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Before you go online with your new homepage, you need to find a suitable web host.
Depending on the complexity of the website, different demands should be placed on your web hosting here.
For example, you have to ask yourself whether you want to share a server with other customers or prefer an expensive root server.
In addition to the answers to these and many other questions, we will show how high web hosting costs can be and how you should best proceed when looking for the right provider.
Web hosting is necessary with any website.
As a company, there's no getting around having your homepage these days. Innovative startups or e-commerce projects and classic founders from the retail, trade, or gastronomy sectors should no longer do without the Internet as an important marketing channel.
Online use has changed too much in recent years, so that a lack of an Internet presence now represents a significant competitive disadvantage.
If you want to operate your website, you have to find a provider who provides the desired Internet presence on a webspace and connects the server to the World Wide Web so that anyone with an Internet-capable terminal device can access it.
However, dealing with website web hosting requires specific basic technical knowledge and presents many a founder with significant hurdles.
In the following, we provide a guide that will help even less tech-savvy startups make their website online for customers via web hosting.
Web hosting depending on the type and complexity of the website
There are many different web hosting solutions on the market, from which the right one has to be chosen. Thereby, the choice of suitable web hosting depends in particular on the requirements for the own homepage.
If, for example, you as a founder want to operate a pure presence website, whose content is limited exclusively to the presentation of the essential information about the company, then the demands on the web hosting are usually low.
If, on the other hand, you plan to map the processes of your business model mainly via your website, the requirements for web hosting will be higher.
Depending on the website's functional scope, the complexity of the software used, and the planned level of visitor numbers, the web hosting must be able to meet various criteria.
For example, if an online store is planned in your web presence, through which you will sell a more considerable amount of goods, it is even more critical to perform an accurate analysis of your optimal web hosting needs.
TIP
Page speed is a calculated by time required to load all content and resourcea on your page loads.
Find service provider
Which server is the right one: shared web hosting, root server & Co.
So, in the beginning, as a founder, you should ask yourself what type of web hosting is suitable for you. The most common forms of web hosting and the respective target group for them are described below:
- Free web hostingEven
- If founders lack financial resources, especially at the beginning - please do not save on hosting. Free web hosting can be quickly recognized by the trained eye and harm your young company more than it will bring you anything.
- Web hosting via homepage construction kit
- Money is tight, and you'd better switch to a homepage construction kit. This is a ready-made website that you can customize in parts and fill with content.
- For small presence websites with a low budget, a homepage construction kit is an acceptable solution. Web hosting is usually included in the price.
- Shared Web hosting a
- Professionally develop your website, you need your webspace at the latest. Shared web hosting is a reasonable option for most websites. This means the joint use of a server by several customers of a web hoster. For example, 50 different customers can host their homepage on a shared server without any relevant restrictions for their website and web hosting.
- Web hosting with own server
- Founders, there is rarely a reason to resort to an entirely own server instead of shared web hosting, which does not have to be shared with any other customers.
- If, for example, you plan to operate a website with several thousand visits per day, then the technical resources of a shared server are often no longer sufficient, and you need your root server or managed server for web hosting.
- The same applies to high software requirements, which a shared server usually cannot keep up with. Security aspects and data protection reasons can be another reason for companies to opt for their server.
Another small tip for the initial phase: Even if you are optimistic initially and expect many visitors to your website - start small when it comes to web hosting.
Most providers allow you to upgrade quite easily and switch from a shared server to your root server, for example.
This is what you need to pay attention to when choosing your web hosting.
Now that you have decided what type of web hosting you would like to run, the next step is to find a provider that covers all your needs. But what should you look for when choosing a suitable web hosting package? Below we have broken down the most important criteria for web hosting:
Domains
Is your name Fridolin Müller and you run a sole proprietorship? Then you might want to register the domain you selected.
The domain is the basis for your homepage included in the web hosting - depending on the booked package.
