After having built the web pages the next step is to
display it in your website. The important factor is to
select a hosting
service which could offer a better reliable service for your
business. The following query and explanation section throws light on what
a web hosting service does and how to make a best choice among the
millions of hosting concern available today in market.
Query : What web host do for us? Kindly
provide brief answer.
Explanation : They are Providers or concern who
provides different types of services that are essential in maintaining
your website. For any website it needs a storage area for storing it which
is provided by web host.
Query: What is the average cost involved
when going for a web host?
Explanation : This varies depending upon
requirement of the concern but on a average the costs runs between $15-$25
per month.
Query: Does free hosting service maintain
Integrity and are they trustworthy?
Explanation : If it is a business
web site then it is a must to go for a affordable paid web hosting for the
site. The free hosting service would be suitable only for fun site where
banners only get displayed. This is because free web hosting service
providers give only small bandwidth and the space provided is also little
and to add to it they will have advertisements posted on your site which
will affect your traffic ,in some cases the site will go down for a
certain period which will affect your business.
Query: How to choose the right web host for
my site?
Explanation : Given below are the key points to consider while
choosing a web host:
1. Requirements Study - The
web hosting service that suits for one may not suit for other because the
requirement for each varies. So before choosing it is always wise to make
a study of what is needed for you namely things like Database
support(MYSQL) etc..
2. Uptime - The uptime of the
server should be at least more than 99.5%
3. Data
Transfer - For this you need to work out your requirement which
will help in determining the bandwidth needed by you. Also in this context
make sure that the hosting servers do not share bandwidth which will
reduce the speed of your site.
4. Storage - The web
hosting service must offer you the storage area more than what is required
by your current website. Also make a study of whether the web hosting
service put you penalties if in case you exceed the allocation. In this it
is also needed to find out how the web hosting concern decide your storage
capacity, that is whether they take into account the web files or do they
take into account the emails, log files,.. also. A detailed study of this
is needed for which you should be able to view your log files. So Storage
and traffic are critical points to be studied when choosing a web hosting
service
5. Technical Support - It is always good to
choose host that give throughout the year, all days technical
support
6. Security - It is wise to ensure that host
services uses updated security software. Also the hosting service must
offer SSL named as Secure Socket Layer for performing secured
transactions.
7. Email - The hosting service must
provide good number of emails, aliases and mail forwards because it is key
for business.
8. Shopping Cart - The cart used by you
must match with that provided by hosting plan chosen by you or the hosting
service must have a appropriate shopping cart replacement.
9.
Customer Support - The type of customer support varies
such as through email, phone. In whatever way the support is provided it
is better to find out the response time they take to get back to you. As
conveyed earlier it is best to choose host that give throughout the year,
all days technical support.
10. CGI-Bin Access -
Whatever be the site you own you have to run some CGI script. For the sake
of security host services have their own scripts installed but it is
better to make a room for allowing to install your own scripts as per your
needs. That is you have to additionally look whether it supports the
language such as PHP, Perl etc.. in which you may write your
scripts.
11. Feedback - Before choosing a web hosting
service it is always better to make a study of the concern to know about
the negative feedbacks if any.
12. FrontPage
Extensions - If you have FrontPage in your site just make a check
whether the hosting service also support FrontPage with the same version
as yours.
13. Communication Media - The hosting
service chosen has to be good otherwise we may have problem with the
communication services linked with domain like email, File Transfer
Protocol(FTP) which are key for any business.
14.
Scalability - You can use any tool like HTML for your
site but important factor to consider is whether the web hosting service
is scalable that is as you built more complex features in your site the
host service must be upgradeable to handle all this.
15. Domain
Name and IP Number - It is good to have your own domain name and
IP number for which the web hosting service must help you.
16.
Backup - Ensure whether the hosting service provide
important service like backup which will help you to prevent against data
loss.
Due to the birth of many web hosting companies, the
above factors if considered would help you make a correct decision for
choosing a good web hosting concern for your business.