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In the world of internet marketing, websites play a crucial role. Given their importance, it is necessary to know how they work and to understand the factors that influence their success. So this article explains what a hosting service means, the role it plays in web development and how it affects your website.
What is web hosting?
Any website must store its data in order to be accessible to the public. In this way, a website can receive targeted traffic where each individual clicks on different sections and uses different functions. This would not be possible if there was not a place where they can reach and meet these needs. This is precisely the job that any hosting service does: storing your website data so that it is accessible to the public.
Web Hosting Infographic. Image via iStock
However, while the concept itself is easy to understand, the different ways that hosting influences a website are almost endless. It is obvious that the extent of the benefits that a fast and secure hosting service gives you depends on the hosting plan you choose. However, it should be remembered that in general there are some basic functions that should be provided by any provider, regardless of their plan.
How does hosting affect a website?
Performance
It is without a doubt that web performance is one of the most important factors for the success of a website. The performance of a website is reflected in the loading speed which is governed by two important factors:
- The hosting server
- The optimization of the website.
Indeed, in recent years, it has become evident that users do not tolerate slow-loading websites as they typically wait for just a few seconds (~ 2-4 secs) before going to another website to search for what they need.
Objectively speaking there are certain details that you should check before judging the performance of a web host. In general, caching and compressing images makes a big difference in load times. Once these optimal conditions are met, your website will be stable and you will be able to more easily know if the server is working well or not.
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To facilitate this task, there are different tools that allow you to measure the loading speed:
To evaluate the power of the server:
Storage space
Imagine that your website is a blank notebook and the storage space is the pages. Not all notebooks are the same size and that’s because we need to store more information in some of them than in others. This way, you don’t need a huge notebook to just offer a service and showcase a business. However, as your expectations increase and you for example want to set up a blog with pictures, a customer service section or a description of the work team; you will also need to add pages to your notebook. You don’t need to buy a lot of storage space if you have a simple website, but if you have an online store, storage space is essential. The same goes for blogs,
Technical assistance and customer service
The 24 hour technical support service offered by hosting providers is almost a prerequisite so that you can always resolve any issue that arises. From our experience, Namecheap is the best in this category; They will attend to you everytime, even in the middle of the night, but they are only available via Live Chat.
Unfortunately, technical failures are bound to happen in web development and this can occur at any time. Some technical failures, even if they last only a few minutes, could seriously degrade a website’s traffic and visibility.
Unless you have extensive computer knowledge, having access to such technical support is a great advantage in web development.
A good web hosting service can positively influence your website. Asides the obvious performance benefits, a high availability, also known as uptime ensures that your website is online and accessible all of the time.
By avoiding substandard web hosts, and knowing how to get the most from the good ones, you can see a big difference in the values and development of your website.
