I decided to write this post for non-technical people who need a website set up for their Australian business, personal blog, etc, that involves having a website and/or email service using their own domain name, like mybizname.com.au.
Whether you’ve already got a website and email system in place or just starting out, it’s crucial to understand and carefully manage the critical systems that are required to run.
There are three online systems or services that are critical to most businesses that need to function online.
- Domain Name System (DNS)
- Website Hosting
- Email Hosting
A smart practice to adopt is to keep these services separate, leading to a more reliable and resilient online setup. In this blog, we delve into the reasons why you should consider keeping your DNS, Email, and website separate and how this separation can benefit your online operations.
Understanding the Basics
Understanding what these three critical systems are and how they work will empower you to make decisions early on that lead to a stable and secure foundation for your website and online communications and avoid potential pitfalls.
1. DNS: The Address Book of the Web
Domain Name System (DNS) serves as the internet’s address book, matching human-readable domain names to IP addresses, like this:
biznuggets.au -> 170.64.134.90
Think of an IP address like a street address on the internet. DNS allows us to look up this long bunch of numbers with a short domain name representing your website.
It’s a fundamental service for accessing websites because, without a registered domain and DNS setup, your website can only be found by users typing in your IP address, making it much harder for your customers to see you.
The DNS “address book” also stores other resources, such as the location of your email hosting. Without DNS, emails sent to you@website.com.au can’t possibly work because there is no way to know what IP address ‘website.com.au’ is using to receive the Email.
2. Website Hosting
Website Hosting is like a virtual box that lives somewhere on the internet. You can fill this box with your website code, content, database and other stuff to make your website work.
Website hosting comes in various shapes and sizes. If your website is going to have lots of content and a high volume of visitors, then the size and processing power of your website hosting will be bigger and will cost more to accommodate. Website Hosting helps determine your website’s speed, reliability, and performance.
If your website hosting is offline or of inferior quality, then your customers won’t be able to find or use your website!
3. Email Hosting
You can think of Email hosting like the internet’s version of an Australia Post PO BOX. If you don’t have Email hosting available, then you have no valid online address for any emails people try to send you.
Email Hosting can include multiple inboxes (i.e., multiple email accounts) and handles Email sending, receiving, and storing. It’s a critical component that allows your businesses to communicate online, both internally and with your customers.
The Bundled Approach
It’s a common practice to bundle all these services together within a single system or provider (like crazydomains.com). This choice to bundle simplifies management and potentially upfront costs but often compromises quality, control and security, particularly as your business needs or team size grows.
Important Insight
Most people who are unfamiliar with DNS, web hosting and email hosting will choose a bundled service because it’s geared toward non-technical do-it-yourself users. It provides a more guided and integrated collection of services that makes it very cost-effective to get started without the need for a web developer.
The problem occurs later, when you find you need a web developer or several web service providers… as serious commercial projects or businesses do not use these bundled systems.
## The Benefits of Separation
Separating these services is a smart choice, as keeping DNS, Email, and website hosting separate can be a game-changer for your online presence.
1. Enhanced Security
Security should always be a top priority when it comes to your online assets, particularly your critical systems. If a hacker gains control of your DNS, website or Email, the damage they can do could spell the end of your business entirely.
Mitigation of Risks: Separating your DNS, Email, and website hosting can significantly enhance your security posture by isolating access and containing the impact of a breach.
Example: If all your services are with a single provider and that provider experiences a security breach or downtime, all your online assets could be compromised. By spreading these services across different providers, you reduce the risk of a single point of failure affecting everything.
Different Security Protocols: Different services have different security requirements and protocols. Separation allows you to tailor security measures to each service’s specific needs.
Example: If you’re working with a web developer to make a change to your website, then you should give them access to your website hosting and NOT your email account or DNS. Providing access to everything could allow them to steal sensitive data to sell on the dark web or worse! This can happen when working with unscrupulous, dodgy providers. In today’s gig economy, many businesses bring on a web developer for a small task, give them access to “everything”, and pay them peanuts to boot, not realising that by giving this person full access to everything, they are handing over the keys to the safe, and opening the floodgates to a multitude of risks.
2. Improved Performance and Reliability
Website and email performance are critical for user satisfaction and business success. Separating these systems can lead to noticeable improvements in both areas.
Load Distribution: Separate systems allow you to distribute traffic and resource demands effectively.
Example: Your website’s traffic won’t slow down your email services, and vice versa.
Specialised Providers: Providers specialising in DNS, email hosting, or website hosting tend to offer better performance and reliability in their respective fields.
Example A: Dedicated website hosting provider specialises in fast and stable websites, employing technology and know-how that squeezes your website’s performance to reach its maximum potential.
