What Is Web Hosting? - Everything Explained!
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A successful website needs reliable and high-functioning web hosting. Every online marketer needs to understand that it is important to choose the right hosting services.
If this is the first time that you’ve heard of this, you should really start by asking the right questions. If you have ever wondered “What is web hosting?” then you’re on the right track!
Provide the right web hosting for your site; begin by understanding its meaning, significance, and its different types.
What is Meant by Web Hosting?
Web hosting is one of the most important investments every business owner should make. The success of your business relies on web hosting strategies. With this, you should know what is meant by web hosting and how it works:
Brief Overview of Web Hosting
Web hosting is a service that provides storage space for a website or application on an internet server. Once your website domain is up, any computer device online can easily gain access to it.
When you make a website, you are technically creating different kinds of files. Your site has a collection of different files and media elements.
These files need a storage space that will allow its accessibility through your registered domain name. The files on your website need a web hosting service provider to keep it through its server.
The server is the physical computer that helps run your website. For your website to function, it needs the right hardware and software that the server has. When this is present, your website is easily accessible without any interruption.
Web hostings are responsible for server maintenance, security, email accounts, software, and others. With the right tools, they can help you manage your server without you needing to have or know about the technicalities. To further understand what is web hosting, you need to know how it works and why you need it.
How Does Web Hosting Work?
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Most people don’t have their own servers that’s why they need to rent from web hosting companies. People look for a web hosting company to provide the services and technologies to run their web domain.
Especially, if you are a first-timer, you will have to choose from various web hosting plans. That's why you need to understand what web hosting service providers can offer you.
Storage space for your files
Your website's domain name will not work alone, you need the help of web hosting services. You’re essentially renting the space on a server when you sign up with a hosting provider.
A functional web domain name will need a hosting plan that fits its needs. Keep in mind that the storage space provided will depend on the hosting plan.
Highly-Functioning Hardware
When you regularly visit the internet, you know how a website virtually appears on your screen. But maybe, you've never thought about the physical side of the internet. When you enter a domain name on the browser, a physical web server full of data centers runs it.
Web hosting providers keep their servers in a temperature-controlled room. Along with this, they have skilled people who maintain these regularly.
A lot of hosting companies invest in real estate houses to keep their physical servers. They know that it is important that web hosting providers maintain the working level you expect them to provide.
Standard Uptime
Users only need to type down the web address of your domain name to enter your website. Once the domain name of your site is on the computer, it's redirected to the server's host. The server, in turn, sends the files they’ve stored which will appear on the computer display.
You wouldn't want the visitors to drop by and see that the server is down. You need reliable web hosting services that can keep your website working at full capacity.
Online Security
On the internet, there are criminals that attempt to break into servers to steal files or data. Just like your home, you need to protect it with your best security system. Quality hosting providers have security measures that protect your website from break-ins.
Importance of Web Hosting
Why Do You Need It?
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How to host a website
Most people learn how to host a website mainly because they want to manage their own web properties. Your website-hosted domain can get more traffic. With this, you get bigger revenue on your business. It’s best that you understand why it’s vital to find a quality web hosting for you.
Speed
In this fast-paced world, nobody likes waiting. Meaning, people dislike it if things go too slow. Google will not like it if you make people wait!
To put it into perspective, 40% of visitors leave a website that runs slowly. If it doesn’t load in right away in 3 seconds, it’s already considered slow.
To help increase the SEO rankings of your domain name, you need a fast-running website. With the right web host, it will show you that a fast-running website is one thing that you shouldn’t live without!
Security
As mentioned earlier, security is important for your web domain. You can put your website at a risk of hacking if you do not have a trusted web host. Also, it is important because Google might ‘distrust’ your domain name.
With this, it can decrease your SEO rankings ( Check out google ranking factors by Backlinko) . A good web host ensures that everything runs smoothly. They can provide antivirus and firewall to keep your website safe from any viruses on the internet.
Location
Google considers the domain name of the server when it comes to SEO rankings. To ensure that your SEO rankings are high, you need a host from the same country you’re in.
As it operates, it will provide a fast loading speed for your website. With the help of your web host, users on the world wide web can easily find your website according to your location.
How Do You Benefit from It?
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Technically, hosting plans vary in terms of the services that you can receive from it. But even so, hosting providers share the same benefits to the web owners, mainly:
Better site performance
People who run a successful web domain know that performance matters a lot. This is because it only takes a few seconds to capture a visitor's attention. A quality web host helps increase the performance of your website.
But with a slow-running website, it affects the user's experience. That’s why you need to choose a hosting plan that can run your site faster.
