Web Hosting Explained
The Beginner’s Guide to Small Business
Website Hosting
What is web hosting?
Definition: Web hosting is the activity or service of providing storage space to individuals or organizations, for the websites that are accessible via World Wide Web.
Web hosting is a huge industry, with close to a billion websites currently online
and millions of people all over the world getting into this new world. The website
hosting process can be intimidating and confusing at first, but once you get your
head around it, you will understand how it works.
To start with, let’s cover some new terminology. You might have heard different
terms used to describe the process, such as: web hosting, website hosting, site
hosting, blog hosting, self hosting etc. They all mean the same thing. You have
some server space where you store your website’s files and you have a complete
control over it.
What else you need to know?
For any website to be available online, it has to be stored on some server / computer that is connected to the Internet. That server where you store your website is
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your host. The host could be anywhere in the world but it has to have these simple
things: Power, Internet connection, and Dedicated IP address.
If you are missing just one of those things, your website will not be available
online.
• Power source is a necessary element for the website to be available online
all the time. Just like with many things we use in day-to-day life, if you don’t
have the power supply it simply won’t work.
• Internet connection is infrastructure that you need to connect with others. If
you have your website on a computer without internet connection, it is the
same as having your business on a deserted island without any connection
with a land. You are existing on an island, but nobody can reach you.
• IP address is literally an address of your website. IP is short for “Internet Protocol” and it is a numerical set of instructions that provide communication,
identification and location system for any computer that is connected to the
internet. A “Dedicated IP” simply means that the address does not change
with each connection.
Think of your website as a real business
Web hosting sounds like something virtual and you are probably never going to
visit one of the data centers to see what is going on behind the closed doors. To
make things easier we’ll look at each function of the web host in the analogy of
opening and running a real business. Just like when opening your new business, you
will need: name, location, staff, and product. The same is true for starting a new
website, you will need the following: name (domain name), location (web server),
staff (you or webmaster), and product (website content).
Additional things you need for your business to operate
With four basic elements described above you should be able to get your website
up and running. However there are a few more things that we need to mention and
that might be needed to run your website successfully. These are the items: decor,
office, key to get in, insurance, keep it updated, security, advertising. These same
things are available for your website (more about it in Part 4 of this guide):
Decor = the design of your site
Office = hosting account control panel
Keys = username and password
Insurance = backup system
Updating = tools to update content
Security = keeping your login info updated
Conclusion: Web hosting isn’t very difficult to understand, but you have to know
basic terms to be able to navigate in web hosting services field. Know what you
need to host a website, know what your obligations are and learn what your web
hosting provider’s responsibility is
Domain name
What is a domain name?
A domain name, also called website address, is the name that people type in the
browser to open a certain website. For example, domain name for Facebook is
facebook.com. It’s the name by which your website will be known online and the
way people can find it.
Getting the right domain name is very important. Just like the name of your business is one of the most recognizable parts of your brand identity in the real world,
your domain name will be one of the most important parts of your online identity.
It is the first thing that your customers will type in their browser to get to your website or discover it through search engines such as Google or Bing.
Different types of domains
There are many different types of domain names also known as TLD’s (top level
domains). We all see a few letters added at the end of your website name for example .com, .net, .org. There are also Country Code TLD’s that represent code for each
country, for example .uk (United Kingdom), .us (United States) and so on
Web hosting
Your web hosting plan / package, is a permission that specifies how you are going to use your online space. It does not matter what term you use, they mean
the same thing. Very often, web hosting plan is bought together with the domain
name, but they function independently, just like your business and your workspace.
Building a website or blog
Once you have settled your domain name and web host, the next step is to build
the website itself. The possibilities of creating a website are endless and it can be
done from scratch using HTML and CSS or by using design tools and then apply it to
the web. However, as a business owner you probably don’t have time to learn how
to code. In this section, I will assume that you will be doing this yourself and using
one of the recommended tools. If you are hiring a web designer to do it for you, I
recommend you still get familiar with it since you are going to manage it.
