Lately I’ve been getting a lot of questions from new website owners regarding setting up their website or blog. For example, should I use WordPress.com or WordPress.org? Should I sign up for a free hosting account? Can I set up Google Adsense on my free hosting account? In this article I describe the first five steps that should be taken to get a website or blog and in the process I will answer some common questions posed by website owners with limited website experience.
1. Determine what type of website it will be. The five major types of websites are eCommerce, educational, informational, personal, and portal. If the website will be a personal website or blog, then a free account with WordPress.com could be all that you need. However, disk space and functionality is limited. The eCommerce, educational, informational and portal type websites require a lot of disk space and functionality, and therefore, a WordPress.org account would be the best choice for these types of websites.
2. Choose your domain name. With free Web hosting accounts you don’t own the domain name and your hosting company’s name will appear on the end of the domain, and may look something like this: http://www.mydomain.wordpress.com. If you do not own your domain name you will not be able to use services such as Google Adsense or Cloudflare on your website. Websites that own their domain names have more disk space and are able to utilize more software resources. They also offer more flexibility in the functionality of the websites.
3. Decide if the website will be used to generate income? A good rule of thumb is that any website that is used to generate income must be paid hosting. As mentioned earlier, free hosting accounts have limited disk space and functionality. On the other hand, with a paid hosting account you get enough disk space for your content and added plug-ins, and the flexibility to add functionality to your heart’s content. Also, if your personal website will be used to generate income, a paid hosting account with WordPress.org is the right choice.
4. Conduct research on Web hosting companies. It’s a good idea to start your research by looking at the major Web hosting companies first because of their years of experience and popularity in the industry. In addition to the customer support that these companies provide, you can also benefit from the knowledge of others who use their services. If you get stuck on an issue with a reputable hosting company, you can get support from the company, your network of contacts, social network groups, forums, or just by doing a Web search.
5. Select the type of Web Hosting plan that you need. The type of website that you will have will determine the type of hosting plan that you will need. Ask yourself the following questions: How many email accounts will I need? Will I need to have databases to store information? How much disk space should I have? What level of customer support will I need? Most hosting companies offer several types of Web hosting plans. The different hosting plans are shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated server, cloud, managed WordPress, eCommerce and others.
Shared Hosting – In most cases shared hosting is suitable for beginners and websites that don’t get a lot of traffic. Shared hosting is ideal for personal websites and blogs. Shared hosting is inexpensive costing an average of $5 to $10 a month. The down side of shared hosting is that if there is a website on the server that gets a lot of traffic it will affect all the other websites on the server and could cause slow load times.
VPS Hosting – An upgrade from shared hosting is VPS hosting. This type of hosting is recommended for websites that get 100,000 or more visitors each month. A VPS is also shared, but the up side is that each domain is allotted their own space on the server. Unlike shared hosting, the activities on other websites do not affect the operation of your website. The average cost for VPS hosting is about $25 to $50 per month, but could be higher depending on the amount of disk space and bandwidth that is needed.
Dedicated Servers – This type of hosting is the right choice for those needing complete control of the server configuration and security measures. This type of hosting is recommended for websites with high volumes of traffic. Dedicated servers are ideal for educational type websites that collect and store personal data. However, this type of hosting requires knowledge of computer science and server technologies because you do all the work yourself. Dedicated servers are a lot more expensive with an average cost of $100 to $300 per month depending on the bandwidth and disk space. However, websites with a lot of traffic can afford the expense.
Cloud Hosting – For companies that previously used traditional hosting services, cloud hosting has become a popular choice. That’s because cloud hosting offers more scalability, the use of multiple servers, and more resources compared to traditional servers. Traditional servers can only be scaled to the capacity of the server. This type of hosting is an excellent choice for websites that are media rich with images and videos. Another thing that differentiates cloud hosting from traditional servers is that billing is based on the resources actually used.
Managed WordPress Hosting – This is an excellent choice for those that are not technologically savvy. With managed WordPress hosting all the heavy lifting is done for you. Managed WordPress hosting is a good choice for start-ups and established businesses that use the WordPress framework. The average cost for managed WordPress hosting is $10 to $15 per month. However, it could cost a lot more depending on the disk space and bandwidth needs of the website. Some Web designers, including myself, offer clients managed hosting and other services as part of the design services.
eCommerce Hosting – This type of hosting is recommended for eCommerce type websites that sell goods and services. The eCommerce hosting packages generally include resources for analytics, billing, databases, marketing, security, shopping and more. The average cost for business Web hosting is $2,500 to $5,000 depending on the needs of the business.
The information in this article is intended to help you to make smart choices in getting a website. In order to stay within my word count for this article, I did not cover all of the different Web hosting plans that are available. However, Web hosting companies provide detailed information on their products and services to educate you in choosing a Web Hosting company and a hosting plan that is right for your needs. Once you’ve decided on the type of website that you would like to have, the hosting companies make it easy to determine the hosting plan that’s right for you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Please share your comments or questions in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.
Diane Penny is a full-stack Web designer, author, content creator, and social media specialist.
Image Citation:
Responsive-1622825_640. Templune. Pixabay.com. Web. 28 Mar. 2018.
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