Are you a business owner? If so, regardless of the size of your business, there are certain things that you need to know about web hosting. Are you not a business owner? It’s still important for you to know about your web hosting options once you make the Entrepreneurship leap.
So what is web hosting? Web hosting is what occurs when a server provides a place for your website to live on the internet. The servers that provide these places have special software installed on them. This software automatically detects when a user connects to it and when that happens, the server will display a web page to that user.
Website hosting service providers charge website owners for the right to use a server that can hold website data. If you are a website owner, a web hosting server can keep all of your website’s information in one place and ensure that your website is available to the public 24-hours a day and seven days a week.
Web hosting servers are similar to the folders that you have on the desktop of your computer. When an internet user navigates to a URL, the web server send the website that corresponds to that URL to the internet user that navigated to it. Any company that wants to have their own website must obtain the services of a web hosting service provider. According to Hosting Tribunal (https://hostingtribunal.com/blog/web-hosting-statistics/), 58.08% of the world’s web hosts are based in the United States.
When Choosing A Web Hosting Service Provider, These Are The Questions You Should Ask Yourself:
- Business Need – What type of website do you need? Static (https://techterms.com/definition/staticwebsite) or Multiplex (https://www.templatemonster.com/blog/what-is-dynamic-website/)?
- Traffic Volume – How many people do you expect to visit your site?
- Security Management (https://www.techradar.com/news/how-web-hosting-affects-security) – Will you have a dedicated team managing your security? Will they be working on security updates and system functionality?
Answering these questions will help you understand what type of web hosting features you are going to need. However, these are only some of the questions you should ask yourself. Need additional help? Contact us (https://ahatoexit.com/contact-us/) or comment below.
Who Uses It?
If you want a website, you will need some type of web hosting service. This will be true regardless of the size of the website that you want to have. If you’re wondering if this article is relevant for you, all you have to do is ask yourself if you’re going to have a website for your business. If that answer is yes, then the information addressed here is important and relevant to you.
Some Available Options
This is a selection of brands that currently offer the services that you may need. I recommend clicking on the links above and gazing over the information you can find while keeping in mind the facts provided in this article. All the brands listed above are industry leaders in the field of web hosting.
Challenges
Lack of knowledge about web hosting can lead you to pick the wrong package. This can cause you to suffer from low website efficiency and potentially cause your website to crash if you are faced with the right conditions. You could also choose a web hosting package that includes elements that you do not need. This would result in you paying more than you should. You may also end up with a package that causes you to incur initial costs that are overwhelming and higher than originally expected.
When choosing security options for your website, a good starting point is understanding if you’re going to need a managed or unmanaged option:
With Unmanaged hosting, you are responsible for all security updates and website functionality. This might not be a good option for website owners who don’t have much technical expertise because those types of owners might not know what plugins and plugin updates their website needs.
Managed hosting may seem financially overwhelming initially, but many times, it is the best option for website owners who don’t have as much technical expertise as they would like to have.
SSL Certificates
As GoDaddy (https://www.godaddy.com/help/what-is-an-ssl-certificate-542) states, a Secure Sockets Layer certificate or SSL certificate “is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server using SSL technology. Encryption is the process of scrambling data into an undecipherable format that can only be returned to a readable format with the proper decryption key.”
If a savvy visitor to a website sees that the URL of that site begins with “https,” which indicates that that site is protected by an SSL certificate, they might be more likely to share their personal information with that site. They might also see that site as more reliable than one that has a URL that begins with “http.” Browsers also visibly display that a site is not secure if there isn’t a properly installed SSL certificate.
As Always, Information Is Your Greatest Ally
Try to get as much information as you can about web hosting before deciding upon a web hosting service provider. We know that the process of picking a provider can be overwhelming. If you need more information about web hosting or personalized assistance with picking a provider, feel free to contact us. We put out a weekly newsletter for business professionals that is full of information related to various topics.
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