What is hosting?
Complete
Guidance Related to Web
Hosting |How to choose best
Hosting for Your Blog or Online
Business
The question we get the most frequently is: How you define the importance of
web hosting for a Blog or Business
The answer, however, is not that simple. It depends on many variables.
Nevertheless, in this article, we will briefly and concisely teach you about
What is hosting?
How to choose best Hosting for a Blog or Business?
What kind of Hosting you require?
What Factors You Should Keep in Mind When Choosing Web Hosting?
How to choose the best hosting?
Although this article a complete guide for you
What is hosting?
Web hosting definition: It gives a solid spot to store online content. The code,
pictures, recordings, and text that contain a site all must be put away some
place. Without a stable digital archive, not a solitary one of us could reliably get
to content on the web. That makes hosting one of the most basic pieces of
fostering a web-based presence for anybody, from colossal organizations to
limited scope personal records.
Web hosting permits clients to store content offsite, decreasing local storage
costs and the related actual impression. It additionally makes it more
straightforward to assemble a truly solid web presence, with worked in benefits
like back-ups for security and backing.
Some web hosting happens locally through PCs or servers, however cloud-
based third-party providers are utilized all the more oftentimes. When you begin
looking for a hosting service, you should have the option to track down a wide
scope of both free and paid choices to consider.
How to choose best Hosting for a Blog or
Business?
Like any machine, such a specific computer (server) has its own parameters.
You need to pay attention to them when buying hosting for your blog or
ecommerce site. When you buy a computer, you check the disk capacity and the
amount of memory. When it comes to hosting, the parameters that are worth
paying attention to are somewhat similar.
Here are the most important of them:
Capacity
Equivalent to the size of the computer's hard drive. For a classic blog, even from
the top blogs, a maximum of 10 GB of space should be enough. From my
observations, a regularly used blog takes about 3 to 6 GB after about two years
of operation. Of course, assuming you don't throw huge photos straight from your
SLR camera there.
Transfer
It means the amount of data (files that you place on the hosting, as each have
their own size) that your server can send to recipients on a monthly basis. Here,
be sure to look for an offer without limits. Such offers are now standard, and you
are not able to predict your needs in this area.
Database
Both WordPress and any other content management system (CMS) use
databases. It is a place where, among others, all blog content. Good hosting
offers at least a handful of databases. It is worth remembering that even on one
base, several sites can work. Thus, in most cases, one database per hosting is
more than enough.
E-mail accounts
Good hosting for a blog offers the option of creating email accounts in the blog's
domain for the price. After all, the address [email protected] looks more
professional than with the extension @ o2.pl or @ gmail.com. The number of
accounts is often unlimited, but in reality a few, and usually one, are more than
enough. An email account in the domain can be linked with a gmail account and
gain additional space and convenience of use if you use gmail on a daily basis.
Make Sure To Read: Dedicated Server with Bitcoin
Data backup
Everyone accidentally erases something… :). The more frequent backups the
hosting provider offers, the calmer the user's sleep. The standard is a backup
every 24 hours and in most cases such a solution is enough. It is worth checking
how the backup is made. It is good for the copy to be stored not only locally, but
also on a remote, server-independent matrix and even in a different location.
Be sure they offer what you need
It is also important to determine what you actually need for you site and what
services providing the company which you are thinking to pick for your Site.
Easy-to-use-backend
Understand this point very carefully because it effects afterwards Always pick the
recourses that are simple and easy to use at backend
Service
It is not a strictly technical parameter. However, this is a vital component of good
hosting. Even the best hosting with poor service will be an agony for you. It is
therefore worth checking the opinions about the hosting company. It is also a
smart idea to test what communication with the first line of support of such
hosting looks like. Now that you know what hosting really is, the question
remains –
What kind of hosting should you choose ?
First of all, before making a decision, it is worth getting acquainted with the
competitive offers and choosing the most advantageous one. Cheap does not
mean better and expensive does not mean good. You also have to watch out for
tricksters who offer "free freebies", which turn into expensive extensions after a
year. We suggest what to pay attention to when choosing hosting. Which one
you choose depends only on you :).
Choosing WordPress hosting is not an easy task, especially if we do not have
specialized knowledge of the industry. For everyone who starts a blog for the first
time, we have prepared a handful of tips. With more expensive unlimited and
cheaper limited options to choose from, never think about which hosting to
choose. In this day and age, a limited transfer service provider should not be
taken seriously.
What to consider when choosing a hosting provider?
Here are eight:
Server Reliability, Uptime Scores and Security.
Customer Service.
Availability of Site Backups.
Registration and Maintenance Costs.
Ability to Add Domains.
Account Limitations.
E-Commerce and Email Options.
Seven Factors to Consider When Choosing a Reliable Web Hosting
Company
Long gone are the days when you only had to consider bandwidth and disk
storage when deciding on the right web hosting service. Today you have to adopt
a comprehensive analysis of the service provider and the perks available when
deciding on the right web host for your website.
At the same time, you should note that different hosting service providers are
differently suited to host varied types of sites. However, there are some common
yet highly essential factors you must consider before committing to a service
provider. Here are eight:
Server Reliability, Uptime Scores and Security
Weak servers and unstable network connections can often push your site offline.
