Author: Dean Chu

Date: October 20, 2007

 

Once your website is designed there is one more step you will need to do before other people can view your work. You will need to find a web host. It would be ideal if you could just host your website from home computer, but that option is not easy or cost effective. To get your website hosted quickly, affordably and cheaply, don't even waste time thinking about having your own web hosting server. To set up a hosting servr you will need to make a big investment in hosting equipment including a web hosting server, web hosting software, and manpower. When you add up the costs require to host your own website it would add up to decades of web hosting charges you would incur had you outsource these tasks to professional web host providers.

There are so many web hosting options and providers available on the internet, where different web hosting companies offer different plans, features, transfer rates and support levels, so how do you choose what's right for you? To properly match your website to a web host, you will need to determine your website's requirements base what you want to website to do, how is it going to be use, and consider future expansion requirements. For examples, is this your personal website or business website, will you be selling on your site, are you managing a chat room, a bulletin board or a web log, and whether need a hit counter and so forth. This article will discuss some important web hosting issues to consider when you are shopping for a web host to match your website's requirement:

Web Host Disk Space and Bandwidth - Disk space is the amount of data you can store on the web hosting server and Bandwidth is the amount of monthly web traffic or data transfer allowance. If you have a small website with little graphics you will need only a few megabytes (MB) of storage or disk space and if you use lots of graphics then you may require more hosting disk space, however make sure that your web host offer you plenty of bandwidth or data transfer allowance. You wouldn't want your website to be inaccessible to your users because you reached your data transfer allowance. Data transfer allowance is estimated by your websites size multiply by the number of visits you expect to have on a monthly basis.

At minimum you should look for 1 to 2 GB (2000 MB) of data transfer per month for a personal web hosting account, for a business web hosting account look for more than 2 GB. If you have a small website don't get talked into paying for more than this as you will only waste money. Make sure that the web hosting company offer upgrade or charge reasonable rates for bandwidth overage. Prepare for growth now so that you are not caught off guard by unexpected costs when you go to expand your services.

Web Host Server Uptime or Reliability - When you publish your website you want people to see it, and whether your website is a personal site or a business site uptime is critical. You cannot afford to go with a host that has an uptime of less than 95%. Avoid any web host promising more than they can deliver. Most claim 99.9% uptime. There isn't a sure fire way to verify this web hosting uptime claims other than ensuring that you sign on with hosting companies that offer 30-day money back guarantee (pro-rated off course), month by month hosting contract and ones that do not charge set-up fees or cancellation fees. If a hosting company is offering a 30-money back guarantee it is a pretty good indication that they have a low turn-over rate.

Web Host Technical Support - Look for an internet hosting company that can help you resolve problems quickly and efficiently. Most hosting companies offer inclusive technical support, you shouldn't pay extra for this. Most hosts have email support, but keep an eye out for hosts that have phone numbers listed. Phone support are obviously more valuable but it wail cost more. Though some hosts have excellent turn around on email service requests. To test a web host email support reliability, try contacting them via email with a question.

Web Host Features - Web hosting companies offer a diverse range of features to entice you to host your website with them. You need to determine if the web host is offering the features that is required to properly run your website. Have a checklist of essential hosting features and shop for a web host provider based on that list and don't deviate from it.

Web Host Pricing - The last item to consider is pricing. As indicated above that you should have a check list on all the web hosting features your website requires to perform properly. Do not deviate from this list period. The cheapest package may not necessary be bad and the most expensive package may not be good. The web hosting package that is good for your website is the one that fulfills all essential features on your checklist.