Getting a Web Hosting Plan is the second task of Building your website right after registering your own domain name. This is an obligatory step which you cannot skip, if you want a professional website.

What is a Web Hosting?

A Web Hosting is a type of service that allows you to host your website on your domain name. In other words, it provides you space on a server where you can upload any kind of files to which makes your site accessible via the World Wide Web. So, whenever someone types your domain name in their Internet browsers, they will be able to see your web pages.

Getting a Web Hosting is necessary for everyone who wants to build a website. If you don´t have any hosting service, you won´t be able to put your web pages on your domain name. So, when your audience types your domain name, they will just see a simple page saying it is a parked domain name or anything like that. They won´t be able to see your actual website.

Different Types Of Web Hosting Services

There are a number of various web hosting services on the Internet. Each of them is created for specific use. While everyone has different goals, needs and priorities, it is better to determine which one suits you. Here is a quick review of the most popular web hosting services:

• FREE Web Hosting: FREE, But Limited & Advertisement-Supported Service.
• Shared Web Hosting: Shares More Than One Website (Domain Name) On the Same Server.
• Reseller Web Hosting: Allows Clients To Become Web Hosts Themselves & Resell the Service.
• Dedicated Web Hosting: Allows Clients To Lease the Entire Server Not Shared With Anyone.

First off, I highly recommend you to get a paid web hosting service. Don´t go for FREE accounts, because it is not worth it. A FREE web hosting is always limited and ad-supported. Besides, you don´t have full control over your host. Again, it is about being professional. Don´t let your visitors think you don´t own one of the most essential components of your business which is web hosting. You want people to give you credit. A paid web hosting is a must have tool for every web business owner. Period!

On the other hand, you don´t need to have some of the above-mentioned web hosting services. You don´t even need to know them all. But, before ordering a web hosting package, you should take some important points into account.

Here are a Few Important Features Of a Good Web Hosting Plan:

1. It should allow you to host unlimited domain names on your hosting account. Quite frankly, you would not want to pay for every single hosting service for each of your registered domain name. Select and order a web hosting service that allows unlimited domain names.

2. The disk space of your hosting plan should be high. Later, you will want to upload some large files such as audio and video to your website. A great web hosting space would enable you to do that without worrying about lack of capacity. Normally, 600 Gigs of web space is recommended.

3. The third important feature of a good web hosting service is the bandwidth. In a nutshell, bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your website and the rest of the Internet. In other words, it is the measurement of data sent from your web host’s server down to the visitors computer. So, if you get a lot of visitors and they download large files from your website, then you will need a great amount of bandwidth. A good web hosting plan should offer more than 5,000 Gigabytes of Bandwidth.

4. FREE instant setup is another feature of a good web hosting service. I don´t think it would be wise to pay extra for installing the web hosting for you. It must be fast and FREE. When you pay for a hosting package, this feature should be included in the price.

5. Uptime guarantee is something many people simply overlook. Most of the web hosting companies offer 99.9% Uptime Guarantee which means that if your website is not up 99.9% of the time, they will compensate you. So, they strive all the time to achieve that level of uptime and guarantee your website activity and availability in 99.9% of the time.

6. Money-back guarantee is a plus for a good web hosting plan. It makes you more confident and secure. If you are not happy with the service, you should be able to request a refund and get your money back. Usually, it is offered as a 45-Day Money-Back Guarantee.

7. You should be able to build and design your website with an easy-to-use web development application. A FREE site builder is something that a web hosting plan should always offer you. Although, you will be using other tools and software such as Microsoft Frontpage or Dreamweaver, but a FREE site builder in your hosting account would be helpful, as well.

8. There are some other components that a good web hosting package should have. Actually, you don´t even need to know them all and their functions. But, one day, you will need them in a way. Features such as CGI, PHP 4 & 5, RoR, Perl, MySQL, SSH, SSL, IMAP, POP and cPanel hosting.

9. FREE 24/7 support is the most important feature of a good web hosting plan. If you have any questions or problems about your service, you should be able to get full support from the customer service. And it should be absolutely FREE.

These were some of the features you have to check out before ordering a web hosting plan. At the moment, a normal web hosting package may cost around $10 / Month. Once you order a plan, you don´t need to pay for any extra or hidden fees. And always remember to buy from a reliable web hosting service.

HostGator is one of the world’s largest web hosting companies that offers popular and affordable web hosting plans. This service is highly recommended by many webmasters and Internet marketers.

But if you want more options, I suggest you to check out the post below and take a look at the recommended resources:

Web Hosting With FREE Domain Name

In the next posts, I will cover more aspects of web hosting services and their features. Stay tuned and get the latest posts by subscribing to my RSS Feed.

Wish You the Best!

Hooshmand Moslemi