So you’ve got your domain name and you’ve designed a website or had a website built for you, now what. Well, of course you need hosting. Many people want to start a business online but are unaware of some basics such as: B. How people can view or visit your website.
What is web hosting? If you’ve already created your website, all of these files are now on your computer. People surfing the Internet don’t have access to your computer, so they can’t find your website. Advanced users know that they can turn their computer into a server where people actually come to their computer to view their website, but this is not recommended and certainly not recommended for someone who is not very advanced as a computer technician.
There are computers that are set up as servers. These are also called host computers for the sake of simplicity. You must upload your website files to the hosting computer so that they can be made available for others to view on the Internet. This is the service we call web hosting.
Is every web host suitable? No. This is a common misconception about web hosting. All web hosts are not the same. There are many different tiers of web hosting and many different plans and packages to consider. There are also many other things to consider when choosing a web hosting company. Let’s go through one of the most important issues when choosing a web hosting plan to help you understand it better.
A lot depends on your individual needs. Will your website contain a lot of graphics and images? Will there be movies? music downloads? Software or other downloads? Or is it a very simple and compact website consisting mostly of text? Do you expect a lot of traffic on your website?
The reason for all these questions is something called “bandwidth” or “transmission”. The amount of disk space that a web hosting package gives you is usually far less important than the amount of transfer or bandwidth that the web host gives you.
Every time someone visits your website, every file contained on that website is downloaded from your website onto their computer. In other words, from the web host’s computer to the visitor’s computer. This includes every graphic or image on the page, every icon, even the HTML page itself is downloaded by a user who is visiting your website. The size of each of these files transferred to the visitor’s computer is the amount of “transfer” or “bandwidth” you are using.
Let’s say you have 100 visitors per day on your website. Let’s also assume that your HTML page is about 15,000 and you have 5 images on this web page that total about 50,000. This means that every visitor to your website uses up to 65,000 bandwidth each time they visit this page. Let’s also assume your average visitor opens 3 pages of your website and these pages are the same size as your main page. This means that each visitor will consume at least 195,000 if they don’t keep coming back to your main page.
Multiply that 195,000 times the 100 visitors per day and you are using 19,500,000 or just over 19 megabytes of transfer per day. Multiply that by 30 days and you get 585,000,000 or 585 megabytes of “transfer” or “bandwidth” used per month.
Now, if your web hosting plan allows for more bandwidth than you think you’re going to need, then you know you’re ok with it. However, make sure you know in advance what the cost of exceeding your allotted bandwidth will be. Some web hosts charge heavily for every megabyte you use beyond the limit they set for you in the plan you choose. It’s a good idea to pick a web hosting plan that’s just a step above what you think you need to allow for growth. You could become very popular like a rock star overnight!