This not only denies you possible viewership or sales for an e-commerce store
but also leads to low rankings on search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Banking on a hosting company with reputable uptime scores, preferably above
99.5 percent is, therefore, key to your site’s success. Avoid companies that
report an annual uptime score below 99 percent.
In addition to making sure your site and data are accessible at all times, it's also
important to make sure you have a trusted and secure hosting solution as well.
Customer Service
How effective and speedy is the company in providing support for technical
problems? Try to choose a host that offers live support to their clients, 24/7. Also
look for those who offer chat support, as well as social media visibility as
opposed to email and support tickets. Give priority to companies with an in-house
customer support department. They have a better grasp of the company
operation compared to outsourced customer support service.
Availability Of Site Backups
The current wave of cyber threats like ransomware is no longer solely directed to
finance websites. It has seen an increased number of general websites being
targeted by these online extortionists. Such acts often result in irreparable
damages like the destruction or replacement of your site’s index.php file.
Similarly, you might also experience severe server or local hard disk failures. It,
therefore, becomes important that you only engage a host service provider that
offers regular web data backup.
Registration And Maintenance Costs
The web hosting industry ordinarily offers attractive hosting deals during signup
and even for your first payment. However, the renewal charges often more than
triple. Are they avoidable? Only if you hope to jump from one hosting service
provider with discounted sign-up rates to another after every two years. To avoid
the surprise bill effect at the end of the discount period, check the renewal
charges for your preferred package.
Your shared hosting plan likely won’t last forever, and you may find your site
soon grow and demand a VPS or dedicated hosting service. Consider such costs
for upgrades and host changes when choosing your provider.
Ability To Add Domains
With growth comes diversification. While you may be starting with a single
website and domain name, you will soon realize the need for multiple websites,
domains and subdomains in popularizing your site. Therefore, before signing up
with a particular service provider, consider their different packages, paying keen
attention to whether they allow for running of multiple websites on a single web
hosting account.
Find out the cost of the unlimited website and subdomain packages and compare
it to the rest of industry players. In short, take the time to choose a web host that
provides different service plans that allows you to add new domains that allow
you to scale over time.
Account Limitations
Every hosting company has a set of terms of engagement whose violation results
in extra charges, temporal or permanent discontinuation of your hosting service.
For instance, did you know that some hosting providers prohibit the use of
excessive amounts of CPU to run computationally intensive and scripts
exceeding two seconds on their servers?
Either of these actions can see you charged extra or your site pulled down
indefinitely and without a refund. Take time to go through these terms and only
sign up for the service if you intend to abide by their dictates. Most importantly,
avoid companies without clear terms of engagement arguing that account
limitation and suspension decisions are at the discretion of the company's
management.
E-Commerce And Email Options
You stand to receive more feedback and even subscriber conversions if you
have your email linked to your websites domain name. In this case, when looking
for the right web hosting company, chose one that provides email hosting for
your website’s primary email.
In the past, most individuals identified the right hosting company with the amount
of disk space and bandwidth that it provided. The perception of what is more
important has now shifted to affordability. However, if you seek to run and
continuously grow your site into the foreseeable future, consider adopting a
comprehensive approach to identifying a suitable web host provider by looking at
all the factors acting upon the optimal functionality of your website.
How To Choose a Web Hosting Plan That’s Perfect For
Your Website
As we mentioned earlier, there are many factors that go into selecting a web host. The aspects
most important to you will vary. Below are some of the variables to consider before choosing a
web hosting provider.
Estimate your Expected Amount of Traffic
The amount of traffic your site gets is going to have a major impact on what type of hosting you
need. If you are running a small site with little traffic, for example, shared hosting is the best
option. For sites that get significantly more traffic, a virtual private server (VPS) is often the way
to go.
Some sites will receive a large amount of traffic. In fact, this is the goal of most companies,
particularly those selling products on an ecommerce site. You might have a much smaller,
dedicated audience that might not require large amounts of bandwidth. The amount of traffic
you receive will have an impact on your bottom line.
What Kind of Hosting You Need
The amount you pay for hosting is largely dependent on the type of hosting you purchase. Each
has its advantages and disadvantages.
Shared Hosting
With shared hosting, multiple sites use the same IP address and reside on the same server.
This is the most economical form of web hosting, as the hosting company splits the cost of a
physical server among multiple different sites.
The main advantage of shared hosting is its price. However, you are also at the mercy of the
bandwidth other sites on the same server use. If a large amount of traffic is going to another site
on the same server, it slows your site down considerably.
Also, if another site on the same server is engaging in nefarious behavior and has its IP blocked
by spam filters, your site may be affected as well. Reliable hosting providers prevent this but
you should take this possibility into account.
Virtual Private Server Hosting
Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is the next step up in web hosting technology. While you
still share the same physical server with other sites, you are set up with a unique virtual server
and a unique IP address. This unique IP address keeps your site separate from other sites on
the server.
