Full Transcript
[0:00]
Welcome to the 805 Web Minute. And today we're talking about the three confusing web terms that might be costing your business unnecessary headaches and hidden fees. Oh, it's a huge point of friction. And frankly, it's just, it's unnecessary. Yeah. We work with small businesses every day here on the Central Coast, you know, from vineyards up in Pazzo Robles to boutiques right down here in a royal grande, and almost everyone admits to feeling overwhelmed. Mm-hmm. They just want a professional website that, you know, works. But instead they're hit with terms like domain hosting, registrar, SSL. Exactly. And suddenly they feel like they need a network engineering degree just to set up a simple brochure site. Yeah. And that's by design almost. The systems are designed to be sold separately and that separation is what causes all the confusion and the unexpected fees. So our mission today is to clear that up instantly. You need to know exactly what you're buying and maybe more importantly what you don't own yet. Okay. I think the simplest way is that analogy we found, the one about the house, an online presence as a business location. It's the perfect analogy. So you've got three essential elements and they really do stack on top of each other. So first you have the domain name. This is just your street address. That's it. Yep. If your business is say centralcoastcoffee.com, that's the unique nameplate people type in to find you. It's an identifier. But it holds no content. It's just the sign that tells people where to go. Right. So where we have to introduce a kind of hidden fourth player, the registrar. Okay. Think of the registrar as like the DMV or the county records office for your domain name. They're the independent company that handles the official registration, the paperwork. So they make sure your name is legally attached to that address for the year or however long you buy it for. Exactly. Wait, but I thought the company that sells me the domain like a go daddy or name cheap. I thought they were the registrar. They often are or they act as an agent for one. But the point is it's purely an administrative step.
[2:02]
The company you buy from should always send renewal notices directly to you, the business owner, because you legally own the digital property. You're supposed to. And that distinction becomes so critical later when we talk about the risks. Okay. So we have the address, which is the domain and the paperwork office, the registrar. What's the next piece of the puzzle? Next up is web hosting. The domain is the address. The hosting is, well, it's the land, the foundation, your entire operations sits on. And this isn't theoretical space, right? Not at all. It's physical, powerful computer hardware, a server that's connected to the internet 24 seven. You are, you know, literally renting server space to keep your files accessible. So if my domain is the name plate on my coffee shop, the hosting is the physical property the shop is built on precisely. And that leads to the last piece. The website itself, the actual house, the actual house, the structure, the floor plan, the colors, the content, the photos of your best lattes that contact form, everything your visitors actually see and interact with. So you need all three to be visible and functional online, the domain, the hosting and the website. You have to have all three. What's wild is that they have such wildly different price points. And I think that's why business owners feel like they're being nickel and dime all the time. It is. Let's break down those costs because that really is the root of the headache. Okay, starting with the domain name, the address. It's almost always the cheapest part. We're talking what? 10 to $20 per year for dot com. Yeah, around that. But that name matters so much more than that low price suggests. I mean, we saw the data. What was it? Something like 77% of consumers value a domain name when they're looking at a brand. And I think the other number was even more staggering. 76% trusted dot com address more than any other extension. So the cost is tiny, but the credibility is huge. Huge. Okay. So then you move to web hosting, renting that server space for most small local businesses. You're looking at about two to $15 a month, which is still pretty inexpensive.
[4:03]
It is. But here's the catch. You are sharing that powerful computer with maybe hundreds of other websites. That sounds like renting an apartment in a giant building. You're splitting the utilities and all the noise with all your neighbors. That is the perfect analogy. If one of your neighbors suddenly gets a massive traffic spike, it can slow down the whole building, including my website, including your website. But for, you know, 90% of our local businesses standard shared hosting is all you need. It's like the electricity bill for your land. And then we get to the part where the cost just explode. The website itself, the content, the design, if the domain is $15 a year and hosting is $15 a month, the website bill can go from, well, zero if you do it yourself. All the way up to five, 10, even $15,000 or more for a high-end agency. It's because you're paying for time and expertise. Right. So a platform like Squarespace might be $20, $40 a month. Yeah. But that just covers the software. You still have to put in all the hours yourself, the designing, the writing, structuring the site, all of it. And if you pay an agency $5,000, you're paying a team, a copywriter to write per swacive text, a designer for the layout, a developer to make sure the contact form actually works. It's paying for professional construction instead of buying a blueprint and swinging the hammer yourself. That makes a lot of sense. But this is where it gets really important for the small business owner, right? Not understanding the difference between these three things introduces some pretty severe risks. Oh, absolutely. The risks to your bottom line and your security are significant because they're often bought from three different places. The communication breakdown is almost inevitable. So let's start with the most common one, paying double. It sounds ridiculous, but it happens all the time. Constantly. So you might have bought your domain and hosting from, say, GoDaddy five years ago, but then you decide to use a newer builder like Wix or Squarespace because you like their templates.
