| By Gavin Payne - More articles by this Author
Web Hosting, put very simply is “Giving your website a place to live on the internet.” Just as you would need retail or office space to physically locate your shop or business, hosting is the equivalent virtual space you would need for your website on the internet or World Wide Web.
That is the simple explanation, but if you are looking for a more in depth analysis, there is also a lot more to web hosting. Did you know web hosting includes email? Did you know the term web hosting also includes domain name registrations?
Web Hosting provides services using hardware located in a secure and stable environment to present, store and maintain websites and provide redundant internet connections to those sites. It comprises of 3 things:
1. Domain Name Registrations – Before you can setup a presence on the internet, you need an easy way for people to find you. This is done by registering and using a domain name. There are certain things to look out for when registering a domain name. Does your hosting provider register it in your name or their name? This seems like an obvious question, because it is your domain name. However, a lot of people find themselves in all kinds of trouble trying to get their domain name back from their web hosting provider. A domain name can become very valuable once your business grows. An example would be eBay, imagine their domain was registered in someone else’s name (you are thinking that this would never happen, but you would be surprised how common it is. Once you’ve registered it and your site is up and running it is something you generally forget about when it is working, even though it may be registered incorrectly). Now imagine this person holds eBay to ransom over their domain name. They don’t have a business without that name. All of sudden it is very valuable. In a lot of cases you would legally be protected or entitled to get it back, however if you are a new business or growing business it is much easier (and cheaper) to avoid going down this route all together by finding a host that does it properly from the start. Another thing to consider is, where is the domain name hosted? Ideally it should be in the same country as your website. And, does your host give you control (or some kind of management console) to change your domain name's name servers (these are the servers that point your domain name to your website)? In other words if you had a domain name registered somewhere else and then used a different web hosting company to host your website, your domain name needs to know where your site is located, so that when you type in www.newsprout.com.au it goes to the correct location. Also, do your web hosts have control of the name servers? i.e. are they their own? And finally, do they openly give you your domain password, authorisation key, authorization key or auth key? They make it available by law, however some providers make it very difficult for you to get full control of your domain.
2. Website hosting - It is very important to understand who your target market is, because once you understand where they are, you should then host your website in a location that is suitable for them. If you are based in Australia, then Australian based servers are very important to give your site the best possible start to its success. I mention this because too many Australian websites are hosted overseas, meaning they are physically located on servers very far away. This slows down the user experience considerably.
3. Email accounts – Far too often businesses use a generic email address from one of the free providers which either come pre-installed on their computer or setup as their username for their internet service provider (i.e. ADSL/broadband provider). In effect, they are advertising someone else’s business. What makes this scenario even crazier is that on the same business card or advertisement, they have their website address advertised alongside their email address. In other words, they have the domain registered and they are using it, but just not for email. There is really no reason for not having a proper email address using this domain, e.g. if it was bestaustralianwebhosting.com, they could have theirname@bestaustralianwebhosting.com with the website www.bestaustralianwebhosting.com. But instead they are still using a free email account? The funny thing is, the proper email address wouldn’t cost them a cent more because the domain name is already registered and their website is active. Their current hosting provider may not have explained all the options available to them or how to get the most out of their web hosting.
Gavin Payne is the managing director of NewSprout Hosting and he has been involved in the Hosting industry for over 6 years working with many global companies including Bidvest, Telstra, AVIS, AT&T, VISA, Peugeot, BMW, Motorola and many others. NewSprout is an Australian company offering website hosting, email services and domain name registrations to business and personal clients. For more information visit www.newsprout.com.au/web-hosting-australia.php.
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