what is website hosting with a picture of a building representing different files and folders how they comprise a website

Las Vegas | Some Casino Hotel | 2021 –  A website is a collection of individual files grouped into folders – not dissimilar from the window art in this image.

To be able to effectively present your engaging content to the world via your site, you need some form of web hosting service. This usually requires some type of hosting plan which allows you to essentially rent space on a physical server somewhere to store all your website’s files, content, and data.

Think of the website domain or URL as the address of a physical plot of land. The website itself, think of it as the physical building on the plot of land.

Just as the building needs a spot to “host” it, your website needs a place to “live.” And that is what website hosting is.

The best web hosts offer more than just server space. They also provide you with access to state-of-the-art web hosting technology as well as many of the other key resources you need to make the most out of your website. This includes cutting-edge website security to ensure that all your intellectual properties and critical data never fall into the wrong hands.

Web hosts bear the responsibility for keeping the server operating continuously while implementing security measures, as well as ensuring that all data, texts, images, and other files are transferred successfully to the visitors’ browsers.

If you’re new to the realms of web hosting, and you want to make the most out of your content, while still keeping on the cutting edge of site security, then we’re going to have to get granular with what to look for in a web hosting service.

The Importance of a Good Server

The web hosts server is the physical device that hosts your website. This is more than just a computer; it is often a data center or a series of devices with backups that run continuously. This ensures that your site is always available to visitors. At the same time, a lot of web hosting servers also allow you to store all your website data in one place.

Anytime a visitor enters your domain name address into their browser or clicks on a link to your website in search results, the web host’s server seamlessly transfers all the necessary files to load your website onto their computer or wireless device.

Can I Host My Own Website?

It is possible to host your own website on a dedicated computer or server, though it typically requires extensive technical skills that the average layman doesn’t have training in. Self-hosting your own website requires you to:

  • Set up and configure a web server from scratch
  • Install all the equipment
  • Establish all the necessary infrastructure
  • Install hardware
  • Install software
  • Set up cutting-edge site security
  • Establish data and power backups

Then even once you have all the nuts & bolts details established, you’ll also have to handle all the ongoing maintenance. This includes frequently having to update site security certificates and software.

Do You Offer Website Hosting?

Yes we do. And we would love to help you.

Think about this:

All these technical aspects can take away from managing your site and developing the kind of fresh, engaging content that boosts your ranking on popular search engines. Learning how WordPress website hosting works is not the most effective use of your time.

Sure, you can make time to learn as much as you want, and we are happy to have a conversation about website hosting with you. But what you will find is that your time is better spent developing your products or working with customers.

This is why so many companies choose to go with a web hosting service provider (like us) to ensure their website performs optimally while they focus on the details that really matter.

Our Webhosting Package Includes:

– Hosting Management & Maintenance
– Domain Setup, Management, & Maintenance
Email Hosting, Setup
– Records Management (DNS, MX, A, etc.)
– Daily Backups of Files and Database
– Audit every 3 weeks to Update all out-of-date plugins
– Audit every 3 weeks to Update all out-of-date themes
– Audit every 3 weeks to Update WordPress Core Software
– 2 hours (to be used in 15 min increments) of minor content changes and content updates (editing, creating new pages, etc.)
– Optimized CDN (Content Delivery Network) with servers all over the world; where ever a site visitor it, it uses the closest server which speed everything up

Types of Web Hosting Services

Internet technology and service providers have evolved to the point where there are several interesting web hosting options available. Though it can sometimes be hard to know which one is going to be the best for your website.

Fortunately, a lot of web hosting services offer different hosting packages. Most of the best allow you to do a little customization to best meet the needs of your site.

In a perfect world, you could start with the simplest, inexpensive web hosting solution. Then as your website grows and gets more traffic, you can easily upgrade to a more advanced plan. So, it helps to pick the best starting point plan to allow your hosting services to grow with your site over time.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is one of the more common options that a lot of burgeoning websites choose. It allows multiple users to share the same server resources, such as memory, storage capacity, and processing power.

Shared web hosting tends to be affordable, which makes it a great option for small businesses as well as personal websites that don’t need overly sophisticated configuration or high bandwidth. This makes it one of the preferred options for startups.

The potential drawback to shared hosting is that you don’t really get much access to server configuration. It’s also possible for increased traffic on other websites to affect your website’s speed. Though the best-shared hosting service providers are usually on top of these concerns and work proactively to prevent overloading shared servers.

VPS Hosting

Virtual Private Server hosting (VPS) is another popular type of web hosting service where you share a physical server with other users. However, the web host creates a virtual partition for each subscribed user on the server. This ensures that if someone else on the same server has a high bandwidth draw, it won’t affect your site’s performance.

This makes VPS web hosting more attractive than shared hosting servers for medium-sized sites, eCommerce shops, high-volume content blogs, and sites that anticipate rapid early growth.

Though a VPS hosting service does require you or your IT manager to have a little more technical expertise to manage your partition. It also tends to cost a little bit more than shared hosting, but not prohibitively.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud web hosting is an increasingly popular option for sites that anticipate high traffic as it uses several virtual servers to host sites. If there’s ever a technical problem, or a regional natural disaster, the remaining servers simply take over and maintain the website operation.

This strategy of using a cloud cluster of web servers is sometimes the best option for businesses with multiple websites or large-scale eCommerce shops. It provides little to no downtime, with the assurance that site visitors will always have access.

Of course, cloud web hosting is often more expensive than shared hosting and VPS options. This is due in part to the expansive nature, the amount of maintenance, and the fact that cloud hosting can easily grow with you over time.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress hosting is the natural evolution of CMS web hosting only it’s specifically engineered to be optimized for WordPress sites. This helps a WordPress-based site to load faster while also minimizing potential issues. Most WordPress hosting services offer special plans with customizable features such as pre-installed themes, popular plugins for core functions for security, and other special site-specific tools.

Of course, this specialization for WordPress sites means it’s not the ideal option for other site software platforms. Though if you create your site using WordPress, this is a non-factor.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting services assign an entire single server for each website. This makes it a better option for larger corporate websites. It also gives your IT team the ability to configure the server. This includes the ability to choose your preferred operating system and software. It also means you can customize the entire hosting environment to meet your specifications.

A lot of large companies that have a small in-house IT staff, or perhaps a single person serving as their webmaster prefer a dedicated hosting service as it gives them additional professional support from the web host.

Of course, this also comes with a higher cost, which puts it out of the range of most startups and small businesses. Though if you have a large company that needs to utilize high bandwidth and storage with customizable access, then the higher cost of dedicated hosting isn’t going to be prohibitive.