What
You Should Know About Website Hosting Before You Sign Up
Once
your website is designed, it will need to reside on a host computer
or "server". This server is on 24/7/365 so that it's always accessible
to visitors at anytime. Or is accessible at least 99.99% of the
time.
There
are some important considerations when determining who you are going
to have host your website. Many of the features that a hosting company
offers may not fit your needs at this time. For example, a small
10 page website certainly doesn't need it's own server. Shared server
space is fine for most websites and costs MUCH less.
Connection
to the Internet
One of the most important is the connection that the website host
has to the internet. Optimum are direct, multiple, redundant connections
to the backbone of the internet. The reasons for this are:
-
Speed - a direct connection to the backbone of the internet will
serve up your website to your visitors at the fastest speed technology
can offer. Look for T-1 or optical cable.
-
Reliability -if a host has only one connection to the interne
, when it becomes busy it can slow delivery speed of your website.
Look for multiple redundant connections which are additional
carriers to back up the main connection.
Data
Backup
Professional hosting companies back up their data daily so that
if a server should have a problem, all the data that is stored on
it can be restored immediately. This becomes vitally important when
a server fails - and they do more often than you might think. If
the hosting company doesn't have daily data backup they won't be
able to upload your website to the new server. This means your website
won't be online until you discover it and upload it yourself. This
could mean weeks of your website being offline. Look for daily
data back-up.
Storage
Space
The amount of storage space you are allowed is another consideration.
For a small website of five or less web pages 1 MB is plenty. Storage
of 100 MB would serve to store a website of hundreds of web pages.
Don't pay for what you don't need. You can always upgrade to larger
storage at a later time. Look for storage amounts that are just
a bit more than what you need now.
Bandwidth
Some hosting companies charge for bandwidth - both incoming and
outgoing. If your website suddenly becomes very popular and traffic
to it increases to a huge surge, you may be charged extra for the
use of the additional bandwidth required. Look for hosting that
offers unlimited bandwidth.
Statistics
Analysis Program
A good statistics program is important so that you can track not
only how many visitors you had to your website, but how they found
your website, if they are return visitors, what pages they are visiting,
and more. Look for a free stats program.
Email
Services
Most
hosting companies offer free email. These are not fully functioning
email accounts. They're called POP3 and only receive email. You
can't use them in place of your regular email account with your
ISP because they don't send email. The purpose of them is to enable
you to use your domain name in your email address. There are two
ways of accessing this type of email: forward it to your regular
email address or use the host's web-based email program. Most small
businesses and solopreneurs need only two or three POP3 email accounts.
Look for at least 10 free POP3 email accounts and unlimited aliases.
No
Contract
The
ability to cancel your hosting account at any time is a necessity.
If you sign up with a website host and find their services to be
unsatisfactory, the last thing you want is to have to suffer with
them for a year or more. Look for no contract or the phrase "cancel
at any time."
Cost
Last but certainly not least is the cost. Some hosting companies
charge a set-up fee just to set up your account with them. With
all the hosting companies available this is a less than competitive
policy. Look for no set-up fee.
Copyright
©2008 If
you would like to use this article, please
ask. More than likely I'd be happy to share it, and I would
like you to honor my work by allowing me to give it to you.
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