Are you new to web hosting and not sure what it is or how to find a good web hosting solution? There are lots of people who struggle with getting started with a website because they simply don’t know where to start off.
Not only do you need to think about the type of website that you want, the content that you want to put on it, the themes you want to use etc. etc. …. You also need to think about which web host to use. The selection of a good web hosting company is perhaps the most important of all, because if you go for the wrong one, the performance and reliability of your website could be significantly hindered. A poor performing website looks unprofessional and will impact your business’ reputation, so getting the web host right is paramount.
What Is a Web Host?
Put simply, if you have a website, you need a web host to enable your website to live on the Internet, where people can search for it. Your website will sit on a server that is provided by the web host. A web hosting company will offer various types of packages to suit a wide range of different requirements.
The most popular types of web hosting plans include:
Free Web Hosting – A number of website providers offer a free hosting service, for example Weebly or Wix. Whilst getting anything for free is a bonus, you need to make sure that what they can offer will actually be able to support your future website needs. There are generally a number of restrictions with free web hosts compared to paid ones.
Shared Web Hosting – This type of hosting works out fairly cheap because the costs are spread amongst a number of website owners. You can usually get a good Shared hosting package for less than £5 per month. The are a massive range of hosts that offer shared hosting packages such as Bluehost, HostGator, GoDaddy , Inmotion and many, many more.
Whilst it can be easy to be persuaded to use a cheap host that offers what looks like a fantastic deal. However, it is important that you spend time to understand all of the features and performance measures that hosts are evaluated by. You can find all of the details about their features on the hosts’ own websites or you can get a summary of the key features of all of the top web hosts in a comparison table or there are also search tools that you should be able to find online to help you.
Some of the most important factors to think about are:
Disk space/storage – Some hosts only offer limited space, so if you are going to build you r website up with lots of content then you will need a good amount of space.
Customer Service – Most paid hosts offer 24/7 support and it can be a vital feature if you come to need support. Check that the host you are looking at offers this and that they are quick to respond to queries.
Security – With increasing threats of cyber security attacks, it is becoming more and more important to ensure that your website is well protected. Check what levels of security the host offers.
Difficulty to set up – Does the host offer a ‘one-click’ installation for WordPress, for example?
There are many other factors that you need to consider before you opt for a web host, so take your time and don’t rush into it.
