Host and guest are two popular words. I think most of us have heard about these two words. Host is on the arrangement side while the guest is from outside who comes to the hosting side to enjoy the party. So host is the person who gives or manages the party, who is known as party host. In the same way management of various components of website is known as website hosting or web hosting.
In the technical terms we can say the allocation of space on the web server is called website hosting. A web site is a collection of various files i.e. code, images etc.
The web hosting stores website files so that any visitor on the internet can see it all over the world.
Web hosting is a service which is provided to any organization or individual person to store their web pages or websites on the web server.
Web server is a special computer which stores all the information of your web site. Any internet user can access these files by putting website address (URL) in the browser.
Types of website hosting
Web hosting is divided mainly in four categories which are as follows.
- Dedicated hosting.
- Shared hosting.
- Cloud hosting.
- VPS (virtual private server) hosting.
Dedicated hosting: This is the one of the most expensive type of web hosting. Your web site is only one hosted on the web server. In this hosting the person who hosts his website has full control on the web server on which the site is hosted.
The website owner has full root and admin access. It becomes easy to control everything from security to operating system that you run. All these control increases the price of web hosting.
Who require this type of hosting?
- The websites having large traffic.
- The website owners who needs more controls on web servers
- A technical expert is required to manage a website on dedicated servers.
Costing: This is an expensive web site hosting.
Shared hosting: As the name provides the meaning of share, this type of hosting share a server. There are so many websites but the server remains single. More than one website is hosted on a single web server that’s why it is known as a shared hosting.
In shared hosting the various domains share the same server resources, such as RAM (Random Access Memory) and CPU (Central Processing Unit). The various helpful tools such as: website builders, WordPress hosting, and the ability to email are available free with this hosting.
Who require this type of hosting?
- Beginner blogger
- Small business owner
- Websites having small amount of web traffic
Costing: The cost of shared hosting is relatively less as compared to other hosting.
Cloud hosting: This is a new type of hosting. In this type of hosting many servers work together as one giant server. A grid or cloud is made by adding more hardware resources when requirement increases.
The main advantage of this hosting is to handle unusual extra web traffic of any website. This hosting provides extra resources to the website rather than shutting down of website when there is a surge of web traffic.
Who require this type of hosting?
- A growing website.
- A website driving more traffic.
Costing: The cost depends upon various resources used by the website.
VPS hosting: VPS stands for virtual private server. This hosting lies between shared hosting and dedicated hosting. In this hosting one physical server is shared which acts like multiple separate server. Each website is hosted within its own space on the server.
Who require this type of hosting?
- The website owner who needs more control over the server but does’t needs to take dedicated server.
- The websites which are not driving huge web traffic.
Costing: The cost lies between shared hosting and the dedicated hosting depending upon the resources you avail.
Free Web Hosting:
Everyone feel very happy if he gets something free. But various features, security and reliability makes a difference between a free service and paid service. Free hosting is a service which is provided without any charge to host a website.
The control, security and reliability force a website owner to move to paid web hosting. The various free hosting plans includes their sub domain i.e. if you use free domain on word press then URL of your site will be “yourwebsite.wordpress.com”.
They provide limited free storage space and access to free templates also. They also display various ads to the free websites.
The following are various best free hosting sites.
- WordPress.com
- Wix.com
- Weebly.com
- Blogger.com
Windows web hosting
web hosting is an activity to take space on a web server. We store our web pages on these servers. The server is a special computer which has an operating system.
If the server has a windows operating system then it is known as a windows web hosting.
Linux web hosting
The linux web hosting signifies that the server who is hosting our site has a linux operating system.
Which is the best web hosting (Windows or Linux): The selection of windows or linux based web hosting depends upon the requirement of user.
- If the website which you want to host is using windows specific technologies i.e. such as ASP, .NET, Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL server (MSSQL). Then windows web hosting is better.
- If the website which you want to host is using PHP and MySQL, scripts such as WordPress, Zen Cart, and phpBB. Then linux web hosting is better.
Best web site hosting
You can choose best web site hosting as per your business requirement (personal website, business website, low web traffic website, large web traffic website, e-commerce website etc) and the various features i.e. control, security and reliability which you require. We will discuss all these types of web hosting below.
