Web Server Location

Posted in Web Space Basics

Web server location is one of the things you should consider when building your website. In this article, we’ll give you pointers on which areas of the world are best for server locations and why. We’ll also help you determine whether your web space would benefit from a local server.

First things first. Web server location refers to the physical location of your web hosting service. Not all servers are located where you would expect. It’s fairly common for a small business in one country to purchase web space from a hosting company in another country, and for a hosting company in one country to lease out servers in another country. This means that you could be in the United Kingdom, purchasing hosting from a company in the United States, which is actually using servers in Australia.

What Makes a Good Web Server Location

Reliable Connectivity

A good location is based on several things. First, think about how developed the area is in terms of Internet connection. Highly developed areas such as North America, Western Europe, and Australia generally have good, reliable connections. This means a smoother web experience for you and your website visitors.

Internet Laws

Another important factor is the political climate and how it relates to Internet practices. A resident of the United States, for example, typically knows little about European Internet laws, and could be in for some surprises.

Servers located in the United States are generally a safe bet because they have a democratic system, not to mention most of the best web hosts and web services in the world are based there.

Your Target Market

Web server location is also important in boosting exposure for your web space. Having your web server in the same country as your target market can increase your website visits.

Search engines like Google consider web server location in their algorithm, so a local server will give you higher rankings if a local visitor searches for your product or service. Also, a local server makes the website load faster for local visitors, which is always a good thing.

Natural Disasters

The likelihood of natural disasters in a certain area is very important when choosing a server location. After all, if the area is hit by a hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, or flooding, connections may be lost for hours, days, or weeks. This is not something you want for your website.

Areas which enjoy stable climates are generally the safest. The United States, Canada, Western Europe, and Australia are all typically stable, and are home to a great deal of reliable servers.

Conclusion

In the end, it’s best to choose a web server located in developed, climate-stable, and democratic countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Local servers are good for websites that are targeted to people in a specific country.

If you’re looking for excellent web hosts, check out our recommended list. All of these hosts use servers in the United States.

The right location plays a part in having an optimal website experience for you and your visitors, so be sure you make the right choice.

Image by Erwin Boogert.

Web Hosting Subdomains

Posted in Web Space Basics

Web hosting subdomains are an important consideration when creating a website. What are they? Why are they important? Do you really need them?

Here, we’ll clue you in on web hosting subdomain basics. It’s important to have all the facts before you begin to build a website. Being informed not only saves you money, but also lets you choose the best possible host for your web space, which will translate into the best possible website.

On Web Hosting Subdomains

A web hosting subdomain is simply a section of a particular website, dedicated to a specific portion of web space or information.

For example, let’s say that your website is http://mywebsite.com. Let’s pretend that you sell many different things on this site, some of which are completely unrelated to each other.

In order to simplify the shopping experience for your customers and to make traffic and orders easier for you to manage, you might create a subdomain for each grouping of products. These subdomains might be http://cars.mywebsite.com or http://clothing.mywebsite.com.

Larger websites often have subdomains to keep their content organized. For example, when you visit a news site and click on a topic such as weather or traffic, you are often directed to that subject’s dedicated subdomain.

Do You Need Them?

A common misconception among novices is that their web space is simply too small to require subdomains. This may be true in the very beginning, but you need to make room for your web space to grow. Leaving room for expansion ensures that when your site begins to attract more visitors, you’ll have the tools in place to grow your site accordingly.

In addition to growth, your web space will benefit during searches if you use subdomains. If a potential customer or visitor types in something which is not a prominent part of your main page, they may not find your web space. You’ve just lost business.

However, having a specific subdomain for each topic or niche that you offer greatly increases the chances of potential business finding your site.

How Many Do You Need?

There are many reliable and affordable hosting services out there which offer unlimited subdomains, and this is what you should seek out.

Unlimited subdomains give you complete freedom should your website grow larger. Remember that subdomains are tied in with the amount of disk space and bandwidth you are allotted, so ask questions. Determine before signing up exactly how much disk space and bandwidth you will be receiving, and make sure that the numbers are satisfactory regarding your eventual subdomains. Packages can usually be upgraded, but it’s always nice to have everything you need right from the beginning.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, web hosting subdomains are a simple yet effective tool in organizing and managing your web space. The benefits are great, boosting exposure and traffic, and the cost is usually quite minimal. Look for hosting with unlimited subdomains to get best results. Check out these recommended web hosts for high-quality hosting.

