How to Choose the Right Web Host for Your Website
You should carefully select your web hosting service whether you’re constructing a personal or business website. It’s crucial to pick the right web host.
The reason for this is that you will surely want as many people to see your website as possible. To accomplish so, you’ll need to set aside some time to go through some basic but critical criteria that will aid your site’s visibility.
There are numerous web hosting firms and packages to pick from these days. Each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. So, how do you choose between the two? Even if you’ve narrowed it down to a certain supplier, you’ll still need help.
Look into the many types of hosting that are available.
There are many various types of web hosting available, and determining which one is best for your needs is an important aspect of ensuring your site’s long-term success. It’s crucial to check ahead of time because not every web host offers all types of hosting. Among the several types of hosting are:
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Shared hosting
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VPS hosting
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Cloud hosting
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Dedicated hosting
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WordPress hosting
This article will continue to discuss this topic and other topics such as uptime, support, data storage, and bandwidth. We covered different aspects of your website that are equally very important.
How To Choose The Right Web Host: 10 Factors You Can’t Ignore.
1. Server Uptime & Customer Support Services
The availability of your website on the Internet depends on whether the server where your files are located is running at any given time.
That’s is called server uptime. Most web hosting providers claim to provide their hosting services 99.99% of the time. Still, you should check each claim anyway before making a final purchase.
I recommend that you test a hosting that seems to meet your needs before deciding on a final contract for 12, 24, or 36 months. That way, you exercise your right to a 30-day money-back, which almost every hosting provider offers.
It would be good to look for comments from users of the provider you are interested in on forums or elsewhere on the network. Most reputable hosting companies guarantee a 100 percent refund in the event of any severe downtime.
Another vital feature of good web hosting is customer support. They need to provide customers with telephone and Internet support 24/7. You should check in advance if it really works. You will contact customer support more often than you think now.
If you’re a beginner or need some clarification, choose a hosting provider that should have a good collection of tutorials and FAQs on their website in case you need help.
2. Pricing & Included features
All hosting companies compete with prices and only every second or third pays attention on the quality of service provided.It is difficult to find a quality that suits your needs without some prior analysis.
As with any product, cheap packages offer little quality. On the other hand others are too expensive and offer nothing spectacular.
Hosting package prices usually depends on the available functions. These include shared or virtual or dedicated server plans, data storage and bandwidth limits, programming languages and databases, number of hosted emails, number of allowed addon domains and subdomains, FTP accounts, site tools, shopping cart etc.
With all this in mind, a person can easily get confused and make a mistake that he will regret for at least a year.
I will explain some of these terms below, so that you can understand them more easily.
For the first year prices for shared hosting packages start at $ 2 and end at $ 5 per month or even more. Renewing these same packages in the second year will cost you $ 8 to $ 17. Virtual private / dedicated servers around $ 20-55 and dedicated servers around $ 70-110.
Tip: If you didn’t get a domain name or want to add another one, most packages include a free domain with hosting.
3. Data Storage and Bandwidth limits
I assume you are new to hosting a website and have very little idea of how much storage space and bandwidth your site will need. That shouldn’t worry you at all. You will realize this over time, as the number of visitors to your website increases and you progress.
Data Storage Space:
I will simplify to make it easier for you to understand. Suppose you do not plan to publish large videos or many high-resolution images. In that case you will not have problems with most hosting providers. Normal web pages do not take up more than 40-50 MB of storage space. The basic shared hosting package, which costs about $ 2, gives you 10 GB (1000 MB) of storage space. Is that clear now?
Bandwidth Limits:
Some packages (not basic ones), provide you with an unlimited monthly bandwidth. You need to consider what types of files you upload, the size of images, videos, etc. All of this affects the performance and loading speed of your website.
My recommendation for all of you, who wants a fast website:
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do not upload images larger than 100, maximum 120 KB (use Image Resizer before uploading),
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do not install plugins unnecessarily in WordPress (reduce them to a minimum of 20, up to 30).
In this way, you will ensure fast operation of the website, and thus easier accessibility of your website to users. Keep in mind that the time a visitor spends on one page is, according to the latest measurements, less than 4 seconds.
One advice is for those who intend to upload demanding videos / movies or high-resolution images. Even though hosting providers allow you unlimited banwidth, you will be extra charged when they notice that you are “abnormally” using this service.
To avoid inconveniences and additional payments, you better start by choosing VPS or a dedicated server or Cloud hosting or high bandwidth packages.
4. Shared Hosting – Virtual Private Server – Dedicated Server – Cloud Hosting
I will try to briefly explain to you what types of hosting it is, so that you can gain insight.
Shared hosting: Most websites on the Internet use shared hosting. This type of hosting is good for beginners and commercial websites, blogs, undemanding websites and belongs to the economical hosting. There are usually 10-100 hosted accounts on one phisical server. They share the same server storage and broadband connection. They can cost in the first year between $ 2.5 – $ 5 and in the second year (renew) from $ 8 to $ 15 per month.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS): Medium-sized websites with medium storage requirements and bandwidth typically use this type of hosting.
