A Guide to Web Hosting

What is a web hosting service?

A web hosting service allows individuals and companies to provide their own website accessible on the Internet. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a web server they own, for use by their clients. Quite simply, you rent some space on a web hosts server, so that your site can be available on the internet for your target audience and potential clients or buyers.

Why do I need a web hosting service?

Well, if you want a website then it needs to be put somewhere where other people can see it. In essence, a simple website is made from a bunch of files; a web page is a file; a website is a file or a group of files stored on a computer, just like any other file you store on your computer at home. Only people who log onto your computer can access your files, so how do you share your files / web page with your audience? You use a web hosting service of course.

To be honest you could install and configure software on your own computer and then open that up to the whole world, but quite frankly it would not be worth the hassle dealing with the maintenance, the security, etc. Besides that, your computer would have to be left on at all times for your audience to get to your website! Now thats a lot of overhead costs and maintenance. This is why buying a web hosting service is the most reliable, cost effective solution for running a website.

A web hosting provider allows you to rent some space on a computer that specialises in serving files out across the internet to “host” your website pages for you. Simple eh!

Types of Web Hosting

Shared Web Hosting

For small businesses and individuals the most common type of hosting is shared web hosting, or web hosting using virtual servers. Shared web hosting is the most cost affective way to host your web site. The bonus of shared web hosting is small websites pool their resources and therefore lower the costs of running their websites, while getting great hardware to run their website.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated hosting is when you have a server and all it’s resources dedicated to your website alone. Very few websites receive enough traffic or use enough resources, or require a totally dedicated server for their needs. If you are hosting a site with high traffic, or if you need high security, or you expect you will need to have root access to the server and install your own software, change server configurations, etc, you will definitely need dedicated hosting. MOST small businesses DO NOT need dedicated hosting and can spare themselves the cost! If your website grows and your requirements change it is pretty simple to switch to dedicated web hosting.

Of course their are pros and cons of shared hosting when compared to a dedicated web server which can be read in our article shared versus dedicated web hosting. For now we will assume most people need little more than shared web hosting to meet their web site needs.

Choosing a web hosting service

When you begin looking for a web host you may find yourself overwhelmed with features and pricing. I mean how many people apart from the web experts would be able to figure out how much bandwidth your website may require, how much space your website will need, and if you need SSL. Even the experts have to take a guess at your requirements most of the time. When you are new to website building it’s difficult to decide what you need, as you’re probably not sure what most of the features list means anyway.

There are thousands of web hosting companies offering web hosting packages, so how do you choose one? Do you choose the cheapest? Do you choose the one with the most features? Do you choose the one with the best features? No! You should choose the one with the features that best suit your needs for the most affordable price.

As a rule of thumb I would say that if you don’t understand it then you probably don’t need it. There are so many companies out there to choose from and my recommendation is to make a list of what you need. Will you need a database and a secure connection to take payments? Is your site dynamic (ever changing) or static? Will you need an email account, a spam filter, create mailing lists? How much are SSL certificates with the hosting company? How much is a dedicated server with the hosting company? What are the features of the top package that company offers and how much does it cost? The list is endless. Look at the features and choose web hosting companies that suit your requirements.

Bare in mind you need to be able to grow quickly and without disruption to your service; in that case choose a web hosting service that allows you to upgrade the package seamlessly in the future.

The final step is to do some research, try to find independent reviews of those companies, baring in mind that many reviews sites are not independent and are affiliates of some of the web hosting companies therefore, reviews can be positively filtered!

One of the most important things you should bare in mind when choosing a web host is not only does that web host suit your needs now, but will it suit your needs in the future. It’s fine choosing a cheap web host now, but when your website grows, migrating to another host can cost time, money and expertise, and leave you wondering why you did not take a little more time to work out what you would require in the beginning.

How much should you be paying for your web hosting?

Well, that depends on your requirements? Web hosting is relatively inexpensive starting at as little as £35 per year (at the time of writing this article), making it affordable even for personal websites, and incredibly cheap for small business sites. However, you get what you pay for. If you choose a provider that gives you everything you need for a very low amount a year, you can’t complain if you get poor service. Generally speaking web hosting will cost between £40 – £120 a year. GOOD web hosting will GENERALLY be around £60 plus a year.

Website Hosting and Domain Names

Although it is not entirely necessary it is usually best and easier to buy your domain names from the web hosting company you choose or vice versa, especially as most web hosts provide a free domain name with the hosting package. Don’t make the mistake of going and snapping up your domain name in a hurry only to find you could have saved yourself a few quid buy holding out and researching a web host, many of which will give you a domain name for free!

Website Hosting Tips

Here are just a few things to think about if you are choosing a web hosting package:

• Choose a provider that easily allows you to upgrade a package without downtime.
• Go for a basic option and upgrade if you need to later.
• Look for a good guarantee and cancellation policy.
• It is best to register your domains with your web hosting company, so look at the price of domain registration too.
• Don’t be impressed by features you don’t need, you will either pay for them or your service will suffer for them.
• Linux hosting is usually the better and cheaper option.
• It is not necessary but it is preferable for your hosting provider to be in the same country that you are trading in.
• Identify if you will need a dedicated server, for example if you are hosting a website which will use a lot of bandwidth and server resource, you will more than likely need dedicated hosting.

I never said it would be easy Thats why FABI Designs have done the research for you. FABI Designs have trawled the INTERNET and tried and tested many hosting services, read many reviews and chosen what we feel to be a GREAT web hosting package for all of our clients. Feel free to call or email us for more information on 0113 2797731. You can also look at our web hosting packages on www.fabi-hosting.co.uk.

We hope this guide helps you on your web hosting search.

You may also like to read:

• Shared versus Dedicated Web Hosting
• Explore the Benefits of Virtual Private Server Technology
• Is there a problem with “Unlimited Web Hosting”?
• Local Web Hosting is Expensive – Move Away
• Web Host Research – How to choose the right Web Host

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