It can be said that overall most websites and their associated management are adequate and fine. After all most use the same open source c-panel software; server space is cheap and getting cheaper every day. Bandwidth and storage costs keep going down and down. Just look at the cost of components now if you build a computer. If you can date yourself you can remember 500 $ 20 megabyte drives. Now for less than 100 $ 1 terabyte can be had. One terabyte works out to greater than a million megabytes. Still free web hosting may well not be the answer for your Blog or enterprise.
When doing the workup for server choice or choices it never hurts to ask about actual hardware and infrastructure or infrastructures. Do “they” have data centers or are their servers in what you might call closets in some character named Bridges down in his basement? One budding entrepreneur wishing to obtain a classified government contract was told of the need for confidentially and protection of data at all times. His unqualified answer to his problem was to place servers in the basement of a rented side by side. It never occurred to him that first of all his home with no burglar or security alarm was not a secured environment. Next his ordinary broadband residential cable internet connection would not provide anywhere near the internet upload speeds required and essential. Lastly what about breakdowns and service requirements of his “mainframes”. There would be no service onsite; any “house-calls” would be costly. Woody Allen once noted that if it was hard to establish a relationship with your creator, imagine trying to find a plumber (or in this case server computer repair tech or software trouble shooter) on a long weekend.
Recently the Google software engineer Matt Cutts, the “voice” or spokesperson for Google interacting with the SEO search engine optimization community announced at a well followed conference for the trade , that Google was more than considering , and on the verge of implementing website loading times in their essential Google algorithm calculation and calculations. After all the experts reasoned that internet browsers in these days of high technology and fast bandwidth speeds , preferred fast loading web sites and would become frustrated with slower loading sites. Given a choice between two sites – one on a fast loading server, the other hosted on a deadly slow computer system users would simply choose the “better” or faster sites.
To some degree where your website is physically and geographically located is of minor concern. Many never know or even care. It is simply a matter of “Does the website load fast?” Yet one consideration by Google of where they place their “data centers” is to be nearby major centers of population or in your case your customer base. There will be a lag in time , guaranteed as your data traverses the world wide web whether it be close nearby in the US or UK, in Winnipeg Canada or to far off Bangalore India . True computerized network switches on the internet “highway” gets faster and faster each and every year and speed over great distances is not such an issue anymore. Yet one thing that you can count on , is the longer the distance traveled for your website loading on a customer’s browser , that you can bet your bottom dollar , that data transmission lag , is always part of the overall mix , and customer satisfaction levels.
In many cases you “get what you pay for”. Cheaper hosting may be unreliable and slow, lacking good infrastructure and tech support. You may well find initial discounts and coupons but remember once you are set up and in place, you may well choose to stay put. Hence look at the full rates of hosting, which you may well pay in future contracts, rather than simply your first year of discounted introductory pricing for the year or several years of website hosting.
Search Engine Optimization Engineer and Winnipeg Web Designers
