|
Once you are finished writing content for your web pages, you will need the web host providers. There are large numbers of web hosting companies and if you are new, you might probably get confused with similar packages being offered by large service providers and therefore you must look for the following few things before you make a decision in favor of a particular web hot company.
1. Disc space or web space: Go for the complete specification either provided by the web host company or available at their web site. You need to check the web space they are providing with all the packages. You should keep in mind also your present disc space requirement and your future expansion plan.
If your site is simple and only deals with texts and data, 200 to 300 GB disc space is sufficient for you, however if your site is a forum or it contains figures, images, music etc., even a 3000 GB disc space might not be sufficient for long and smooth running of the web site. If your aim is to just go for a personal website of only a few pages, you should go for 50 to 100 GB disc space. So, depending on your business type and your present and future expansion requirement, you should select the disc space. Once you have finalized your disc space requirement, you can raise queries to web host service providers and ask the rates of the present requirement and future requirements in detail. The rate quotations obtained for various service providers will help you in finalizing a particular web host service provider for your present and future requirement. 2. Bandwidth size, an important feature for selecting web host service provider Bandwidth is an important feature for selecting your web host service provider. Bandwidth indicates the amount of data transferred from server to the computers of your site visitors. Bandwidth is a major factor in all of the web hosting plans and therefore you need to judiciously select the bandwidth so that you pay optimum charges for hosting your website.
Similar to disc space, if your website contains data and texts only, it will require lower bandwidth for downloading the web pages and if it contains pictures, images or music, it will require higher bandwidth for downloading. Further the bandwidth also depends upon the number of your web site visitors. Large bandwidth is required if your website has more visitors.
Every web host service provider allot you a fixed bandwidth every month and if you cross the bandwidth limit for a particular website, your website goes down for the remaining days of the month and it will be available only by the next month. You should keep a track of bandwidth every month as you have a limited or fixed bandwidth every month. So, choosing a bandwidth in such a way so that your website goes live for whole of the month and at the same time you don’t pay excess to your web host service provider for your unused bandwidth.
Initially you will have to guess a number of approximate visitors to your website and number of pages your website visitors visit. After making a rough estimate, you can calculate the amount of bandwidth required for running the website live for whole of the month.
For example each web page size of your website is of 100 kb and total number of visitors to your website are 20,000 per month. Your bandwidth requirement per month will be 150 * 20,000 or 2 GB. This calculation is for a simple text page of your web site and if your web site also contains other included files or figures or dynamically generated pages, your bandwidth requirement will accordingly go up and if you know the size of additional enclosed pages or figures, you can similarly find out the approximate additional bandwidth required for these items.
You generally get an option of upgrading or downgrading your bandwidth requirement as most of the web host service providers offer this facility to you. So, once you start with a rough estimate, you can keep a track of the bandwidth as your web host provider provides it to you, and if required can either downgrade or upgrade your bandwidth requirement anytime. You need to monitor your requirement of bandwidth every month and as the number of your website visitors will go up, you will need more and more bandwidth.
Now, once you estimate your rough bandwidth requirement, you should raise queries to the web host service providers and should also ask for increased bandwidth facilities and the rate of additional bandwidth. The rate quotation will help you in choosing a specific web host service provider.
|
