What is Web Hosting & How Does it Affect Your Website?

Web hosting is often overlooked until the last minute, and then a new website-owner gets a bit bamboozled by all the hosting options out there.

But it’s actually quite straightforward; think of your website as a house.

When you get your new “house”, you will need to rent some land to put your house on.

The land you rent is “hosting” your house.

So web hosting is essentially rental space on the World Wide Web for your shiny new website!

That was easy, wasn’t it?

But What About All The Different Types of Hosting Plans?

There are a few different ways to host your website online.

We’ll focus in on the two main ones; shared hosting and dedicated hosting.

1. What is Shared Website Hosting?

Shared website hosting is exactly what it sounds like; multiple websites sharing one server. 

Houses piled atop one another

This is like squeezing multiple houses onto one plot of land. 

Initially it may be ok, maybe even cosy, but if more and more houses are installed on your plot of land, eventually things get crowded...

You have no space to park, you have to squeeze through two buildings to get to your front door, your building is surrounded on all sides now so you can't see the sun... etc. 

In website terms, a crowded server means multiple websites hogging the resources, so everyone's website will slow down. 

A shared server also has a set of rules that everyone must follow, so it can be limiting. 

It will come as no surprise that shared hosting is generally the cheapest, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's awful.

When managed responsibly, shared hosting can be ideal for small business websites, but when you're paying £4 per month, you know it's not getting managed at all. 

The web hosting company you choose does more than just stick your website on a server though. 

Usually they also ensure the website is online, maintain the server and provide technical support to you if things go wrong. 

The better web hosting companies have a great guaranteed up-time for your site, quicker response times to queries and issues, and solve your issues quickly because they know what they’re doing.

2. What is Dedicated Website Hosting?

Dedicated web hosting is when you have a single web server devoted entirely to your website.

There's no sharing going on, and your website has free reign to grow and expand comfortably. Doesn't that sound fantastic?

Dedicated servers are a necessity for large online shops or very active website forums because these sites require a lot of resources to maintain. 

Online shops generally require dedicated hosting packages

One major downside of a dedicated server is you may need extensive technical expertise to manage it yourself.

Picture the scene... 

It runs fine for a month or two, but then an upgrade to the software is released...

You update the system to keep it secure and safe, but the update makes your site go offline.

All hell breaks loose. 

This is when those technical expertise become a necessity.

However, there are companies out there that will manage your hosting for you, like us, Vital Hike!

This is ideal for businesses who don’t know the first thing about hosting and website management and just want it all taken care of.

Which Hosting Should I Choose?

The type of hosting you should get will depend on the size, complexity and traffic of your website.

Websites will require more powerful hosting if they have

1. Heavy traffic (lots of visitors)
2. Lots of pages
3. Complex functionality like an online shop
4. A large customer database

More complex websites use up more resources to run efficiently online.

Think of it in terms of fitness.

A cross-country runner will require more calories in order to run and compete at optimum levels, whereas someone who doesn’t exercise at all will require less calories in order to function.

Websites can get by on a more basic hosting package if they have

1.  Minimal traffic
2. A small number of pages
3. Not much functionality

Picking up on the housing metaphor at the beginning of this blog, a super simple website is the equivalent of a tent, which only needs about 2 square metres of land (i.e. simple hosting).

Note: If this is your first website for your business, it’s worth noting that you won’t know initially how much traffic to expect, so it’s alright to start off on a basic hosting package and upgrade later on if necessary.

The web server you choose will determine whether your site is reliably online and available to your customers, so you need to be certain that your server is stable, reliable, well-maintained and able to handle heavy traffic. 

To conclude, if you’re starting off with your first business website, and it seems like it is fairly simple, try out a shared hosting package to see how it goes. After a month, if your site is particularly slow and hard to use, consider upgrading to improve things!

At Vital Hike, we handle the hosting for most of our customers, and have a range of packages to choose from depending on the needs of your website.

This means...

1. If your website goes offline, we know immediately, and we get it back online in minutes.

2. You don’t have to worry about the technical aspect, as our technical team are equipped to manage, maintain, fix and upgrade servers as required.

3. You don’t have to liaise between a hosting provider, a webmaster, an email provider and more, because we have all the information to hand. We know when your website has a particular functionality that may interfere with a server, and can take steps to handle it.

If you’re still a little foggy on the details, just get in touch with your questions and we’d be happy to help. And don’t forget, we offer a free consultation service for first-time clients, so why not pop by our Newport-on-Tay office for a chat?

Web Hosting Handled,

With Vital Hike

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