Think about all the websites that you visit daily. You might be scouring the Internet to get some grocery shopping done, to chat online, read up on the latest news, or reply to emails. Regardless of the websites that you visit, you are only able to view and interact with those sites because they are hosted by a web hosting service provider. You may be wondering, “What is web hosting? What is a web hosting service provider?”. 

There are countless details and features to web hosting that can make it difficult for a newcomer to understand and navigate. 

Web hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website on the Internet. It is home to where your website lives and where all your files are stored and made public. A web hosting service provider, like us here at Hostirian, is a business that provides the services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed on the Internet. A web hosting provider allocates space on a web server for a website to store its files. These services cannot take place without an active server.

A server is a computer (software or hardware device) that receives and responds to requests made over a network. Essentially, servers host and store the websites from a service provider. The process is simple: 

1. An Internet user types a website address or domain into the browser.
2. The user’s computer will connect to the website’s server.
3. The web pages will be delivered to them through the browser.

When someone enters a domain name into the browser, the domain name is rendered into the IP address of the web hosting company’s computer. Generally, web hosting service providers will help you create a new domain if you do not already have one. If you have one, they will work with you on building your website, generating leads, and growing your online presence. 

As previously discussed, web hosting is the process of renting or buying a space to accommodate a website on the Internet. Think of a website domain name as the address of the house while web hosting is the actual house that the address leads to. There are a few things to remember before you begin creating your website. 

Some companies allow you to create a website for free, but you will have to essentially “start from scratch”. By that I mean, you will need to learn how to work that site on your own, buy a domain, create your business email, fix the website’s problems if the site goes down and so much more. By teaming up with a web hosting provider, you can run your business or website without any worry of internal or technical problems, site navigation, creation, or troubleshooting. It is crucial that you do not team up with just any web hosting service provider. You want to make sure that the company is reliable and persistent in helping you create the best website possible. You want to create fewer problems for yourself in the long run.

Signing up for a web hosting service offers so many benefits, including instant access to customer support to help with troubleshooting, problems with sending and receiving email, domain name renewal, script debugging, and more. Your web hosting service team will complete all of the “behind the scenes” work, leaving you with a hassle-free and uncomplicated experience. 

When getting started with web hosting, it is important to choose a web hosting service provider that is a good fit for you. Many web hosting companies strive to make the process as easy as possible for you. The team will take the confusion out of the process and leave you with an enhanced understanding of content management and website creation. 

All web hosting services provide some basic features such as email accounts, FTP access, databases, and WordPress support. You can create domain email address accounts through features provided by your hosting company. FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, access allows you to upload files from your computer to your web server. If you build your website using HTML files, you can transfer your files through the web server through FTP. That allows your website to be accessed through the internet. A database is an organized collection of data, generally stored and accessed electronically through a computer system. WordPress is a powerful blogging and website management tool. WordPress operates over 30% of websites on the internet. Some web hosting services may provide additional unique features such as generating leads for your social media, SEO boostability, reputation management, web design and hosting, business listings, 24/7/365 customer support, and DataVault information backup. 

The amount of space allocated on a server depends on the type of hosting that you are using. There are many different options to get your site on the web. They each offer contrasting elements that cater specifically to the website owner’s needs. There are six types of web hosting that you will most often come across, which include shared, virtual private server, dedicated server, cloud, managed, and colocation. These different types of web hosting can be differentiated by the kind of technology used for the server, the server management and the additional services per offer. 

When it comes to deciding which web hosting service provider or type of hosting you’d like to use, leave that to the professionals. They’ll help you find the best fit to begin your website building process.