When you have a site visitor, they use your domain name to view your website. As simple as it seems, there is a process that occurs from the time that the site visitor types in your domain and presses enter.
When a site visitor enters your domain name into a browser, the domain is then translated into your server IP address, then the server sends that user your site files, which their browser represents to them as a typical web-page. You can see that, without each of these 3 elements, you won't really have a web-site.
The three basic parts that make up any website are: Domain Names; Web-Hosting Servers; Website Design
Domain Names
Computers communicate by using numbers, called IP addresses, to contact each other, much like you use a phone number to dial a specific person's phone. Domain names on the internet are much like entries in a phone book. The phone book tells people looking for a business what the entries are just as a domain tells people (i.e. their computers) that a domain is hosted on the server.
Without a domain, you would have to tell your customers that your site is located at a temporary url such as 123.456.789.123/~mysite instead of using a domain name such as mysite.com, making your site appear unprofessional and impractical.
Web-Hosting Servers
The web-hosting or server is much like the space that you rent out to have your business in. It's merely the space itself. It does not include furnishings like shelves for your products, just as the web-hosting account doesn't include a site for you to sell your products.
Without the hosting services, you won't have a place for your files to reside, so your domain would then become like a disconnected phone number in the phone directory, and your site files would have nowhere to stay.
Website Design
Briefly, website design means planning, creation and updating of websites. Website design also involves information architecture, website structure, user interface, navigation ergonomics, website layout, colors, contrasts, fonts and imagery (photography) as well as icons design.
All these website elements combined together form websites. Often, the meaning of "design" is perceived solely as a visual aspect. In reality, website design includes more abstract elements such as usability, ergonomics, layout traditions, user habits, navigation logic and other things that simplify the using of websites and help to find information faster.
In classical terms, design describes the visual appearance of a website. Traditional approach involves contrast, coloring, balance, emphasis, rhythm, style of graphical elements (lines, shapes, texture, color and direction), use of icons, background textures and general atmosphere of overall website design.
All these elements are combined with the fundamental principles of design in order to create a superb result that meets the goals set for the website.
