Unless you are one of the few people that are capable of maintaining a 24 hour server in their home with secure domain registration, you’ll be searching for a new host when your company launches. This article is specifically written to help out new individuals in their quest to better understand the power of server hosting and the companies that rely upon it.
Avoid a host with a lot of outages. Choose a provider who has specific plans for dealing with an outage and one who does not shirk the blame onto someone else. Do not make any commitment to such companies because this is a big sign that they are unprofessional.
Choose a hosting service that allows you to instantly and easily view your web statistics. You will want to know things such as how many people are visiting your website and what pages they are viewing. You can even find out how long they stayed on your site, and what search words they used to find you. These can be important in the long run, so use a server who has these tools.
Find out what other programming services your potential web host offers. You don’t want your sites to be limited to CSS and HTML. The best web hosts offer the ability to code sites using PHP and ASP as well. Even if you don’t think you need these languages, you should use a web host that offers them. As your knowledge of web design grows, you might want to use these languages to help your site reach its full potential.
Take email needs into account when choosing a web hosting plan. Most plans will include some basic email services, but if you need additional mailboxes or storage, you may have to purchase an extra package or select another tier of service. Some inexpensive plans may also limit the number of emails you can send in a day.
Security should be one of your big concerns. This can be achieved via the use of a good secure server certificate, such as SSL. This will give you the capability to put a button on your site, letting users know that they are in a secure area. This will make them likelier to buy from your site, because they will trust you with personal information.
Before choosing a web hosting service, check to see their bandwidth capacity. This can be seen in terms of the amount of data that come into, or out of, your website. Depending on the plan you choose, you will usually be allotted a certain amount of bandwidth on a monthly basis. Large businesses could need as much as 200 GB or smaller ones could get by with as little as 3 GB. Check the availability, then choose your plan accordingly.
Understand the difference between dedicated and shared hosting when it comes to choosing a web host for your new website. Basically, dedicated hosting is when you have your own server and the bandwidth is not shared with other users. This is appropriate for very large companies who have the time and resources to invest in this. Shared hosting is the economical and easy choice for a small or medium sized business. Let someone else do the hard stuff and concentrate on your actual business goals.
Remember, you don’t absolutely have to run out and grab the most expensive hosting package that’s available. Take long, relaxed periods where you evaluate the bandwidth caps, advertisement restrictions, domain availability, pricing, and other miscellaneous factors that will form your overall decision. Plan ahead and you should only have to face this choice once for any given domain.