You want to create a website for your business, and you found out that one of the requirements for making a website is web hosting. Since you have no technical knowledge about the digital world, you’re now looking to understand how web hosting works.
If so, then you have come to the right place. In this article, I’ll explain what web hosting is, how it works, and how it can help your business.
Let’s get started.
How Does Web Hosting Work?
Web hosting allows you to publish your website on the internet for everyone to see. It does so by storing your site’s data on a server and displaying it when visitors come to your site.
While there are hosting plans for both physical and virtual servers, they both still need physical resources to run. Since most businesses don’t have the necessary resources to host their website, they tend to go to web hosting providers, like Hostinger, to host their website.
The web hosts are responsible for managing and ensuring that your website and the server run smoothly. They also protect your site from malware.
There are various web hosting plans available, each having its own benefits and drawbacks. Some of the most popular options are:
- Shared hosting
- Cloud hosting
- VPS hosting
- Dedicated hosting
Benefits of Web Hosting for Your Business
Not having the right web host can result in a slow website, lots of downtimes, and a low chance of ranking on search engines. That’s why it’s crucial to invest some time and find web hosting can help you avoid those losses plus assist you in various other sectors.
Here’s what you need to pay attention to when choosing a web host.
1. High Reliability
When you’re researching different hosting providers, you’ll often encounter the word “uptime”. It’s vital for your website because it determines how often your website will be online. The last thing you want is to have your website be offline for an extended period of time.
A hosting provider is considered highly reliable if it has a high uptime percentage. That’s why when you go through different hosting providers, they would often write guaranteed 99.9% uptime or something similar to that.
If you’re deciding on web hosts based on their reliability, make sure that their claim is valid. Look through various customer and expert reviews and testimonials. Some hosting providers will also offer a fee waiver if your site goes offline for a more extended period than their guarantee.
2. Provides More Control
While shared hosting does provide some control for its users, you’ll have to opt for VPS or dedicated hosting if you want to have more control.
Because you get dedicated resources, you’ll automatically have more control over your website. This means you get full back-end access to the server, where you can manage the server to match your preferences.
So if you ever need to tweak the server, you can immediately do it without waiting for the web hosting provider to assist you.
Shared hosting doesn’t allow a lot of control because the hosting plan is usually already optimized for performance and security.
Don’t worry if you’re not an expert at managing your server. Usually, when you opt for a VPS or dedicated hosting, you’ll be given the option to have fully managed hosting or just have the hosting provider handle the management tasks.
3. Improve Site Security
Hosting providers aren’t just responsible for hosting your website, but they are also responsible for your site’s security. That’s why it’s essential to pick a credible web host with an excellent reputation and reliability.
Most web hosts will usually include an SSL certificate which provides a string of codes to your webserver to help secure your online communications with your users.
Hosting providers also tend to have some other security features, though their availability depends on the hosting provider.
Here’s what other security features you should look for:
- Malware and antivirus scanning and removal.
- Advanced firewall protection.
- Protection against Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
- Automatic, frequent backups of your website’s data.
4. Domain-based Email Accounts
If you want to sound and look professional, you’re going to need a domain-based email address. So if your domain name is thedomain.com, then you’ll want your email address to be [email protected].
When you opt for a notable hosting provider, you’ll have the ability to create your domain-based email accounts. While some web hosts limit you to one account, other hosts will allow you to create hundreds of domain-based email accounts.
Many web hosts also have email management tools built-in, so you can quickly check, send and receive email from your preferred email provider.
5. Technical Support
When you use a web hosting provider, you don’t have to worry about needing technical knowledge to use your website. The technical support team is always ready to help you in whatever condition you’re facing.
A good hosting provider should have 24/7 customer support, so in the cases that your website suddenly goes offline, won’t load properly, or have any other issues, the support team should be able to reply within minutes of the inquiry.
Conclusion
Now you know how web hosting works and what its benefits are. All that’s left to do is start creating your website and choosing the right web hosting provider for your business.
Remember that you should always take your time when choosing the right web hosting provider. Check customer and expert reviews and testimonials to see whether the web host’s claims are indeed legit.