Access to outstanding technical support
If you’re using your website to provide products and services, then you prioritize timeliness and customer support. The hosting company should function in the same way. Every time your site is down, it affects your sales.
Each time it is down, it could greatly affect your whole business. If you do not have the technical skills, then you need a technical team to help you at times like this. You don't have to go through this business barrier!
You need outstanding technical support. The technical team can quickly put a functioning domain name back online!
Your email address has a unique name domain
A branded email address will make your business look professional. You can attain a professional branded email address when your site has a service provider. They can give you a specific email address with a particular domain name.
Depending on your hosting provider, the number of specific domain name email addresses you're allowed to create will vary. Some hosts can offer a limitless ability to create emails with your domain name.
Have better website security
There are web domain owners that disregard the security of their site. They think that this doesn't matter at all. But it does, and you should never think that way or put your whole business, and your customers, at risk.
Your website security should be one of your main priorities when it comes to it. After all, you’re storing important files on your site.
You have to make sure to secure it on all ends and keep yourself and the people who trust your site, safe. And this starts with your choice of web hosting service.
Your website is highly reliable and uptime
You already know that your website's uptime is important, right? So you understand that a good hosting company will offer reliable uptime services. Your website's uptime is how often your domain site is going to be online.
A reliable uptime is very beneficial to your domain. So, when you're signing up with a hosting plan, avoid false high uptime claims.
Types of Web Hosting
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Every web domain requires the right type of hosting. There are various types of hosting solutions available which work differently from each other. Check the following list to help you determine the type of web hosting you should have:
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting service is the most basic form of all types. Also, it is known to be the most affordable sharing-server resources. With this host, you can share resources with other sites.
It's basically like renting an apartment and having some roommates with you. Instead of paying the entire server, you’re basically splitting the bill. Also, shared hosting is very easy to use even for a beginner like you.
VPS Hosting
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. This type of hosting is unique because it uses virtualization to make the virtual dedicated server.
While considered unique, it's also comparable to shared hosting. Just like shared hosting, it is still pulling resources from multiple servers that you’re sharing with others.
While VPS shares with other servers, it lessens the number of websites per server. Say, from a few thousand, it will decrease around 20. Additionally, the pulled resources evenly share between the shared websites.
This type of hosting can offer various benefits. One, your domain name has a portion of the server's dedicated hosting that you can increase. Second, the virtual dedicated hosting partition will allow a customizable environment for you.
Dedicated Hosting
As its name suggests, dedicated hosting allows you to rent the entire physical server. You don’t have to share resources with the other users. While it may be quite expensive, it offers great levels of performance and storage.
This is ideal for a web domain that receives huge traffic and those that need a unique server configuration. Since its web server is entirely dedicated to your website, you can run any software configuration needed.
You don't have to worry about any bad neighbors when it comes to this hosting plan at all. Your website is not prone to any security issues. You have a hosting team to help you manage and optimize the server at all times.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud web hosting is a new form of hosting. While it's relatively new, it is one of the premier forms of hosting service available nowadays. If you have not heard of this yet, cloud hosting works by hosting your site on different servers simultaneously.
It uses virtual hardware that stores your files via cloud storage. Also, if one of the servers overloads, the traffic is immediately rerouted to another cloud server.
This type of web host only pulls the resources that you’re actually using. It is a cost-efficient choice for your website, that's for sure!
Managed WordPress Hosting
This last type of web hosting solution is exactly what it's named for. This web hosting service is completely custom-tailored to the platform.
If your website is WordPress-hosted, you wouldn’t have to handle any technical maintenance. There is a team from WordPress that manages the server for you.
For those who have a small website, it's likely that you do not get a lot of traffic. With this, you wouldn't notice the difference in the web server's performance at all. But if the traffic levels of your website are increasing, then you will see a decent improvement in performance.
Even if you share a web server space, you will share that space with other WordPress websites. With this, it configures the server uniquely so you can get the most out of it.
When it comes to better performance and server optimization, this is essential to your website security. It is so much easier to protect your site against cyber attacks that target the WordPress platform.
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When you know the kind of web hosting solution that you’re going for, your web domain can greatly benefit from it. In addition, the right web host can greatly affect your website’s performance and your business revenue as well. While it helps you own a website that is up and running, it hosting plans bring plenty of other benefits to it.
Hopefully, we’ve helped you understand how web hosting helps you run your website. Especially, if this is your first time venturing into website creation, you should understand how a quality hosting provider affects your entire business.
Do you have more web hosting related concerns that we have not addressed? Do you think you know the type of host you are going for? We want to know what you think! Contact us via email so we can address your concerns right away and never wonder about what is web hosting ever again.
