Who Should Host My Website?

Tips and Hints

You're not alone in this question, lots of website owners struggle with this decision. There are thousands of companies to pick from. There are internet service providers that include free hosting when you sign on with them, companies that are website designers that also host web sites, Companies that are dedicated to website hosting, yadda-yadda-yadda.

What to do?

First, don't worry. For 99% of you reading this, it's not really a big headache to improve what you're currently doing.

Here is a list of things to consider when it comes to choosing where to host your website.

• Consider what you have first - It's amazing how little space the files for a website actually take up. Our largest client-site has a FrontPage project with over 150 pages, that takes about 212 Mb (including page code, external css, graphics, lots of photos and a 30 minute streaming video) the smallest one we have is 3 pages and that one takes 20.6Kb (including page code, external css, and graphics) But most hosting plans are puffed up to sell 500 Mb of disk space.
  
  
• Get a Domain Name - see my article on this.
  
  
• Internet Service Providers - Keep in mind, what their business is focused on. Spending time and money supporting you in your website efforts IS NOT their prime concern, mission or focus. Once they have your payment and you're connected to the internet, most are happy and content to go no further.
  
  
• Website Designers - Again, what is their business focus? As long as you use their design services you can host with them. What happens when you choose another web designer, search engine specialist, or the amount of traffic to your website goes tilt? These will all put a great strain on your working relationship with the designer.
  
  
• Web Hosting Companies - These folks are focused on providing domain and web hosting service. They may provide a few other services along side this, but the focus is on the domain and the website.
  
  
• In My Humble Opinion (imho) - You can get the best of all possible worlds. Find yourself a web designer that has become a re-seller for a quality web hosting company that is local to him/her. When you purchase your domain and web hosting through such a designer, you get fast and close attention to your concerns. But if there is a problem, larger than the designer can quickly fix, there is a hosting company to support both of you.

 

OK, in light of this information, lets discuss your project. Please give us a phone call and setup a face-to-face meeting so we can review your project to help you become a success. Then we can discuss the next steps to improve your web presence and your bottom line.