After choosing the domain name, what's next to building your website? Or are you planning to move your website to a new web host? This guide will take you on a tour to understand the complex world of web hosting. Choosing the right web host reduces disasters before they actually give you headaches.
Aside from the budget, you'll need to find out what you want now for your website, and foresee what you want from your website in the future. A good web host gets your back covered right now. This way you can get services and features you need to build the website you want. And a good web host offers solution to possible high-profile issues that come with success. With the escalating operating cost, a web host must provide an easy way out.
Continue reading to find out what you must consider in choosing a web hosting service. Meet up your expectations and preferences with the things I will be mentioning here.
What You Want Today?
Before you even start looking for a web host, you have to decide on what you want. You've got to know these things, otherwise, you will fall on a trap. Here's what you must think over and over again.
- Types of Websites. There are several types of websites you can make out of the domain you just bought. And this can be overwhelming. Are you looking to build a blog? A video-sharing website? A website directory? An SME website? An online gaming website? Or an affiliate website?
A blog may not use much server resources, but online gaming websites do. Some types of websites require more server resources. You need to know two major factors of server resources: bandwidth and diskspace. Bandwidth is the data rate output of the website when someone views a page, watches a video, downloads files, or listen to songs. Diskspace, usually, is not a problem, but bandwidth can hinder the growth of your site. Uploading and downloading large files, videos, or MP3s can cause downward path of the bandwidth.
In the list below, find out what category is the site you want to manage:
High Bandwidth Sites: Content submission sites, video-sharing websites, social networking sites, and flash online gaming websites.
Low Bandwidth Sites: Small forum websites, blogsites, information text-based websites, SME websites, website directories, and affiliate sales websites.
- Moving a Website? If you are either of the two: just purchased a fully-functional website, or have had a web developer build a website for you, and you want to move the website from their server to yours, moving or migrating everything is important.
For folks on the first category, you need to find out the current bandwidth rate outputted by the website every month. Here's a simple calculation for you. Always add 50% to the current bandwidth rate of the website. If the website used 3GB of bandwidth per month, a web host plan offering 5GB will work fine.
For the latter category, minimum bandwidth will do. New websites don't have much activity, and little bandwidth will work just fine. But as the website gets popular, you have to change plans.
- Budget. Hosting plans can range from $5 to hundreds per month. You have to check the hosting plan against what you need for your website. Also, don't forget to check your annual income and determine how much you can spend. Remember, overnight success is not always here and there, it's seldom. You've got to nurture your market and build your website to see long-term results.
I recommend choosing the cheapest and smallest web hosting plan when you are starting off the website. Monitor your usage and see how everything works, then you upgrade the plan when needs arise. This way you will be spending less for what you really wanted.
In choosing the web hosting service, be sure to check how much they charge for “extras”. Additional e-mail addresses, sub-domains, c-Panel interface, and hardware specifications such as type of server processor and additional memory are common “extras” you can get for paying extra.
- Website Installation. If you don't know how to install a website, choose a web host that offers Quick Install, Fantastico, or the likes. This programs automatically install content management system packages such as WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, e-commerce software such as PrestaShop, OpenCart, and Magento, or forum software such as Advanced Electron Forum, phpBB, and Simple Machines Forum.
- Server Management. If you are new to server management, a web host that offers managed server service is a good one. In cases of serious administrative issues, you don't have to fix the server or any site-related issues. In a managed service, administrative issues will be handled by a web host representative, however, you need to pay extra for this service. If the server goes down or something is interrupting the website service, the administrator representative fixes the problem for you.
One more thing, higher-end hosting packages offer semi-managed services. You get 24/7 support ticket access with an administrator to help you out with server issues that are beyond your knowledge. This semi-managed service offers a contingency when bad things happen.
What You Need in the Future?
Of course, you are looking forward to a successful website. Like anybody else, you want your website to make it big. But what if things change tomorrow? Do you have the leverage to cope with such change? What do you want out of your website in the future?
- Website Backup. Even if you exhaust your resources and your knowledge to avoid the site or the server going down, the truth prevails, bad things, sometimes, happen, for some reason. So, creating a back up of the website is essential. There are fairly good web hosting service that allows you to make automatic backups in regular basis. When a crash happens, the site reverts to the most recent backup for restoration.
Manually creating a backup of the website, however, can be done through the phpMyAdmin. This interface allows you to edit, copy, or delete database. You can copy the database as a raw text file or as an archived filed to your computer. Also, if you don't have any other option, you can backup the website through the FTP program. But this process can be tedious, especially if you have to deal with large video files.
- Long-Term. Here's a simple equation: Traffic = Conversion. When the website gets big with lot of traffic, it is a good time. Sure, it is. However, when your website uses lot of traffic, and the pay out is too minimal, you've got a big problem to deal with. For affiliate sites and e-commerce marketplaces, traffic can always be equated with conversion sales. This is not the case with video-sharing sites, social networking websites, and gaming sites. These sites are expensive to maintain. The bandwidth alone offers high operating cost; plus, the memory or diskspace requires enough space.
Let's do simple mathematics to solve the problem. Can the annual revenue of the website pay off the annual web hosting plan? Are you happy with the profit share? Well, you can always find another source of income through the website. There are several options such as advertising or sponsoring activities. The real question is can the web host handle sudden surge of traffic and exposure?
What Are the Best Web Hosts Available?
Choosing the best web hosting service is subjective. The number of web hosting services available can be overwhelming. You need a service that's uptime, reliable, and running all the time, minus the downtime. You've got to have the best of your “buck”.
All factors and issues considered, I am recommending BlueHost and Hostgator for a shared hosting plan. Take a look at their respective advantages.
BlueHost. Clients favor BlueHost because of the many advantages the hosting service provides. For as low as only $3.95, BlueHost solutions and resources are yours. The low monthly fee already provides a 24/7 customer support and multimedia assistance. There are no hidden and additional charges to worry; BlueHost's resources can boost your website to gain success. Aside from being the official WordPress hosting provided, this web host also offers Free Site Builder and Free Domain.
Hostgator. If you love unlimited services, Hostgator is best for you. These unlimited services include HDD space, bandwidth, database, email, and file transfer protocol (FTP). Hostgator supports top coding languages to strengthen website security. Plus, for a low monthly hosting fee, you can available of Hostgator's 24/7 customer support service. Hostgator is known for its 99.0% up time guaranteed service.
Hostgator. If you love unlimited services, Hostgator is best for you. These unlimited services include HDD space, bandwidth, database, email, and file transfer protocol (FTP). Hostgator supports top coding languages to strengthen website security. Plus, for a low monthly hosting fee, you can available of Hostgator's 24/7 customer support service. Hostgator is known for its 99.0% up time guaranteed service.
Choosing a web host is often overlooked. The web host determines the efficiency and performance of your website. If you want to reduce downtime and ensure your website's running all the time, choose a trusted and reliable web hosting service.
