There is sometimes confusion out there for people who are new to the web or maybe trying to get online. The confusion is based upon whether people should use a domain registrar or web hosting company to get their website up on the web.
The answer is that often there is no difference between the two. Domain Registries will focus on domains as their lead product, but will almost always offer hosting for your website. Hosting companies on the other hand will focus on web hosting as their lead product, but will also offer domain registration.
There are two very simple factors to think about:
1. Whoever you choose to host your website with make sure you determine which country your site is hosted in, is it in the country you reside in and that is relevant to your domain. For example if a .ie domain, is your site hosted in Ireland.
2. Whoever registers your domain, are they an authorised registry for that domain in that country and can ensure you’re domain is registered correctly.
We’re not saying these are the only considerations, but important if you want good search engine performance.