Do I need a domain name to publish a website?

Yes, if you wish for your website to be a success. Without a domain name the only way for visitors around the world to access your site would be via an IP address. There are many reasons why this isn’t a good idea, just a couple of them are:

- Giving out your web hosting account’s IP address can be a big security issue.

- Your websites visitors are not likely to remember the IP address of your website

- Search engines will rarely index pages of a website that doesn’t use a domain name so users are unlikely to find your website in the first place.

Please note that you will also need a web hosting account if you wish to publish your own website online for others to see it. A web hosting account is used to store your files and the domain name is used as a means of accessing your website without the need to remember an IP address.