85: Website 101: Domain, Hosting & CMS Basics
Have you ever wondered what's actually happening behind the scenes when someone visits your website? Domains, hosting, DNS, CMS, MX records... the technical jargon can feel overwhelming, especially if you're new to the website world. But understanding these basics is improtant for anyone who owns or manages a website.
In this episode, I'm breaking down the essential components that make your website work, with no fluff—just practical information to help you understand the foundation of your online presence and make it more professional.
The Foundation: Domains and Hosting
What is a Domain?
Think of your website like a house. Your domain is essentially your address—it's how people find you online. When someone types "insidethesquare.co" into their browser, they're visiting my domain, my digital address.
Domains are unique, just like physical addresses. No two websites can have the exact same domain, which is why it's important to secure a branded one as early as possible, especially if you're starting a business.
Pro Tip: When choosing a domain, make sure it's:
Easy to spell
Easy to remember
Available (not already taken by someone else)
You'll need to pay for your domain, typically annually, even if you don't have a website built yet. Think of it as hiring a security guard for your empty lot—if you want to ensure that digital address remains yours until you're ready to build, you'll need to keep paying for it.
You purchase domains through what's called a domain registrar. Popular options include:
Porkbuns
Namecheap
GoDaddy
Squarespace (my personal favorite because it integrates everything)
What is Hosting?
If your domain is your address, hosting is the actual land that your house sits on. Website hosting is essentially renting space on a server—a specialized computer that stores all your website files and makes them accessible to people online.
When someone visits your domain, the server delivers your website files to their browser so they can see your website. These servers are incredibly powerful and require significant resources to run, which is why hosting isn't free.
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Your CMS is the software that lets you create, edit, and manage the content on your website. There are many different options available, each with their own strengths:
WordPress
Think of WordPress like buying a fixer-upper. There's incredible potential and flexibility—it can do almost anything—but it comes with a steep learning curve and requires you to handle more technical details yourself (or hire professionals to help).
Squarespace
Squarespace is like moving into a beautifully designed, manufactured home. Everything is already set up for you and looks great out of the box. You don't need technical knowledge to get started, and with tools like Blueprint AI, you can customize your "manufactured home" with options for layout and features.
The best part? Hosting is included, and with Squarespace now owning Google Domains, they can handle that part too—everything in one place!
Shopify
Designed specifically for e-commerce, Shopify is the go-to if your main goal is selling physical products. They focus entirely on creating a seamless shopping experience.
Professional Email Addresses
When I first started my business, I used a Gmail address. But as I grew and wanted to start building my email list, I quickly realized how unprofessional it looked—some email marketing platforms wouldn't even let me use it!
Having an email that matches your domain makes a significant difference in how professional you appear to clients or customers. For example, having becca@insidethesquare.co looks much more established than insidethesquare.becca@gmail.com.
How to Get a Professional Email
If you're using Squarespace, they've made the process simple by integrating with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). This gives you:
A professional email address using your domain
Access to all Google tools (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, etc.)
Management through your Squarespace account
Important Note: You can't use multiple email providers with a single domain. If you choose Google Workspace, you can't also use Microsoft 365 with the same domain.
Putting It All Together
Let's recap the essential components of your website:
Domain: Your digital address (e.g., yourbusiness.com)
Hosting: The server space where your website lives
CMS: The software you use to build and manage your website
Professional Email: An email address that matches your domain for increased credibility
While Squarespace can handle all these components in one place, you have options if you've purchased your domain elsewhere—you can still connect external domains to Squarespace by updating some settings with your domain registrar.
Next Steps
If you don't have a domain yet, start by researching and securing one that reflects your business or personal brand. Even if you're not ready to build your entire website, owning that domain ensures nobody else can take it.
Take 15 minutes today to search for available domains. This small step creates momentum—once you own your domain, you'll feel more motivated to take the next step, whether that's setting up your professional email or starting to build your actual website.
Remember, every impressive website you visit today started with someone taking that first simple step. Your online journey begins with a domain name, and everything else can follow when you're ready.
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[00:00:00] There is a lot that goes into making a website work. Domains, hosting, DNS, CMS, MX records. It is wild to realize how much goes on behind the scenes and it can be overwhelming. But I do think it's important for anyone with a website to know the basics of how it works. In this episode of Think Inside the Square, I'm breaking down exactly what you should know about domains.
Hosting, content management systems, and professional email addresses, all those essential building blocks with no fluff, just practical information to help you understand what's happening behind the scenes of your Squarespace website. By the end of this episode, you'll know exactly what each component does and some simple ways that you can make your online presence more professional.
