subject: Tips on what you should know before you host your website [print this page] Tips on what you should know before you host your website
To make your website available on the internet, you need it to be hosted on a web server. The hosting service you choose, must be reliable, fast and secure, as this is the public face of your company.
Depending on your company size and budget, you can either provide this service yourself or out-source it. You need to assess whether you have the resources available to support the required technical expertise and cost. You also need to determine the website's required functionality, performance and reliability.
Functionality includes the features your site has, how is presents its content and how it is kept new and updated. This depends on the software in use and unless you have a web-designer on the payroll, you will need to outsource this requirement.
Performance how quickly it needs to respond to requests and load pages. To optimise the enquiries, you will need a fast internet connection, with the largest bandwidth you can afford. Without this, pages will always load slowly, especially if many users are using the site simultaneously. This requires use of a web server, either using a dedicated server, so that your site is the only one hosted on the machine, or a shared service, where other sites will share the same machine. The latter has the most risk in terms of speed of service. Other considerations for performance include the server's processor speed and disk space for optimum operation.
Reliability the availability of the site and service interruptions or down-time. The site should be available and therefore, actively supported, at all times, especially if a large part of your income is reliant upon it. This includes pro-active protection from hackers, fraudsters and viral attacks.
Domain Names
These identify an organisation's presence on the internet. The name should be consistent with the business's image, product or service.At the end of the name, is the top-level domain e.g. .net, .com, .biz, .org, .info for generics or .uk, .de .ir for country codes or even .eu for the European Union. The combination of server location and domain name can affect a user's search results. A UK company using a US server with a .com address, will not appear in a UK-only search. The same website on a US server, but with a .co.uk address, will appear in UK-only searches. Google's Webmaster tools, will also help in localising a website's area. Each name needs to be unique, so a list is maintained by ICANN. UK registrations are available on the Nominet website.For best results, the name should be short, not difficult to spell and remembered easily.Names that are too similar to other companies, especially if they have a trade mark (listed at Intellectual Property Office), will be rejected. Use of dashes by spam organisations has also led to legitimate businesses being blocked by search engines, so avoid them.
Registration of a site is often carried out by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who are themselves listed as registrars by ICANN on the InterNIC website. .uk registrars are also on Nominet and .eu on EURid. Prices of ISPs will vary, depending on the services and conditions offered.
The ISP will require you to register the website to the business or your own name, making you responsible as the domain name holder and having authority to make subsequent registration changes. Additionally, the administration, billing and technical details for the domain will be required. Registration lasts from one year to a maximum of ten years. Registration needs to be renewed, before the current one expires.
The ISP can also host the site for you, if you wish to outsource this requirement. A variety of options are available:Shared Server The ISP maintains the server, which also hosts other sites. It is cost-effective, but not if your site uses complex databases, secure certificates or customises pages for specific users. Dedicated Server only your site is on the server. This is suited to larger sites with high user traffic, specialist software or high security levels. This is usually a more costly option though. Co-Location has your own server (owned or rented) at the ISPs location, using their tech support. the data and components of the site are still usually your responsibility.
These options can be attractive because the ISPs buy and maintain the servers; have a fast internet connection; can guarantee their availability and reliability; have a secure system with all the required virus and system protection; regularly update software and hardware components. On the down side, there's a lot of trust you need to place in them to do this; too many sites on the same server will slow down response rates; if other sites on this server get black-listed due to the sites they host or their content, then the server's physical address will affect your site too.
The alternative is to supply the hosting yourself, which requires a lot of resource. As well as a good quality web server and high speed connection, you will need 24 hour support and will be responsible for all the software licences. However, it will give you full control over the site; you choose the hardware and upgrade options; you choose the operating environment of software and systems; management of the storage space and performance can be more effective; no ISP contracts or legal issues. However, the cost of the equipment and connection are high; requires technical skills to develop, maintain and upgrade the site and the on-going training needs; 24 hour support cost to maintain availability; needs specialist security expertise.
The in-house option is best suited to a larger organisation, with it's own IT department.
Many ISPs also provide tools to create a simple website relatively quickly. Some ISPs and other companies also sell templates and add-ons for websites, enabling some basic features to be customised to your needs. This is cheaper than opting for a bespoke website. Software is also available to manage the content of the site, allowing authorised users, to update parts of the site content. It can also ensure standards of content are maintained.
Once the website is active, it will need monitoring, to ensure best use of and effectiveness of the hardware; as well as gathering statistics on visitors' usage patterns for marketing analysis and on-going development. Specific software is available for the latter.