Virtual Private Servers (VPS) are hosted on unique IP addresses. This server hosts multiple accounts, 3-10 each with its unique Host ID or IP address, data storage and bandwidth separate software. Price VPS hosting can cost from $ 30 to $ 150 per month, depending on the feature.
Note: The contract price is decreasing from year to year.
Dedicated Server: Medium and large websites use this type of hosting
which is adaptable to their requirements. Such sites need more storage space and bandwidth.
This hosting means that the user has a rented complete physical server at his disposal. Users have complete control over the server, unique address, hard drive, frame und bandwidth. Renting a dedicated server depends on physical server components, hard disk capacity, processor version, amount of RAM, and broadband access. Prices can vary between $ 65 and $ 200 a month.
Cloud hosting: For this hosting we can say that the hosting is the next generation. How is it different from all the above?
Namely, cloud hosting uses several physical servers connected and located in different locations.
It has two main advantages: scalability factor and cost efficiency,
In line with their current capabilities, this allows large websites to add another server and join it to a networked server group. Prices for cloud hosting packages range from $ 100 to $ 550 and up.
5. Addon Domains & Subdomains
A domain is the website’s address that an internet user enters into the URL search bar of the browser to go to the particular website. Additional domains are web page names, e.g., “https://www.yoursiteX.com”, or “https://www.yoursiteX1.com,” that you want to host with your hosting provider. If you intend to host more than one website, you need to choose a package that allows it. Most of the cheapest web hosting packages allow only one website.
Subdomains: You may want to create different directories, e.g., “https://directory1.yoursite.com” or “https://directory2.yoursite.com”.
The number of allowed subdomains may vary depending on the package you choose.
6. E-mail and FTP Accounts
Individual email accounts designed for your website (s), e.g., for example. “Name @ your site.com.”
Depending on your package, you can create many emails and give them to use your colleagues, friends, clients, etc.
FTP Account s:
FTP – File Transfer Protocol – accounts allow you to access your hosting files from web software. They are beneficial to webmasters as they allow you to update, delete, or create new files and folders in your host directly from web design software or FTP software. Most hosting packages will give you more than ten accounts, which you can allocate to your designers and co-workers.
7. Programming languages and Databases
Some of your hosting server’s programming software and databases are PHP5, Python CGI, Java, Ruby CGI, MySQL(Unix), MsAccess, etc. They are used for the more functionalities of your website and help it run faster, serve more visitors and deliver more value to your customers.
You don’t have to worry about this at first. You may sometimes want to know more about a website, and you maybe never. Leave this to the webmasters.
8. Content Management, Blogs, Forums:
Ready-made tools for setting up blogs, forums, and content management to enhance websites are Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Geeklog, Lifestyle, Serendipity, phpBB, SMF, Vanilla Forum, etc
WordPress and Joomla are top contenders for user-friendly CMS platforms. They are more user-friendly than Drupal, which can be a complex platform.
9. Website Tools
Website Builder, Web Analytics Tools, FrontPage Extensions, Google Custom Search, Google Webmaster Tools etc.
These are essential tools that help in building websites, gauging website popularity and statistics, and site enhancements included in most hosting packages
Website Builder: This tool allows you to customize your website by adding or removing pages. It also allows you to add or remove sections and subsections. It is an excellent tool for beginners. It allows for using templates and pre-made designs without having to code. It is also a perfect tool for those wanting to make their website their own.
Google Analytics: This is a free tool from Google that is invaluable for tracking the performance of your website.
Custom Search: Lets you reach out to a larger audience and SEO your website without much work. CSE is a great tool but is accessible only up to a certain number of sites and a certain number of queries per day.
10. Additional Tips for good SEO
One of the things that can improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) is the location of your web server. Data shows that when people search the Internet, search engines favor sites hosted locally. For example, if you want your website to rank high in the UK, it would be helpful to have a web server located in the UK. In addition, having a regional top-level domain (TLD) can also increase the local SEO ranking of your website. For example, domains ending in .co.UK or .org.UK takes precedence in the UK., while, for example, domains ending in .com.au or .org.au have an advantage over Australia.
A potential downside of using shared hosting is that it could negatively impact your website’s SEO rankings. If your site shares a server and IP address with a site that has been penalized by Google, your site may also be affected. To avoid this, you can host your site on a separate IP address, which would require a dedicated server or Virtual Private Server.
What a word for the end of this post
When choosing a web host, there are a few key things to consider. Are you looking for shared hosting, a virtual private server, a dedicated server, or cloud hosting? WordPress hosting is an excellent option for people who want to use the popular blogging platform. Server uptime and customer support are also essential factors to consider. Pricing and included features vary from host to host, so comparing and contrasting before deciding is necessary.
From personal experience, I can give you a suggestion for several Hosting providers with good preferences. BlueHost hosting, whose server is located in the US for users in the region. Suppose you want a proven hosting provider in Europe with servers in this area. In that case, I recommend A2Hosting, whose server is located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and SiteGround, which has two servers, one in London, UK, and the other in the Netherlands, in Eemshaven.
