly meet Shivamogga business owners who can't update their own website because the old designer owns the domain, or whose email stopped working because a renewal went to someone else's inbox. These problems are completely avoidable once you understand the three pieces.

The simple explanation

• Domain = your address. yourbusiness.in is what people type to find you.
• Hosting = the land. A server where your website's files live, online 24/7.
• Website = the building. The pages, text and images people see.
• Business email = a mailbox at your address, like hello@yourbusiness.in.

You rent the domain and hosting by the year. You should own the website files and content.

Domains: which ending to choose?

• .com is the most recognised worldwide
• .in is clearly Indian and often cheaper. A great choice for local businesses
• .co.in, .shop, .store and others are fine if your first choice is taken

Keep it short, easy to say on the phone, and avoid hyphens or numbers. See choosing a brand name and domain.

Rules for owning your domain:

1. Register it with a reputable registrar, in your name and with your email
2. Turn on auto-renew with a payment method that won't expire
3. Turn on two-factor authentication on the registrar account
4. If someone else registers it for you, make sure you get the login, not just a promise

Hosting: what kind do you need?

Type	Good for
Shared hosting	Small WordPress sites with low traffic; cheap but can be slow
Managed WordPress hosting	WordPress sites that need speed, backups and security handled for you
Static / edge hosting (e.g. Cloudflare Pages, Netlify, Vercel)	Fast, modern custom-built websites; often very low cost
Cloud servers (e.g. AWS, DigitalOcean)	Web apps, portals and stores with custom needs
Hosted platforms (e.g. Shopify)	Hosting is included in the subscription

For most small business websites, what matters is speed, uptime, backups and a free SSL certificate (the padlock in the browser). See WordPress vs custom websites.

Business email: why it's worth it

ravi@ravitextiles.in looks more trustworthy than ravitextiles123@gmail.com, to customers, suppliers, banks and government offices. Common options:

• Google Workspace: Gmail with your own domain, plus Drive and Calendar
• Microsoft 365: Outlook with your domain, plus Office apps
• Email included with hosting: cheaper, but usually less reliable and with more spam problems

Both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 charge per user per month. Many small businesses start with one or two mailboxes and add aliases like sales@ and info@ that forward to them.

Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC records (your web person can do it in minutes). They stop your emails landing in spam and stop scammers sending fake emails in your name.

What it all costs each year

Expect yearly costs for:

• Domain renewal: usually a few hundred to a couple of thousand rupees
• Hosting: from very little for a static site to more for managed or cloud hosting
• Business email: per user, per month
• Maintenance (optional): updates, backups and small changes

Ask your designer to list these separately so you know what you're renewing. More detail in website design cost in Shivamogga.

Keep a one-page "website file"

Write down, and store safely:

• Domain registrar, login email, renewal date
• Hosting provider, login email, renewal date
• Email provider and admin login
• Website CMS or admin login
• Google Analytics, Search Console and Google Business Profile access

If you ever change designers or staff, this one page saves weeks of trouble.

Want it set up properly?

We set up domains, hosting, business email and websites for Shivamogga businesses, always in your name, with a handover document of every login. Get a free plan.