After having built the web pages the next step is to display it in your website. The important factor is to select a hosting service which could offer a better reliable service for your business. The following query and explanation section throws light on what a web hosting service does and how to make a best choice among the millions of hosting concern available today in market.
Query : What web host do for us? Kindly provide brief answer.
Explanation : They are Providers or concern who provides different types of services that are essential in maintaining your website. For any website it needs a storage area for storing it which is provided by web host.
Query: What is the average cost involved when going for a web host?
Explanation : This varies depending upon requirement of the concern but on a average the costs runs between $15-$25 per month.
Query: Does free hosting service maintain Integrity and are they trustworthy?
Explanation : If it is a business web site then it is a must to go for a affordable paid web hosting for the site. The free hosting service would be suitable only for fun site where banners only get displayed. This is because free web hosting service providers give only small bandwidth and the space provided is also little and to add to it they will have advertisements posted on your site which will affect your traffic ,in some cases the site will go down for a certain period which will affect your business.
Query: How to choose the right web host for my site?
Explanation : Given below are the key points to consider while choosing a web host:
? Requirements Study - The web hosting service that suits for one may not suit for other because the requirement for each varies. So before choosing it is always wise to make a study of what is needed for you namely things like Database support(MYSQL) etc..
? Uptime - The uptime of the server should be at least more than 99.5%
? Data Transfer - For this you need to work out your requirement which will help in determining the bandwidth needed by you. Also in this context make sure that the hosting servers do not share bandwidth which will reduce the speed of your site.
? Storage - The web hosting service must offer you the storage area more than what is required by your current website. Also make a study of whether the web hosting service put you penalties if in case you exceed the allocation. In this it is also needed to find out how the web hosting concern decide your storage capacity, that is whether they take into account the web files or do they take into account the emails, log files,.. also. A detailed study of this is needed for which you should be able to view your log files. So Storage and traffic are critical points to be studied when choosing a web hosting service
? Technical Support - Always it is good to choose host that give throughout the year, all days technical support
? Security - It is wise to ensure that host services uses updated security software. Also the hosting service must offer SSL named as Secure Socket Layer for performing secured transactions.
? Email - The hosting service must provide good number of emails, aliases and mail forwards because it is key for business.
? Shopping Cart - The cart used by you must match with that provided by hosting plan chosen by you or the hosting service must have a appropriate shopping cart replacement.
? Customer Support - The type of customer support varies such as through email, phone. In whatever way the support is provided it is better to find out the response time they take to get back to you. As conveyed earlier it is best to choose host that give throughout the year, all days technical support.
? CGI-Bin Access - Whatever be the site you own you have to run some CGI script. For the sake of security host services have their own scripts installed but it is better to make a room for allowing to install your own scripts as per your needs. That is you have to additionally look whether it supports the language such as PHP, Perl etc.. in which you may write your scripts.
? Feedback - Before choosing a web hosting service it is always better to make a study of the concern to know about the negative feedbacks if any.
? FrontPage Extensions - If you have FrontPage in your site just make a check whether the hosting service also support FrontPage with the same version as yours.
? Communication Media - The hosting service chosen has to be good otherwise we may have problem with the communication services linked with domain like email, File Transfer Protocol(FTP) which are key for any business.
? Scalability - You can use any tool like HTML for your site but important factor to consider is whether the web hosting service is scalable that is as you built more complex features in your site the host service must be upgradeable to handle all this.
? Domain Name and IP Number - It is good to have your own domain name and IP number for which the web hosting service must help you.
? Backup - Ensure whether the hosting service provide important service like backup which will help you to prevent against data loss.
Due to the birth of many web hosting companies, the above factors if considered would help you make a correct decision for choosing a good web hosting concern for your business. |
