Did You Figure Out Your Business Requirements?

If you aren’t quite sure about your business requirements, then read up on what kind of hosting you need for your website. You’ll have a better understanding of the difference between a simple content site, and a robust ecommerce platform, as well as other types of websites. From there, you can dig into the different types of hosting plans to determine what is best for your needs. Most users will choose from three types of web hosting plans:

• Shared Web Hosting – simplest, cheapest option
• VPS Web Hosting – requires a bit more configuration, relatively inexpensive and scalable
• Dedicated Server Hosting – a robust hosting option that gives you a great deal of customizability, but which also requires a degree of technical knowledge

Shared Web Hosting

A shared web hosting plan will share resources with anywhere from two, to hundreds of websites hosted on the same server. If you’re lucky, most of the websites will have relatively low traffic, and will not require a lot of resources like RAM or database access. If you’re unlucky, then you may end up on a server with hundreds of other websites, and some of those websites may be resource hogs. When that happens, your webpages will load slowly, and users may abandon your website before they even have a chance to read your content. But if your budget is tight, then a shared web hosting plan might be the way to go, especially if you’re just serving up a few static pages of content. It may also be enough if you are able to set up page caching or a CDN that offloads some of the bandwidth requirements. Keep in mind that a shared server environment is generally the least secure type of hosting plan.

VPS Web Hosting

A VPS web hosting account is where you have a Virtual Private Server. This means that your VPS container will act like a mini dedicated server, where you have guaranteed minimum amounts of resources such as memory, bandwidth, and CPU power. If you’ve got a bit more budget and are able to hire a server administrator to perform basic updates periodically, then a VPS web hosting plan might be a good option. Often, hosting companies will offer a fully managed VPS web hosting account, where they handle server upgrades and security for you. The best part of a VPS web hosting plan is that it is usually expandable as your needs change. For example, you might start out with a VPS plan that has one CPU core and 8gb of RAM. Then, when your traffic goes up, you can expand it to have several CPU cores, and 16gb, 32gb, or more RAM to suit your needs.

Dedicated Server Hosting

A dedicated server hosting plan is one where you have a full computer dedicated to your websites. This machine is usually stored on a rack with many other dedicated servers. But, it is its unique hardware, meaning that nobody else has access to your files, database, processor, or bandwidth. It is dedicated to you and your website(s). If you believe that you will need a significant amount of memory, hard drive space, bandwidth, and other resources, then a dedicated server hosting plan might be the best choice. Just keep in mind that upgrades generally require physical hardware changes to your machine, unlike a VPS where upgrades are seamless.

Which Hosting Type is Right for You?

Now that you have an understanding of the different types of hosting plans, you can make a decision on a set-up. If you’re still not sure about things, and you’re not in a rush, then start with a shared web hosting account. You can learn the basics of hosting your website with very little money up front. You’ll also learn about the limitations that a shared hosting plan has. From there, you can decide whether to upgrade to VPS or a dedicated server.

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How to Start an Informational Website or Blog on the Cheap

There are a few companies that offer free web hosting. Often, when you register a domain name, the registrar will offer a package that includes free hosting so long as your domain is hosted with them. Other hosting companies will let you put up your website in exchange for embedding their advertising on your pages. However, there are very affordable options that will produce a better result.

Register Your Domain Name

The first thing you need to do, whether you use a free or paid web hosting service is to register a domain name. This will cost you anywhere from a few dollars per month when there are ongoing promotions, to $30 or more per month for certain top-level domains, and expensive registrars like Network Solutions. Once you have your domain name registered, you can set up your hosting account. You then adjust the DNS entries on your domain name and point them at your web server, which contains the files that comprise your website. It may sound complicated, but it’s really not that hard once you understand the difference between a domain registrar and a web hosting company.

Choose a Web Hosting Company

There are many web hosting companies that offer affordable plans. Generally, you’ll be okay with almost any hosting plan if you’re just starting out. A good place to start is by picking a shared web hosting plan. You can host for less than $5 per month while you experiment with your account. Later, you can usually upgrade your hosting plan from shared to VPS, or to one with more resources.

Install WordPress

There are lots of web builders available. WordPress is by far the most popular platform, and it’s easy to use. Oftentimes, your web hosting company will enable one-click installs, so that you don’t need any tech skills to get your website online. Once you get it set up, you can choose a WordPress theme to customize your website’s appearance.

How to Start an Ecommerce Website

Believe it or not, you can start an ecommerce website using WordPress and an ecommerce plugin like Woocommerce. This is a great option, but it may require a bit more technical know-how to setup than if you were to choose an out-of-the-box ecommerce solution like Shopify or Bigcommerce. These platforms cost more than basic WordPress hosting. However, they’ll save you lots of time, as you can generally just begin to add products to your store. Keep in mind that an ecommerce solution will not be as customizable as a WordPress website. This is generally not a major problem, unless you plan to use SEO to drive traffic to your website. If this is the case, then you may want to consider a more customizable solution like Woocommerce or Magento.

