Why You Should Understand Hosting Your Business Website

June 26, 2009 by BizMind
Filed under Entrep Tips, Online Business

Hosting, quite simply, is storing your Web site on a computer, called a server, that makes your site available to the Internet. There are many options for hosting your Web site. One option is to establish your own server. Because this requires the skills of a system administrator and equipment that can be costly, many small businesses opt to use a Web host instead. A Web host can potentially host numerous Web sites on many servers and will rent space to you for your site.

Types of Hosting
There are a few types of Web hosting that you can consider: free, shared, dedicated, or co-located. Let’s look at these in more detail:

Free: Although it’s possible to have your site hosted for free, you may have to make some concessions. The main concession is that your site visitors will have to endure pop-ups and ads. These ads are not selected by you or related to your business. The Web host allows you to store your site with them so that they can use your site to feature their own advertisements or ads from other companies. This not only can impact your site load time but also your visitors’ impression of your business. A free host might not offer customer support, or will have only limited support, and may not allow you to use your own domain name. Additionally, you’ll find your site’s growth potential very limited with a free hosting service.

Shared: In the case of shared hosting, you pay a monthly or annual fee to share space on the host’s server with other sites. Although you may find that some of these plans limit your bandwidth and disk space availability (which you’ll learn about later in this lesson), there are a variety of shared hosting services to select from. So, it’s likely you can find one to meet your needs — unless you know that your site will require a lot of special features or you intend to establish multiple sites.

Dedicated: If you need a large e-commerce site, anticipate a great deal of traffic, are a Web developer or have an online gaming site, or you wish to become a Web host, then dedicated hosting may be for you. With this approach you rent an entire server. Although this option provides increased control, flexibility, and reliability, it’s also generally much more expensive.

Co-located: With this option you actually own the server at the host site. You pay a fee to use the host’s connection to the Internet and for them to maintain the server.

Hosting Features
To determine which approach to hosting is right for you, you need to understand the features that impact your site. These are:

Disk space: Also referred to as data storage. This is the amount of storage that you’ll need on the server for your Web site. Most pages tend to use about 50 KBs (kilobytes) of storage space. However, graphics increase the size of a Web page. The size of your pages multiplied by the number of pages in your site determines the amount of disk space you need.

Bandwidth: Also referred to as data transfer. Bandwidth determines the amount of data that can be transferred from the server across the Internet at one time. The larger the bandwidth, the more data that can be transferred (or traffic that can be accommodated). The amount of monthly traffic you anticipate multiplied by your average page size determines the amount of bandwidth you need.

Make sure that your host can support your current bandwidth needs as well as your potential growth. Be wary of hosts that offer “unlimited” bandwidth. Carefully read their acceptable use policies to truly understand your limitations.

Server type: The operating system of the server, such as Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Linux, or Unix, determines the server type. If you have a basic site, you don’t need to be concerned with the server type. If the host you select requires you to make a choice, or if you need to use specific software for your site, discuss your needs and options with your Web host.

Server-side languages: As discussed in Lesson 2, your site may require scripts, for example, to secure a registration form. If this is the case, your host needs to be able to support a scripting language, such as ASP or PHP. If you intend to use scripting language on your site, be sure to understand the server-side languages available to you.

Support: The level of support provided by a hosting company should be a consideration when determining which company to use, particularly if you’re launching your first Web site. The level of customer support often aligns with the pricing of the service. The old adage tends to apply to customer support: “You get what you pay for.” When selecting a hosting company, find out which type of support you’ll get — for example, via e-mail, live online agent, or phone support –
and if each comes with additional costs.

If you’re unable to have an issue resolved via the technical support vehicle provided by your hosting company, be sure you know their mailing address. If all else fails, you’ll need a way to place an official complaint with the company management. E-mail accounts: Your hosting company should provide e-mail accounts using your domain name. The number of e-mail accounts you get will depend on the package you select. Be sure you have enough accounts to support your current needs as well as potential growth.

Additional features: There are actually numerous other features that you may want to consider if you’re building a dynamic site.

To find the right hosting company for you, review each company’s features and determine your needs. You can conduct an online search to find numerous hosting companies.

More great information to make your business website a great success here:

What Are the Benefits of Taking Your Business Online?

How to Outline the Goal for Your Website?

What Type of Business Website Is Are Right For You?

How to Select and Register Your Domain Name?

What Are the Elements of Great Business Website?

Great Reason Why You Should Determine Your Level of Security

How to Select Your Design and Hosting Vendor?

How to Build Your Business Web Site?

How to Identify Trustworthy Web Hosting Vendors?

Traditional Marketing Mean for Your Business Website

Electronic Marketing You Can Use to Market Your Business Website