Start My Own Online Business

What to Look for in a Web Host

A web hosting service allows people and organizations to make websites accessible to everyone else via the World Wide Web. This is where you “upload” your website to so that you can see it on the internet. This type of hosting is generally paid for monthly.

When you are looking around for  a web host, it’s really important for you to know what your needs and goals are for the business website or domain you’re working with. For example, it the business that you are working on is simply to provide information in the form of text with a few graphics, a shared web hosting service might be best. This will keep your business overhead costs low. If your site has a lot of graphics or does a lot of business then you might need to consider something called a dedicated server. However, these types of hosting plans can be more costly so you will have to factor that into your online business plan. Many of the popular hosts offer shared and dedicated server space and its best to ask them what would be best for your particular business needs.

There was a time when people really had to slow down and really consider how much space they would actually be using on the web servers. Back in the day, websites were alotted a certain amount of space to use in general, and also, a certain amount of bandwidth per month. The space would limit how big your website could be and the bandwidth would limit the amount of traffic and downloads from your site per month. However, nowadays, this isn’t really a factor due to the evolution of new and faster technologies. But, you still need to know that your host may have certain limits that could affect your website performance or business transactions. So be sure to ask your hosting company prior to your paying for their services.

The number of domain names that you can use on your hosting account is another important factor to keep in mind when deciding on a web hosting plan or company.  For example, if you sell hats but you want to do so at “hats.com” and “coolhats.com”, you’ll need to make sure the hosting provider allows multiple domain names. Again, most do and charge you a flat fee across the board. But its always good to know for sure up front. The more domain names you can have, the more exposure you’ll get. If you plan your business strategy appropriately, you can get more traffic to your sites if you are promoting multiple sites.

FTP, or file transfer protocol, is another factor to consider when looking for a web host. FTP is the software program that allows you to upload to or download from, your website. Some web hosts differ in which FTP can be used.  Make sure the web hosting plan you choose will work with the FTP software you end up using, or else there will be problems integrating.

As you are running your own online business, it’s very important to be able to have as much control as possible over it’s operation and the operation of your website. Regardless of the hosting company you choose, the ability to modify your site and make changes or adaptations when you need to is essential.  Choosing a hosting company that uses cPanel is an excellent choice when it comes to hosting control panels. cPanel lets you log into and make quick changes to your website  easily. It does this while communicating effectively to the web hosting server you choose. cPanel is the hosting control panel of choice for most webmasters because it runs on the Linux, CentOS, FreeBSD, and Windows Server 2008 platforms. This gives various users a pretty wide range of choices when it comes to server platforms and hosting companies. With cPanel, there is something for everyone. I would recommend that whichever hosting company or service that you choose that you make sure they are running  cPanel.

One last thing to think about is technical support. Make sure the web hosting company has experienced and helpful support staff. The support staff must also be easily contacted by phone or email.  You will want to make sure that someone is available when you need them. Check the support policy prior to entering into contract with them. Its frustrating when you call a company and can’t get a real, live person to  help you or answer questions.  Check out some referrals and see if you can get customer reviews, so you have better insight as to how they treat their other webmasters.

Check or ask to see if the hosting company has video tutorials available to show you how to use their services. These are invaluable when it comes to having as much control over your site as possible. Plus, if you do run into some technical difficulties, having watched the hosting tutorials will give you a better understanding when you are talking with support staff. Many times when you run into technical problems on your server the solution requires interaction between you and the support staff. You will be better able to help them help you if you know as much as you can about your problem.

Your web host should be able to provide you a quote up front without any hidden fees. You generally won’t have to worry about this with most reputable companies in business today. But, its always a good practice to know exactly what you are paying for and how much it will cost you per month.  and see what web hosting is really suppose to be.

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