Here Is How You Can Host A Website In 3 Simple Steps
- 1. Buy A Domain Name
Every website needs identification, and that identification comes from its domain. Therefore, the first thing that you need to do is think of a name for your website and register that domain name. If the domain name you are looking for is already owned by someone, you can contact them and offer to buy it. Otherwise, any accredited company can help you purchase an available domain name.
- 2. Choose A Hosting Provider
Once you get the domain name, you need to find a reliable hosting provider. Hosting services enable you to host your website on the host’s servers to be available to the entire world eventually. Moreover, it is up to you to choose the hosting provider. You can select the domain name registrars to host your website or choose a separate provider.
- 3. Selecting A Hosting Plan
There are five different types of hosting solutions available, and it is essential that you choose the best one for your website. These five hosting solutions are VPS, Shared, Reseller, Dedicated Server, and Managed WordPress. The type of hosting plan you choose totally depends on what kind of business you are planning on running. For instance, for freelance portfolios, small personal blogs, and other smaller companies, a Shared hosting solution would be perfect. On the other hand, a dedicated server or VPS would be suitable for bigger businesses.
Why Is There A Need For Web Hosting
When you want to host your website on the web, the first hurdle that comes in your way is the hosting service. The easiest way to make you understand what a hosting service is by comparing it with the rent you pay for a shop. Whenever a user on the internet searches for your domain name, they are brought directly to the website. Here, the hosting service provides the user with all the information and resources that you have saved on the server. Eventually, all the data is displayed in front of the user.
Over the years, there have been many advancements and changes in web services and hosting solutions. Now, there are multiple hosting solutions available for different kinds of businesses to meet all the needs and wants of business owners worldwide. In a more competitive environment, hosting service providers offer ready-to-use solutions to customers with any budget. However, don’t take any budget to be in pennies. An excellent hosting solution has a significant impact on your business, and it is a worthwhile investment. Nevertheless, due to all the competition in the hosting solutions industry, it is now easier to find a hosting service provider at almost any budget.
In this article, we will discuss how you can choose the best hosting provider for your business and explain all the additional services that you might expect from a hosting service provider.
Detailed Website Hosting Instructions
Here is a detailed step-by-step guide on how you can have a hosted website in little time for others to view on the internet.
- Buy A Domain Name
As mentioned earlier, if you want a hosting service to work on your website, you need to register a domain name first. Plenty of hosting service providers also offer assistance in getting a domain name registered. Moreover, keep in mind that getting a domain name and the hosting service as a bundle is often cheaper than buying them separately.
Also, not all companies offer a domain name registration. If you end up getting hosting services from such a company, you would need to find some other registrar to get your domain name up.
However, getting the hosting service and the domain name from the same company is especially recommended for small businesses and startups as it simplifies the process of customizations and avoids any confusion.
- Select A Hosting Service Provider
Next up, you need to choose a company that would host your website so it can be available online to other users. Although you have the option to self-host your website, it is still recommended that you choose a website hosting service provider instead for better performance.
When it comes to choosing a hosting service provider, there are plenty of things that you need to consider. There are several hosting service providers available out there, from local ones to those working internationally, such as BionicWP. With plenty of options available, you can choose the one that suits your budget and offers the services you require.
Additionally, a web hosting service does not only mean that your website goes online. That is not all that you are paying for. Apart from taking your website online, you get other services as well, such as firewall protection, domain name registration, email services, technical assistance, and much more.
The best way to determine a good hosting service is not by the price but by determining the website’s technical requirements. Once you figure out the requirements, then look for the hosting solution that would fulfill them for a price that meets your budget. Here are some more features that you might need to consider when choosing the best hosting service provider, such as BionicWP.
- UPTIME AND HOSTING SERVER RELIABILITY
- 1. Uptime Guarantee
The first thing that you need to make sure of is that your website remains online all the time throughout the year. You don’t want users visiting your website and finding a blank page instead of the information they are looking for. Therefore, choose a hosting service provider that guarantees at least an uptime of 99% or above. In the beginning, uptime might not be an issue if you receive little traffic. However, once you start to grow, it has a significant impact on your website.
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- 2. Redundancy
You also need to look for a hosting service provider that offers “redundancy.” When a website goes down, it is highly possible that the business would incur revenue loss because of it. Hence, if the issue is on the host’s servers, they offer compensation for the monetary loss that you suffer because of the site going offline.
- TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- 1. Bandwidth Offering
Bandwidth shows the amount of traffic (or data) that is shared between the users and the website during the interaction with your resources. When it comes to choosing the bandwidth for your website hosting service, you need to look at the kind of materials on your website. If it has tons of videos and other visual elements, you definitely need to go for higher monthly bandwidth, such as up to 150 gigabytes a month. For website owners with little media such as images, text, gifs, etc., can go as low as 10 gigabytes a month.