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Make a List of Technical Requirements

Do you have basic HTML and CSS skills? If not, then you’ll need a visual webpage builder. Do you plan to integrate basic ecommerce functionality into your website? If so, then you’ll need a theme that’s compatible with Woocommerce or another popular shopping cart. Make a list of these and other technical requirements and features before selecting your theme. Often, you’ll be able to use these attributes to filter results on websites like ThemeForest. This will limit your choices to a more manageable list of potential WordPress themes for your project.

Make Sure It’s Compatible With Popular Plugins and PHP 7.2

Make sure the theme works with popular plugins like Yoast SEO, Woocommerce, and others. If you have time to wait for a response, then you can try to reach out to the theme developer. Make sure the theme works with top plugins. In addition, make sure that it’s compatible with the latest version of PHP, or you’ll have issues installing and upgrading it.

Keep it Simple

Less is more when it comes to WordPress themes. It’s great to have the functionality you need, but too much can bloat your website. Not only will it slow down your pages, but too much code could present unnecessary security flaws. So, think about your requirements and avoid things that you don’t expect to provide immediate value. Remember, this is WordPress. You can always add plugins later on if you find you need additional functionality.

Confirm That the Theme Follows WordPress Best-Practices

Don’t choose a bloated theme. Pick one that uses lean, and clean code. Otherwise your pages will take forever to load. Don’t buy a theme unless there’s a demo link. Click through it and then adjust your screen-width to all common sizes, including mobile. Make sure that the theme is responsive and displays well on mobile devices.

Make a List of Brand Requirements

Does your brand use specific colors or fonts? If so, then make sure that the theme either comes with those parameters, or that you can adjust them. The best premium themes make it easy for you to adjust colors and fonts, and they’re not terribly expensive. For less than $100, you’ll save hours of work.

Pay Attention to Readability

Make sure that the fonts you choose are easy to read. The size, and style of the font should make it easy for users to consume your content. Not only is this good for users, but it’s good for SEO.

Multilingual-Ready

Most likely, you’ll want to be able to offer your website in more than one language. Make sure it’s multi-lingual ready. This will expand your market to include many other customers that your competitors may not reach.

Thoroughly Test Your WordPress Theme After Installation

A visual inspection is usually enough to determine whether a theme is worth buying. Don’t forget to test it in every major browser including Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox. Also test it on mobile browsers. However, this is not enough and you need to be sure that your theme is well-designed. After you install it, add the Theme Check plugin to your website and run it. You’ll learn about some basic issues that might exist in your theme, and you can then decide whether to keep it, or replace it.

Select a Reliable Web Hosting Provider

After you’ve got your theme, you’ll want to launch your website. Pick a web hosting company that fits your budget and needs. You’ll find lots of web hosting reviews on HostCalc, so take your time and select a plan that’s right for your project.

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What is the Long Term Vision of Your Website?

The answers to some basic questions will help you to determine how many resources you’ll need to run your website.

How do you plan to drive traffic to your website?

If you don’t depend on SEO for traffic, then you can often get a fast start by utilizing a hosted service like Shopify. This is a simple way to launch an ecommerce website. However, it is not as flexible as installing WordPress (and Woocommerce) or some other software package onto a web hosting account. This means that you’ll have less control over URL structures and other SEO elements. If you do utilize SEO, then you’ll likely want as much flexibility as possible.

Is it an ecommerce website, a content site, or something else?

Generally, ecommerce websites are more resource-intensive than content websites. You’ll need to utilize lots of database queries and processing power to handle pages, order processing, and integrations. If on the other hand you have a content website, then you can often get away with less processing and database power. In either case, you can think about utilizing a CDN to serve static pages instead of database-driven pages that are constructed on the fly. A good first step would be to use a free service like Cloudflare.

How much traffic do you reasonably expect to get on a daily basis?

If you have a local business, then you can probably get away with using a small website hosting plan. On the other hand, if you have a national, or international business, and your website gets a lot of traffic, then you might need a VPS or dedicated server.

Will you serve heavy video files or other content that requires a lot of bandwidth?

Are you streaming videos, or running a chat service? If so, then you will likely need a dedicated server for these services. You can then decide whether you want to serve all of your content from this server, or if you want to serve your webpages from a smaller hosting account.

Will you require heavy database queries?

Think about how much database use you’ll require. If you’ve got an ecommerce website with a lot of products or customers, then this is a likely case. If you’ve got a content site with 1000s of pages, then this may be true as well. On the other hand, if you’ve got a small website, or static content, then a simple shared hosting account may be the right decision.

So, What Kind of Hosting Do I Need?

Once you’ve got some answers to these questions, you can begin to think about the different types of website hosting. Check out some of the different types of hosting in our reviews, and then make an educated decision. You’ll want to compare these three options:

• Shared Web Hosting – simplest, cheapest option
• VPS Web Hosting – requires a bit more configuration, relatively inexpensive and scalable
• Dedicated Server – a robust hosting option that gives you a great deal of customizability, but which also requires a degree of technical knowledge

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