Shared Web Space: Pros and Cons

Posted in Web Space Basics

You have several options when it comes to web hosting: shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and virtual private servers (VPS). Shared web space can be an excellent choice for many different reasons.

How it works

Shared web space is exactly what it sounds like: multiple websites sharing space on one server. The number of websites assigned to a server depends on the hosting provider and the equipment’s capabilities. Web servers are expensive to maintain, so many web hosts try to get as many accounts on one server as they can.

Benefits

The main benefit of this type of hosting is its affordable price. A good dedicated server can cost $200 to $300 per month. Even the cheapest VPS can cost $49 or more monthly. In contrast, with shared web space, you can purchase a few gigabytes of storage for $5 to $10 per month and sometimes less. This brings you a significant amount of savings.

Another selling point for shared web space is that little to no technical expertise is needed to use it. The hosting provider maintains the physical server and handles majority of the technical problems that arise. The company’s technical support agents will usually help you with any problems you experience with the service. Additionally, most shared web hosts have a control panel where you can easily install popular website applications such as WordPress.

Disadvantages

Like everything else in the world, there are disadvantages to shared hosting. If another customer’s website on the same server uses a lot of the server’s resources or contracts a virus, this can affect your website’s performance. However, this is not a common occurrence. Reliable web hosting providers work hard to keep their servers working optimally and securely.

Is shared web hosting for you?

Shared web space is the best choice if you’re just starting out, on a budget, or have a website that requires just a normal level of server resources. Most small business and personal websites run on shared hosting. Just make sure you select the right web host to suit your needs.

FTP Web Space

Posted in Web Space Basics

These days, if you’re in business, you have to have a website. The Internet is the fastest and most effective means you can use to connect with your customers. Potential buyers and clients can access your contract information, learn more about your products, or hire you for services in just a few clicks. With the Internet, you have a much higher chance of making more sales and remarkably increasing your revenue. Your business success largely depends on how effective your online marketing campaign is.

Maintaining a website isn’t as difficult as it seems. Web hosting companies have made it easier for people to manage their own websites remotely through FTP web space. This means you can easily upload or download files between your computer and your web server.

What is FTP?

FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. This system is widely used to transfer files between personal computers and web space. Most web hosting companies provide unlimited FTP accounts for different users in a company. This allows you to give file access to yourself, your partners, and your employees. FTP web space makes sure that only authorized individuals can access important files.

The benefits of FTP web space

FTP is easy to use. You only have to download and install a desktop application. There are FTP desktop applications available for various operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and Mac. Then you can upload files to your web space in no time. Just drag and drop the files from your desktop to your FTP web space, and your website will be instantly updated. This feature is perfect for busy business owners.

What to look for in FTP web space

There are various web hosting companies that offer FTP web space. Each company offers different packages to answer the needs of its users. There are several factors to consider in choosing the best provider. Here are some of the features you should look for in a provider:

• Unlimited accounts. Most web hosting companies provide unlimited FTP accounts. These accounts are password-protected and can be assigned to as many people as you want. This ensures that company files can only be accessed by authorized individuals.
• Security. Check if your provider offers ample security measures. Your files should be protected by monitoring and multiple firewalls. You wouldn’t want your files to be injected with malicious code that will later on enable hackers to penetrate the server.
• Unlimited bandwidth. You may want to go for a provider that offers unlimited data transfer. This is a good idea if you’re looking to expand your market reach online.
• Disk space. Before choosing an FTP web space plan, estimate how much disk space you’ll need for your files. You may want to start off with a cheaper plan that offers less storage. Anyway, most providers will allow you to upgrade later on if you find your plan insufficient.
• 24/7 Support. Let’s face it: not all website owners are computer-savvy. We need to ask for some help once in a while. Choose a company that offers good technical support.

Signing up for FTP web space can be the most valuable decision you make for your business. So make sure you choose the right web host and web hosting plan to suit your needs. Select a good-quality provider so that you can build and grow a successful website.

