Choosing a hosting service is one of the first technical questions you have to consider when creating a website. Whether you’re creating a site using a web design platform or manually, it doesn’t matter. For it to be accessible 24/7 to users of the World Wide Web anywhere in the world, the first thing you need is a hosting service. What is this “beast”, how do we choose it and what actually is all the fuss about?
Make sure you read this article, before you start earning on push subscriptions.
What is a hosting service?
Web hosting is a service that allows you to host a web resource (site or application) on a server and provide uninterrupted access to it from mobile and desktop digital devices.
Who or what are Hosting providers?
Any online resource, whether it is an application or a website, consists of a number of files – code, text, video, images, interactive elements, etc. which need to be stored on a server. Therefore, webmasters use hosting service providers. These are people who undertake the maintenance, configuration and operation of physical servers which are leased out by webmasters as file storage space. In addition, hosting service providers give additional services such as technical support, security, performance optimization and site backup. This allows the site owner to focus on the main tasks and processes. From the very outset it’s important to choose a reliable hosting provider that will meet your requirements and budget.
Why is hosting so important?
One of the conditions for successful traffic monetization is the online platform’s download speed. Whatever you want to monetize, whether it’s a fully operational multi-page site or a landing page, if it loads slowly, the user will not want to wait and they’ll leave the site forever. If it completely stops opening, then you’ll simply say “money down the drain”. Without any exaggeration, a well selected hosting service can be called the foundation for the stable operation of the site. 24/7 it has to cope flawlessly with the full volume of incoming traffic and user requests. Because every mistake will cost you money.
Hosting features
Hosting can be paid or free, depending on the following factors:
- the size of the web resource;
- the daily number of visitors;
- traffic volume at maximum load time;
- the functions needed.
We’ll dwell in some more detail on the last point. The main features that hosting providers provide:
- Disk Space This is the amount of leasable space on the server required to store all website files, including HTML, CSS, emails, images, videos, and other media. When assessing storage requirements, an important point to consider is further site scaling and traffic growth. Insufficient space will always have a negative effect on the interface and functionality of the site.
- Bandwidth. This is the amount of data that can be transferred between the hosting server and visitors to your website over a given period of time. The speed of data transfer affects your site’s loading time as well as its ability to process traffic.
- Domain name. Many hosting providers offer you the option of registering domain names which lets you link your website to a unique address on the Internet.
- Technical Assistance. One of the additional services offered by hosting providers is technical support, i.e., troubleshooting problems related to hosting, linking your e-mail to the site name, setting up FTP access, etc.
Free or paid hosting?
Free hosting is good for novice webmasters. You can get a ready-made template free of charge. All you have to do is fill it out at your leisure and their quickly launch it. But, unfortunately, the benefits of a “free meal” end there, so let’s immediately move on to the disadvantages:
- Sites work more slowly on free hosting sites work. This also has a negative impact on the user experience, and therefore on SEO.
- Limited disk space.
- Non-compliance with the site’s technical requirements.
- Presence of the hosting provider’s advertising. If you’re planning to collect push subscriptions on your site, then the presence of someone else’s contextual advertising or banner is more likely than not to harm you.
- Free hosting means no guarantees. Everything happens at the discretion of the owner of the hosting service. Here today, gone tomorrow.
- There may be restrictions on the areas of online business. For example, some free hosting providers block eCommerce sites and single selling pages.
The activities of hosting providers require considerable costs for:
- hosting equipment (hard drives, RAM, processors, physical server);
- Software for the stable operation of hosting systems and protection against malicious files;
- stable access to the Internet.
Can you imagine the cost of such equipment? No one wants to provide such services for free and without any benefit. So it’s not surprising that free hosting service providers do what they can to make money on advertising or by providing hidden paid services.
Choose free hosting for simple non-commercial sites, homepages or temporary publication, followed by a “move” to paid hosting.
How to choose a hosting service?
Here’s a checklist to use when you’re looking for a hosting service provider:
- suitable type of server;
- geolocation of the hosting or the possibility of using a CDN;
- acceptable cost;
- positive feedback from users;
- timely and friendly support.
Types of servers
Once you’ve weighed up all the pros and cons, and you’re all set to choose a paid hosting service, then the first thing you have to do is choose the type of server. There are plenty of options, but only some are suitable for webmasters who want to monetize their sites, so we will focus on these ones:
- A shared hosting service is the most economical type of hosting. This is where several sites which use shared resources are hosted on the same server. This option is usually selected for small projects which do not require a lot of space or high performance. These can be blogs, landing pages for traffic buyers, medium and small sites with a daily visitor frequency of up to 3000 visitors. You could compare this to renting a small space in a huge shopping mall which will cost about $3 per month.
- A dedicated hosting service designed for only one site. This provides enough space and good data transfer speed. This is the most expensive type (from $100), since it provides an entire server configured to perform the requisite operations such as installing the necessary software or OS. This is a good option for corporate and large sites, but it is not always advisable for traffic buyers.
- Virtual Dedicated (VPS and VDS) These are services where the site takes up a certain amount of disk space, as well as part of the memory and processor time of the server. Other sites can coexist on the same server, but they cannot use the resources allocated to other sites. This is a more autonomous type of hosting service than virtual hosting, but it has some limitations on the resources provided. VPS costs start from $5. They provide a good loading speed and large traffic volumes. This is a good option for medium-sized sites and landing pages for traffic buying involving large volumes of traffic.
- Colocation – this type of hosting involves setting up a place in the hosting provider’s data centre. The provider will then be fully responsible for the site’s access to the network and the necessary resources, as well as server technical support.
How to choose a hosting location?
Quite simply, the closer your server is to users, the faster the online platform will load. For example, if you want to channel traffic from Germany, and the server is physically located in the United States, then you’ll have problems.
There are two ways of choosing hosting location:
- choose a hosting service in your target region.
- use a CDN (content delivery network) – then the location won’t affect the site loading speed.
Conclusion
Choosing the right hosting is an important factor for successful website monetization. When choosing a hosting provider, consider server performance, pricing, and potential scalability. This will help you ensure the stability and effectiveness of your push strategy 😉