- 2. Database Type
The standard database base type used by the popular content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress is MySQL. However, some websites require a different database. Hence, see if the hosting service provider offers that type of database for your website.
- 3. Accessibility
This simply means that the hosting service provider has all the necessary tools and equipment to manage your website and configure the hosting plan. Also, many popular hosting service providers offer their clients dashboards that allow you to manage databases, customize and monitor backups and emails, etc.
- 4. Scalability
If you start a small business, your goal is to grow it over time. Once your business starts to grow and rake in more customers every day, you need a website that can handle this increase in traffic. Hence, you need a hosting service provider that can help increase the capacity of the current hosting plan to help accommodate the increased traffic to your website. Otherwise, although your business would grow, the website would not be able to handle the increase in traffic and would have an adverse effect on your business.
- HOSTING SUPPORT
- 1. Reliable Customer Service
Customer service is one of the most important things when it comes to business. You need to shake hands with those who are willing to help you out even after they have sold you the product or service. In this case, you need a hosting service that is always there to help you out and provides support on multiple channels so you can choose the one that suits you the best.
- ADD-ONS AND SECURITY MEASURES
- 1. Backups
In case the unexpected happens, and your website gets affected by a cyberattack, or if it goes down for whatever reason, you need to have a backup to protect all the data. So, hire a hosting service that offers regular backups, so you don’t have to worry about them. The best hosting service providers offer backups every 24 hours to keep your data protected at all times!
- 2. SSL Certificates
Your website needs an SSL Certificate in order to protect all the sensitive information on the website, such as the customers’ private information like credit card details, etc. Moreover, getting an SSL Certificate helps in search engine optimization as Google prefers websites with it. So, get a hosting service provider like BionicWP to get an SSL Certificate for your website in your preferred hosting plan!
Now that you have an idea about some of the things that you need to keep in mind when choosing the hosting service provider for your website, make sure you clearly understand the service plan you are selecting so you don’t end up regretting it. Moreover, here at BionicWP, we offer professional advice to our clients as well in order to help them choose the best hosting plan for their website!
- 3. Email Service
Lastly, you need to ensure that your hosting service provider offers email service as well. Although most of the providers include it, it is still recommended that you confirm it once. Better be safe than sorry!
Questions To Ask Yourself
Choosing the right website hosting service provider is easy if you know all the ins and outs of your website. Here are some of the questions that you can answer to understand what your website demands from a host.
- What type of website is it?
There are different technical requirements for different kinds of websites. For instance, a static HTML website would have other requirements as compared to WordPress. So, see what kind of website you are building and then choose the host accordingly.
- Is there a need for email hosting?
You already know that there are plenty of benefits for setting up email addresses that are connected with the domain name. So, if you require email hosting, choose a website hosting service that offers it.
- How much data would you serve and store?
The bandwidth that the host will provide you does not only depend on the traffic but also the types of files and their sizes on your website. If your website has tons of data-heavy pages, you would require more bandwidth and storage, and vice versa. So, think of the data that you would want your host servers to handle and then choose the one that meets your needs.
- What is the hosting budget?
For any business, there is a budget for every expense, whether it is a small one or a big one. Similarly, you would have a budget for your hosting services as well. So, determine the budget and then select the host that offers the most in it. Also, bear in mind that web hosting is not cheap but is definitely essential and brings a high return on investment!
- How much traffic would the website receive?
In the beginning, the traffic that a website receives is significantly low. However, over time, with effective search engine optimization and other business tactics, the traffic can grow significantly. Hence, keep the traffic in mind and choose a hosting service provider with a flexible plan.
- How much technical expertise do I have?
Lastly, you need to understand yourself and your knowledge of all the technical stuff of a website. If you have some experience and there are jobs you think you can handle yourself, don’t pay your host to carry them out. However, if you doubt yourself or have no expertise at all, make sure you ask your host to carry out those technical tasks to keep things going smoothly. With BionicWP, you can leave everything to us, and our team of experts will make sure that everything is taken care of so you can focus on the growth of your business.
Choosing A Website Hosting Plan
As mentioned earlier, there are different types of hosting plans available in the market, with the five main ones being:
- Shared
- Reseller
- Dedicated Server
- VPS
- Managed WordPress
In order to choose the one that would be the most suitable for your business, let us look into these in more detail and list their advantages and disadvantages.
- Shared Website Hosting
First up, we have a shared website hosting service, which is ideal for beginners and small businesses. Here, your business and all of its customers are sharing the same key resources. Here, as you are not using the entire server, it is very much affordable as compared to other hosting services.
- 1. ADVANTAGES
- It is the cheapest hosting service available in the market right now, especially if you choose BionicWP as your hosting service provider.
- It is ideal for a low-bandwidth, low traffic, and small business website.
