Sunday, November 18, 2012

Website Hosting : What You Need to Know

By Michale Deanne


For many businesses whatever the scale, having a website is almost imperative and of paramount importance simply because it gives you the opportunity to increase the "reach" of your business. Business hosting for a website opens a world of opportunities to your company and gives you the much needed leverage to propel your business to new heights by taking advantage of a DNS, or domain name system which will allow your website to be seen by the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This system will draw in new clientele which will eventually lead to a more profitable business venture.

Your choice of a business hosting company is crucial and may hold the key to a more successful business venture. You have to consider a multitude of factors before finally committing yourself to the services of a business hosting company.

Bandwidth and storage space are particularly crucial so you have to know how much your web host can provide. Bandwidth, also known as data transfer tells you the amount of data that you are allowed to transfer. Data in this regard pertains to images, text, audio files, video files and everything else that a server transfers to a user's web browser. The bandwidth that your website will require is highly dependent on the type of website that you are going to create. Most small business sites will not need more than 1 gigabyte of bandwidth per month. If you own a website with static web pages and you expect little traffic on a daily basis, it is advisable to go with a low bandwidth plan. In case you exceed the amount of bandwidth allowed in your plan, your hosting company could charge you additional fees, so if you believe that your website will get pummeled by traffic, you need to acquire higher data transfer to ensure the smooth operation of your website.

Another factor that you need to consider when choosing the appropriate webhosting for your business is the availability of the tools that would suit your business needs. Business hosting services typically integrate features such as multiple website hosting, website management, shopping carts, multimedia support, unlimited databases, server side scripts, unlimited email accounts and mailing lists, among others. In fact, such tools have become the standards for a good business hosting service. You just have to make sure that the tools that go with the hosting plan of your choice are compatible with the ones that you have been using in running your business.

The next thing that you have to look into is the kind and quality of technical support being offered by the web host. Your web host should provide top-notch technical support that is readily accessible when you need them and they should create regular back ups of their servers to ensure that your website is safe and that data recovery will not post a problem in the event of technical failure. Any good business hosting company should have twenty-four hour technical support service seven days per week, so that you can decrease the time that your website is unavailable to your clients.

Once you have made up your mind and have chosen to avail the services of a business hosting company, you still have two basic options to consider:

Do you want your business hosting company to do it all from designing your website to maintaining it, or you want to build it from the ground-up by yourself? If you opt for the former, you still have the responsibility for uploading your website onto the server from your computer. However, your business hosting company will guide you in this aspect and provide you with the essentials in maintaining your website. You would most likely be offered a domain name and an e-mail program specifically designed to give you a professional edge. On the other hand, if you go for the latter, you may need the services of a website designer before choosing your business hosting company. By having your website design first, you will be able to identify your needs from your business hosting plan.

There is no scarcity of business hosting companies out there to get your website up and running on the internet. Selecting a good business hosting company goes beyond mere comparison shopping for the lowest possible rate. You need to take time, examine your options and think things through before picking a web hosting company for your business website, and you will see that you will be much better off over the long-run.




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