Web Hosting 101: Tips, Tricks And Techniques You NeedPosted by Lehmann Lyons on February 16th, 2021 dreamhost coupon If you decide you want to sell handcrafted items online, you might not be sure how to set up your website to do so. Your site will need a 'shopping cart' feature. You will need a web hosting service set up for this. Not all of them give you this option. This article will show you what to look for when choosing a web hosting provider. You should choose your host based on more than a few recommendations. Taking two reviews on a company and using those to make your final decision can be detrimental to your choice because that's not enough different sources to truly know whether or not the hosting agency is truly that good or that bad. When searching for the right web hosting service, you need to remember the importance of a website running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without constant technical interruptions. Do your research, and know which companies are not just available and cheap, but reliable enough to trust with keeping your website up and running. A good web hosting service should bill you professionally. You should be able to log in with a username and password to have access to your account balance and make secured payments. If you have to send PayPal payments every months without getting account statements, you are not dealing with a serious web hosting service. If you want a web host you can trust, look at the kind of guarantee they offer. Some services offer to refund your money if you decide you are not satisfied. This means these services are very confident about being able to host your website and keep it online constantly. You should make sure you choose a web hosting service that gives you enough space to grow your site. While HTML doesn't take up many kilobytes, videos and photographs can. For hosting files alone, around 100MB - 1 GB should offer a good starting platform for your domain. Don't purchase a web hosting plan just because it offers unlimited disk space or bandwidth. Compare these plans with plans that offer a reasonable amount of space and bandwidth to determine which is the best plan for your needs. Sometimes plans that offer a finite amount of space or bandwidth are better for your particular needs than plans that offer unlimited quantities of space or bandwidth. You should look for a web host that offers a good FTP application. An FTP software allows you to upload new content to your site quickly and safely. If you have to go to your host's site and log in to upload new content, you are losing a lot of time. Look at how much space the web host will allow you to use. If you will be using a lot of multimedia elements or having multiple pages on your website you will most likely be needing a lot of space. Before paying for a web host, ensure the amount of space they offer will fit your needs. Familiarize yourself with different statistics' tools to keep track of your performances. You can use Analog Stats, Webalizer FTP, Webalizer web stats or AWStats. These tools allow you to see how many visitors you are getting every month, which pages they are viewing and what your bandwidth is used for. Sometimes it will be necessary, for various reasons, to switch your existing service to a new web hosting provider. Before you do this, however, consider the implications and the process for getting your valuable files over to the new host. It is always a good idea to sign up with the new provider and start transferring your files over several weeks before your current contract expires. This will help you avoid glitches, delays and the potential that your current provider could shut down your account before you are finished. Do not solely rely on web host comparison websites when selecting a web host. This is because many of these websites also earn affiliate marketing profits for referring you to the web hosting companies that they are comparing. This is a conflict of interest. You should therefore verify any information you obtain through other third party reviews and user reviews. Be aware of what type of storage the web host offers. This is only relevant for certain site owners, though. If you have a site that requires a lot of videos and music, then you need to ensure the host offers the space necessary. Decide how much space you need in advance to ensure you are getting a host that supplies you will just what you need. Do a whois search on your hosting service. Find out when their site was created and how much traffic it generates. You should know that up to 95% of web hosting services do not survive more than a year. Choose a service that has been around for years and used by many webmasters. Have a good idea of how you want your website to look and function before choosing a web host. While it may seem premature, having a good idea of what your site will be like can save you headaches in the future. You need to be sure that the web host you choose will be able to handle everything you have planned for your site, from bandwidth to email policy. Read the fine print with all hosting contracts. A host might seem to offer certain enhancements, but the fine print might say that these are only offered if you sign up for a long-term contract or commit to a certain package level. So review the specifics of your contract to avoid disappointment. If you have a number of websites, consider hosting them all with the same company. Many companies offer significant discounts for multiple domains. In addition, starting a new website with a company you already know gives you the comfort of knowing you are working with a company you can trust. When you are in doubt, consult the tips you have learned here to find out if the web host you are considering is the right fit for your website. Avoid paying for things you can do without, but you should also be sure you don't miss out on anything.Like it? Share it! More by this author |