Guide To UK Web Hosting
Welcome to the AboutMyBusiness guide to web hosting! This guide is separated into sections and here are the questions we will be answering:
- Should Every Business Be Online?
- What Type Of Hosting Do I Need?
- Recommended UK Hosting and Server Companies
Should Every Business Be Online?
Yes, even if you are doing something that isn't connected it is important for a number of reasons. The first is branding and marketing, every business needs sales and the web is quickly becoming the place people look to find them. It might not be a lot of searches but it is growing and you want to establish your online presence now instead of catching up later. I've had local companies that never dreamed of finding business online quickily discover that local search is changing and is important. For example I've had several local crane operators throw up a basic site just for information and gotten calls from people who found them online. Even for business to business their are now forums and networks dedicated to connected and helping your business. Want to reduce cost and outsource part of your labour to China? Online has become the way to find and network with people around the world.
The second reason every business should be online is because it is so cheap and easy! A basic web hosting plan runs around £4 pounds a month, a domain is £3 pounds a year, and putting up a basic site with your name, what you do, and contact information should only take a few hours at the very worst. Hiring a web designer is easy as well if you want someone to build a professional site for you later on.
What Type Of Hosting Do I Need?Deciding on a type of web hosting is easy and I always recommend that you start with a cheap plan and move up as you need it. If you already have a site it is a bit more complicated but the answer is all below. I'll also go over the different types of web hosting first.
The most basic type of web hosting is called shared web hosting. It is called shared because a lot of people are sharing one server (fancy word for computer) which is serving their websites to visitors. Most sites don't get very much traffic and shared hosting is fine for small sites especially if they are not using any databases or fancy CMS software.
Up from web hosting we have something called a VPS or virtual private server. A VPS splits a server into a number of virtual servers but you have a lot more of the server in your power. You also have full control over the environment which can help a lot. A VPS can handle a lot of bigger sites and since you are not sharing nobody else can cause problems for your site.
Up from a VPS is a dedicated server. This is when you have the entire server to yourself and this is a very powerful solution. There are more configurations after this but most involve multiple servers splitting the load. The BBC for example probably has hundreds of servers all displaying its web site. You need a dedicated server if you are running a very busy with a lot of software. A forum might need one for example if it has thousands of visitors a day all posting and chatting.
If you are starting a new site than just stick with the cheapest web hosting plan, once your site is up and running for a while you might need to upgrade if you start receiving a lot of visitors or if you use CPU intensive software on your site. For example if you are using blog software like WordPress and getting a thousand visitors a day you should probably upgrade. It should be noted that you can probably handle more than that but I like to play it safe.
If you already have a site you need to talk to your hosting company and decide what is the best fit for you. Generally I like to go with the middle option if I already get around 100 visitors a day just to be safe. Just let your hosting company know the details of your site or post on forums and someone should be able to help.
Recommended UK Hosting and Server Companies
My recommendation is UK2 for hosting and servers in the United Kingdom. Their web hosting plans start at around four pounds a month and you can get a dedicated server in the UK or USA starting at 59 pounds a month. They also offer very cheap domain names and a decent panel for managing them. Their hosting uses cpanel and it is a really nice graphical interface to manage everything.
Expert author: Ben Welch-Bowen
