Web hosting is one of the very first things you have to think about if you have plans to launch your own website anytime soon. What is web hosting, then?
Web Hosting Defined
When you speak of hosting a website, it means that you will make it available to everyone all over the world. A website is made up of web pages that contain text, videos, images, and other types of content where people can see them. But, people will only be able to see your site provided that it is available online. For your site to be available online, you need to store this on a computer known as web server. By buying a web server space where you can store your web pages, your website will become hosted so that everyone and anyone can see it.
Basic Services of Web Hosting Companies
There is no doubt that the most important product that a web host can sell is their server space. They also provide many other services and products critical for web hosting including domain name registration, SSL certificates, email hosting services, and more.
There are also service providers offer a collection of website builder tools that will help you create your own site even without the assistance of web developers and designers. But, the most crucial products that a web host can provide are the numerous kinds of web server hosting to help their clients select the hosting space that best suits their unique and specific needs.
Key Features of Web Hosting Plans
Disk Space
This refers to the amount of storage space given to you by the website hosting provider. This disk space is required for storing your web files including text, video, audio, text, and others. Disk space is being measured in megabytes. The best hosting companies offer packages with different amounts of space to meet the needs and demands of websites of all sizes, from small and personal sites up to large and multinational ones.
Uptime
This pertains to the percentage of time that the hosting server remains up and running. An uptime of 99.99% will mean that your site will go down for just 8 hours per year while an uptime of 98% will mean that your site will be down for around 7.3 days per year. If you have an eCommerce website that accepts online payments from your customers or you receive any form of business through your site, more downtime will lead to more losses.
Bandwidth
This is the amount of data that a site can transfer within a period of time. This also determines your website’s speed. More speed is possible with more bandwidth. If your website has less bandwidth, it will load much slower. There are web hosting providers that offer unlimited bandwidth while others charge different prices according to your usage. If your site is composed of heavier pages such as those filled with lots of videos or images, you will be better off with a higher storage and greater bandwidth combined.
Web hosting can make or break your business. For this reason, choosing the best web hosting provider can mean a big difference to the success of your business.