What Exactly is Web Hosting?
When you go online, you are bound to stumble upon websites which compare the top 10 web hosting providers, enumerate their own version of the top 10 web hosting packages, and provide web hosting reviews and rankings. But why is there such an abundance of web hosting providers in the first place? Exactly what type of service is it that they provide for customers? And if you go through these web hosting reviews, how would you know if you are getting the best hosting package to suit your site maintenance needs? T
hat is exactly what we will learn more about here.
How Web Hosting Works
First, let’s take a quick look at how web hosting services work. These days, it is very easy to put up a business even if you do not have thousands of dollars in capital. What entrepreneurs do is find ways to earn money online or sell their services or products through an online shop. This way, they would have no need for a brick-and-mortar store. As long as there’s a good product or service to sell, they can easily have a website built for their business.
Now, what is it that you need in order to put up a website? Be it for business or personal purposes, the first thing that you need to do is get the services of a web hosting company. As the name implies, these businesses offer website hosting services. They are responsible for providing your site with the 24/7 connectivity that it needs for the web pages to be accessible to people around the world who are connected to the Internet. They will also provide you with the tools necessary to launch your site live.
After thinking of a name for your business, you can have your domain name registered. Let’s say that your business is named My Domains. You can have your URL be www.mydomain.com. The domain name AndysFlowers.com need to be registered if it’s still available, then you should have a web hosting package so that your business site can be launched online.
What do Web Hosting Companies Provide?
Now, here is a detailed look at the specific things that web hosting companies will provide you with once you take advantage of their services:
• Storage space on a server which is located in a data center. This is a place where a number of state-of-the-art servers are housed and cooled 24/7, providing Internet connection to the websites which are hosted.
• Storage space and bandwidth which allows website owners to store data, web pages, images, video, music and text on the server.
• Bandwidth which allows website owners to deliver traffic to online users.
• Security features which help ensure that your data will be backed up and any information shared by visitors to your site will be kept safe and secure.
• Other tools like e-mail accounts, back-up services, e-commerce features, scripting support and technical support.
How to Look for the Best Web Hosting Package
More importantly, how are you supposed to look for the best web hosting package available on the Internet today? As mentioned earlier, there are dozens of web hosting companies and hundreds of web hosting packages that you can take advantage of. Choosing one is all a matter of deciding what works best for the type of website that you have.
For instance, if you are maintaining just a basic website with five to ten pages, then you can go for a cheap web hosting package with all the basic tools necessary to maintain one. On the other hand, if you have a business-oriented website, you need to look for a more sophisticated web hosting package which offers all the e-commerce features that you would need.
If you have no idea about how to start your search, simply go online so that you can easily compare the top 10 web hosting companies as ranked by online reviewers. There are numerous web hosting reviews and rankings, as well as lists of the top 10 web hosting service providers which you can use as reference when going through the selection process. By learning how to compare the top 10 web hosting packages, you would know which one to take advantage of depending on your specific site maintenance needs.