A Fast And Easy Web Hosting Primer
If the weakest link in a company’s chain is their web host company, then that link needs to be improved for the company to be more successful. If you don’t program regularly, these fancy directories and words may seem confusing. When it is not clear what to purchase, people generally just throw up their hands and choose something. As easy as this may be, it’s not really a good idea, so keep reading for great information on how to choose your hosting company without all that confusion.
You should take the time to scour as many reviews of potential web hosts as possible. Seeking out the advice of only a select few may leave you with an incomplete picture of a web host’s abilities. Furthermore, you risk being given information that is bought and paid for!
Find a hosting service with enough space to allow your website to grow. A simple HTML page doesn’t require much space, but adding videos and pictures quickly causes you to be in need of much more space. You’ll want to have at least 100 megabytes of space allotted to your account with the ability to add more at a reasonable price.
Web Host
Look for a web host that offers detailed statistics about who visits your site. Put a counter on your page that allows you to see how many people are visiting; contrast that with the information that your web host provides. When you run an online business, this data will help you customize your strategy in reaching out to your audience.
Don’t choose free hosting services simply for the free factor. Free web hosting services usually require you to display ad banners on your website. In some cases, the ads will not be related to your site and you will not be able to control what appears on your site. Having ads appear randomly on your site also makes it seem less professional.
Many hosts are actually based off of other hosts. These bigger companies purchase large blocks of server space for a cheaper price, then make by money by renting this space out to smaller websites. Find out who the main host is, if possible, and then see if you can get a better deal by buying directly.
Try to find a website hosting company which offers a cPanel. The cPanel is helpful when you want to add applications to your site, and it can be done with only a couple of mouse clicks. The applications in a cPanel are simple to use as opposed to their SSH counterparts. It is Linux based and makes running your website more efficient.
If your knowledge of design is limited, look for hosting providers with excellent customer service. You will, no doubt, have many questions about how the features work. You will benefit more from the technical support than the extra fancy applications that other web hosts may offer.
It is also good to talk with other customers whenever possible. Ask your questions and mention your concerns to find out if these clients are satisfied. After these discussions, you will be able to find confidence in the right company. If you can speak with a current customer of a company, they will probably be the best person to find out information about a company you are interested in.
It should now be possible to decipher the strange language of web page hosting plans, and choose one that works for you. If you’ve already registered for your hosting plan and are on a contractual agreement, you can still get everything ready for a clean port while you prepare the IT guy.