So you’ve decided on your business name, bought a matching domain name and are now looking to build your shiny new website. Well now you need web hosting, but What is this exactly?
I’m Russell Hawkins from Easy start Digital and this video explains what you need to know about web hosting and why choosing the right type is important for your new website
There can be a lot of confusing language and terminology when starting out with a new website but let’s simplify this. A website is basically a collection of electronic files consisting of lines of code and images and these need to be stored together in a location that is connected to the internet — this is known as a web server. You effectively rent this space as soemwhere to keep your files they are uploaded to a hosting company’s web server you have made your website accessible for anyone that visits your domain name.
Depednding on where you have bought your domain name you would likley have also been offered web hosting at the same time or had it bundled with the domain. BUT be warned, not all web hosting is the same and this can cost you in the long run. Think of how much business starts online these days. If someone lands on a website and there’s a problem — it takes too long to load or doesn’t appear at all — potential customers won’t wait around. They’ll just leave your site and find another competitors that works and give them the information they were looking for!
Looking for web hosting can be a minefield as there are different types and each of them has multiple pricing tiers, and numerous add-ons and extras, It can end up costing you more than you need to.
The cost of hosting can range anywhere from £2-£400 a month and there are a few different types of hosting, so lets go through them now.
The first and cheapest is referred to as ‘Shared Hosting’
Shared hosting is the cheapest because your website shares the server it’s stored on with loads of other websites. This is not a problem but it does means it’s more suited for small, low-traffic websites. Shared hosting isn’t suitable for large sites with lots of visitors.
Dedicated Server Hosting
With this you basically get the whole server. You only really need this when your site is big with lots of media and traffic. It’s also the most expensive and you cn expect to pay up to about £400 a month in the UK
VPS Hosting. The VPS stands for (Virtual Private Server)
This is really the next stage up from shared hosting as this ‘virtual’ server acts like a dedicated server but you are still sharing it with other sites. But again, more suitable for larger sites that need more resoruces
Lastly and probably the one I would recommend most when starting out is ‘Cloud Hosting’
Imagine a load of servers all over the world that are connected and your site is spread across all of them. This is good because depending on where you website visitors are coming from they will be served a version of your site from the nearest server. This usually means the site loading quickly and more reliable for your visitors.
If your just starting out then you will likely have a small, low traffic website and therfore shared or cloud hosting is your best option but whilst you may be tempted to opt for the cheapest watch out as there may be some hidden costs.
These extra costs may include things like Backup and restore services or SSL certificates (more about these in another video)
There are also other considerations when looking for web hosting
Bandwidth or traffic Allowance – If your site is going to incorporate video, audio, or other elements that require a higher level of bandwidth, you want a plan that matches your needs so make sure you have a decent amount or even unlimited bandwith with your package.
Control panel – most hosts have some form of control panel accessed via any web browser and you may find additional programs that you can install to enhance your site
FTP Access- stands for File transfer Protocol. This basically means you can upload and download files as well as edit them. Not all hosts allow this expecially if you are using some kind of website builder through them
Uptime (reliability) – How stable is your web hosting companies servers, do they go down a lot? Ideally you will be looking for 99.9% uptime. No company can ever guaratneee 100%
Technical support – Is there a help desk, is it 24/7 or is there a chat function should things go wrong?
There are literally thousands of hosting companies but if you want to find out more about our custom hosting packages for new website owners then check out the links below this video for details of our affordable cloud hosting packages and don’t forget to like and subscribe if you want to see more from Easy Start Digital.