Web hosting companies offer a wide range of features and services. These can include things such as storage space, email addresses, autoresponder services, FTP access, bandwidth, website templates, site builders, blogging software and more. The first requirement you should consider is storage space. The amount of storage you require will depend on how much content you'll be putting on your website, as well as the type of content. If you're planning to offer graphics, video and audio, you'll need a lot more storage space. The second important requirement is bandwidth. You need to be sure your hosting plan has enough bandwidth to support the traffic you expect to get on your website. When the internet first started, bandwidth was much more limited than it is today. Most web hosting services offer plenty of bandwidth for the average website. Here again, if you're hosting graphics, video or audio content, your bandwidth needs will be higher. Another feature offered by many web hosts is stats software. This will show you how your site is being used. You'll see where your visitors are coming from, the most popular pages on your website, how long your visitors stay on your site, which search engines are referring visitors and more. The logs that track the stats for your website can take up space on your server. Some hosts let you download and delete your logs every day, others only monthly. These log files can take up some of your storage space so this is something you might want to clarify with your host so you can manage them effectively. What About Email? Almost every web host includes at least one email address, many include a lot. In some cases you'll need to set limits on the size of each email account if you receive a lot of email on the website. The space used by email can use up some of your storage space. If you're going to be running any kind of business on your website, you'll want to be sure to get an autoresponder service. Autoresponders will automatically send out messages to your customers or anyone who wants to receive more information about your business or products. Finally, be sure that your web hosting plan includes FTP access. This is almost universal, but it's worth checking because you'll need it to upload your website content properly. There shouldn't be any extra charge for FTP access. |