Welcome to Think Inside The Square, a podcast full of tips and tricks to help you create a website that you're proud of. I'm your host, Becca Harpain, Squarespace expert and educator and creator of insidethesquare.co
in this [00:01:00] episode, we are going back to the basics and Website 101, how a website actually works.
For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to any resources mentioned, visit insidethesquare.co/podcast.
The term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace, Inc. This content is not affiliated with Squarespace, Inc..
Before we dive in, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who's been leaving reviews and sending me feedback.
I've gotten so many thoughtful messages, and quite a few of you have asked for a beginner friendly episode that covers website basics. So if you're brand new to websites, or if you've been around websites your whole life, but never really understood what's happening behind the scenes, this episode is for you, my friend.
Let's start off with the very foundation of any website. Domains and hosting. I want you to think of your website like a house. Your domain is basically your address. It's how people find your house online. When someone types in insidethesquare. co into their browser, they're visiting my domain, or my digital address.
Domains are [00:02:00] unique just like a physical address. No two websites can have the exact same domain, and that's why it's so important to secure a branded one as soon as possible, especially if you're starting a business. If you're struggling to pick the right domain, you first need to make sure it's not taken, and then you should make sure that it's easy to spell and easy to remember.
Now you'll have to pay for this domain, and you'll likely have to pay for it every year. Some companies offer 2 3 year discounts to help you save a little, but basically, keeping this domain, even if you don't have a website on it, is still going to cost money. Think of it like hiring a security guard for your empty lot.
If you want to make sure this domain is yours and you can build a house on that lot when you're ready, you still need to pay for the security guard. Now you purchase domains through what's called a domain registrar. Companies like Porkbuns, Namecheap, GoDaddy, my personal favorite, Squarespace, because they make it super easy to manage everything in one place.
But your domain registrar, that is just the first [00:03:00] piece of the puzzle of getting your website online. If your domain is your address, hosting is the actual land that your house sits on, assuming that your house is your website. Stick with me here. Website hosting is essentially renting this space on a server.
Now, a server is a special type of computer that stores all of your website files and makes them accessible to people online. When someone visits your domain or goes to your address, The server delivers your website files to their browser so they can see your website. It has to do that super fast, too.
These servers are wildly powerful, and they take a lot of power to run, and it's why hosting isn't free. The next piece of the puzzle is your content management system, or CMS. Your CMS is the software that lets you create, edit, and manage the content on your website. Now, there are a lot of different CMS options out there, but some of the most popular ones include WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Showid, and of course, Squarespace.
Each of them have their [00:04:00] own strengths, and the right choice really depends on what you need your website to do. WordPress is super flexible and can do almost anything, but it comes with a very steep learning curve, and it requires you to handle the more technical details yourself. If we're going back to that house analogy, it's kind of like buying a fixer upper.
There is a lot of potential, but you're going to need to put in more work or hire professionals to help you set it up right. Now Squarespace, on the other hand, this is like moving into a beautifully designed, manufactured home. You can start with the prefab one, or use the new Squarespace Blueprint AI.
That is a tool that's like building your own manufactured home. You've got some options for picking out the tile and the layout. Do you want one bathroom or two? In Squarespace terms, do you want a blog or a store? You get the idea here. Everything is already set up for you, and it looks great right out of the box, so you don't really need any technical knowledge to get started.
You do sacrifice some flexibility compared to WordPress, but you gain simplicity and peace of mind knowing that [00:05:00] everything from security to backups is handled for you. And yes, the hosting is included. And with Squarespace purchasing Google Domains, that means they handle that part too. When I launched a new product last month, Custom Cody, it took all of 30 minutes to build a new site with Blueprint, pick out my domain, and connect it all.
Now, I already knew exactly what I wanted the site to look like, and I have a lot of experience with the program, but it really was a 30 minute process to get it up and rocking as a live website, because it's all in one place. Hosting, domain, And the CMS Squarespace. Now if you want to check out Blueprint, I have a free video overview on my YouTube channel.
I'll add a link in the show notes. It's at insidethesquare.co/blueprint if you want to check it out. But again, Squarespace is great for anyone who wants a prefab home. You can get the site, hosting, and domain in one place. And you've got a few options. But not all of the flexibility that comes with building it yourself.
Now another super popular platform I want to talk about [00:06:00] is Shopify. It's designed for e commerce, so if your main goal is to sell physical products, it's worth considering. They focus entirely on e commerce because it's in the name, Shopify. So if that's your main goal, definitely check that out and I'll include some links in the show notes to interesting articles about that platform and why it might be a good choice for you.
Alright, let's get back to the basics here. Let's assume you picked the perfect platform and you understand what's going where. You've secured your domain, you know what you're doing for your hosting, and you've picked the right CMS. Let's talk about getting a legit email for your business. Full disclosure, I had a Gmail address for my first business when I got started, but it looked super unprofessional when I started building my list and was ready to email people a regular newsletter.