If you choose VPS hosting you have the advantage of being able to manage more features on
your server yourself and eliminate blacklisting risks like those with shared hosting. There are
some limitations on how much traffic a VPS can handle, but most sites for individuals or small
businesses will never come close to exceeding tehse limtiations.
Dedicated Hosting
With dedicated hosting, your physical server or servers are for your website only. This is a more
expensive type of hosting, but it is also the most reliable.
Large companies require the use of dedicated hosting services to guarantee uptime and to
secure their site. This option is best for efficiency; but, again, it is far more expensive. There are
options that help deflect the cost. Through Amazon Web Services (AWS), for example, where
you can pay as you go to maintain better control over the costs.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting services take the dedicated approach one step further and spread your site
across multiple servers. This can help deal with sudden traffic spikes and help leverage the
power of the cloud to make sure your site stays up. Hosting services such as AWS, Google
Cloud, Azure, and others will charge you based on the resources you use, so it can be
inexpensive to start, however, if your site starts to grow in popularity, expect the expense to
increase with it.
Even many smaller web hosting companies today are offering great cloud hosting packages to
their customers. Some of them charge a flat monthly fee as well, which makes your costs very
predictable.
WordPress Hosting
Professional web hosting companies will provide WordPress hosting services, which means you
can manage your site fully using the popular WordPress CMS.
You can log in to the site much like you would on your local machine, and manage everything
through WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. WordPress is extremely popular
and powers a significant portion of the internet.
Web hosting providers that offer WordPress hosting make it easy to manage and maintain these
sites.
Get SSL Security
SSL security for your site is absolutely essential on today’s internet. SSL stands for Secure
Socket Layering and is the method by which users of a site verify its authenticity.
SSL (and its successor, TLS) ensure that sensitive data remains safe when transferred between
two systems. Even if you aren’t intending on transferring sensitive data, SSL (which enables
your site to be improved from HTTP access to HTTPS access) can be viewed in most modern
browsers. Many will block sites that are not secure, and Google will rank unsecured sites lower
in their results, making it harder for visitors to find your site.
Most web hosting companies will provide this service for free.
Determine the Key Resources You Required
There are a number of other features beyond speed and security that you will want to take into
account before choosing a web hosting provider.
How Many Professional Emails Will You Need?
Several web hosting providers offer personalized emails @ (at) your domain name. However, if
your company has several employees, you will want to provide professional email accounts to
each, as well as a few generic email addresses (e.g. [email protected]).
Most providers will offer a few accounts as part of their package. But if you need more than a
handful of emails, you’ll want to look for a provider that offers unlimited email accounts.
How Much Disk Space Do You Need?
Storage is something you will also need to consider. Most websites do not take a lot of space (a
typical web page is just an elaborate text file), however, if you plan on storing multimedia or
image files, you will need more storage space.
You can use the files on your hard drive to gauge the amount of space you’ll need. If you have a
full site built on your local machine, you can sum up the amount of resources used in the folders
you have set up for your site to see the amount of space you may require. However, if you plan
on allowing user-submitted content (such as on a social media site) you will need a
considerable amount of storage space.
It’s wise to consider a host that will allow you to scale up as the need arises.
How Much Bandwidth Do You Need?
Take bandwidth into account when picking a web hosting plan, especially if you plan on
regularly receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors. However, if you expect only a few
thousand visitors per month, you can get by on cheaper hosting plans.
You can calculate your bandwidth needs by adding up the size of all of the media served by
your site and then multiplying it by the number of users.
For example, if you have a 500MB site (most sites are not this large), and you get 20,000 visits,
the result will be 10,000GB of bandwidth used.
What Primary Jobs a Web Hosting Provider Do for You?
A web hosting provider gives you access to advanced webservers that will store and run your
website’s files. They will also provide a fast and reliable internet connection to your website so
people from around the world can easily access it. There are, of course, a variety of other things
that hosting providers do for their customers. In this section, we’ll go over the basic services a
web host provides.
Provides Your Domain
Your domain name is who you are on the internet. While it’s technically possible to host a
website without a domain name and only an IP address, nobody would be able to find you,
much less remember the name of your site.
Luckily, most web hosting companies provide the service of helping you register and maintain
the name for your website. If they use the popular site management platform called cPanel, you
can easily manage yours through your domain tools.
Regardless of whether your web host provider uses this platform or not, you will still be able to
manage your domain with little to no intervention from technical support.
Provides Your Server
Even more important than your domain is the server, or computer that “serves” your site to the
public. Your site must have server software installed and have a strong, high-bandwidth
connection to the internet.
You could technically set something similar up yourself, but doing so would take a considerable
amount of effort and expense. A web hosting company takes care of the hard work and makes
sure your site is accessible to the public.
Provides Storage Space
Your website is made from many files, ranging from simple HTML pages or scripting pages in
languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, or others. These pages tend to be small.
However, if you are hosting multimedia content (images to audio or video) you will find that you
require a considerable amount of storage space. All of these files will be stored on the server
you have access to through your web hosting provider which will then serve this information to
the public. In addition, reputable hosting providers also offer backup services, which will take a
copy of the files from your website and store them separately so that they can be restored
should anything unexpected happen.