Choosing a Web Host
If you are putting up a website for your business or for personal use, you will need space on a web server. Companies called
web hosts provide this service. They give you a certain amount of space for which to store the pages, and a certain amount
of transfer to send them to your visitors. The packages that are offered can range anywhere from simple shared hosting for
small sites to dedicated hosting for large sites. Picking which one depends on what you are going to do.
When looking for a web host that will serve your needs, the best thing is to start small and work your way up, especially
if you are a private business, and not a huge corporation. Many web hosts offer an upgrade path should you start to get
close to overloading your limit. This allows you to pay less when getting started and only pay more when you've built up
a following. Always find out what the upgrade path is when inquiring about hosting.
Uptime is a consideration that needs to be taken into account. A web host with a poor uptime means that when people or
search engine spiders go to your site, they find it missing. This can have a serious impact on your traffic levels. For
instance, it can even get you dropped out of the listings completely, if the outages come when the search engine requests
your page. Usually the uptime is stated, but you may want to do a bit of research to see what other people are saying. Do
keep in mind, however, that uptime is measured by how their connectivity to the net has performed. It does not take into
account outages that may occur between you and the server due to some intermediate connection. Remember, the data passes
through many different computers and connections before getting to you. So what might look like it's down, may not be.
Customer support is also a very important factor in the equation. If you need help, can you contact someone, even at 2am,
when your site is down? Webhosting is not a 9-5 business. Quality webhosts will have a way to contact them in an emergency
at all hours of the night (or day if you are halfway around the world). Other considerations include friendlines, the ability to answer technical questions, and to resolve your issue in a timely manner. Again, reviews can really help you get a handle on how
good or bad their service is.
Beware of unmetered bandwidth claims. Many owners think that these will allow them to serve as many pages as they can with
huge video files and pictures for $4 a month. The hosts that claim unmetered do so because most websites don't get anywhere
near the bandwidth that is the true limit. Think about a buffet restaurant. They know people can only eat so much, so it's
safe to say unlimited. That is what they depend on. The situation in web hosting is similar. Unfortunately, unlike the
buffet, a site can bulge quickly and without restraint. And it's possible to overstep the soft limit that is buried in
their Acceptable Use Policy or not stated at all. Going over can get your site shut off or you are forced to pay extra.
It's always best to know what the limits are, so you can make informed decisions when upgrading is necessary and not forced
upon you.
We hope these tips have helped. If you need a web hosting service, our readers often recommend www.GoDaddy.comfor all your web site needs including domains, hosting, email services, and more.