Finding Your Way Around The Website Hosting World
A company cannot outperform its weakest link, often which is the web server it uses or a third-party hosting service. If you know nothing about programming, the terminology and numerous directories can be very confusing. When something becomes too complicated, many people abandon common sense and grab the first option that looks viable. This article should quell the confusion.
Find out what kind of sites a service hosts. Many free hosting services offer only static pages, leaving you with limited options for adding your own scripts. If you need to have a scripting page that’s dynamic, a pay host that’s affordable is the way to go.
Most hosting packages will contain a large number of features; however, the specific features offered will differ from one company to another. Stick with the companies that offer the services you need. For instance, one company’s low hosting price might rise once you add a certain feature, while another company has that feature in one of its packages for a low price.
When you are deciding upon a web host service to retain, make sure you have more than only two options on your shortlist. If you only consider two or three providers, you are increasing the risk of signing up for sub par hosting services. Pursue a handful of different recommendations to account for bias or inexperience.
Find out each potential web host’s uptime–the percentage of time the server is up and working correctly–and avoid web hosts that have a lot of outages. Companies that have many outages, but make excuses for each outage are not reliable, as they have obviously not made any plans to prevent or shorten lengthy outages. Do not make any commitment to such companies because this is a big sign that they are unprofessional.
You should ask about security when choosing web hosts. There are a variety of potential threats today targeting websites. Verify that your selected web host has implemented security measures, which can effectively handle denial-of-service attacks, as well as many other common threats. You should know what is the risk for your site in case your host is attacked.
Think about and list down priorities before you look into different web hosts. Determine your business goals and needs, so that you can look at each host and decide if they will be able to help you meet them. Having a list of priorities means you won’t just pick a host because it offers the cheapest service, but because it genuinely meets your needs.
Free Web
Are you considering utilizing a web host that is free for the website you are starting? If so, then check into the service that the free web host provides and be sure that you back up all of your data. This is important because free web hosts typically don’t back up your data. If you don’t back up your own data, you’ll lose it forever if something happens to it while on the free server.
When reviewing potential web hosts, look for one that can give you detailed analytics about your site’s traffic. Add your own site counter to track the number of visitors your site gets, then compare that to your web host’s stats to check for accuracy. Use this information to tweak the way that you reach out to the intended market for your business.
Identify the positives and negatives of the hosting plans you’ve gathered information on. If you have signed a contract for a hosting plan already, you can use your new-found knowledge at a later date.