The program I wanted to use for sending newsletters wouldn't even let me use Gmail, so I had to fork out the funds and get a professional email that was using my domain. Having an email that matches your domain can make a huge difference in how professional you appear to clients or customers. [00:07:00] So how do you actually get an email address that matches your domain?
The good news is that if you're using Squarespace, they made the process super simple by integrating with Google Workspace, which used to be called G Suite. Google Workspace gives you a professional email address, plus all the Google tools that you're already familiar with, which means Gmail to manage that inbox, your Google Calendar, a Google Drive, all kinds of fun stuff.
But the best part is you can manage it all through your Squarespace account. But what if you already own a domain somewhere else and you want to use it with Squarespace? No problem, my friend. Squarespace works with domains from other providers too. You just need to connect your domain to Squarespace by updating some settings with your domain registrar.
It sounds technical, but there are some step by step instructions for some popular domain providers and I'll toss those in the show notes. Now one more important thing I want you to know is that you can't use multiple email providers with a single domain. So if you decide to go with Google Workspace for [00:08:00] professional email You can't also use, like, Microsoft 365 with the same domain.
You've gotta pick one, and you gotta stick with it. Now, if all of this sounds a little overwhelming, please don't worry. I felt the same way when I first made the Switch, and I've included some helpful Squarespace support articles in the show notes that'll walk you through the whole process. And honestly, once it's set up, you barely think about it again.
It just works. The bottom line is this. If you're serious about your business or your personal brand, Having an email address that matches your domain name is one of those small details that makes a big difference in how professional you appear. It's one of those things that separates the hobbyists from the serious professionals in the eyes of your audience.
And hey, if you're just starting out and budget is tight, I get it. You can absolutely begin with a free email service and upgrade later when your business grows. That's exactly what I did. But when you're ready to take that next step towards a more professional online presence, setting up a domain based email should absolutely be on your to [00:09:00] do list.
Alright, we covered a ton in this episode, so let's just pull everything together here. We started with the foundational elements, domains and hosting, which are like the address and land for your digital home. Even if you haven't built the home yet, you still need to pay a security guard to watch over that address, okay?
So again, domains and host it. Then we explore different content management systems like WordPress and Shopify and Squarespace. Each one of them has their own unique strengths for different website purposes. And last but not least, we talked about the importance of professional email addresses that match your domain name.
That is something that will instantly elevate your business credibility. Remember, your email is often the first impression that people get of your business. So moving away from a generic Gmail to a custom domain email is one of those small changes that makes a very big difference. The key takeaway here is that building a website doesn't have to be overwhelming when you break it down to these core components.
You need to have an address, you need to have a lot for the land, and you need to [00:10:00] have a home on that land. And it looks even more professional if you have an email that matches it all. Squarespace can handle all of those things, but if you purchased your domain using a different domain registrar, you still have options, and I've got a lot of information in the show notes for this episode, available at insidethesquare.co/podcast So what's your next step? Today, I want you to do one simple thing. If you don't have a domain yet, I want you to research and secure that domain name. Even if you're not ready to build your entire website, owning that domain is claiming your piece of digital real estate. It ensures that nobody else can take that perfect domain that matches your business idea.
Take 15 minutes today to search for available domains. This small step creates momentum. Once you own your domain, you're going to feel more motivated to take the next step, whether that's setting up your professional email or starting to build your actual website.
I want you to remember that every impressive website you visit today started with someone taking that first simple step. Your online journey begins with [00:11:00] a domain name and everything else can follow when you're ready. If you found this episode helpful, I would be thrilled if you'd share it with someone who's thinking about building a website.
And if you have any questions about what we covered today, drop me a message on Instagram @thinkinsidethesquare, or leave a comment on this episode at insidethesquare.co/podcast I'm Becca Harpain from Inside the Square, and thank you so much for listening to this episode. Most importantly, have fun with your website.
Bye for now.
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Squarespace Blueprint AI Tutorial: insidethesquare.co/blueprint
Squarespace domain support articles: support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/categories/200290497-Domains
Connecting a third-party domain to your Squarespace site: support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205812378-Connecting-a-third-party-domain-to-your-Squarespace-site
Google Workspace Setup Guide: support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206542057-Using-Google-Workspace-with-Squarespace
Domain Registrars Mentioned
Porkbun: porkbun.com
Namecheap: namecheap.com
GoDaddy:godaddy.com
Squarespace - affiliate link: insidethesquare.co/partner10
CMS Platforms Discussed
WordPress: wordpress.com
Squarespace: insidethesquare.co/partner10
Shopify: shopify.com
