Factors to be Considered while Selecting the Windows Hosting Service

Windows Hosting Services

Creating a website is an effective tool for promotion of any business. The portal also helps in generating higher brand awareness and to tap the potential of global clients. However, this portal does need to be hosted using web hosting services, before it is accessible worldwide. Making the right hosting choice could be a tough decision, due to the options available in the market today. Stability of a website, 24x7 online presence and consequently, success of the online business would depend on the type and quality of web hosting.

Choosing proper web hosting services

At the beginning, the online business owner has to decide which type of web server would be most suitable as per his company requirements, especially in terms of  disk volume and  available bandwidth. In a small business, for example, basic web hosting services are adequate. Shared server plans, wherein data is stored on a server location common to other clients as well, are inexpensive and sufficient for the above type of business. A medium-sized business may require a dedicated hosting plan, while cloud servers are best for large businesses.

In order to take care of complex web applications, which need a resourceful web environment, a shared hosting plan would not be suitable. In such a case, reputed companies sign up for Virtual Private Servers (VPS) hosting. Each VPS account has its own operating system, along with resources to ensure its isolation from other projects and data security.

Windows hosting compared to Linux hosting

After choosing the hosting server, the next step is to choose an appropriate operating system. Two solutions are most commonly used here, namely windows hosting and linux hosting. The choice to be made here is not very challenging, since the operating system depends on programming language and scripts in use for creation of websites. For example, if based on ASP or ASP.NET scripts and other Microsoft products, Windows becomes an obvious choice. But if web projects have been created using PHP, Perl, CGI, Python and similar open-source technologies, Linux assures optimum compatibility and performance.

In general, each and every company or business cannot manage its own IT staff and infrastructure, which implies that management-based web hosting services are more economical for them. Typically, the hosting company takes up complete responsibility for all technical processes such as initial server setup, reboots, configurations, application installation, security patches, checking the server performance, ports security as well as virus protection. On the other hand, if there are adequate resources to manage IT staff who would ensure appropriate server management as well as maintenance, then it is not necessary to pay extra money for managed services. This way, the virtual environment always remains under the company's control.

Domain name: Why you need one for your online business

Domain Name Registration

The domain name is an identification string that is used to recognize a particular website on the internet. This name is also subject to rules of autonomy and authority on the web. It is the address given to a particular website and naming is governed by the rules of the Domain Name System (DNS). It may happen that the prior to the domain registration process, it is realized that the name has already been taken. In this case, one of the options is to wait for the domain to expire and then buy it. However, a more viable option is to explore other extensions such as .info, .biz or .net. If the domain owner is willing to sell the name, the same can also be purchased.

The amount of money to be paid in order to buy domain names would depend on the market value of the name. As an example, .com extensions have a higher demand as compared to others such as .net, .biz or country specific extensions (.au, .uk). Before choosing a domain name, it is important to understand the connect it makes with the business products or services. Apart from the above, a domain name is also the equivalent of a set of numbers that are used to identify networked servers, namely an I.P. address. Since it is hard to remember numbers, these have been converted into names.

What does selection of the domain name depend upon

Based on the type of marketing strategy that is deployed to promote the company, the procedure to buy domain names should be examined accordingly. The job of this name is not just to build brand awareness but also to reinforce the strength of the corporate brand. It is also important that the domain name is capable of getting repeat traffic. It should be possible to generate online leads and sales from the same. The name is the one that will attract customers initially and web content will keep viewers interested, converting some of them into customers.

What to keep in mind while choosing a domain name

To drive web traffic towards one's website, it is important to keep the domain name as simple as possible. Unnecessary use of numbers may not be preferred by most users, or give a feeling of ambiguity. For local businesses, it is strongly recommended that .com names are chosen. Similarly, for a non profit organisation, a .org extension is the best bet to generate appropriate hits and funding. Apart from this, if the chosen name is not liked by the owner, it can always be changed at a later date.