Example B: A dedicated DNS provider will optimise their system to reduce the time it takes for any domain records to be looked up from the database and sent back to the user. The physical location of the DNS provider’s name servers will also impact the latency of any requests. Choosing a dedicated and high-quality DNS provider that is local to your customers will ensure your website and emails load as quickly as possible for them.
3. Easier Scalability
As your online presence grows, you’ll need to scale your systems accordingly. Separation makes this process more manageable.
Modular Scalability: With separate systems, you can scale each component independently, adapting to your specific needs without affecting the others.
Example: Upgrading your website hosting doesn’t impact the cost of your other services.
No Vendor Lock-In: Avoiding bundled systems reduces vendor lock-in, giving you the freedom to choose the best providers for each service as your requirements evolve.
4. Simplified Troubleshooting
When issues arise, troubleshooting is much more straightforward with separate systems. Separation allows you to isolate and identify issues more quickly.
Example: If your Email goes down, but your website is still working, you can quickly pinpoint the problem to your DNS -> Email Hosting. There is no need to look at your web hosting, which makes it quicker to investigate and discover whether your email hosting has an issue.
With fewer interconnected services, technical support and resolution times are faster, so any downtime due to a system failure is minimised.
Best Practices for Separation
Hopefully, at this point, you’ve now convinced the benefits of separating DNS, Email, and website hosting is the smart choice, so let’s run through some best practices for implementing this strategy.
Step 1. Choose Reliable Providers
When separating your services, choose reputable and reliable providers for each system. Research and compare options to find the best fit for your specific needs and budget.
TIP: For Australian businesses, I recommend going with systems that are Australian-based or have the option to choose services or hardware that is based in Australia. Because the systems are located in the same geographical location as your customers – the overall speed of your website will be much faster than if your systems were hosted overseas. Local Australian IT service providers typically have superior support, including phone, live chat and quick email responses to any queries you have. The quality of communicating with these Australian vendors is typically superior because they understand the language and culture of Australian customers.
My Recommendations for Providers
- Cloudways for Fast, Stable and Scalable Managed Website Hosting. They specialise in WordPress Hosting and specifically optimise for these kinds of websites. WordPress is the most common CMS for a hosted website system – for good reason. Cloudways website
- VentraIP for Fast Australian DNS providers. Their system is easy to use, you can give other users access to your domains if necessary, and the customer support is exceptional. VentraIP’s website
- Google Workspace for a reliable email account. This is my default recommendation to all businesses simply because of its minimal headaches and reliability, and if you’re using any Google services like Google Analytics or Google Ads, then you’ll need a Google account anyway, so it makes sense to use Google for Email. I’ve set up many clients with Google Email, and it is by far the headache-free option when compared to other Email providers, including Microsoft. Google Workspace website
- If you’re looking for an email service that stresses privacy, then I recommend checking out Proton (which is similar to google workspace apps) Proton website
Step 2. Keep Detailed Documentation
Maintain comprehensive documentation of your systems, configurations, and credentials, as this will be invaluable in managing and troubleshooting your online assets. Too often, I’ve had clients request support on one of their systems – such as Email Hosting, only for them not to know where this hosting is and what their access credentials (i.e. username and password) are. Keeping documentation in a safe place means your systems can be accessed whenever the need arises, safely and without delay.
Not being able to access your own critical systems in a time of need will hurt your customer’s website experience and damage your credibility.
Step 3. Regularly Monitor and Update
Frequently monitor the performance and security of your systems. Stay up-to-date with software and security patches to protect against vulnerabilities and analyse/plan the scaling needs of the systems due to the growth of your business. Making sure the system has enough resources and is configured to run smoothly, especially as you grow your customer base, is an essential ingredient in baking a healthy and prosperous business.
For this sort of work, I would typically recommend you hire a web developer or similar provider to take on the responsibility of keeping things monitored and running smoothly.
Step 4. Implement Backup and Redundancy
Backup your critical data and implement redundancy for each system as appropriate. Separate systems ensure that if one service experiences an issue, you have an isolated backup plan in place that can be executed quickly and with fewer steps to minimise disruptions.
Again, this is something best left to a web provider to manage.
To Sum Up
By separating your DNS, Email, and website hosting systems, you can enhance security, improve performance, simplify troubleshooting, and achieve greater scalability.
Implementing best practices for separation ensures that you can harness the full potential of each service while maintaining control and flexibility in managing your online assets.
The bottom line is that you should keep your DNS, Email, and website separate, even if it costs a little more upfront. From increased customer satisfaction to mitigating the risk of security breaches, at the end of the day, the long-term benefits pile up a hefty stack of cash in your pocket, not to mention a lot fewer headaches for everyone.
