Choosing the right Web Host matters
Whether you are building a personal or business website, it is important to make an informed decision when selecting a web hosting company. This is because you will almost certainly want as many individuals as possible to see the website you have created. To do this, it is crucial to set aside a small amount of time to review a few fundamental but highly critical aspects of your website that will increase exposure.
Points to consider when choosing web hosting
Today, a dizzying array of web hosting companies and packages are available to choose from. Every single one of them has a one-of-a-kind set of strengths and shortcomings. So how does one go about deciding which option to go with?
You will still need to decide which hosting plan would best meet your needs once you have narrowed down your search to a certain provider. A wide variety of web hosting packages are available on any website that provides this service. The bundle with “Unlimited Bandwidth” is the most well-liked option.
Your work of selecting a hosting web service ought to become less difficult for you due to the considerations detailed below.
1. Server Uptime & Customer Support:
The most fundamental factor in determining whether or not a website may be located on the Internet is whether or not the server on which the website’s contents are kept can be considered “online” or operational at any given moment. This phenomenon is known as Server Uptime. You will discover that most web hosting services boast a server uptime of 99.99% of the time. Some have even claimed that it was 100%.
If you have the time, look for customer feedback on the service provider on internet discussion boards or in other places online. You might also go with one of the bigger, more established hosting businesses with a reputation for reliability. Most reputable hosting firms maintain several data and power backups for their servers. A few companies also guaranteed a success rate of 100%, and they planned to do this by promising to reimburse customers for any costs paid in the case that the service was unavailable.
Customer support is an additional characteristic of a good web hosting service that is highly vital. They need to give clients help by phone and the Internet around the clock. If you may need some assistance, they should have a comprehensive library of how-to guides and frequently asked questions (FAQs) easily available on their website. If you are serious about your website, you should expect to communicate with the customer care staff of the hosting service more often than you already do.
2. Pricing & included features
There is a substantial variety in the prices at which the packages are offered and the features they include. You will want to find a good compromise between the number of features and the suitable quality for your requirements. As with all other products, cheaper options often mean lower-quality options. On the other side, the price for certain items might be quite high for no apparent reason.
The number of features included in a hosting bundle will often determine the pricing of the package. These include the amount of data storage and bandwidth constraints, the number of permissible addon domains and subdomains, the number of email and FTP accounts hosted, shared, virtual, or dedicated server plans, programming languages & databases, site tools, shopping carts, and so on. The list goes on. Because there are so many options, it is easy to get overwhelmed and confused, especially if you are unfamiliar with them. Do not worry. In the next paragraphs, we will go through the most important ones.
Pricing for shared hosting packages that provide a good value typically begins between 6 and 8 dollars per month in the United States. Prices for Virtual Private/Dedicated Servers range between 30 and 50 dollars per month, with Dedicated Servers costing between 60 and 80 dollars per month.
Pricing tip: A helpful hint about pricing is that certain packages give a free domain name with hosting. If you have not yet purchased a domain name or want to add another one, consider one of these packages. They could turn out to be a reasonable price.
3. Data Storage and Bandwidth limits
If you are new to creating websites, you may have very little understanding of the amount of data storage space and bandwidth your site will need. To start, you should not be overly concerned about this at all. Even the most experienced persons will confirm such information to you on their own. Because your requirements will change as a result of a growth in the number of people that visit your website, you will learn all you need to know as you go.
Data Storage Space: The maximum amount of data transfers that can take place within a given month is referred to as the bandwidth limit. This depends on the number of visitors your website receives and the types of files you serve, such as fundamental web pages, pictures, video clips, etc. Even in this regard, there is not much for typical websites to be concerned about. Even on their most basic shared hosting plans, most hosting companies offer “Unlimited Bandwidth” to their customers.
Bandwidth Limits: A word of caution, however, for those individuals who intend to host video/movie clips or pictures with a high resolution. Do not be misled by shared hosting packages that advertise unlimited bandwidth usage. If you go through the “Terms of Use” and the “Common Usage Policy” for the majority of shared hosting packages, you will undoubtedly find a section that states that “abnormally high data bandwidth usage” is either not permitted or will result in additional fees being assessed to the customer. You should select high bandwidth packages or virtual private servers (VPS), dedicated servers, cloud hosting, or cloud hosting with dedicated resources.
4. Shared Hosting vs Virtual Private Server vs Dedicated Server vs Cloud Hosting
Which of these many forms of hosting should I choose? If you want to keep things straightforward, you should decide based on how active or popular you anticipate your website to be and then select from shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated, and cloud hosting in that order.
Shared Hosting: The shared hosting model is used by most websites on the Internet. It works well for personal websites and other tiny sites. These hosting packages are the most cost-effective option available. The term “shared hosting” refers to the practice of housing many hosting accounts—typically 10–100—on a single physical server. Both the server storage and the broadband connection are shared amongst them.
Shared HostingHosting is a good option to consider when starting, as well as for personal and commercial websites that are small to medium in size and do not host pictures or movies, or video downloads.
They might range from $5 to $15 per month in price.
Virtual Private Servers: This Hosting is typically utilized by medium-sized websites with moderate storage space and bandwidth requirements. Virtual Private Servers are hosted on distinct IP addresses (192.170.1.8), virtually identical to a dedicated physical stand-alone server. However, the cost of a virtual private server is significantly lower than that of a dedicated physical server. Multiple user accounts, anywhere from three to ten, are hosted on a single physical server. Each user account has its host id or IP address, and the software keeps its data storage and bandwidth separate.
