So you need a website and you don’t want just any old website, you want one that is going to do everything that you could ever need. You want to use your website to attract new customers for your business and therefore it will be a key element of your profit generation. The more customers you can attract, obviously the more successful your business is going to be so it makes perfect sense to spend time getting every aspect of your website just right.
If you’re new to setting up websites then you probably don’t know much about the end-to-end process of getting one up and running. There are lots of parts that play into setting up a website and one of the key components is selecting a web host. If this is a new concept for you then don’t worry, it isn’t too difficult to get your head around. A web host basically provides a space for your website to live. To be more specific it provides the space on a server that enables your website to be available through the internet, through its very own address.
Free Web Hosting
Every website has a host of some kind. The type of host varies from one website to another. So for example, a basic website may be set up using free hosting services, such as WordPress.org or Wix.com. People who choose a free hosting package do so because they don’t want to spend money on a hosting service. For some, the smaller offerings of a free hosting package is sufficient for their website needs. They don’t need any extras like additional storage, their own domain name or customer support.
Shared Web Hosting
For those who need a bit more than the free hosting packages have to offer, shared web hosting could be the perfect solution. From as little as £5 per month, you can have features such as 24/7 online and telephone technical support. You can choose to use your own custom domain name (which is important for digital marketing effectiveness) and the performance aspects such as page loading spend and uptime tend to be significantly better than with free hosting. You have more control over how your website is used, so your host can’t just use your website to display ads for random businesses. You can get guaranteed online availability so you don’t have to lose customers due to frequent downtime through maintenance/technical errors etc. Performance is a key issue with web hosting and can make a huge difference to the customer experience. If you want to compare web hosts on performance then Top10 Website Hosting have compared data across the major hosting companies.
Sometimes paying a small fee for all the extra features is worthwhile. It also means that you can do more with your website. For instance, WordPress plugins are not available under the free hosting options. So if you want some really good functionality to be incorporated into your website like opt in forms or cool looking content through nicely developed plugins then free hosting won’t cut it. The way that shared hosting works is the host supplies a server that is shared by various customers to host their website(s). So essentially, your website speed and security can be compromised by other websites so this isn’t ideal for businesses with high volumes of visitors.
Dedicated Web Hosting
For those businesses that can’t afford for their site to be running slow or be at risk of picking up a virus from the shared server, dedicated hosting is probably the solution to turn to. Having a server that is specifically dedicated for your use will ensure that your website doesn’t groan under the strain of large traffic volumes and there will be no issues with running out of storage space. Of course, you will be expected to pay more for all of these additional benefits.
