WELCOME to The Online Genius, your one-stop-shop for everything relating to the online business community.
When a web host provider reserves space on a web server for a website to store its files, this is referred to as web hosting. With web hosting, files such as codes, images and everything else that makes up a website can be made available online. All websites are hosted on a server.
There are various different types of web hosting, and the hosting will determine the size of space that would be provided to your website. Shared hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS and resellers are the main types of hosting. The four types of hosting listed can be differentiated by the hosting utilized for the server, the management level provided, and the extra services presented.
Table of Contents
What is Web Hosting?
In a nutshell, web hosting can be viewed as the process of leasing or purchasing space to accommodate a website on the popular World Wide Web. Websites contents like Html, CSS, including images, need to be stored on a server so that internet users can view them whenever they want.
So, what do they call a server? A server is a system that merges web users to your website around the globe. As suggested by the name, web hosting service providers own the important elements needed to host websites, such as servers, connectivity, and all related services. By providing website owners with different hosting plans, they encompass all hosting requirements, ranging from small blogs and big companies.
If you are an online marketer or a website owner and you want to create an online presence, selecting a trustworthy web hosting is BEYOND IMPORTANT! I cannot stress that enough. Today, we have several available web hosting platforms that provide excellent web hosting services. The web hosting services come with plans which range from free with restricted options to premium web hosting services made specifically for businesses. How you plan to utilize your website, including your budget, would determine the type of plan you will choose.
Related Article: The Best Web Hosting Platform in 2020
Selecting the appropriate hosting plan would provide you with the necessary resources to ensure that your website remains reliable and has a fast load speed. There are thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of online businesses today, this means that there are thousands of business owners who rely heavily on their websites for sales and business leads. If you visit a website and you find it hard to access the site, or it takes centuries to load there is no doubt in my mind that you will leave that website quicker than Usain Bolt could get down the track and go to an alternative website that can provide you with whatever you are searching for
If you are new in the website world, web hosting and other associated terms can be a confusing topic. Several new website owners opt for the cheapest alternative under the misconception that all hosting options have similar features. This can be a very terrible mistake.
Why is Web Hosting Needed?
There is this misconception that registering a domain name is the only requirement to get a website active. The fact remains that, a domain is similar to your name, which people recognize you as. To get a website active and live, hosting a website is essential. If you want to create a website, and you do not wish to obtain web hosting services, registering domain names would be futile. With a reliable web hosting company, you will be provided with a website that can be easily accessed by all internet users.
As stated, web hosting is simply the space you purchase on a web server to save important files that are related to your website. When you purchase website hosting from a hosting company, you rent a space on a server; this space will be used to store your website files. So when someone tries to access your website by inputting your domain, he will be led to your website. If you can, you can choose to build a website using your computer, but without uploading it on a hosting server, it will remain inaccessible by anyone.
A fee is usually paid to WebHost for the services they offer. As a user, you can decide to set up your server from your home, but it is definitely going to cost you a bomb. Installing a server isn’t quite easy, you’ll require a strong computer with a powerful processor and several RAM including an operating system such as Linux or Windows. You will also need to have the tech skills to operate the servers.
Hiring a web hosting company is the best and cost-effective option. A web hosting company will help you with the management of all backend issues, as well as the maintenance and repair of the servers. Web hosts are made to ensure that life is smooth for you by saving you the stress.
Related: The Best Web Hosting Platforms of 2020
Facts that show the significance of Web Hosting
If your website doesn’t have the appropriate type of web hosting in place, it might become slow and unresponsive. A website that has an ineffective web hosting will discourage visitors from associating themselves with such sites; and if such a site happens to be a marketing site, it will scare off buyers. Below are few stats to support that claim:
- According to the Aberdeen Group, a 1-second delay in page response results in a 7% reduction in e-commerce conversions
- Based on findings by Econsultancy, conversion rates skyrockets by 74% when page load time increases from 8 seconds to two seconds
- Optimizely stated that a 4-second delay in page load leads to the loss of 11.02% of page views
- The best 50- e-commerce in the world have an average page load speed of 2.51 seconds. The fastest has a load speed of 0.457 seconds.
- To gain the attention of customers, pages must load within 1000 milliseconds.
- Sites that are on the first page of Google search results have an average page load speed of fewer than 2000 milliseconds while the sites on the tenth page have an average page load speed of 2300 milliseconds.
Related: The Best WordPress Managed Web Hosting Platform in 2020
Final Thoughts
Setting up an effective web hosting for your site is important as the website itself. If you want to provide your visitors with mind-blowing user experiences, one that would make them want to revisit your site, then you have to go for an optimum web hosting platform irrespective of the cost. If you are a startup owner, then creating brand awareness and online presence should be your primary aim, and you can achieve this by going for a good web host. For more information on what I believe are the best hosting platforms of 2020 click here.
