There is a lot of confusion regarding all of the complex terminology and lingo that flows across the Internet on a constant basis; web hosting is one of those terms that has been lost to the confusion. Web hosting isn’t about the design of your site, but the quality and reliance of the servers you choose to support it.
These tips can help guide your decision a little better.
When searching for a good web hosting company, you will soon discover that all of these companies are not created equally. Some of the less reputable companies will host up to a thousand websites on a single server! With servers that are so overloaded, their customers can experience reliability issues, as well as, reduced traffic capacity. Before choosing a hosting company, do some research. Good web hosting companies only host between 200 to 250 websites per server. By doing this, they are ensuring that their bandwidth and storage space are not overloaded.
Research each potential web host’s customer support before deciding on a host. The easier it is to get in touch with the hosting service, the more likely you are to be satisfied. If you’re having problems with your web hosting account, you’ll need to be able to easily reach customer service by email or phone.
Guaranteed uptime is important, but read the fine print carefully. From your perspective, a guarantee of 99.9% uptime means that your site will be available and running 99.9% of the time. That is usually not the case. It generally means the web hosting company is available 99.9% of the time. Your site may be down, but the company is not responsible if they are running well.
One important factor to consider when looking for a free web hosting provider is to find one that offers database availability. Most free providers do not include this in your package, but if you look hard enough, there are some out there that do, though they might have limitations on what you can do with the database.
When doing your research on potential web hosts, beware of any hints that the host is overselling their bandwidth. In this case, the web host has too many people drawing from their limited bandwidth pool. This means your website would suffer from speed drops, limited functionality, and maybe even down time. It’s best to look elsewhere if the company you are looking at appears to have an overselling track record.
Pay attention to the SPAM policy. It is always best to avoid web hosts that “spam” their clients or that tolerates their clients doing this to their users. If there is not a specific document outlining their policy, check the FAQ. Be wary of any company without a well-defined spam policy.
If you want to add different features to your site such as a chat room, a bulletin board or a contact form, you should look for a web hosting service that supports CGI scripts. If you don’t know how to create these scripts, some web hosts can provide you with templates.
Now you understand what it really means to host a website, so you can pay attention to these small details that you may have overlooked normally. It’s always great to know what goes on behind the curtain.
One day, you may even decide to handle your hosting needs yourself and that’s when things will become really interesting!
To find far more web hosting articles, the very best notion is usually to take a look at the web hosting categories.