Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Web Hosting Decision: How To Choose A Web Host

By Darrel Hawes


When starting a new website, you need to decide where it will be hosted. This refers to where on the internet the site "lives". A website has to have a place where it resides, just like an individual or family. It may be a house, apartment, condo, or motorhome, but there is one place they call "home" at any given moment.

Websites are the same way. Websites live on web servers, which are computers attached the internet and which store web pages for people to view. The computer which stores a website is called a "web host".

One major decision is whether to use a free or paid web host.

Going with a free web host is always a temptation, as along with the attractive price, they often include simple website creation tools. Although these sites have many advantages, you should not use one for your "main" sites. Along with the showing of ads, they might also remove your site without warning or might close their service. Even so, the use of one of these sites can be a great part of your marketing plan. You may want to take a look at Blogger.com and Weebly.com.

When you set up your paid web host, you have a few options. You can either purchase it yourself or in the event have engaged the services of a web designer, these professionals will often make web space available to you. Some of the criteria in selecting a web host include:

Cost: what will they charge to host your site? And what addons may cost you more money?

Reliability: do they guarantee uptime? One of the best ways to determine reliability is to ask what others' experience has been. The least expensive web host will not be worth it if you cannot count on it being available when your customers or readers need it.

Cpanel: make sure the web host uses cpanel for accessing the site to make changes.

About the Author:

No comments: