SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Web Hosting
Teach Me Web Hosting Essentials
Choosing
a Web Host for Your Personal Website
Choosing a web host for your personal website
is an important decision that could affect the outcome of your
site and its future success. It is essential to ensure that
what you need from a web host is exactly what you will be receiving
and nothing less. Always look for a web host provider that
offers a price that seems to be in tune with the variety and
quality of services that it offers.
Two
important elements of a personal website are the data storage
(disk space) and the data transfer (or bandwidth). You need a certain amount of disk space on a web host to upload
your web pages and images, etc. and a storage area for them.
The web host you choose must be able to adequately accommodate
your needs for your site and not let you down. Keep in mind
whether or not you plan to add more content, images, and so
on to your site in the future or not. The average personal
website only uses less than 5 MB of space and this could include
any number of pages although most sites are twenty pages or
less. How much space you require has to do with your web design
set up (i.e. how many pictures and/or images you plan to include,
the size of each, if you plan to have video clips, sound files
and so on). Data storage often includes managing your site
with the help of FTP. FTP is the “ability to upload your pages
by e-mail or browser.” Many web hosts include FTP access to
website owners automatically and most people believe this to
be an essential part of a web hosting service.
Data transfer (or bandwidth) concerns the quantity of data
that is communicated and/or received through a specified time
unit. Bandwidth is used up as cyber seekers visit a website
and make requests for certain files on the site in question
to be downloaded to their own computers for their personal
use. In any given month if you were to add up the amount of
files that had been downloaded off your website bear in mind
that the total number you come up with should be a lesser number
than the amount of bandwidth that is allowed by your given
web hosting plan. If the number is not lower then you have
a decision to make. It is possible that you are either generating
a lot of interest and therefore a tremendous amount of hits
to your website, and/or the sizes of your files are too big
for the host to process. Regardless of which case it is, you
will need to either switch to a dedicated hosting server or
else upgrade to a hosting plan that is sufficiently able to
handle your larger needs with regard to your computer files.
The
service of web hosting is tremendous and varies from one
host to another, as does the price you pay. For example, if
your web design on your personal website is to be very elementary
and is to include a small amount of file hosting, by way of
files being uploaded to your site through a web interface or
FTP, then your best bet is to sign on with a web hosting service
that offers a very basic beginner package. If in the future
your site grows and/or becomes more complex you can always
upgrade your package. With this type of web host your individual
files are uploaded to the Internet basically “as is” and very
littler designing or editing is necessary. There are a variety
of ISP’s that offer this for free, examples being GeoCities,
Homestead, ICQ, IVillage, Cybercities, Gurlpages, Tripod, etc.
For those just beginning a website for the first time a personal
site hosted by one of these services is a smart way to go as
you get to learn the in’s and out’s about creating a website
but do not risk a whole lot in terms of time and money.
If free web hosting doesn’t appeal to you there are a number
of web hosts that provide inexpensive plans that are generally
twenty dollars a month or less. There are also web hosts that
provide free hosting for over 20 MB, ones that hosts sites
under 60 MB, free hosting of sites that are under 20 MB, hosting
for sites that fall somewhere between 60 MB but under 1 GB
and hosting for large sites that are 1 GB and over.
One of the biggest mistakes anyone can make when creating
a website, whether it be a personal one, a hobbyist one or
a small business one is to not clearly state what the website
is all about. Let visitors know immediately upon arriving at
your site what it is all about and what information can be
found on your pages. Visitors don’t want to have to scramble
for understanding, instead they want to be told right away
what your objectives are.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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