Your website wouldn’t exist without a web server to house it. When a website’s files are uploaded to the server, the site becomes accessible to the general public. Your website may go down if your web host is unstable. Because of this, you will lose money because fewer people will subscribe to your website, and fewer products will be sold.
There are three questions people typically have before settling on a Web host:
Can you recommend a good hosting service for me?
Where do I begin my search?
What should I expect to pay?
1) What kind of web hosting do I require?
Web space that is shared (virtually)
In this setup, your website will be on the same server, among many others. Because of its low price and abundant storage and transfer capacity, it is the preferred option for most website proprietors.
Web Hosting That’s All Your Own
This effectively grants you sole control of the server. Only the websites you own have access to it. This is a standard solution for really resource-intensive websites. The monthly cost will be more than $100.
Web hosting for resale
A reseller hosting plan is an option if you must host many sites or intend to offer hosting to others.
Free Web Space
These businesses can afford free hosting because they incorporate advertising into their models. If you register a domain name with them, they might even provide free hosting. Hosting plan upgrades incur fees, but only at that time. If you want to save money, don’t host your site.
How do I know what to search for?
Both Windows and Linux
These days, web hosts widely use Linux servers because they are dependable, affordable, and packed with valuable extras. Although ASP pages require Windows servers, any website can be hosted on a server that supports HTML. Ensure your website is hosted on a Linux server containing PHP pages.
Data storage and transfer rates
Determine the entire amount of your files before settling on a web hosting service. To do this, right-click the folder where your website’s files are stored, and select “Properties” from the menu that appears. Use the “size on disc” option. You should see a number like 384 KB (393,216 bytes). Most websites can function with as little as 5 MB of storage space per month and 500 MB of bandwidth per month. The typical requirements for a large website are 5GB of bandwidth and 100MB-200MB of disk space. Always leave yourself the option of upgrading your hosting plan to accommodate future growth.
As an aside
Unlimited storage and transfer are common selling points hosting firms use to attract new customers. Please don’t use them because they’re trying to cram as many websites as possible onto their servers. The security of all the websites, including yours, is at risk if one of them experiences an unexpected spike in visitors.
Reliability
The term “uptime” describes the guaranteed availability of the servers. They need to have a 99% uptime minimum to upgrade their servers. During the maintenance period, your site will be unavailable. If your web host’s uptime is less than this percentage, you may want to look elsewhere because your site may lose visitors and potential business. Verify the firm’s years of experience in the market. You can’t be sure of their dependability if they’ve only been doing it for a short period (a few months to a few years).
Query time
Your website’s loading time will increase if you choose a slow server. Site visitors will not wait around for pages that load slowly. They’ll go somewhere else. Make sure your web pages are loading quickly. Your website’s page loads will be slowed more if it has many photos, videos, JavaScript, or HTML mistakes.
Backups
Your website will be unavailable to users if the server crashes or there is a natural disaster at the data center where the server is located. Verify that your hosting provider creates off-site backups of your data.
Help with technology
Availability and speed of response
See how quickly your requests for technical assistance are answered. You should hunt for a new web host if you send an email or call them and don’t hear back from them within 24 hours.
As a side note, just because a web server provides a phone number doesn’t imply you’ll get through to anyone. Calling or emailing them will allow you to see how quickly they respond. Servers, websites, scripts, etc., are all areas a technician should be familiar with. It’s infuriating when techs waste your time because they don’t know what to do.
Functions See if the web server provides the functions you require to run your site. Do they provide Fantastico Deluxe, which facilitates one-click installations of platforms like WordPress and Joomla? Here are several extras that are highly recommended:
Incredible, Super, Premium cPanel Access
The MySQL Database System
Connected File Transfer Protocol
Subdomains
Indicia of Domain
Email Protocols (POP3, SMTP, IMAP) Email Forwarding, Auto-Responders, and Aliases
Sending Out Mailings
Assist with Homepages
Perl and CGI Access Bin (CGI-Bin)
PHP programming
The acronym “Server Side Includes.”
Free Community-Wide SSL Backups
The Numbers Behind Password-Protected Websites
3. What should I expect to pay?
Your choice of web host will affect this. Read the above considerations and set a budget based on your findings.
Find a web host that meets all your needs at a price you can afford by going to Maryland-Based Web Hosting Service.
Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) and author Herman Drost
Read also: How Come My PC So Slow-Moving? 6 Possible Reasons And The Way To Fix Them
