In order to make a website available on the internet for everyone to visit, it must be hosted on a server. When choosing a server to host your website, there are a few factors which should be considered:
It is vital to ensure that your website hosting provider can offer you adequate security to protect your website, and it's visitors against threats such as viruses, spam, and various hacking methods.
A website needs to be available to visitors 24/7 every day. To achieve this, websites should be hosted on multiple servers, in case one fails, or needs to be upgraded. This is called redundancy, and also gives the added benefit of higher rankings in search engines, and a higher load capacity (the amount of visitors who can view the website at the same time).
Does the server suit your individual needs? A good hosting company should have a variety of options to suit your needs. Things to consider are the amount of visitors who will visit your site, specific technologies you need to run your website (eg. PHP, ASP, Ruby or JSP), and the complexity of your website and applications.
As your website grows, or if your situation suddenly changes, you may need to upgrade your service. Most providers won't let you change, or will charge high fees to do so. Host Provider is different, we allow you upgrade your service at any time, by paying the difference between the costs for the remainder of the billing period.
All providers need to have terms of service, outlining the minimum level of service to be expected, how long the service will be provided for, and special conditions imposed on the customer. Be sure to read the fine print, and don't be afraid to compare different providers. Things to consider: ensure your provider clearly defines the service they will be providing, any limitations imposed on the service, and any fees or charges.
