Website Hosting 101: Hosting Explained

When you’re looking at getting a website, you’ll need to have a hosting solution.

11:34 18 June 2021

Getting your website is only the first part, you then need to host it somewhere so it can stay online and serve your business well.

 

Today we’re going through what web hosting is, the features your hosting provider should give you, and why website hosting is a smart move for modern online businesses. After this primer, you should have a beginner’s understanding of web hosting which can then be developed more as you establish your site. If you want a ranking of hosting services, check out this Hosting Review.

 

What Is Web Hosting?

 

Let’s start by explaining what web hosting is and what web hosting providers offer.

 

While the Internet is packed full of websites that can be accessed quite easily, each site needs to be hosted somewhere. This is done by a web host, which owns servers that have the resources to keep that website online and process the data that flows through the website. Put simply, these servers are where the website is stored, and you use these servers every time you access the site. After typing the site address into the search bar, you connect to the site server to display the website in your browser.

 

When a web host rents out these servers for use by others, they are web hosting providers or services. Web hosting providers make web hosting much easier, as you don’t need to have a server yourself to get your site online. For most of these services, you must own your domain, which shouldn’t be a problem if you’re establishing your own site.

 

From there, you can pay these hosts to store your website. It’s a competitive market, so fortunately you can find website hosting for affordable price tags that individual entrepreneurs and webmasters can afford.

 

Web Hosting Features

 

The features your web hosting provider offers depend on the service and how much you pay for it. The more expensive hosting services will naturally have more protection and useful tools that you can implement into your website. For most people, a standard package should suffice.

 

Find the most affordable package from a known and reliable web hosting provider that also offers more than their competitors, so you get more bang for your buck. Here’s what every web hosting provider should offer.

 

Email Support

 

This is a basic thing that most web hosting providers should offer nowadays. To have your site hosted, you need to have a domain name, and with that should come the ability to host an email account through this site. If your domain is www.example.com, then you can then create an email account that looks like this – username@example.com. This is great for online businesses because it looks much more official than a third-party email, like Outlook or Gmail.

 

FTP Accessibility

 

FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is important for uploading files to the web server that hosts your website. You should be given access to the FTP of your particular server so you, as the domain owner, can add files to your site. If the website is built with HTML files (which is most websites, HTML is the standard web page file type online) then FTP access is vital if you want to edit your web pages.

 

WordPress Support

 

WordPress is one of the most popular website creation tools that allows people all over the world to create their own domains with ease. With WordPress, you don’t need to be a computer whizz to make your own website and get it online. Many hosting providers will advertise when they are compatible with WordPress because it’s a great selling point since nearly one-quarter of every website online is powered by WordPress.

 

Why Use Web Hosting?

 

You need to get web hosting to get your website online. If it isn’t stored anywhere then your site won’t be accessible to people searching for it. That said, most of us can’t host our own websites since we’d need to invest in expensive servers. With that in mind, why use a web hosting service?

 

Besides the convenience and accessibility that come with a web hosting provider, they can also be a valuable part of your online operations. If you’re going with a reputable hosting service, they will employ technicians who make sure the site is online 24/7. A web hosting provider gives you security and a troubleshooting safety net if something goes wrong with your domain.