Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Ins And Outs Of Web Hosting And How It Will Help Your Business

When you make the decision to get a web site one of the first things you need to figure out is the type of hosting service you will need. There are three types of services and they are dedicated, shared and reseller. The following article will give you a number of great tips so you can decide which service is right for you.

When choosing a web hosting service, refrain from going with the recommendation of friends or family who are not professionals. Though they may have had a good experience themselves with a certain provider, realize that their needs may be very simple compared to yours. Read reviews and advice from those who have needs similar to your own.

A good web hosting service should bill you professionally. You should be able to log in with a username and password to have access to your account balance and make secured payments. If you have to send PayPal payments every months without getting account statements, you are not dealing with a serious web hosting service.

If you are considering using a particular web hosting site, read reviews about it. Specifically, check for reviews written by users of the site's hosting services. Just as you wouldn't make a major electronics purchase without first checking out product reviews, nor should you bypass looking at reviews for web hosting sites you're considering using. Doing this now can save you frustration further down the road.

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.

Aside from selecting web hosting companies based on fewest outages, you should also make sure the web hosting company you choose automates your payments as well. If a company does not offer this, then that company is not worth using. Make sure you know what you are getting into, and choose wisely.

Look for different reviews on a web hosting service. If you know any webmasters personally, ask them which service they use and how much they pay. Compare different sources and look for reviews written by people who have a site similar to the kind of project you are working on.

Before signing on to a web hosting service and choosing a plan that meets your immediate needs, check to see what the process will be if you need to upgrade at a later date. Different types of plans may, or may not, support the services that you may want to add in the future. Make sure that your current plan can be easily converted to a more complex one without the need to start from scratch.

Look for a company that offers an "uptime guarantee." Uptime is also known as the amount of time that a server is online for, as opposed to down, for service or maintenance. A reliable web host should be able to offer some sort of guarantee that your site will be available at least 98 percent of the time, with superior web hosts able to offer 99.9 percent uptime.

Hosting Company

Instead of finding a great web hosting company, start your own web hosting company to service your own needs. This can provide many benefits including secondary income and free web hosting if your business takes off. This is a great way to think like an entrepreneur, and make some money instead of paying for web hosting.

Not only do you have to select a reputable hosting company and choose a package, you must also decide between hosting types such as Windows, Unix, etc. You need to know what your options are and look into all available choices to see what is best for you and your business.

If you're going to use a web hosting company, make sure it's not in danger of going out of business. Find out how long the company has been in business, and whether they have been profitable. If the company goes out of business, you could also lose access to all of the data that was stored on their servers in addition to having your website go offline.

Don't choose a host simply because they are cheap. Sometimes saving money comes at a cost. You may end up giving up quality service and/or support when you just choose the cheapest host.

Domain Registration

Be sure to register the name of your domain separately from your web hosting service. In case the service shuts down, or you have conflicts with the company, you will still own your own domain name and can just change to a new host. Your host would actually have a tighter grip on the controls of your domain than you!

Resist the temptation to accept free domain registration from the same company you will be using for web hosting. There are many start-ups out there who may - or may not - be around for very long, and they probably will not give clients advance notice if they are going out of business. You will need to have immediate access to your domain registration if this happens, but may not be able to get it if they are out of business.

Before signing up with a web hosting service, be sure that you understand all the costs that will be incurred initially. In addition to the monthly charges, which may seem reasonable, check for setup fees, domain registrations, and how much you may pay for a secure site. In addition, ask about their fees for private domain registration.

Unlimited Space

Avoid paying for web hosting space that you actually do not need. Some plans will entice you into contracts that cost more by affording you unlimited space - but do you actually need this? Remember that you can always upgrade later as your needs increase. Unless you are a large company or are engaging in eCommerce, you can probably get by with 10MB or less.

One thing that anyone looking for a web hosting provider should understand is that there is no such thing as unlimited resources. Some providers claim that they have unlimited space and bandwidth that you can use for your site but this is simply not true. They only claim this because the average user does not use up their allocated bandwidth.

Free Domain Registration

Resist the temptation to accept free domain registration from the same company you will be using for web hosting. There are many start-ups out there who may - or may not - be around for very long, and they probably will not give clients advance notice if they are going out of business. You will need to have immediate access to your domain registration if this happens, but may not be able to get it if they are out of business.

As you can see, there are several contrasting choices that are available to you when choosing a hosting company. If you know the distinction between the services, then you will be happier with your decision. Apply the advice from this article so you understand which of these hosting options will work best for you.

1 comment:

  1. I couldn't agree more,this article was very well authored and easy to understand.Great that you post topics like this for those looking to host sites for atlanta colocation.

    ReplyDelete

A Little Advice Regarding Web Hosting That You Must Know

A Little Advice Regarding Web Hosting That You Must Know If you want a web site, you need some sort of web hosting, so it's time ...