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What is Website Hosting?

24 February 2010 147 Comments
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web hostingFor those of you who are new to the website business everything you learn can seem like a foreign language at first. I remember becoming frustrated rather quickly because I could not understand what web hosting was. I labored for hours and hours immersing myself in all the web hosting articles I could find.

You see a website requires many components. It needs good content to keep people coming back. It requires a good domain name so people will recognize it. Finally, and certainly not least a website needs a good host.

I know, at first it is a bit overwhelming but trust me when I say it’s not as complicated as it seems. The way I look at it is a host is a place for your website to live. I suppose you could compare it to an apartment. Like an apartment your host will provide a lot of what you need to maintain your website and in some cases hosts even provide domain names. Unfortunately, like in an apartment you have to pay a monthly rent to keep your website parked inside the host.

This begs an interesting question. What is the going rate for a great host? I would classify a great host as one that will answer all of your questions in a heartbeat and provide you with all the tools you need to become a successful webmaster. In order for a host to do all of that they must charge you a monthly fee but trust me when I say its a small price to pay. For many, money is the deal closer. As consumers we want an affordable price that will provide us with quality tools to keep our sites up to date. I would argue that ten dollars is the highest you should go. That being said, the lowest you should go is 3 dollars anything lower will probably be a waste of money and more importantly time. Chances are that if hosts are charging low fees like that they will prove to be unreliable.

Host space is another important aspect when trying to understand how to clarify a good host. When given a choice between hosting 3 sites at once and a thousand sites at once you should always pick the latter if the price is reasonable.

Customer service is very important when dealing with anything over the web. Hosting is no different. I have found that the best hosts are those with the best customer services. Hosts that treat their customers rudely don’t last very long. Hosts who treat their customers with respect and answer their questions last extremely long. Just ask Hostgator.

If I were to recommend any one host to someone starting out or someone looking to switch hosts I would without a doubt choose Hostgator. They excel in every category I mentioned above. I have never found a host that can match the customer service that Hostgator provides. Gator is relatively cheap at 7 dollars a month for hosting unlimited websites. You can check out hostgator at www.hostgator.com.

Just like everything else in life learning about web hosting can be tricky. However with time and motivation anyone can become an expert.

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