The Best Web Hosting Services
As we progress through the digital age, websites have become an absolute necessity for any business. Long gone are the days of pulling out the phone book to find a service or business you’re looking for. Whether it’s shopping, finding information, or selecting a new service provider, everything is done online these days. As websites become more crucial to businesses, so does web hosting. While you can create various files comprising an entire website, web hosting services are necessary to make your site accessible to web users.
Of course, once you select your web hosting service and platform, and your website goes live, you’ll need to monitor traffic to your site so you can cater to users and keep them on your site. With StatCounter’s free web tracker, you can gauge the traffic on your site and determine how visitors are interacting. Before you get there, however, let’s first go into more detail on web hosting and why it’s necessary.
Suggested Reading
If you feel you’ve got a firm grasp on web hosting and would like to move on to further reading, check out the pages provided below:
What is Web Hosting
Simply put, a web hosting service provides storage space and online access for websites, which couldn’t otherwise be accessible on the internet. In other words, websites are hosted on what’s called a server, which is accessible to internet users everywhere, allowing anyone to land on your site from your given domain, or URL. A web host, or web hosting company, provides the aforementioned storage space to clients and businesses alike—and this is becoming all the more important for businesses.
Why You Need Web Hosting Services
Needless to say, without web hosting, internet users won’t be able to access your website. As mentioned previously, businesses need to be accessible online. To put things in perspective, consider the statistics below:
By The Numbers
Wondering how many people are really online these days? View these stats to get a clear picture:
- 40% of the world’s population has internet connection.
- As of 2016, there are nearly 3.5 billion internet users worldwide.
- Currently, over 1 billion websites exist.
- 3.5 billion Google searches are performed daily.
As you can see, your business needs to be online, especially from a competitive standpoint. Even if you’re a local business who can rely on foot traffic, any nearby, competing businesses with a website will naturally have more recognition and most likely receive more business.
Benefits of Web Hosting For Businesses
Businesses that have an online presence make their products and services accessible to a much larger population. Web hosting is a relatively small investment toward growing a business’s audience and market. Web hosting providers benefit businesses by giving them the tools to be successful on the Internet. Here are some of the major benefits of utilizing web hosting for websites.
Scalable Growth
A web hosting provider gives businesses the opportunity to scale their solution to fit their needs at any given time. For example, a small business just launching their website doesn’t need to invest in too many resources until their website grows and traffic increases. As traffic increases, businesses can then scale their resources to keep their website running efficiently as more visitors pour in.
Businesses can start on a shared environment and get all the tools they need to kickstart their website at a low cost. Although a shared solution works well for new websites, traffic to a business’s website will grow and require more resources. Businesses can easily switch to a VPS or dedicated server to gain server power that provides dedicated resources. These solutions give businesses personalized resources instead of drawing from the same pool of resources on a single shared server
Cost-Efficiency
Starting on a shared server makes the initial process of building a website incredibly affordable. As the needs increase to handle more traffic, build bigger sites, or implement better security, web hosting providers make it easy to gradually invest into additional resources whenever businesses decide it’s time. A business doesn’t have to pay for more than they need and they have more control over their budget by taking advantage of the scalability.
Web Development
Building a website can be a daunting task without a professional coder. Fortunately, web hosts are making it incredibly simple to install a content management system to handle web development. Businesses also have the option of using the host's own web building tool. This eliminates the need to hard-code a business’s entire site from scratch. Content management systems allow businesses to upload themes and control content without any knowledge of HTML, CSS, or even PHP.
For businesses looking for a more personalized touch to their website, they are still able to implement their own code or take web development into their own hands. There is no limit to the options businesses have access to when creating a website. No matter the amount of experience, any business is capable of implementing the right web development solution that caters to their needs.
Suggested Reading
If you feel you’ve got a firm grasp on web hosting and would like to move on to further reading, check out the pages provided below:
Types of Web Hosting
Of the several types of web hosting, there’s essentially 4 main categories: Shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Cloud-based. When choosing a type, you’ll first need to determine what will suit you best, then you can begin looking into specific companies and web hosting packages to find the best option. Detail for each type of web hosting is provided below (keep in mind, a server is much like hard drive space):
- Shared: Shared web hosting is cheap and often a viable option for those new to websites. The downfall, however, is the number of users that can be on a single, shared server—which can be up to a thousand users and a few thousand domains. This can cause storage and RAM issues, as it’s not split between users evenly.
- VPS: VPS, or Virtual Private Server, is one of the more popular services. VPS is also shared, however, the server is typically limited to 10-20 users. Additionally, the server is split evenly for each user, giving them equal storage space and RAM.
- Dedicated: Dedicated hosting is best suited for those whose websites receive (or will receive) a great deal of traffic. Dedicated hosting provides businesses with their own server which they can fully customize to their needs, however, it requires a firm understanding of the associated technology.
- Cloud-Based: Cloud-based servers are quite similar to VPS, though they offer a bit more. In cloud-based hosting, though, you can utilize resources across multiple servers in a network, providing more capabilities.
Summary
In short, you need to find a web hosting service that suits your website and business best. Of the many types, the one you choose will depend on the type of site and the amount of space you’ll need. Regardless, getting your business online is essential in today’s world. Without a website, all those web users we mentioned earlier won’t be able to find your business.
Monitor Your Website with StatCounter
Once you’ve created your website and made it accessible with a web hosting service, it’s important to monitor your website closely to ensure it’s receiving traffic. Using the detailed analytics in StatCounter’s web tracker, you can determine where traffic is coming from and how users are interacting with your website. To further improve your website and help boost traffic, be sure to check out our SEO Insights as well.
If you have any questions regarding our tools, be sure to fill out the form provided below and we will get back to you shortly.
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