What Do I Need in A Web Hosting Account?

If you are looking for an affordable web-hosting plan, there are a lot of great options out there for you. However, you will need to be able to sort through all of the technological features of the different plans out there. Here is some advice to help you compare web hosting plans. If you want to build a website, you will need a web host. You have probably heard that you need a server, but are wondering, "what is a server?" Well, the web host stores the files that will show up on your site on a computer. The server broadcasts all of the information on your site to the Internet. The web hosting company takes care of running the server and making sure that your information is always available on your website.

Checklist of Web Hosting Basics

Understanding web hosting can be very confusing. There are several things that you will need to check out when shopping for a basic web hosting company. Here is a checklist of the basics you will need to look at when you compare web hosting plans.

Disk Space

The first thing is disk space. Most websites are fine with under a megabyte of disk space. In fact, if you do not have a site that is heavy in graphics, it will only need about 50 KB of space. Even with lots of graphics, a megabyte is usually enough. For example, if you have a twelve-page site with many pictures, it will not take a megabyte of space. If you are going to have lots of pages on your site, and lots of pictures, look for a hosting company that will have extra space available.

Traffic

The next thing you need to think about is how much traffic your site will draw. This will determine how much bandwidth you will need. Bandwidth is usually measured in monthly amounts, and if you do not have enough, your visitors will have to wait a long time to load your page.

You can determine how much bandwidth you need for your site. Add up the size of every image on your site's page, then multiply that by the number of views you expect per month. That is the amount of bandwidth you need. Most websites need less than 2 GB per month. If you have 6,000 visitors to a standard site, that will only need 5 GB per month. If you are planning on having a site that will realistically draw thousands more visitors, you will need more bandwidth.

Email

Most web hosting companies provide email accounts with their services. If you are going to need email, look for a company that has a web based access for their email service. You will need to determine how many email accounts you will need. Look for a company that offers POP, or Post Office Protocol, email service.

Continue to: Factors to Consider when You Compare Web Hosting Plans