Web hosting services
- Bluehost
- WP Engine
- Rackspace
- GoDaddy
- InMotion Hosting
- HostMonster
- JustHost
- NameCheap
- iPage
- Globat
- HostMetro
- StableHost
- SteadFast.net
- BigRock
- HostDime
- LaughingSquid
- Atlantic.net
- JaguarPC
- NearlyFreeSpeech.net
- EverLeap
- Deluxe Hosting
- eHost
- Pagely
- IdeaHost
- HostWinds
- T1Hosting
- Dotster
- Gandi.net
- Webz Pro
- DynaDot
- ResellerClub
- Joink
- OpenShift
- ServInt
- HostGator
- Flywheel
- Cloudways
- DreamHost
- 1&1
- HostPapa
- LunarPages
- Network Solutions
- PowWeb
- FatCow
- Lightning Base
- WebHostingHub
- Site5
- DotEasy
- Digital Ocean
- LeaseWeb
- APlus.net
- TurnKey Internet
- Codero
- Name.com
- Synthesis
- StartLogic
- OVH
- MochaHost
- KnownHost
- Pair.com
- eNom.com
- SoftLayer
- Moniker
- DirectNIC
- Bitnami
- Microsoft Azure
- Webline Services
- SiteGround
- LiquidWeb
- A Small Orange
- Amazon S3
- Arvixe
- IX Web Hosting
- MidPhase
- Netfirms
- Green Geeks
- CrocWeb
- Hawk Host
- Linode
- Web.com
- iPower
- WestHost
- Vultr
- 50Megs
- DiscountASP.net
- Amazon EC2
- A2 Hosting
- Media Temple
- Pressable
- Pressidium
- Domain.com
- Valice
- WiredTree
- Register.com
- Hivelocity
- Geek Storage
- eNomCentral
- MyDomain
- Joyent
- VPS.net
Web hosting plan features
- Disk space: The disk space is the space on the server where files, database and emails are stored. Every hosting company provides certain amount of disk space as per the plan. Choose the best plan of disk space by calculating appropriate space require for your website.
- Bandwidth: The amount of data that is transferred at one time is known as bandwidth. Higher the bandwidth is good for the website. Higher bandwidth quickly loads a website to more numbers of visitors at a time. The bandwidth of web hosting service is an important feature for the websites. The calculation of bandwidth depends upon size of website and web traffic to the website.
- Email accounts: This is a common feature which is given by various web hosting for a domain. There are mainly three types of email accounts.
- POP3
- forwarding
- Aliases
- FTP access: FTP stands for file transfer protocol. It is used to upload your web pages from your computer to the web server. It is also used to download the web pages from server to your computer to take the backup of your website.
Domain Names
It is the address of your website on the web server. It is also known as URL (Uniform Resource Locator). It contains two main elements. First name of the website and second is extension. In bloggersmaker.com, bloggersmaker is the name and .com is the extension of the domain.
There are so many extensions but the top extensions are as follows.
- .COM
- .DE
- .CN
- .NET
- .UK
- .ORG
- .INFO
- .NL
- .EU
- .RU
Sometimes web hosting provides a free offer of domain name registration to website owner to host a website.
SEO and domain name
Select a domain name by considering following points
- Easy to remember
- Relevant to your content
- Use company name
- Short name(5-20 characters)
- Easy to pronounce
- Include primary keyword
How to host a website
It is very easy to host a website. Follow these steps to host a website.
- Type of hosting: choose the right category of various type of web hosting according to your requirement of website.
- Select your plan: There are many plans provided by the web host. Select one out of these.
- Domain Name Registration: You have to register your domain name. You have two options to register a domain name. You can register it with the same web hosting provider or can be registered with different company.
Either you register for a new domain by selecting the option of register a new domain or if you own a domain name already you can use it by selecting the option of I already have a domain.
Client information: Fill all information of the client as shown below.
Payment Information: In this section fill all the information of your payment card carefully to make sure the payment. If billing address is same as contact information then select the given check box.
Hosting services: In this section fill all the information carefully.
- Plan: There is showing your selected plan, you can change here if you want.
- Data center: it is the physical location of web server where your site is hosted. Make an appropriate selection of data center which is suitable for your site. Make the choice of that location where is your targeting visitors.
- Period: It is time period of hosting your website with the web hosting provider.
Extra services: if you want to avail more services for your website then you can select checkbox of extra services.
Payments: Now make the payments and you have done web hosting. You have become an owner of a domain name and allocated space on the web server.
SEO and Web Hosting
It can be helpful for you to optimize your website if you make right selection of various fields while doing website hosting. To get this advantage make a right selection of physical location of your web server.
Make sure to select web server location which is nearest to your targeting visitors. The small distance between the data center and the visitors makes your website easily and fast available to the visitors.
Taking country specific domain as per the web traffic is also a good point as far as search engine optimization is concerned.
