Today’s Tip of the Month focuses on the classic trifecta every business should have: A domain, website, and email. Now, it’s very tempting to do this, and so this is the common scenario for most businesses: You didn’t want to worry about it too much, it was handy, and you needed to focus on your business, not the infrastructure; you decided, why not get all 3 in the same place? Be it HostGator, GoDaddy, or somewhere else, you got a domain, website, and email all purchased together in one lump payment and moved on with your day getting your business ready to go. Easy, right?
Here’s the problem with that: basic websites either prompt you to cobble something together or load in manual files to create a website. In either case, are you a website expert? No? Neither am I, which is why I like to refer people interested in optimizing their website design and structure to Smack Happy Designs. Nicole takes an amorphous blob of code and random content and turns it into a beautiful and functional website. For something that’s so visible, why not make sure it’s the best it could be?
Here’s another problem with the 3-in-1 approach: typically email products through domain providers are, to be fairly blunt, crap products. They don’t sync between devices, have mobile support, save contacts, or even keep all of your email over the years. You rely instead completely on Outlook on a single computer, and if something breaks and you lose your email on that computer, that’s it – you’re done. Scary, right? I like to recommend Google Apps as a first look for email. It provides all of these features, and adds other neat tools like Google Drive, Google Calendar, and even instant messaging and phone capabilities through Hangouts and/or Voice. All for as low as $5 / month! How much are you paying for your email through your domain provider?
What about your domain, you ask? Well, you need a domain provider for that regardless, and that can stay where it is. It makes no functional difference to move your domain provider somewhere else; the only reason for it would be cost-motivated, which is usually not an issue.
Well, that’s it. Hope you’ve enjoyed this Tip of the Month!
Are you interested in migrating your website and/or email somewhere else after reading this? Email us to let us know!