Hosting
Web Hosting
Fast, secure Australian web hosting for small-business websites — with the uptime and support your customers expect.
Overview
Web Hosting explained
Web hosting is the service that keeps your website online and reachable around the clock — it is the space your site lives in, served to anyone who types your address. Without it, your domain name points to nothing. With Cockatoo, we host your small-business site on Australian-based servers so pages load quickly for your local customers and your business stays visible day and night.
Good hosting is about more than just being switched on. It shapes how fast your pages appear, how well your site copes when a few people visit at once, and how quickly you can get help when something looks wrong. We handle the technical side so you can focus on running your business, not babysitting a server.
Whether you are launching your first website or moving across from a host that has let you down, we make the move painless and keep you supported by real people who speak plain English.
What to check
Key points
- Australian-based servers so pages load fast for local customers and search engines.
- Reliable uptime, so your site is there when a customer goes looking for you.
- Friendly local support that explains things without the jargon.
- Room to grow — start small and scale up as your traffic increases.
Before you start
What you'll need
- A domain name (your web address, like yourbusiness.com.au) — we can help you register one if you do not have it yet.
- The files or pages that make up your website, or a Cockatoo-built site ready to publish.
- Access to your domain settings so we can point it to our servers.
- An email address for account and billing notices.
- A rough idea of how busy your site gets, so we can suggest the right plan.
Process
How it works
- Pick a hosting plan that suits the size and traffic of your business.
- Point your domain to our servers by updating your DNS settings — we guide you through it.
- Upload your website files or publish your Cockatoo-built pages.
- Add a free SSL certificate so your site loads securely over https.
- Go live and let us monitor uptime and performance in the background.
Avoid these
Common mistakes
- Choosing the cheapest overseas host and ending up with slow load times for Australian visitors.
- Forgetting to renew the domain or hosting, which can take a working site offline overnight.
- Skipping SSL, so browsers show a "Not Secure" warning that scares customers away.
- Picking a plan with no support, then being stranded when something breaks.
Common questions
Web Hosting FAQs
What is web hosting and why does my small business need it?
Web hosting is the service that stores your website and makes it available to anyone on the internet. Your domain name is the address, but hosting is the actual home your site lives in. Without it, visitors who type your address would have nowhere to land.
Where are your servers located?
We host on Australian-based servers, which means data has a shorter distance to travel to reach your local customers. That generally translates to faster page loads for visitors here and a small SEO benefit, since Google favours quick, locally served sites.
Can I move my existing website to Cockatoo?
Yes. Moving hosts (often called migration) is a routine job and we handle the technical steps for you. In most cases your site stays online throughout the move, and we double-check everything works before switching your domain across.
What happens if my site goes down?
We monitor uptime in the background and work to restore service quickly if anything goes wrong. If you ever notice a problem, our local support team is there to help you sort it out rather than leaving you to puzzle through it alone.
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