42 Things You Need To Know About Web Hosting: Part 2
When it comes to online marketing and a company’s website, one particular function is often overlooked; the online hosting of the website.
Partly this is because many confuse web design with web hosting. While the former is all about the look of your website, the latter concerns where your website actually ‘lives’ on the internet.
Web hosting is an equally important consideration for a business as web design, as poor web hosting can severely jeopardise the performance of a website. Your business or organisation may have the most brilliantly designed website, but that in itself will mean nothing if your website takes too long to access or is often ends up offline, both of which is a sign of a poor web hosting service.
So what actually is web hosting and what do you need to know about it? The following 42 questions and their answers will make you sufficiently informed to make the right decision in regards to your own web hosting needs.
This is Part 2 of a four part article. Part 1 can be read here; Parts 3 & 4 will be published in the coming weeks.
11. Is my web host responsible for paying for my internet address/ domain name/ URL?
If you have bought your domain name and web hosting as one package, this will usually all be included in one cost. Your domain name does not remain yours indefinitely however, and you will usually be required to renew them every two years (although you can buy the domain name for longer at a greater cost, if you so wish to).
Your web host is not usually obligated to buy any domain on your behalf, although many will offer this service.
If you have bought your domain name separately, you will have to manage and pay for this independently from your web host or web designer.
It is a good idea, however, to see whether your web host will be willing to do this for you in exchange for an administration fee.
12. Is my web host responsible for renewing my internet address/ domain name/ URL?
If you do not renew your domain name, it will go back on sale online and can then be bought and used by someone else – and there will be nothing you can do about it.
As already mentioned, most domain name purchases last two years although the periods can vary and will also have different costs attached to them. It is therefore it is vitally important that you know when your domain names are due for renewal so that you do not lose them.
You can discuss with your web designer or web host to see whether they are willing to help manage your domain names; some can also set automatic renewals to give you piece of mind.
One important thing to bear in mind is that web hosting does not equate to owning or renewing a domain name; the two are quite separate processes. From a web host, you are only buying or renting space on a server to host your website; you are not simultaneously buying or renewing a domain name when you do so although some do offer this as part of their package. Make sure you know exactly what you are and what you are not buying at the point of purchase or renewal.
13. Which web addresses do I need for my business?
Which web address you will need for your business will entirely depend on the nature of your business or the nature of the website to which that web address will be linked.
Before buying a domain name or multiple domain names, it is best to talk to a trusted professional marketer or web designer to assess what will be best for both your website and for your business in general.
As has already been mentioned, you can have many multiples of the same web address but with different suffixes i.e what comes at the end of your website name: .com, .co.uk, .net, .biz etc.
At present there are over 270 suffixes available to website owners. New extensions include both .wales and .cymru for Welsh businesses, to take just one example.
You however only ever need just one web address to link to one website, although it is worth buying a couple of common iterations to ensure that people can find your site if they accidently type in the wrong address (i.e. .co.uk rather than .com) and it prevents competitors or other people buying them, which can cause some confusion online.
14. Can a web host store any kind of website?
Yes, a good web host will be able to store all sizes and kinds of websites from a simple one page website to vast web presence that will feature hundreds of webpages.
As already has been mentioned, it is worth talking to both a web designer and a web host before committing to a web hosting package, so as to ensure that your website’s web hosting needs will be adequately addressed depending on the type of site you are looking to build.
You should seek advice even if you are looking to build a simple website; you don’t want to be buying an expensive web hosting package with a lot of features or services that you will simply not use, just as much as you don’t want to be buying a cheap web hosting package that will be inadequate for a large, professional online presence.
16. Do different web hosts specialise, or are better, for particular types of websites or businesses?
Web hosts tend not to specialise in different types of website, whereas web designers can.
Where the differences lie however is the capacity and size of the web host provider, and the different service level agreements they offer their customers.
You want to ensure that any web host you choose will have business continuity plans in place (in the event of technical failures or staff illness) and will also offer a sufficient level of customer support for your needs at an appropriate cost.
Once a website is up and running, you will very seldom need to contact your web host. However, if anything does go wrong with your site and your web designer cannot resolve the issue, your web host’s customer support services become vital in rectifying the issue. Make sure you know what level of support you will be getting from your web host at the point of purchase, ensuring that it is sufficient for both your website’s and business’ needs.
17. What is a Content Management System? Is this anything to do with web hosting?
A Content Management System (or ‘CMS’, as it is sometimes abbreviated to) is software uploaded to your server space that will enable you to change and edit existing content on your website, as well as upload new content to the website as well.
There are many different types of Content Management Systems available to companies, and the one appropriate for your business will entirely depend on the nature of the website that you are looking to build and the technical competency of the staff who will be editing and maintaining your website on an ongoing basis.
There are a couple of well-known CMS systems such as WordPress and Joomla, which have the advantage of being widely used which makes finding people familiar with the systems or training on how to use them easy. However, such CMS systems can be prescriptive and sometimes too basic for larger organisations, and a bespoke CMS system may be advisable.
The CMS tends not to have anything to do with the web hosts, but they will be developed or existing ones will be used by your web designer. It is however important that you inform your web host as to the kind of CMS system you are planning to use so they can configure your space on their services accordingly (imposing or removing security software that will affect the running of your site, for example).
18. I need to change a sentence/ a word/ a paragraph/ an image on my website; will my web host do this for me?
Changing content on your website needs to be done by either the web designer or by yourself, not the web host.
In most instances, you are just buying or renting the space off the web host and they have no vested interest or responsibility for what you do with your own website.
However, some web hosts and web designers will do this for you but at a significant cost, which is why it is important to have direct access to a Content Management System (see above). You don’t want to be incurring an ongoing overhead every time you want to change a word, image or sentence.
19. Is a web host also responsible for my e-mail/ e-mail address?
If you have bought a web hosting package which includes e-mail addresses, they will set these up for you.
If you have simply bought the domain name without any hosting but with an e-mail address, you will need to use an email client such as Mac Mail or Microsoft Outlook to use your e-mail address.
It is highly desirable that your e-mail address should reflect the domain name of your website, and that your e-mail is professionally managed, backed-up and secured in the same way that you would do so with a website.
Most web hosts also offer e-mail hosting services, and it is advisable that you use the same web host for both services to ensure good business continuity with your electronic assets.
20. Can I have my e-mail managed by a different web host to the one who manages my website? What are the pros and cons?
Yes you can keep things separate, for example you can have your web host with ‘Go Daddy’ but if you are used to Google Mail or Outlook you can use your website email through these platforms. It will still be your business email i.e. yourname@yourbusiness.co.uk but it will go through Google Mail or Outlooks servers.
You can also purchase a Google for Business account which gives you 30GB of online storage for emails and files online which can be accessed from anywhere on any computer.
However, this is not the most professional way to approach your online branding or securing your online infrastructure. The pro for such an approach is that you can have all your online assets hosted for free, but the huge downside is that they will not be joined up and you will not getting the professional back-up or guarantees that you would get from a paid-for service.
You only get what you pay for if you opt for a free web hosting/ e-mail hosting solution.
