At first look, website hosting sounds like a technical, complicated topic. However, it can be simply broken down and understood so that it can benefit any business owner. If you need a greater understanding of how website hosting works, then this article is for you.
Shared or dedicated hosting, which one fits your needs? If your site is large and complicated and receives a lot of visitors, you might find shared hosting is preventing growth and your ability to properly serve customers. It would likely be in your best interest to use a dedicated host.
Select a website hosting provider that has a record of few outages and downtime. 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. Frequent outages are an indicator of an unprofessional service you should not commit to.
When choosing a web host, pick a company that is located within your niche’s country. For example, if your target audience is in France, the website hosting data center for your site should also be in France.
For most people, it is best to pay-as-you-go rather than commit to a long-term hosting contract. You can’t predict what your business will be or what your host will do in the upcoming months. Should your web host decline, your business outgrows the host or even if your account is closed, you would lose any paid monies, unless otherwise stated by the host.
Web hosting service charges can be related to the amount of traffic that is coming to your website. Ask your host how your bill will be computed. The formula varies between providers with some charging a flat rate based on amount of traffic, and others charging a varying amount according to usage by month.
In order to gain the most cash-flow for your site, make sure that you research all of the hosting companies that wish to have your business to find out which would be the most profitable for you. Rates can range from $2 to $60 per month — and it’s often the cheaper models that are the most reliable. Many expensive ones allow more bandwidth, but you may not have less downtime.
By now, you should have a deeper understanding not only about what website hosting means, but also about how to go about choosing a hosting company. Refer to the tips here while shopping for your new web hosting provider, and you are sure to find the one that is right for your needs and budget.