Much as it’s true that effective web hosting is vital for your business and that there are a number of good web hosting service providers around, it’s also true that you have to be very careful while choosing the services of a web hosting company for your business. Hosting flaws leading to server downtime can have dreadful effects on your business. These mistakes can prove costly, especially, if you’ve dedicated years of hard work in building on your brand. So what exactly are the web hosting tips that you should familiarize yourself with? Read on to discover.
Why you still need your own backups
Do not feed on the false hope that your domain or web host would prove reliable when it comes to backing your files up for you. Yes, it’s true that the web host does conduct some regular back-ups but it’s unwise not to perform your own backups on a regular basis. Make sure that you’re backing your site up in a different local server or else in your own computer. Some of the most reliable online backup solutions include:
- Jungle Disk
- Backblaze
- MiMedia
- Spider Oak
- IDrive
- Carbonite
- SOS Online Backup
Watching for outages and hidden costs
Site failure or outage is a normal phenomenon. There are times when your site might go down even for 24 hours as well. But if your host has not offered a prior notice or explanation then you should be duly alerted. It is the responsibility of your web host service provider to inform you about such major outages. If you’re continuously facing such outages then you should turn to popular forums in order to identify whether there’s any grave outage at your web host or its upstream provider. Refer to sites to acquaint yourself more about web hosting.
Steer clear of the free domain stunt. A free domain is hard of any benefit for you through the concept seems appealing at first. Please remember that you would be allowed to keep it free for the first year after which a renewal might cost you a high fee. A free domain also implies that that company gets to retain the ownership or else you have to shell out a huge sum of money in order to get your domain back!
Additionally, take note, that there are these free hosting providers who do not allow you to design your site outside their online site builder. FTP access allows you to shift your files and other web pages from your machine to the host’s computer so that a user based in any part of the world can view it. Now, if you are not allowed to upload pages outside the host’s online builder, it becomes difficult for you to expand your site later when you become a pro.
Please remember that it’s possible for websites to function without Perl or PHP. There are many free script hosting services that offer search engines, counters, mailing lists etc. However, if you’re really interested in working with the least possible ad banners you would require PHP or Pearl access. Please ensure that you’re duly familiarizing yourself with the type of ambiance the scripts are running under.
Summary
This article gives web hosting tips, warning that businesses shouldn’t rely solely on their host’s back-ups and listing third-party backup services worth using instead. It also advises checking forums if outages happen repeatedly without explanation, avoiding free domains that can become costly to renew or keep, and confirming a host allows FTP access and PHP or Perl support before signing up.
Questions this article raises
- How often should a business actually test its own backup restores?
- What’s a reasonable renewal fee to expect after a free domain’s first year?
- How can you tell in advance whether a host restricts FTP access?
