What is Web Hosting?
In order to understand the importance of web hosting, you must first understand what web hosting actually is. Every website is a collection of different types of files that make up a page or multiple pages. The act of storing website files is called ‘Hosting’. Web files are stored on a webserver that can be connected to the internet, and are accessed by users who want to interact the the files or website . There are many ways different types of hosting services available to those who need a website, but the most common and efficient is ‘shared’ hosting. Shared hosting is when multiple websites are stored on one server. The more sophisticated the server, the better the interaction with the website will be
Why is Web Hosting Important?
The most important services that a hosting service can provide are security, availability, and speed. Without security, files can be compromised and let unavailable to users that wish to interact with the website. Availability is especially important because websites should always be available especially for businesses. Have you ever tried to go to Amazon.com to buy something and the site was not available? Probably not, because every second that Amazon.com is offline, the greater the revenue loss and the greater the damage to their reputation. So finding a web hosting service that provides 99.9% availability is essential to business success. Along with security and availability, speed is a huge factor when deciding where to host your website. According to a study done on how users interact with web pages, 60% percent of visitors leave a website if it doesn’t load in as little as 5 seconds. WOW! That’s a potential 12 customers a minute!
Most businesses cannot afford to lose 12 potential customers per minute. Website speed plays a critical part of customer engagement because it is the first online impression of your business, choose wisely.