Where Should My Website Be Hosted?

If it is time for you to begin your own website, a decision that must be made early on is where your website will be hosted. This refers to where on the internet your website will reside. Just like a family or individual has a place to call home, a website needs a “home” too.

Websites have to sit on a computer somewhere, and the computers which keep websites are called web servers or web hosts.

One choice you will need to make is if you will use a paid web host or a free one.

Using one of the free sites is tempting, because not only are they free, they often include easy site building tools. While using a free site can be quick and easy (not to mention free!), you should not rely on them. Not only do many of them display ads, but you also do not have control over whether they decide to delete your site or shut down the service tomorrow. That being said, using a free site can be an effective marketing strategy. Some popular services include 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:

Price: how much are they going to charge you every month? What features might you need that will cost extra?

Reliability: does the company have a history of problems with keeping sites up? Try and look beyond the actual out of pocket cost of hosting and gauge what it will cost if your site goes down for any period of time.

Cpanel: you should not consider any web host that does not offer cpanel for configuration.

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