Basic Guide to Web Hosting

Getting a website up and running can be a daunting prospect for an experienced webmaster.  For a beginner, it can be totally overwhelming.  However, like many things in life, web hosting becomes much easier when you have a system in place.  In this article, we’ll give you an eight step plan to take your website off the drawing board and onto the web with the minimum of hassle.

Steps to consider choosing web hosting

Step 1
Choose a domain name.  Keep it simple – the best domain names are short, easy to spell and easy to remember.  Ideally, they’ll tell you something about the content of the website as well.  Brainstorm with family and friends, and once you’ve got the right name, register it quickly with an online domain registrar, before anybody else does.

Step 2
Decide on your preferred web hosting plan.  Free web hosting might be a good bet for a beginner, who just wants to experiment with setting up and running a website.  For anything else, you’ll need to consider a paid hosting plan, since this will have the right amount of web space, traffic capacity and security features to keep your website running smoothly.

Step 3
Once you’ve decided between paid and free hosting, look at the sort of hosting package you’ll need.  A basic, no-frills hosting package will be fine if you’re just starting out.  If you have long term ambitions for your site, you’ll need to consider a more advanced package.  This is especially true if you’re planning to sell goods or services through your website.  Buy the best that you can afford, since web hosting is a serious investment.

Step 4
Take your time to properly compare a number of web hosting companies.  The best company will be the one that provides a package that most closely meets your needs.  Look at disk space, server speed, uptime guarantees, ecommerce capabilities, bandwidth, security and technical support.  Once you’ve got an idea about that, narrow it down further according to your budget.

Step 5
Double check the reliability of your host.  There’s no point paying them if they can’t reasonably guarantee that people will be able to see your website.  Find out if they have clustered and back up servers, so that they’re not relying on a single server to keep things running.  Ask if they keep their servers upgraded.  A reliable host will be only too happy to reassure you on these points.

Step 6
Use a site-builder program to construct and publish your website.  Most web hosts include site builders as part of the deal, and they’re designed to be intuitive and easy to use.  Anybody can publish a great looking website within a matter of minutes these days, and no special technical skills are required.

Step 7
Get your website listed on search engines, and start to build links with other sites.  This will promote your site, bringing visitors who may in turn become customers if you’re selling goods and services online.

Step 8
Finally, use site statistics programs to look at the traffic that comes to your site.  Work out where visitors are coming from, how they found you and what they’re looking at once they reach your site.  This will enable you to refine and develop your site to attract even more visitors.