Once you’ve decided your company needs a web presence (it does), you’ll need to find a hosting plan. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of hosting providers to choose from, and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses, but there are some basics you should be familiar with before you go out shopping.
What Kind of Site Do I Need?
The kind of hosting plan you choose is going to be primarily based on the type of site you intend to build. If you intend to have an ecommerce site, you need to make sure your potential host can accommodate the software you’d like to use. Most software vendors have a list of recommended hosting providers, so if you’ve already picked out your software, this list is a good place to start. Most web hosts are fine for a simple brochure type site or blog, and many offer “one click install” for this type of software, which lessens your learning curve, particularly if you’ve never had a website before.
Shared Hosting vs. Virtual Private Server vs. Private Server
Shared hosting means that your site lives on a server with lots of other sites, and they all share the bandwidth. If you happen to have a neighbor who hits the front page of Digg and the traffic surge causes his site to go down, yours will go down as well.
Private servers are just what they say they are. The only thing living on your server is your site. All the bandwidth is yours, all the space is yours, and all the cost is yours. You don’t have to worry about that Digg generated traffic surge–whether it’s yours or your neighbors–shutting down your site, but you do have to pay for that privilege.
Between the two is the virtual private server. This is simply a geeky way of saying your site lives on a server with other sites, but your host has guaranteed you a certain amount of bandwidth. You don’t have to worry about your neighbors getting Dugg and knocking you off line, but you don’t have as much bandwidth as you would with a private server. Of course, you don’t have the bill that comes with a private server either.
Keep in mind that each host will have their own restrictions on the use of their shared, private, and virtual private servers. Shared servers, for example, will often be fully managed, but you will be limited as to the applications you can install. Private servers might require you to manage it, but you will be able to install any software you like.
Bandwidth
Each time someone visits your site, they are downloading the files–or web pages–that make up your site. The size of these downloads are the bandwidth your site uses. According to Dreamhost, 99% of all websites use 150 MB per month, top 100 blogs use 600 MB, busy forums us 1000 MB, and popular web applications us 4000 MB per month.
These numbers are generalizations, of course, but they can be useful in helping you decide what type of hosting plan your site will require.
Page Load Speed and Guaranteed Uptime
This is the Internet, where connection speeds are increasing and attention spans are decreasing. If your potential customer has to wait for your page to load, they will hit the back button faster than you can say cable modem. If you have an established web presence you can get away with a little longer load times, but for the new guy on the block speed is nearly as important as content.
The same can be said of server uptime. When a first time visitor clicks on a link and gets a page not found error, you will have lost a customer forever. Again, returning customers are more forgiving. After all, they know your site is there, so they’ll just come back later and expect the problem to be resolved. A new customer will assume your site is dead and move on to the next guy.
Pricing
Price is the first thing we are inclined to consider, and probably the last thing we should. The old adage, “You get what you pay for” is as true of web hosting as it is of everything else, and if you choose a hosting company simply because they have the lowest price, it will show.
Choosing a hosting provider won’t be as confusing once you’ve figured out exactly what you want from your website, and what you need from your provider to accomplish it. Jot down some notes to guide you, and start comparing plans, and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call them if you have questions.
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