A company, no matter how large, is only ever as strong as its weakest link. Now, in most cases, a company’s weakest link is its web server or its web hosting provider. If you don’t program regularly, these fancy directories and words may seem confusing. When things become too mixed up, you may decide to just buy whatever you see first. As fun as this may sound, this article will put an end to that overwhelming confusion.
Read about your prospective host to see what sort of websites they deal with. A lot of free services will only provide you the tools necessary to build your own pages or let you use their templates, but not add overly dynamic personal scripts. If you need to be able to do dynamic scripting, you may have to pay a web host for that service.
Dedicated Hosting
Shared or dedicated hosting, which is the better solution for you? If your site is large and complicated and receives a lot of visitors, you might find shared hosting is preventing growth and your ability to properly serve customers. If this is the case, you are better off with dedicated hosting.
Avoid a host with a lot of outages. Choose a provider who has specific plans for dealing with an outage and one who does not shirk the blame onto someone else. Do not make any commitment to such companies because this is a big sign that they are unprofessional.
Keep a list of back-ups when you choose the web host you’re going to sign on with. Thus, you will be able to make an informed decision when the need to switch becomes imminent.
Register your domain name outside of your web host so that in the event of a shutdown or fight between you and your host, you can keep your domain name and jsut transfer it to a new server. This leaves you with no domain control, only your host will have it.
Make a list of priorities prior to choosing a web host. Determine your business goals and needs, so that you can look at each host and decide if they will be able to help you meet them. This will help you make a decision based on a variety of factors, rather than a single factor at the potential expense of others.
Hopefully this article has cleared up some of the confusion, and educated you on the industry jargon of web page hosting. While you may be under a plan and contract now, you are still able to prepare for a move that will benefit you situation.