Web hosting explained…

names.co.uk news, Web Hosting

Don't leave it up to the developer: 10 tips to choose your own hosting provider

Having a website means you’ll need to get to grips with web hosting. It’s not a fun as creating the website itself, but it’s what makes your website accessible by internet users and so it’s a crucial part of launching your website.

Web hosting basically means where your website lives; on who’s web server does it exist. A web server is essentially a big computer that serves web pages to internet users on their mobile, laptop or desktop computer.

Think of your web host as your website’s landlord and you’re renting space on their web server. You’ll share the web server with your web host’s other customers and there will be lots of security measures in place keeping your website safe and protected, all provided by the landlord, aka your web host.

 

What are the options?

There are lots of options out there in the market when it comes to web hosting, mostly based on the amount of web space your website needs. Space requirements are determined by complexity of the website (do you take payments through it, for example) and the level of web traffic visiting your site.

Our web hosting options are helpfully labelled Starter, Professional and Premium and each of them comes with unlimited monthly bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data that may be downloaded or uploaded from your website.

Because we offer unlimited bandwidth that means you can grow your website and encourage more people to visit your site without worrying you’ll exceed your bandwidth allowance and incur nasty fees. We want to encourage our customers to expand, not penalise them! That said, if your website becomes a massive hive of online activity and exceeds what we determine to be ‘fair usage’ we might ask you to switch to your own Dedicated Server – more about that option later on. Don’t fret though, it’d be a good thing as it’d mean your website is a sensation!

 

Which option would I suit?

So you might be thinking, if all your packages are unlimited, what’s the difference between Starter, Professional and Premium? Rather than explaining the technical ins and outs, it’ll be more helpful to explain who each package would typically suit:

 

  • Starter – personal blog or website
  • Professional – business websites or very popular
  • Premium – large companies processing multiple transactions online

 

Of course, if you do want techy information, you can view our product table which compares each package. Or call our Sales Team and they’ll advise you once they’ve asked a few questions about your website – 0345 363 3632.

 

Do I need to do anything once I’ve purchased Web Hosting?

We’ll prepare your web space on our web server and all you’ll need to do is upload your web files. This is a simple task that’s done using a tool called ‘cPanel’ that your web hosting package will give you access to. Any problems – give us a call and we’ll talk you through it.

 

So what’s this about a ‘Dedicated Server’?

If your website has high levels of traffic, is very complex, handles a lot of transactions, features a significant amount of video / photos or has very sensitive data in it, you may need to consider a web server all of your own, called a ‘Dedicated Server’. As the name suggests, you’ll no longer be sharing a web server with other websites; your website will live on its own server, all by itself, with ample resources to power your website so your customers get the slickest of online experiences with you.

 

Where are the web servers located?

Our Shared Hosting servers and Dedicated Servers are both located in our state-of-the-art data centre which has staff on site 24/7/365 ensuring the utmost in reliability of our hosting services. Read more about the security that surrounds the data centre, we think you’ll be impressed!

 

Are your web hosting services the best?

Of course they are! Not only do our hosting options – both shared and dedicated – offer all the technical bells and whistles you’ll need, we offer the best in support and customer service to ensure your web hosting is always doing exactly what you need it to –  serving your website to your visitors without a glitch.

 

What experience have you got?

We currently host around 132,000 websites on our UK servers – some of them being household brands (we can’t disclose names I’m afraid). That figure rises to 650,000 websites across all our sister companies in Europe.

 

Choose us!

So if you’re looking for web hosting, you can’t go wrong with one of our packages – everything you need tech-wise, delivered by friendly UK-based staff who know what they’re doing.

View our range of Hosting packages and Dedicated Servers where you can purchase online if you’re ready, or call us on 0345 363 3632 to talk to a sales advisor.

 

Web Hosting from names.co.uk – the perfect home for your website.