The function of a Web Hosting Company or Web Host is to store your website on on a server (computer) and make your website accessible to the Internet. The first job when choosing a web hosting service is to determine what kind of website you will be building. This will influence your choice of web host and the cost of the hosting package. A simple brochure or blog website will not generally need many resources and so the package could be cheaper, but on the other hand if you are sharing photo and audio-video media or planning to build an ecommerce site you can use up a lot of the web hosts resources and incur a higher charge for its services.
A good idea if you are looking to build more websites in the future is to go for a web hosting company that can expand with you. Log on to the web hosts forum and ask questions to the moderator if you need more clarification on your requirements.
Many web hosts supply website building tools that function similar to desktop publishers to make the job of putting a website on the World Wide Web a process that a beginner can do. As for the prices of web hosting packages these can vary a lot from one service provider to the next. You should do a certain amount of research before committing to a web host, make a list of features and surf the web comparing prices and features of different web hosts to get a feel of the current market. This should reduce the risk of paying over the odds for a web host.
The two main variables to take into consideration and which consequently have the biggest effect on the price of the package are disk space and bandwidth. Most of the other features a web host can offer come as standard. Disk space represents the storage capacity for your website, estimate how much you will need now and in the future. Bandwidth is a measure of the data transfer from your website on the web hosts server to the visitors computer via the Internet. Due to technological developments this feature changes over time and the researcher should take a notepad and compare how much bandwidth each company is offering and at what price.
Sometimes problems occur with our websites and we need to talk with someone at the web hosting company. A good level of customer support must be in place. If you are planning to run an ecommerce website you are potentially losing money every time your website is offline. Ideally web-based and telephone support is preferable. Companies may also offer a forum, a live chat room and downloadable help files. Support must be 24/7, prompt and knowledgeable.
Another important issue is how many email accounts, domain names and sub-domains do you require. This could range from one to unlimited. Phone or email the web hosts support desk for advice on these questions. Also include in your research web hosting related forums and websites to help give you a more informed choice.
1. Know Your Needs You need to have some idea of what your companies needs are before you start shopping around for a web hosting company. The cost of different packages will vary based on size requirements and bandwidth capacity, so a company won't be able to give you a price estimate without this information.
2. Reliability of the Hosting Company Before you select a company, you need to know how reliable that company is. If you ask any web hosting company whether or not it is reliable, the answer will of course be yes.
The question you need to ask is about downtime. You need to know how much downtime the company experiences. You also need to find out if the quoted expectation for downtime includes regularly scheduled maintenance or not.
Remember that when the web host is down, the Internet component of your business is down time. If prospective customers can't find you online when they are ready to buy, they will find what they need from someone else. When it comes to Internet business, downtime is money lost.
3. Reputation of the Hosting Company One of the great things about the Internet is how easy it is to access information online. There are a number of forums online that appeal to webmasters and website owners. When you are searching for a reliable company, visiting these forums can be an invaluable source for information about web hosting companies.
When you find an active forum where those who are knowledgeable about web hosting are posting, look for related threads. If you don't see recent posts on the topic, post a question yourself. You may get some ideas about which web hosting companies are the best. You'll definitely learn about some of the ones you want to avoid!
4. Customer Service You will want to go with a web hosting company that has available and responsive customer service. The first thing you should do is look at the website of a hosting company you are considering. Check out the options for customer service. If you have a difficult time finding customer service information posted on the website, that is a good sign that you are going to have trouble getting help when you need it.
Ideally, you want to select a web hosting company that offers 24 hour customer service with multiple ways of requesting help. Many of the best hosting companies offer live chat help, e-mail technical support, and a toll-free technical support phone number.
However, just because a web hosting company has customer service contact information posted does not mean that the company actually provides customer service. Before you make your final decision, use the customer service contact methods to see what kind of response you actually get. If you don't get a live person, or a quick response, keep looking for another company.
Both Bryan Pilkington & Amy Nutt are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Bryan Pilkington has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Improvement How to, Video Games and Information Technology. Bryan Pilkington has dealt with many web hosts over the years and considers customer support and a friendly attitude one of the most important requirements of a web host. For more information see. Bryan Pilkington's top article generates over 12100 views. to your Favourites.
Amy Nutt has sinced written about articles on various topics from Culture and Society, Recreation and Sports and Women. Fusepoint provides clients with managed , managed security, e-business consulting and disaster recovery solutions.. Amy Nutt's top article generates over 368000 views. to your Favourites.