Web Hosting Unlimited Bandwidth

Posted in Web Space Basics

Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred to and from a website within a specified time. It is commonly measured in gigabytes per month. A web server is connected to the Internet by fiber optic lines, cables, or other network lines. Since we live in a finite world, we can only transfer a limited amount of data using these network lines. In web hosting, unlimited bandwidth is offered by many providers. How can they offer unlimited bandwidth and still manage to keep their business profitable?

What unlimited bandwidth means for web hosts

Just Host and BlueHost are two highly recommended providers of web hosting. Unlimited bandwidth is a feature of their hosting plans. How can the plans still be affordable? It’s fairly simple. Web hosts know the exact threshold needed so that their servers can accommodate data transfer requests for all their hosted websites. They measure the maximum amount of data transferred to and from an average website per month.

For example, let’s say an average website consumes a bandwidth of 20GB or less per month. For safety, the web host allocates 50GB per month for each website. Thus, the web host will still have enough bandwidth for all the websites on its servers.

What unlimited bandwidth means for you

If you’re planning to buy web hosting, unlimited bandwidth is a great feature to have. Most websites will never reach the maximum bandwidth level. An affordable plan with unlimited bandwidth based on average data transfer values is a good choice, especially for small, medium, and beginning websites.

If you’re worried that your website will someday be hugely popular and exceed the maximum bandwidth level, find a web host that will easily let you upgrade your hosting plan. A web host like Just Host will make it incredibly easy for you to upgrade by taking care of the server transfers and other technical concerns. Again, remember that most websites will never reach the maximum bandwidth level. So if you ever have to upgrade or pay extra fees, it means your website has grown so much that you need a lot more bandwidth than the average website does.

Buy web hosting with unlimited bandwidth

Check out this page to see the best web hosts online. All of them have plans that offer unlimited bandwidth.

To make sure you don’t go over the maximum bandwidth, simply read your web host’s terms and conditions and ensure that your website doesn’t consume unnecessary server resources. For the latter, what you have to do is install all web applications properly; deactivate plug-ins you aren’t using; resize images before uploading them; make sure the code that executes on your server is optimized for speed and efficiency. It’s a good idea to get a good web developer to install applications correctly, as well as a good webmaster to make sure things are running smoothly on your web hosting. If you follow these tips, you can definitely enjoy using unlimited bandwidth without any worries.

Linux or Windows?

Posted in Buying Web Space, Web Space Basics

Are you trying to choose between Linux or Windows as your web server’s operating system? If so, this article can help you decide.

Technologies

What technologies do you plan to use on the server? Most technologies can run on both Linux and Windows. However, some of them have limited or no support in one or the other. For example, proprietary technologies from Microsoft—such as ASP, .NET, and Access—work best with Windows.

Security

The consensus is that Windows servers have more vulnerabilities than Linux servers. Still, in reality, all operating systems have security issues. Linux may be a more secure platform, but if your system administrator doesn’t know what he’s doing, the threats will still be there. Spend your time looking for a good web host rather than worrying about your server’s security.

Cost

Linux web hosting is generally more affordable. This doesn’t affect the quality—it’s cheaper simply because Linux operating systems are free, while Windows operating systems are not. Web hosts charge more for Windows because of the licensing fee they have to pay.

Ease of use

Since Windows is commonly used as a desktop operating system, some people mistakenly think they should also use it for their server. The truth is that working on a server is nothing like working on a desktop. Most of the time, you’ll be using FTP, control panels, and content management systems to create, access, and update your website. These technologies are available on both Windows and Linux.

Availability

Most web hosts offer Linux hosting. A smaller number offer Windows hosting. In fact, when web hosts mention “web hosting,” they usually mean Linux. If you’re looking for Windows, you’ll have to specify it.

Conclusion

The choice of server operating system won’t make a huge difference to people who aren’t system administrators or web developers. The two platforms offer similar features. So unless you plan to use technologies that are unique to Windows, my recommendation would be to choose Linux. It’s more affordable, more available, more common, and generally more secure. In the end, your choice of web host matters more than the server’s operating system, as your web host will be the one running the server, taking care of your website, and helping you whenever you need assistance.