Otherwise, you can add one or more domains for a usually low annual fee. So make sure that the domain extension you need is also available at your desired web hoster.
Not unimportant is also the number of subdomains you are allowed to create, for example, kontakt.fridolinmueller.de.
Storage space or webspace
With web hosting, the maximum storage space determines the number of files you have available for your homepage and email content. Since storage space is very cheap, web hosting packages are usually more than sufficient for most founders and self-employed people.
It can only become problematic if you use storage-intensive files such as videos in larger quantities with your web hosting.
Email addresses à la @t-online.de or @gmx.de look unprofessional and are an absolute no-go for self-employed people. Fortunately, almost all web hosts now offer the option of setting up your email addresses in conjunction with the corresponding domain.
For your web hosting, you should now check how high the number of available email addresses is, whether both POP3 and IMAP transfer protocols are available, and to what extent additional features such as spam filters, autoresponders, or mailing lists are offered.
Available data transfer or traffic
One point that many people neglect when comparing web hosting is the amount of data transfer allowed. If you only have a few visitors who access your website every day, you don't need to worry about this.
However, if the daily traffic keeps increasing, and you may also offer larger files, such as videos, the data transfer will skyrocket for download or streaming.
If you expect high traffic for your website, it is best to talk to the potential web hosts and ask them for an estimate.
Server availability and server speed
If you run an online business, high server availability is essential. Because every minute your website is down, you can't earn money.
As soon as you move into a professional online business, you should make sure that your web hosting provider guarantees at least 99.9% availability.
This corresponds to a weekly non-availability of your website of about 10 minutes. In addition to server availability, server speed also plays a vital role because slow-loading websites alienate customers. An often free test account at the web hoster lets you quickly check the server speed.
Developer Tools
It gets technical: Depending on the software and programming language used, there may be different requirements for developer tools provided by the server in web hosting.
Standard is a current PHP version in combination with a certain number of MySQL databases. Other popular features include .htaccess access, setting CronJobs, and using a secured SSL connection.
Software packages
Some web hosts offer the installation of content management systems like WordPress and Typo3 or store systems like Magento at the push of a button.
A nice feature that can help founders without technical know-how or expert assistance for their web hosting.
Service
Especially for startups or entrepreneurs with an online business, a good and, above all, fast service is the be-all and end-all of web hosting.
If the server is not available or there is another technical problem, quick and competent customer service feedback is very important.
Web hosting costs
The costs for hosting your website depend on the range of functions and hardware described above and are usually well below 10 Euros per month for simple shared web hosting.
The domains are generally already included.
There are more expensive packages up to their server for startups with higher demands for their web hosting, the costs of which start at around 30 euros and, depending on the hardware equipment, can be up to several hundred euros per month. Here, you may also incur one-time setup costs.
When concluding a contract, also pay attention to how long the contract terms are. As a rule, the longer the time, the lower the monthly costs.
5 steps from the idea to the website
How is it now recommended to proceed if you want to put your homepage on the net? Since many startups begin with a simple WordPress website, we explain a suitable approach based on this:
1. Step: Needs analysisYou
want to start a business and have an idea for your homepage? First, find out what your hosting web requirements are - based on the planned web project.
2. Step: Research web hosts choose
from established web hosts that can meet all your requirements and are priced within your expectations.
3. Step: Web hosting
comparison, make a price comparison, and then decide on one of the previously selected providers. After that, you can directly sign the contract for web hosting online.
4. Step: Install WordPress and set up the website after you have
received the access data from your new web host, install WordPress manually, or press a button - if you are overwhelmed, feel free to call in experts. If a WordPress theme is already available, install it. Alternatively, hire a web designer. Now you can set up WordPress, insert your content, and finally release the website.
5.Step: Attract customer
customersCongratulations, you are now accessible via the Internet! But now the work is just beginning should also find a website because online.
Find out in particular about search engine optimization and your online marketing in general. Marketing via Google Ads.