This is a commonly asked question among individuals who are building their website for the first time. It’s true that a domain name is necessary to have a website, but this only includes exactly what it sounds like—a name. Most developers refer to it as an alias because it’s technically the user-friendly format of your website server’s IP address. For example, the IP address for your website might be “72.70.011.00,” but most users won’t remember that. To help them find you, you also purchase the alias for it (something like www.mywebsite.com.) In short, the internet identifies your domain name as the spot to display your website, but it still needs some help from the DNS and host to work correctly.