Web hosting is exactly what the name implies; hosting your site on the world wide web. A www-host differs itself from any competition by focusing on certain aspects, such as limited down-time, minimal interference, and larger amounts of bandwidth.
Along with those three concepts, we will focus on some of the important features you should take into consideration when choosing a web host.
If you are looking for a hosting company for your business, avoid going with free web hosts. A free web host will likely place ads on your site, which causes you to lose valuable traffic. A staple of any good online business is the amount of visitors you get to your site. The last thing you want is your free web host to steal away all your traffic.
Read the terms of service when dealing with a web host who offers “unlimited” services. Many times web hosts will offer unlimited bandwidth or sometimes hard disk space. Read the terms carefully, as they may reserve the right to ask you to upgrade your plan, if you are a higher profile customer, that has increased usage.
It is important to determine your needs prior to shopping for a web hosting service. There are numerous packages you can choose from that vary significantly in price. Some of the factors you should consider include the amount of bandwidth you need, how much disk space you require, and the types of databases offered. Knowing your requirements in a web host will make it much easier for you to select a hosting package.
Find out what other programming services your potential web host offers. You don’t want your sites to be limited to CSS and HTML. The best web hosts offer the ability to code sites using PHP and ASP as well. Even if you don’t think you need these languages, you should use a web host that offers them. As your knowledge of web design grows, you might want to use these languages to help your site reach its full potential.
If you will be using more than one domain name or run more than one website, it’s important to select a web host that allows add-on domains. You can find hosts that allow you to have up to 20 different websites on one account for free which should allow you plenty of options.
Take a look at a host’s job section in order to determine if they’re currently hiring. If they are, then it is likely that their company is growing. Therefore, this host should be a safe pick. If they aren’t hiring, then they are probably really struggling. As a result, you should probably avoid them.
If a host on the world wide web is able to maintain constant, dedicated server up-time and a bandwidth cap that is beyond the reach of common procedures; they will likely acquire a few fans.
Once you’ve got the hosting situation out of the way, you can move on to the easy decisions like design and marketing!