VPS hosting services can cost anywhere from $30 to $150 per month, with a one-year commitment, depending on the features offered. Please be aware that the prices of all hosting packages will decrease as the length of the contract increases.
Dedicated Server: Dedicated servers are typically used by websites that are medium to large and require storage and bandwidth that can be scaled to meet individual needs. They are each housed on their physical server. To put it another way, they are using a server that is leased to them. They have complete authority over the server, which has its distinct address and hard drive, RAM, and bandwidth.
The quantity of memory (ram), the kind of CPU, and the speed of the broadband connection all have a role in determining the cost of renting a dedicated server. Other factors include the size of the server’s hard disk drive. Prices might range from $65 to $200 or even more monthly.
Cloud Hosting: Cloud hosting, which is still relatively new in web hosting, is the sort of hosting that represents the future generation. In cloud hosting, rather than having a single physical server, several servers are situated in various geographic areas linked to each other.
Scalability is one of the most important benefits of cloud hosting, and it is more cost-effective. There are significant advantages available for really large websites. The only thing that needs to be done when a website’s user base expands over its present capacity is adding another server to the group of networked servers.
The cost of a cloud hosting service may range anywhere from $100 to $550 or even more, depending on the required amount of space and bandwidth.
5. Addon Domains & Sub Domains
Addon Domains are domain names, sometimes known as websites, such as “http://www.yoursite1.com” and “http://www.yoursite2.com,” that you wish to host with your current hosting company but do not already have an account for. If you want to host more than one website, you need to purchase the kind of service that provides that capability. One website is all that is allowed, with the vast majority of the cheapest web hosting services.
Sub Domains: These refer to the several directories you wish to set up on your website, such as “http://directory1.yoursite.com” or “http://directory2.yoursite.com.” There may be variations in the maximum number of subdomains permitted across various packages. This is not to be confused with folders on your website, such as “http://www.yoursite.com/folder1” or “http://www.yoursite.com/folder2.” There is no restriction on the number of folders.
6. Email and FTP accounts
Email Accounts: These are individual email addresses associated with your website(s), for example, “[email protected].” You can put them together and hand them out to everyone, including your friends, guests, and clients. There is no need to worry about this since most hosting packages will provide you with sufficient space.
FTP Accounts: “File Transfer Protocol” is what “FTP” stands for in its full name. FTP accounts are required for web applications to access the files stored on your hosting server. They are of great use to site masters since they make it possible to instantly edit, remove, or create new files and folders on a web host from inside web design software and FTP software. This is a significant time saver. There is no need to worry about this since most packages will provide you with more than ten accounts. You are free to distribute it among your designers and coworkers in whichever way you see fit.
7. Programming Languages & Databases
Frontpage Server Extension, PHP5, Custom PHP.ini, Perl w/FASTCGI, Python CGI, Java, Ruby CGI, Ruby on Rails w/FASTCGI, ColdFusion, MySQL(Unix), MsAccess, MySQL(Win), etc.
These are the many databases and programming software used by your hosting server. They are necessary for the operation of increasingly complex online features, such as automated content management, user administration, the execution of scripts and programs, and so on. You don’t need to try to comprehend them if you cannot because most of the packages contain the common languages and databases you may need to utilize when you decide to use them.
8. Content Management, Blogs, Forums: Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, Nucleas, Moodle, WordPress, Geeklog, Lifetype, Serendipity, phpBB, SMF, Vanilla Forum etc.
These ready-made technologies may help improve websites by facilitating the creation of blogs, forums, and content management systems. The majority of packages also have sufficient options in this regard.
9. Website Tools, Marketing Tools, Shopping Cart Website Tools: Website Builder, Web Analytics Tools, FrontPage Extensions, Google Custom Search, Google Webmaster Tools etc.
Most web hosting packages contain these fundamental tools, which assist in constructing websites, evaluating website popularity and data, and implementing site modifications.
Marketing Tools: Google AdWords Credit – $50, Yahoo! Search Marketing Credit – $25, Facebook Ads Credit – $50 etc.
These are advertising credits that may be used to promote your website. They are fantastic deals if it is included in the price.
Shopping Cart – This instrument is useful for individuals who want to sell things on the Internet. They are often included in most bundles.
10. Web hosting tips for good SEO
When selecting a web host, the location of the server is one of the factors that should be taken into consideration since it may positively impact search engine optimization (SEO). In practice, it has been seen that search engines give preference to locally hosted websites while doing searches. Locally hosted websites rank higher in the results of locally focused search engines such as Google. This indicates that having a web hosting server situated inside the targeted country, such as the United Kingdom (UK), is advantageous to get better rankings in that country. Another factor that is believed to assist SEO in improving ranks in local search results is the use of localized TLDs or domain names. Therefore, for the United Kingdom, priority is given to domains ending in.co.uk or.org.uk.
One further thing to remember is that using shared hosting on your website might affect its search engine results. The consensus among industry professionals is that if your website is hosted on the same server and utilizes the same IP address as a website that Google has punished, your website will also be negatively affected. Having your website(s) hosted on a distinct IP address, which requires either a dedicated server or a Virtual Private Server, is the most straightforward approach to avoiding this issue.