It is important to choose the right Web Host
You should carefully choose your web hosting provider, regardless of whether you are creating a personal or commercial website. You want your website to be seen and found by as many people as possible. It is important to review some basic, but crucial factors that will increase your website’s visibility.
Things to Consider When Choosing Web Hosting
There are many web hosting companies and packages available today. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. How do you decide which one? You still have to pick the right hosting package for you, even after you’ve chosen a provider. There are many packages available on every web hosting website. The most popular package is the Unlimited Bandwidth. These points will make it easier for you to choose web hosting.
Server uptime and customer support
A website’s ability to be found online depends on whether it is accessible from an internet-connected server. It is called Server Uptime. This is known as Server Uptime. Most web hosting providers claim a 99.9% server uptime. Some claimed 100%. You can search online for comments from users about the provider if you have the time. You can also choose to go with larger, more established hosting companies that have a good reputation. Hosting companies that are reliable have backups and multiple servers.
Several hosting companies also promise 100% uptime and offer a refund policy in the event of any downtime. Customer support is another important aspect of good web hosting. Customers should be able to reach them 24/7 via phone or internet. You should be able to access a variety of FAQs and tutorials on their website in case you need assistance. If you’re serious about your website, it is likely that you will need to contact your hosting support more frequently than you think.
Prices & features included
There are many features and pricing options available for web hosting packages. A balance between features and quality is important to meet your needs. Cheaper products usually have lower quality than those that are more expensive. However, prices can be high without providing any extra value. Hosting packages’ prices are often determined by the features that they include. These include data storage and bandwidth limits as well as number of allow add-on domains and subdomains.
They also determine the number of email or ftp accounts that can be hosted. These many options can make it difficult to keep track of, especially if you don’t know what they are. We will be covering the most important ones in the next paragraphs. A fair-value shared hosting package usually costs between 6-8 US$ per monthly. Virtual Private/Dedicated Servers are available for US$ 30-50 PM, and Dedicated Servers between US$ 60-60 AM.
Pricing tip – Some packages include a free domain along with hosting if you don’t have a domain or wish to purchase one. These packages can be quite affordable.
Data Storage and Bandwidth Limits
You might not know how much bandwidth and data storage space your website will require if you’re new to setting up websites. This is not something to worry about. This is something that even the most experienced people will tell themselves. You will learn all about your needs as your website visitors increase.
Data Storage Area: Most hosting packages are sufficient to store a small number of videos/movie clips and large amounts of high resolution images. Websites rarely exceed 40-50 MB (megabytes) of storage space. For $4.99 per month, the basic shared hosting package from the top registrar includes 10GB (1000 MB) storage space.
Bandwidth Limits – Bandwidth is the maximum data transfer your hosting allows per month. This is dependent on the number of visitors to your site and the type files you are serving. Basic web pages, images or videos clips etc. This is also not a problem for websites that aren’t very important. Hosting providers offer unlimited bandwidth even with their shared hosting plans.
For those who plan to host high-resolution images or video/movie clips, be careful.
Unlimited Bandwidth Shared Host Packages are not to be trusted. You will find a section in the “Terms of Use and Common Usage Policy” of most shared hosting packages that states that you will not be allowed or charged an additional fee for “abnormally large data bandwidth usage”. It is likely that you would be better choosing VPS, dedicated servers, Cloud hosting or high-bandwidth packages.
Shared Hosting vs Virtual Private Server vs Dedicated Server vs Cloud Hosting
How do you choose between these hosting types? Simply put, you need to choose based on how popular your site is viz Shared, VPS, Dedicated, Cloud.
Shared Hosting – The majority of websites are hosted on shared hosting. This is great for small and personal websites. These hosting plans are the most affordable. A shared hosting account hosts a variety of hosting accounts, usually between 10 and 100. They share the same server storage, and the same broadband connection.
Sharing hosting is a great option for small and medium-sized websites, as well as those that don’t host video/movie/downloads.
Virtual Private servers: Medium websites that have medium storage requirements and bandwidth requirements can use this type of hosting. Virtual Private Servers can be hosted at unique ip addresses, such as. Virtual Private Servers are hosted on unique ip addresses (e.g. It works like this: Multiple accounts, say 3-10, are hosted on one physical server. Each account has its own unique host ID or ip address, data storage, and bandwidth. VPS hosting costs between $30 and $150 per month, depending on what features you choose for your 1 year contract. Notice: The price of all hosting packages decreases as the contract length increases.
