Looking For A Web Host? Here’s What To Look For.

Choosing the right web host is a little like choosing the right shop for your business. In saying this I don’t mean location but size and facilities. We will discuss location in another article.

In starting a business you would need to have a business plan. Part of this plan would include looking over facilities available and how they would suit your needs. When choosing a web host you need to do the same. There are certain requirements you would make sure you have. You would also check out the location.

How much disk space do you need on the server?

How much room (disk space) do you need. Here it is wise to get whatever you can afford. Most websites will run on just a few MB. But it is wise to allow for future expansion. Do you plan to run a membership site with lots of downloads? Here you may find that 500MB may mot even be enough. You will find that there are plenty of hosting providers that offer up to 1GB for very reasonable rates.

What is Bandwidth?

Basically it is the uploading and downloading from your site. Each time you get a visitor to your site they view your site page or pages depending on how many they view. Each time a page is downloaded or viewed by your visitor they are using bandwidth. Hosting companies will limit the amount of bandwidth you use. This information has appeared on your visitors computer because their computer has downloaded the information. This downloading is calculated and is called bandwidth. The more bandwidth you have the more surfers you can have without having to pay additional fees. You should always be able to upgrade to a bigger package and get more. Several companies also offer unlimited accounts.

Will You Require A Database?

The short answer is yes. In fact you will need to make sure that you can run a number of databases. There are many web applications that require a database to run. Let’s say you want to have a Blog on your site. You could download the free script from Wordpress. To install it you need a database. There are so many applications that require databases that you should consider at least getting 5 or 6 available as a minimum.

Which Control Panel?

There are a number of diverse ones used by hosting companies. There are two that stand out for simplicity of use. You need to be able to easily know how to use them. The two I like best are Direct Admin and cPanel. Both are first-rate. Many webmasters avow cPanel. I personally prefer Direct Admin better, I think it is the easiest to utilize. The control panel is where you work at the back of your site. Here you will be able to set up email accounts, new databases and much more.

Other Things You Need To Look For

There are add-ons that you should expect from your hosting provider. One important one is a site creator. Does the hosting account come with an easy to use site builder? One of the easiest to use in the industry is the Drag And Drop site creator. This is a really powerful creator being able to create dynamic PHP sites.

Some hosts also provide a members area with marketing information and free downloads. Many of these down loadable products could be useful in setting up your new site.

Location is everything. At the start of this article I mentioned location. Your web host is not responsible here. Location is completely up to you. You create the location by SEO (Search Engine Optimization). There are many things you can and need to do to increase the traffic to your site. This is another subject we will deal with at a later date.

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