Web Hosting 101 – What You Need To Know
No doubt, you have heard about web hosting, but you may have questions about it. Simply put, web hosting is a service that lets people make their website. Choosing a web host which will fulfill all of your needs is important, so keep reading to find out which important factors you must look for before signing a contract.
You should take the time to scour as many reviews of potential web hosts as possible. If you only have two on the list, then their levels of experience and competence may be so far apart that there is no way to make a middle ground decision.
Shared Hosting
Trying to choose between dedicated and shared hosting? If your site is rather large and complex you may find out that shared hosting cannot handle the heavy volume of visitors that your site receives, as it will limit your ability to properly serve the customers. You’ll have to find a dedicated server to meet your needs.
Avoid web hosts that experience frequent outages. If a company faces frequent outages and is constantly making excuses, it is a red flag that they are unreliable, or they would have made plans to remedy the situation. You don’t want to support a company that has frequent downtimes because most likely, they are unprofessional and your own website will be what suffers in the end.
It is important to register the domain name of your site in an area other than that of your host. This ensures that, in the case of downtime or legal problems, you are able to preserve ownership of your domain. If only your host controls your domain registration, you will not be able to use it any longer.
Prior to shopping for a host, make yourself a priority list. If you have a clear idea of what you want and need, it will be easier to compare your available options. Use your list to make sure you are choosing the web host that is right for your needs.
Some webhosts will charge you based on the amount of traffic you bring in. Find out how web traffic changes your bill. Some hosts charge a flat fee but raise the fee if you get a certain amount of traffic, while others charge you monthly based on the number of visitors your site received.
Invest in an SSL certificate for both your and your customers’ peace of mind. You can add this button to your website so customers feel it is a more trustworthy website to visit.
The majority of web hosting providers stipulate that you are responsible for backing up your own content. This is critical, not only for the sake of compliance, but also for you to have a copy of vital data that you solely manage. Should any problems arise, you will still have a copy of your site.
If you need more than one email address, talk to the host service about their email formats. The most common option is POP 3, so choose a host which offers that. This will ensure that emails are linked to your domain and will be accessible from anyplace on the web.
Search Engine
If you need to increase the traffic to your site, look for a host with a SEO feature. This kind of feature means your site will be registered with search engines. However, you may prefer to list your website with a search engine directly, as you will have more control over the description which appears under your website’s title on search engine results pages.
Be cautious, so that you don’t end up getting scammed and having to pay hidden costs. A lot of cheap services come with extra hidden fees. The way to avoid this is to know upfront what you need from a website hosting provider, and make sure the plan you choose has those features and no hidden costs associated with them. You should select a plan that includes all the features you need to avoid being charged extra fees.
Shortly put, web page hosting gives people use of a company’s servers so that they can create a website and have a place to store all the files. Because you’ve now read the above article, you should better understand web hosting and how you can utilize hosting resources for your benefit.