Web Hosting - The 6 Steps

Looking to create a website? Or need a new place to host an existing site? Maybe you're just looking to start a blog or photo sharing website. There's an infinite number of things you may want to do with your website -- but regardless, you're going to need a web hosting service to host your website.

A web host is simply a spot on a web server somewhere where your website can be connected to the Internet, making it accessible to web surfers. There are lots of web hosting companies out there that are prepared to offer you their services -- and they have a confusing jumble of terms and options to offer you. By concentrating on the essentials, you can find the web host that's right for you!

1. Determine your needs

What are you looking for? You can think of hosting plans as ranging from very cheap, limited plans that can not handle much in the way of visitors to a website -- to multi-computer "server clusters" that can handle the largest workload.

You need to know how much server you need to buy. If you're just switching or upgrading, look at your hit logs or analytics program to see busy the site currently is. Test to see how quickly or slowly it responds -- and ask friends to do the same. If you're starting a new website, try to guess how many visitors you'll get. Of course, you never know if something will take off -- but don't assume that you'll get a ton of traffic right away, unless you have good reason to!

2. Find possible hosting companies

Now start building up a list of possible options. Ask friends or business partners where their websites are hosted. Ask on relevant forums like webhostingtalk.com. See where your competitors are hosted -- if appropriate and possible.

3. Do research on possible companies

Once you have a list of possible hosts, dig around a little and see what people are saying about them. Ask about them on third party forums -- and if they have their own forums or blog, see what's being said there. There's also lots of web hosting review and rating sites -- check them out there as well. Do a google search on the name of them company -- this should tell you both what others are saying about them, as well as what other sites are hosted by them. If you can, figure out how long they've been around -- more experienced companies will often have better uptime, support, etc.

4. Look for discounts

Now that you've settled on a short list of possible hosts, look at their pricing. Dig around their sites for possible discounts. Send them an email and ask -- it can't hurt! Many hosts offer discounts both during "sales" and if you're willing to pay for more than a month at a time. You don't have to do this, but it can't hurt to know what your options are.

5. Don't settle for the absolute cheapest

With so many web hosting companies running around, there are lots of very cheap plans out there. These may be fine -- but remember that you often get what you pay for. The dirt cheap plans may have little or no support, no backups, bad uptime, etc. If the difference between is only a dollar or two a month, why not choose a better hosting client with a better track record?

6. Think of the future.

If you're hoping that your website will take off, then be sure that you choose a company that can handle more than small websites. While it's not terribly difficult to host a small website on a shared hosting plans, it's far more difficult to handle a quickly growing website as it goes through shared plans, to a dedicated server or perhaps to a full blown server cluster. This requires both more expertise and more infrastructure than many smaller hosting companies can provide.

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