We just had another conversation with a marketer about website hosting, so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to go over some of the basics about website hosting and why you should give this aspect of your website a little consideration.

Most of the time, web hosting is just an afterthought, but hosting is your website's foundation. It will have a significant impact on your website's performance, your website user's experience, and even your company's revenues.

What Is Website Hosting

Let's start with the basics. Web hosting is a service that will keep your website connected to the internet.

Here's how it works. Your website is created by writing code that is stored in different files. Just like Word documents, a website's files need to be stored on a computer, in this case, a server. That computer (server) is connected to the internet and allows people to visit your site.

If that computer (server) is not turned on or connected to the internet, no one will be able to visit your website.

This is undoubtedly a very rudimentary explanation, but it lays out what a hosting package does.

When considering a website hosting package there are some decisions that you'll have to make.

For example, did you know that your hosting package can impact your website's SEO? Were you aware that the hosting package you choose can impact the bounce rate of your website?

In this post, I will cover the different components of a hosting package and layout some things to think about for your website's hosting.

What Will Your Website Need For Hosting

There are three primary components that you'll want to evaluate for your hosting package:

  • Stability
  • Security
  • Storage

Website Hosting: Stability

If your website becomes disconnected from the internet, your business is immediately "off-line." This can be a difficult situation so let's start by understanding what is needed to ensure that your website is hosted in a "stable" environment.

Stability is a hosting service that does the following:

  • Maintains power to the server and the internet with the maximum "up-time" possible. Uptime is defined as the amount of time that a server is performing or able to perform. Typically, a 99.9XX% uptime is typical, and most hosting companies will be able to provide this level of service.
  • Bandwidth is the volume of data that can transfer from the server to your website's visitor's browser. Think of bandwidth as a pipeline. For example, if you have a page on your website that is 1megabyte in size and the bandwidth from your hosting provider is only 500 kilobytes (1/2 of a megabyte), it's going to take a while for that page to make it to your site visitor's browser. Conversely, if your bandwidth, in this example, were 2 megabytes, your large website page would flow through to your visitor's browser with no problem.
  • Support is the unsung hero when it comes to website hosting stability. When something goes wrong with a server or a server's connection to either power or the internet, and something will go wrong at some point, the level of support your hosting package offers will often determine how quickly your website is brought back online.

Website Hosting: Security

Hardly a week goes by without hearing about a vulnerability in a company's website. The severity of these security breaches can range from an "inconvenience" up to a "catastrophe," depending on the company and the level of the security breach.

In today's privacy-conscious environment, all businesses must take a serious look at a hosting company's commitment to security before putting a website on a server.

Operating system updates and patches for the servers must be done promptly and consistently. If unpatched vulnerabilities exist in a server's OS, your website is wide open to attacks.

When it comes to website updates and patches it's important to know who is responsible for updating your website platform. On average, if your website is built on a WordPress platform, you can expect about two core updates a year with multiple other minor updates over a year. You will also have to update any plugins being used on your site because even outdated plugins can create a vulnerability.

Some hosting service packages will include updating your website platform, and some will not. If you have a web hosting package that does not include updates to your website platform, you need to identify someone responsible for these tasks.

Know your neighbor. It's also not a bad idea to ask your website hosting company who will be on the same server that your website will be on. Most hosting companies work by putting multiple websites on the same server, which means that the server is only as secure as every website on it.

Suppose the hosting company is hosting a website on the same machine that your website will be on and let's say that this other website gets enormous amounts of traffic. In that case, your website could slow down because of your neighboring website traffic. Or, if a neighboring website on the same machine gets hit with a denial of service attack, your site could also be affected.

Website Storage

The final component that needs to be considered when choosing a website hosting package is the amount of storage space you will need. This will be determined by the type of site that you have and the amount of resources on your website.

A photographer's website that displays an extensive portfolio of images will require much more storage space because of the size of images than a website that is used primarily for lead generation, where the majority of the content is text.

The second thing to know when it comes to storage is if your website is going to have a content management system (CMS), then you're going to need more storage than if it doesn't, and the vast majority of websites that are being built will have a CMS component to them. An average rule of thumb for a WordPress site's storage needs, with an average number of plugins, will be about 1 — 2 GB (gigabyte).

Conclusion

The website hosting package that you ultimately choose will impact your website and the visitors to your site.  Going with the lowest price option is seldom a good business decision, just like going with the lowest bidder for building a new website will seldom turn out well.  If you have any questions on hosting, please feel free to drop me a note with your questions.