- It does not require a lot of technical expertise.
- It comes with automatic backups.
- It includes SSL certificates for free for the first year.
- 2. DISADVANTAGES
- It has restricted LVE limits which might not be adequate for high traffic websites.
- It comes with limited storage space.
- The performance of the website can fluctuate if the number of users increases significantly.
In a nutshell, if you are just starting your business or if you have a small customer base, a shared website hosting service would be ideal. Moreover, it takes out very little money from your pocket!
- Managed WordPress Hosting
Unlike other hosting solutions, Managed WordPress Hosting solution by BionicWP is the quickest one as it is ready to be used in just a few minutes. The installation is pretty straightforward and easy to understand. Moreover, you can do most of the stuff by yourself. Additionally, WordPress has a huge community and tons of themes and plugins to choose from and make the best site possible. A lot of these themes and plugins are free as well. Not only that, if you are an expert and have a lot of knowledge about WordPress, you can really customize your website a lot and take it to the next level.
Also, with BionicWP, you get an entirely optimized WordPress with the fastest speed in the market and over 99% of uptime.
- 1. ADVANTAGES
- It is ready-to-use with a very simple and straightforward setup and installation.
- It is considerably faster as compared to WordPress websites on a shared server.
- Easy migration service
- You can manage all your WordPress sites and much more from a single dashboard.
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- 2. DISADVANTAGES
- Server management might not appeal to advanced users.
- You have less control over server management and the technical side of the website.
Overall, WordPress Hosting Solution by BionicWP is the way to go if you want the best website experience for your customers. Not only is it easy-to-use and understandable, but it also gives the most bang for the buck!
- VPS Hosting
VPS, or Virtual Private Server, is the next best thing to a completely private server. It basically divides a sole server into multiple virtual servers. However, as with a dedicated server, you must take care of all the relevant technical tasks.
- 1. ADVANTAGES
- It provides a solid and reliable performance.
- It is cheaper as compared to a completely dedicated server.
- It features a customizable server setup.
- It has enough bandwidth and storage space to power busy websites.
- 2. DISADVANTAGES
- It is considerably more expensive than a shared server.
- If you choose a self-managed VPS plan, you would need a lot of technical knowledge and expertise.
VPS is a popular hosting option for those who prefer a larger storage space and bandwidth. Although it is a bit of an expensive option, it is still a worthy one for bigger businesses that rake in a lot of traffic to their online website. However, make sure you don’t select this hosting service if you have no prior knowledge about VPS.
- Dedicated Server Hosting
When you get a dedicated hosting service for your website, you don’t share the resources or the server with anyone. Therefore, you get entire control over the server, and you can manage just about everything. However, as you have complete control over the server, you would have to handle all the technical tasks yourself rather than the hosting service provider. You can still pay a bit more and get a completely managed dedicated hosting service, but that totally depends on your budget.
- 1. ADVANTAGES
- Your website would not be affected by anyone or anything else as the server would be completely yours.
- You get more bandwidth and storage space.
- 2. DISADVANTAGES
- It is the most expensive one among all other hosting services.
- It requires a lot of technical expertise.
This kind of hosting service is ideal for enterprises and large-scale businesses that require a lot of bandwidth and storage space. Also, if you want a dedicated server but don’t have the technical expertise or time to manage it, BionicWP will do the job for you by offering a completely managed hosting solution!
- Reseller (Website) Hosting
Lastly, Reseller Website Hosting is another kind of Shared Hosting that allows you to sub-rent parts of your hosting space to others.
- 1. ADVANTAGES
- It is cheaper as compared to a VPS.
- It normally has more bandwidth and storage space as compared to Shared Hosting.
- It requires little administrative work as compared to Dedicated Servers and VPS.
- 2. DISADVANTAGES
- Performance can be affected if the other accounts on the same server use more of the resources.
- It has fewer resources as compared to a VPS.
Hosting A Website At Your Home
If you want to take the matter into your hands and host the server yourself at your home, it is entirely possible. However, there are some limitations and requirements that you must keep in mind in order to host a server at your home.
- Hosting a website at your home is pretty expensive, and you need a constant power supply, a static IP address (homes have a dynamic IP address), regular hardware maintenance, and power backups in case of power outages.
- You need to have the technical expertise and knowledge to be able to host a server, as it is pretty tricky. Some experience would greatly help.
- You need to make sure if your internet service provider allows you to run a server from your home or not. Moreover, you have to look into the bandwidth quota and keep in mind that your website would probably run slow as home internets are not strong enough to serve a webpage.
- Your computer would have to remain on at all times, and any sort of reboot or power outage would bring your website offline immediately.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, hosting a website is essential for any website to work and for the business to start flourishing online. So, if you want expert help and a team of professionals hosting your website, contact BionicWP right now and allow us to help you and your business out!
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