Stop. Wait a minute.

Are You Web Host Shopping?

Before investing in that web hosting solution you’ve been eyeing, consider several important factors.

After all, your web hosting provider’s service quality can impact your website’s efficiency and performance.

Data shows that conversion rates lower by 7% for every 100-millisecond delay in website load speed, making it crucial to choose a web hosting provider with reliable services.

While domain and hosting in blogging might not be new concepts to you, we’re here to help you understand web hosting better before giving your hard-earned money to a service provider.
 

Let’s start with the four things below.

WEB HOSTING: A QUICK OVERVIEW

Web hosting is when you buy or rent space to house your website on the World Wide Web (www).

Website content, such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), images, and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), must be housed on a server to make them viewable online.

For instance, a blog post on content writing tips and tricks needs a server to allow website visitors to view the content.

Servers are computers connecting other web users to your website from anywhere worldwide.

As its name implies, a web hosting provider offers the connectivity, servers, and other related services necessary to host websites.

What you should learn about web hosting before buying

It’s vital to strategize your approach to choosing a reliable web host, as you would when developing your content tracking strategy to determine which content performs best.

Understand the essential web hosting components and considerations below to help you make informed decisions and find the best-fitting web hosting service provider.

1. THE VARIOUS TYPES OF WEB HOSTING

Web hosting types can have significant differences.

You need to know each type and how it works to determine if it suits your web hosting needs—from the services and features to the pricing.

Below are the common types of web hosting services.

• Shared hosting. Shared hosting means your website shares a server (and server resources) with multiple sites.

It can be a good choice if you don’t expect significant traffic and have a small budget since it’s often the cheapest option.

However, shared hosting is more suited to small websites that don’t need massive bandwidth.

Huge traffic and bandwidth-heavy content, such as embedded videos with trending TikTok quotes, can slow down your website since you share a server and resources with other sites.

• Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting. Investing in VPS hosting gives you a more powerful version of shared hosting with fewer websites sharing a server’s resources.

  While VPS hosting can cost more than shared hosting, you’ll get better website performance and efficiency.

• Dedicated hosting. The hosting type gives you a server just for your website, allowing your site to harness the server’s full power. Dedicated hosting can be your best bet if you have a bigger budget.
• Cloud hosting. Cloud hosting can be your top option if you want to scale your website power across multiple servers. Cloud hosting pricing plans vary across service providers, so research and shop before deciding.

2. UNLIMITED DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN NO LIMITS

Most web hosting service providers are transparent with their promise of unlimited monthly data transfers and storage.

However, unlimited doesn’t always translate to “No limits.”

For example, some web hosts offer tons of disk space. They don’t put a cap on a user’s content—as long as the user stays fully compliant with the terms of service and uses storage for normal website operations.

Think of it like unlimited food at the buffet. The restaurant will eventually cut you off if it doesn’t run out of food first.

Essentially, many web hosts offer unlimited features but within reasonable limits.

Most unlimited data transfers and storage are usually associated with shared plans, such as those on popular online publishing platforms like WordPress.

Check the web host’s terms of service or talk to a customer service representative to learn what you can (and can’t) do within the scope of your plan’s unlimited offers.

3. BANDWIDTH AND DATA TRANSFER DON’T MEAN THE SAME THING

Don’t confuse data transfer and bandwidth, even if many people use the two interchangeably to refer to the amount of data your site serves to your visitors.

The distinction between the two can be just as glaring as the difference between buying SEO articles and creating your own content.

Bandwidth is the total amount of data transferred at one time.

On the other hand, data transfer is the amount of information (throughput) that can be used over a given period, usually a month.

THINK OF IT THIS WAY: A web hosting solution can have a maximum of 5GB bandwidth, but your website might only allow data transfers of 1GB per month (depending on your hosting plan).

Try not to exceed your allotted monthly data transfers to avoid potential issues.

For example, your web host might slow your data transfer speeds if your site goes beyond the 1GB allowable monthly data transfer because of a Reddit hit. The service provider might also charge you a penalty fee.

Know your website’s data limitations based on your hosting plan to avoid these potential issues.

4. A LINUX SERVER CAN OFTEN DO THE TRICK

Almost all web hosting providers offer Linux as the Operating System (OS) to power their servers.

The good news is that even if you’re unfamiliar with Linux, you won’t need to do anything special on the backend to build your website.

Ask anyone, from developers to an online marketing company in New Jersey, and they’ll tell you that modern website builder platforms have been simplifying site-building for years.

However, you’ll have to run with the Windows Server OS if your website needs the ASP.NET (or ASP) scripting frameworks.

It’s because the web pages you produce and the script you write only function within a Windows-based environment.

Happy to help you understand Web Hosting to find the best service provider

Your web hosting service provider can make or break your website’s efficiency.

Knowing the nuts and bolts of web hosting equips you with the necessary information to choose the right solution to invest in.

Leverage this guide’s tips to help you find a top-of-the-line web host that offers all the services you need at an affordable price. Reach out for more info.

 
*this is a Guest post, and if you enjoyed it, please subscribe to our blog.

Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about website design, production, programming and hosting.
Thank you.
PACE digital