Dedicated server: These servers are used by medium-sized websites that require storage and bandwidth that is scalable. They are hosted on separate physical servers. They have a server that is rented to them. They are able to control the server, including its unique address, hard drive, ram, and bandwidth.
Prices for renting dedicated servers vary depending on their physical components, hard disk capacity, processor version, ram, and broadband connection. Prices for a dedicated server can range from $65 to $200 per month.
Cloud Hosting: A relatively new concept in web hosting, Cloud hosting is the next-generation type of hosting. Cloud hosting is a way to have multiple servers, rather than one server.
Cloud hosting has two main benefits: Scalability and Cost Efficiency. Cloud hosting offers huge benefits for large websites. Websites that grow beyond their current capabilities can simply add another server to the networked group.
Cloud hosting packages are priced from $100 up to $550 depending on storage and bandwidth requirements.
Addon Domains & Sub Domains
Addon domains are domain names that i.e. websites eg. “http://www.yoursite1.com”, “http://www.yoursite2.com” that you want to host with your hosting provider. You should choose the package that allows you to host multiple websites. The majority of web hosting plans will only allow one website.
Sub Domains – These are directories you might want to create, eg. “http://directory1.yoursite.com” or “http://directory2.yoursite.com”. Different packages may allow different amounts of Sub Domains. This should not be confused with folders, eg. “http://www.yoursite.com/folder1” or “http://www.yoursite.com/folder2”. You can have as many folders as you like.
FTP and email accounts
Email Accounts – These are unique email addresses for your website/s, eg. “name@yoursite.com”. These can be set up and shared with anyone: friends, visitors, customers. You don’t have to worry about this because most hosting packages offer plenty.
FTP accounts: FTP stands to “File Transfer Protocol”. FTP accounts allow you to access your hosting files via web softwares. FTP accounts are a great help for webmasters as they allow you to access your hosting files directly from your web design software or ftp softwares. You don’t have to worry about this as most packages offer more than 10 accounts. This can be assigned to designers or co-workers as you wish.
Programming Languages and Databases
Frontpage Extension, PHP5, Customphp.ini Perl w/FASTCGI Python CGI Java Ruby CGI Ruby on Rails with FASTCGI ColdFusion MySQL(Unix), MsAccess MySQL(Win), etc.
These are the programming softwares and databases that your hosting server uses. These are essential for advanced web features such as automated content management, user administration, and running scripts. They are easy to understand if you don’t know them. Most packages include databases and languages that you may need to access them.
Content Management, Blogs and Forums
Drupal Joomla, Mambo Nucleas Moodle WordPress, Geeklog Lifetype Serendipity, phpBB SMF Vanilla Forum, etc.
These tools can be used to create blogs, forums, and content management systems that enhance websites. There are many options in most packages.
Website Tools, Marketing Tools, Shopping Cart Website Tools
Website Builder, Web Analytics Tools, FrontPage Extensions, Google Custom Search, Google Webmaster Tools etc. These tools are essential for building websites, tracking website popularity and stats, and site enhancements. Marketing Tools: Google AdWords credit – $50, Yahoo! Search Marketing Credit – $25, Facebook Ads credit – $50, etc. These are advertising credits that you can use to advertise your website. If it is included, they are great deals.
Shopping Cart This tool is essential for anyone who wants to sell products online. They are usually included in most packages.
Tips for SEO web hosting
The server’s location is an important factor in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines prefer local websites when a search is done. This has been proven by experience. Google and other big search engines are well-known for favoring locally hosted websites. It is important to have a UK-based web hosting server in order to rank higher in search engines like Google. Local TLDs, or domain names, are another thing that can help SEO in local search rankings.
For UK domains.co.uk and.org.uk will be preferred. It is important to remember that sharing hosting can negatively impact your website’s SEO rankings. Experts believe that sharing a server or ip address with a Google penalized website can cause your website to suffer. This can be avoided by hosting your site on a different ip address. This will allow you to use a Virtual Private Server to host your sites.
