Finding an affordable web hosting plan is one of the major concerns all businesses have when they decide to publish a web site online. With so many services, all claiming to offer the best hosting plans on the internet, how do you know which one fits your company best? How can you be sure that your getting the best value for your money and what features are actually relevant to your business? With so much technical jargon, it can be difficult to really know how to compare web hosting plans. This article will increase your understanding of web hosting and aid you in your search for the best web hosting plan for your business.

What are the essential concepts I need to know when I am searching for a web hosting provider?

There are countless technical terms and acronyms used in the web site construction and hosting industry. Novice users can be overwhelmed with all the information that is provided to them on a typical web hosting firm's website. What is a server, SSL, PHP, GB HD, FrontPage, and Ruby on Rails? You may be wondering, what does it all mean and how will it affect my web site hosting experience.

Web hosting can simply be described as publishing a web site on the internet. However, there is a lot of behind the scenes work that gets that web site up and running. First, the web site owner creates the web site using a web construction editor like Microsoft's FrontPage, or if they are savvy with coding, the may create the page in a program similar to Notepad. They then select a cheap web hosting provider and decide on a package that will fit the needs of their site. Once they have created their page or site, they use a FTP (file transfer protocol) program to transfer the web site onto the server. The server, which is actually just a computer that strictly provides services to other computers, then "serves" the site to anyone that access the web address of the site.

What are the various points you need to take into account for hosting your site?

Before you start searching for a web hosting provider, you should have a fairly good understanding of what your business needs are. You will need to know a rough estimate as to how many web pages your site will have, how many visitors you anticipate having, what type of files you will have available (images, video, music) and what type of web construction software you will be using. All of these things are important because they are the main variables in any web hosting plan.

Many of the top web hosting plans are fairly similar in their features. The major differences are apparent when you compare affordable web hosting plans; differences in price, storage space, bandwidth and the number and availability of domain names and email accounts.

The following is break down of the major points of any basic web hosting plan:

• Storage Space also called Disk Space: This is the amount of actual storage or disk space you rent from your web hosting company. It is where all of your web site's content will be housed. In general, 5 GB will accommodate anywhere from 5 - 25,000 web pages, depending on site content. It is usually more than enough for small to medium sized businesses.
• Data Transfer or Bandwidth: Bandwidth or data transfer refers to the data that is transferred from the server to your customer's computer. It is a measure of how much information your customer's view each month. An average 5 page text web site with 200 GB bandwidth, can accommodate approximately a half million visitors per month. If the web site is rich with multimedia features, it may only accommodate 10,000 customers per month.
• Email Accounts: These are basic email accounts that can be used by the employees in your company. They are usually formatted as such; Mark_Smith@abccorp.com. The number of accounts vary from provider to provider.
• Domain Names: Most business web hosting plans allow you to host a certain number of domain names. A domain name is how your customers are able to locate your site. It may be beneficial to have several domain names that are closely related and spelled enabling more people to find your site. An example of a domain name is ww.abccorp.com.
• Control Panel: Control panels are often included in most web hosting plans. A control panel is a web based interface that allows you to access your web site and back up, edit, access files, stats and design tools.

Once you have a basic understanding of what your web hosting needs will be, it's time to compare web hosting plans. Although most web hosting plans offer virtually the same features, there are differences in the features outlined above and in reliability. It is important that you check out a potential affordable web hosting plan's reviews to get the most for your money.

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