Are You Ready to Own A Website? Part 2: Hosting

Or, Finding Your Site A Home.

Hosting seems to be very mysterious for most of my clients, and I find some people don’t even realize they need it. So! What is it? How on earth do you pick one? And how much should you be paying? Read on and find out.

Before We Go Any Further, A Definition:

Hosting is, essentially, a place for the files that make up your website to live. Your designer won’t keep them on their computer, but on a specialized computer setup owned by another company. Their machines allow other people to access their contents (which shouldn’t be done without specialized security.) Their job is to monitor access to your site and make sure it’s secure and available to the world 24/7. They can be located anywhere in the world, but many people prefer, for good reason, to have their host be in the same country, or even local. This makes it easier to keep tabs on them, or deal with them should a situation come up.

Why do I ask you to register for and keep track of your own hosting?

• The main reason is that I may someday be out of the picture, and as the owner of your website (How much are you paying that designer again?) you should have full access to the place it is stored.
• As the owner of the account you will also have access to the host’s tech support, whom you should contact if your email isn’t coming in or going out, or if your website is slow, or not loading.
• Hosting is provided by these companies, generally, for a monthly fee. Sometimes, they’ll offer a lower yearly fee, and if you’re planning on having your website up long term, this can be a great deal. I would rather they invoice you directly.

How do I choose one? How Much Should I Pay?

These two questions are intrinsically intwined, and tricky.

Hosting can be daunting even for a web veteran. That’s because most web hosts have different hosting packages you can choose from, and often you may not even know what all the options mean!

So, a quick rundown of some of the most common features:

• Shared Web Hosting: Your site will be on the same machine as a number of other websites. This means you’ll be sharing some resources with those other websites. It’s generally not a problem.
• Virtual Private Servers: Your site will have its very own playground. This means that some more specialized stuff can be done. Strictly speaking, the majority of sites don’t need something quite this elaborate. If you’re planning on starting the next eBay or Craig’s List, you might consider this sort of package. (Remember, you can always upgrade later!)
• Space: (Generally listed in MBs, or Megabytes.) This is how much storage space you have to fill up with files on their machines. Think of it as your computer’s hard drive. Well designed websites shouldn’t take much of this, but if you want a site with a lot of images, videos or a very large amount of content, you may need a bit more than average. The majority of my clients don’t need over 50 MB.
• Bandwidth: (Often listed in BGs or Gigabytes) This is, essentially, a measure of how many times your website can be downloaded and looked at by your website’s viewers. Again, larger files like images, videos, or PDF documents can take a heavy toll on this. My site almost never goes over 1 GB a month, and unless your site gets very popular, you shouldn’t need to worry about this much. That said, if you run out, your site will be down- and on many hosts, it will stay down until the next month’s cycle starts. A good thing to look for is a host that will sell you additional bandwidth should you go over your monthly limit, without shutting you down.
• POP3/IMAP Mail Accounts : These are email accounts you can set up so that the mail program on your computer can access them. Generally, they are also accessible by web mail. The addresses will be formatted as yourname@yourdomain.com.
• MySQL Databases: These are used to set up things like blogs, guestbooks, shopping carts, and etc. Most places should include at least one with their package, and your designer will thank you if they’re there when needed.
• Subdomains, Parked Domains, and Addon Domains:
  • Subdomains allow you to have more than one site on your domain- for example, an address like shop.yourdomain.com.
  • Parked domains are additional domain names that when typed in to your web browser will take you to your website’s main page. You can sometimes have more than one, which can be useful if you’re wanting to direct more traffic your way- for example: www.coolcars.com and www.coolvintagecars.com could go to the same website.
  • Addon domains allow you to have a domain take a viewer to the main page of one of your subdomains. (Head spinning yet?)
• FTP Accounts: Allow easy access for getting files into your server storage space. At least one should be provided.
• Windows or Linux Hosting: I personally prefer my clients are hosted on Linux based hosting- it causes fewer problems when working with some sites.
• Uptime Guarantee: This should be high- over 99%. This is the percentage of time your website is accessible and viewable by the public.
• Daily Backups: This is vital! They should always have a copy of your site, in case they need to do any maintainance. That said- SO SHOULD YOU. If you don’t have a copy of all your files, either download one from your host, or ask your designer for one.

How much should you pay? As of 2007, I find that starting hosting plans from good hosts run from between $5 to $15 dollars a month. There are cheaper places- but make sure you know what you’re getting. And most of all- check and see where the company and their computers live. I would say any more than $15 to $20 dollars a month for the majority of websites is excessive. Don’t be afraid to shop around and compare prices.

Signing Up.

A good first step is to contact the host directly and tell them about the kind of site you’re looking to have. They can tell you what you’ll need in the way of hosting. A good designer, like myself, can do this for you as well. Most of the smaller 5-10 page sites I design can EASILY be hosted on many host’s most basic packages.

When signing up, you will need all your contact information, and your domain name (ALREADY PURCHASED. Don’t bet on being able to get it later- that will only result in a headache for you and your new hosting company.) Your host will provide you with information after sign up that will be important to any designers you may end up working with. You should save it, and make sure to keep a copy somewhere.

Final Thoughts:

Remember, good hosts aren’t afraid to answer your questions and won’t try to push things on you. Don’t be afraid to look around. Much like car and health insurance, prices on hosting change often, so be sure to check around every couple of years or so to make sure you’re still with the right company.

If you’re looking to use a specialized content management system like Wordpress or ZenCart, make sure that your hosting company is willing to support it. This is important because these programs often depend on the hosts settings. If your hosting company doesn’t understand that or isn’t willing to support it- you and your designer are out of luck! So ask and make sure they would be willing to work with them.

I use Host99 for ZenCart websites, because they specialize in ZenCart support and are certified by the ZenCart team. They have been excellent support so far.

I am currently hosted on A Small Orange, and so far have found their customer service to be lightening fast, and their hosting to be perfect for my needs. They specialize in Wordpress support, so this is the hosting I’m currently recommending to clients if they want a regular or Wordpress based site.

There are hundreds of hosting sites out there, however, so feel free to look around. If you’re ever uncertain about choosing a host, ask your designer! A good, friendly one should be happy to make a suggestion.

Until next week, when we’ll discuss the importance of content, thanks for reading along!