Choose the best webhosting – 5 steps
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Making your own website ?
But don´t know who should host it ?
- Read my guide how to choose the best webhosting !
After recieving a lot of mails from people, asking what to consider when they contact a web host, I decided to meet up with web developer Mr. Magnus Sjömark, and join him to make a simple 5-step checklist, that you could use when choosing web hosting for your website.
Some people choose to host their websites on their own servers, but other prefer to rent serverspace in a so-called “hosting company” (a company that rents out webbserver space). You´ll face an almost impenetrable jungle, when you create a homepage, so to make life easier for you, we have come up with these five steps:
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Check …
1. the uptime for all servers
2. how the servers are “routed”
3. that the webhost makes a “backup” of your site every day
4. prices and support
5. the “freedom of speech-laws” of the land server is placed in
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1. The server´s uptime ?
The first thing to check is the “server status” of the hosting company. Since you don´t know which server that will be used, of all the servers the provider uses, it is important to look at the overall trends for all the servers. This in order to form an opinion about whether the webbhotel feels serious or not.
- Seem the servers stable? – Do they have high uptime ? – Like from 99.9 to 100 percent uptime? – Good, then maybe you dare to use that webhotel.
Compare this to if you open a salon. Then it´s clearly important that the salon is open as much as possible, so that people can cut ther hair, whenever they wish. It’s not that convenient to have a lunch break, and shut the salon between 11.00 and 2.00 Am, just when customers are able to cut there hair. – Same goes for the hotel’s Web servers. – The higher uptime the better it is.
You can´t pay someone to get a higher uptime, as the uptime of the servers is dependent on uncontrollable factors, so-called “force majeure”. It does´nt matter if you put your website on an expensive and exclusive Web hotel, or on a low budget 10 $ hosting, but the most important is that the servers has been running for some while, and that the servers has good and stable history. And of course, the more often the Web host is replacing your hard drives, the better it is for the loading time, of your website.
Some hosts accept a change of server, if the server does´nt work. There could be good to cooperate with a host that accepts change of servers, although it´s not good to change server too often. – I would not be considered to be a “jumping jerk” …
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2. The routing of the server ?
It´s also important that the servers are effeciantly routed, has a high “download speed”, and fast “page load speed”. – You can check this by visit another site that´s already on the web host, and test how fast that website downloads ( opens in browser ), and how good the “page load time” is (when you click on sitelinks on the site).
To find out which other sites are located at the hosting company, you can wisit your host´s website and look for the heading “Our customers ‘, or ‘Links to Web sites that we host,” or something in that style. At the same time, you usually get to choose if you want a link from the Web hotel’s Web site, into your own site.
The word “Routing” means how the roads look like, from the hotel’s web servers and out on the Internet. I usually think of the old jazz song “Route 66″, every time I hear that word. It´s important that the site is effeciantly routed, because the site visitors can get quite annoyed, if the website seems slow when they click on the website´s inlinks on the internet, or when they move from page to page within the website.
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3. Does the Web host make a backup of the whole site every day ?
Third, you must check if your host makes a “backup” on the entire Web site every day. This is quite important, in case your site would be hacked. It´s common to hijack Web sites, and this particularly affects large and well-known blogs, but if you are unlucky, the hijacks may also affect smaller sites. – If the Web host makes a backup on your entire content once a day, then they can just put all the original files back in the right position.
But, even if the Web host makes a backup of your website, you should make your own “local backup” of your website every day. To do this, just visit the hotel’s web interface, and create a backup of your content, and download the backup-file to your computer. The backup-file can then be used to restore your website, to as it looked before it was hi-jacked.
Don´t forget to unpack the backup-file, before you use it !
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4. Affordable, and a good support ?
Obviously, it´s nice if the Web hosts services are reasonably priced, and that there is some sort of support ( help, customer service ) on their web site.
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5. The “freedom of speech-laws” in the server land ?
Legally, it may be convenient to host the site in a country, that has liberal “freedom of speech-laws”, such as Sweden, Denmark or the United States.
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Summary
“How to choose the right web host”:
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1. The Web host´s servers, must have high uptime ( 99,9 % – 100 % )
2. Make sure that the Web hotel’s servers are efficiently routed
3. Request that the hosting company makes a backup of your website, every day
4. Check Prices and support
5. Read about the “freedom of speech-laws”, of the country, in which the server is located
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Extra:
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- How much does it cost you, if you exceed the traffic-limit?
It could be nice sending a mail to the web hotel´s support, and ask how much it costs, if you happen to get a temporary peak in webtraffic, and how the web host, if so, is billing you. Often, you pay just to receive a certain amount of webtraffic, a pre-specified bandwidth, and therefore - it´s important to know how much the Host charges, if your website would get more visitors than the agreed bandwidth.
There are examples of website-owners who have gone on vacation, and then, when they come back home, met with a bill of 200 dollar from their web hosting. And what had happened, was that the traffic-limit was exceeded, while site owner was on vacation. And the web host was quite good at billing for that.
- Good luck !
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