[6:03]
The mistake is that many of those website builder packages include hosting. So if you don't cancel your original plan, you're paying rent in two places for the same house. See that, right? People paying $10 a month here, 15 a month there. It adds up to hundreds of dollars a year, just wasted. It is wasted, but that's just money. The second problem is way more dangerous. It's actually terrifying. Losing access to your domain. This is the horror story. This is the one we hear most often. Imagine a local restaurant owner in downtown SLO. They hire a freelance designer. The designer, trying to be helpful, registers the business's web address in their own name. They're paying their agency email and their credit card. Exactly. So the designer is the owner of record at the register, at the DMV. Okay. I see where this is going. When the restaurant owner and the designer eventually part ways, maybe the designer just stops answering emails, the owner is completely locked out. They can't renew the domain. They can't move it. So the designer technically owns the restaurant's street address. And if that domain expires, or if the designer just wants to be difficult, the restaurant has to start over with a new name. They lose years of brand equity, search traffic. It's a catastrophic failure. So the one non-negotiable is that the domain must be registered in your name, the business owner's name. You have to be able to log in and prove you own it. Otherwise, you don't own your digital identity. Wow. Okay. So beyond ownership, there's the problem of just longevity. You share to crazy statistic. 85% of small business websites are inactive or dormant. Why? It's because of the complexity. They paid for the build, but they stopped paying for ongoing maintenance. They bought the house, but stopped mowing the lawn or fixing the roof. Exactly. The internet is always changing. Security protocols, software updates, hackers are always looking for a way in. The site broke. A plug-in became outdated. Or they just needed a simple change, like updating their hours. And they didn't know who to call or how to fix it themselves. So they just abandoned it, let it decay digitally.
[8:05]
And that is such a huge risk. We know 81% of consumers research a business online before buying. And that other stat that 75% of people judge a business's credibility based on its website. A broken, slow or outdated site doesn't just fail to get you weeds. It actively destroys trust. If you run a beautiful winery in Paso and your site looks like it was built in 2005, you've lost credibility before they even walk in the door. Your digital storefront has to match your actual storefront. It has to. OK, let's wrap this up with a simple checklist then. If you're a business owner listening, what are the five absolute non-negotiables? All right, first, the domain name. And it has to be registered in your name. Second, reliable web hosting. That's the foundation keeping it on to 1-2-40. Third, and this is huge SSL security. That's the little HTTPS lock icon. Without it, browsers will flag your site as not secure. Which is the fastest way to lose a customer. Secondly, fourth is the actual website design and content, the professional structure that explains what you do. And fifth, the one everyone forget. The most critical one, ongoing maintenance. Security updates, backups, content changes. Your website is a living tool, not a static billboard. It needs constant care. When you look at all five of those, the costs start to add up fast, don't they? They do. And they 100, 50 to $500 a year for the basics is the absolute minimum. That doesn't factor in the real cost to a local business owner. Another time. There are time. If you have to spend an afternoon calling three different companies because your site broke, that's four hours you aren't serving customers. Time is money. And that's the core challenge, right? Here in SLO County, you shouldn't have to become an IT expert just to keep the lights on online. The goal should be simplicity and trust. One partner who handles all five things for you so you never have to worry. That's the quick tip for today. If you want a professional website without the agency price tag or the DIY headache, here is the better way. At UGRO.Pro, we build it, we manage it, and we handle every update forever, all for
[10:08]
just $79 a month. There is zero setup fee, no contract, and it is strictly month to month so there is zero risk. We're local here in AG and we can have you live in days not months. Want to see what your site could look like? Go to UGRO.Pro right now and we'll design three custom mock-ups for your business, completely free, no strings attached. Thanks for listening and keep growing.