You are considering which web host to use for your web site. You consider whether it supports your scripting languages -- is it Linux or Windows based? If you do JavaScript, you want to know whether that is supported as well. You consider how much space you need. You also check the email options, the additional scripts, security options, speed, testimonials -- you may even (rarely) fiddle with another user's control panel, before walking up to the sales representative and declaring the specifications you want.
Whoops! Missed a spot, or did I? It seems everybody misses this particular spot; I have listed everything that most people consider.
But as a web designer who does search engine optimization (so that you know where this article is coming from), I discovered that bandwidth is one of the most important design considerations you have to look at before picking a web host. I first ran into bandwidth when I was hanging out with an Internet service provider who metered bandwidth to its clients. This caused sluggish service, severe customer complaints and general heartache all around.
The bandwidth that a web site needs is in download bandwidth. This is how much bandwidth the site has available on a monthly basis for users. If this bandwidth ends before the month runs out, your website is inaccessible to anybody that wants to surf it.
I have actually never seen a designer (during the design stage) mention bandwidth and how it could affect the performance of the site; all they worry about is the size of the site. When your bandwidth ends, your site users will be unable to access your site's page at all! This ought to be sufficiently disturbing to any web site owner. The majority of web sites never run into problems with their bandwidth, but those that do get to do all sorts of interesting things like buy extra bandwidth for their sites.
Most webmasters never consider how important bandwidth is until they start running out of it. Some then paste notices all over their site begging users not to save every page. Consider that it is the same bandwidth that is consumed by the user when viewing pages that is consumed when the user saves it. Methinks the web master does not want every page on his site to be read for the sake of bandwidth; however I am sure that when the site was being uploaded the web master did not believe that he or she would have to spend extra money every month on bandwidth (and perhaps the money is not there; we will talk briefly about monetizing so that you can at least pay for bandwidth). We will talk about what you have to do as far as anticipating traffic and bandwidth. We will also discuss the best kind of hosting that will, over time, afford you protection against an upward surge in traffic.
With the sites for which I am optimizing, I always ask myself the question "how much traffic do I want daily?" This is for the sake of having clearly defined goals which I will then be using as a guide to my optimization strategy. Looking at the amount of traffic that my optimization strategy should generate for me, I can easily estimate how much bandwidth I need every month by multiplying my expected daily traffic by my average file size and average number of page views.
For example, if I estimate 800 hits a day, and my average file size is 5 kilobytes, and I get a minimum of two page views per user (you can mix the data usage up; use averages, minimums and maximums, whatever makes your day) that's 8000 kb. That is an anticipated bandwidth usage of 8 megabytes a day; double it to make life interesting and multiply it by 30 -- you now have close to 500 MB a month. Now this is still within reasonable limits, but when your optimization strategy kicks in, you may have some particular days when you have 5000 hits a day, and some days you will get people that view maybe ten or twenty pages in one sitting. Your one gigabyte of standard bandwidth is looking paltry -- actually it's insufficient. Fortunately buying overages does not cost too much, but overages could come too late; you may actually have lost a few days if the traffic comes in really fast.
Now I know the above projections seem optimistic to some, but it happens, sometimes through no fault of the webmaster. Some external circumstance may make your site the destination of the moment (a review of your web site by Forbes, Time, or Newsweek, or your site being in the news for some other reason). It may not happen immediately, but if you do have a plan for increasing traffic, and you follow it, it is inevitable that your traffic will definitely go up.
The key strategy from the above would be to start off with a standard web hosting package and as you optimize, you keep an eye on your server logs to check your users' behavior. If you have users who save every page they are interested in, or only seem to read a particular section of your side and ignore the other pages, or who seem to have a hankering to download a particular e-book or software, then you should be prepared to increase bandwidth at a moment's notice.
This section is for scientists and individuals who offer free e-books or free content, and who discover that they are seemingly always short of bandwidth before the end of the month. Then they have to hand out extra money for extra bandwidth from their hosts (and they do not make a dime in return).
This is Google's revolutionary (and profitable) means of inconspicuously advertising. You can find it under business solutions for publishers on the web site www.google.com. You sign up and insert the code as directed. If you have traffic coming to your site, you should be making enough to buy bandwidth (and milk and cookies) and even be able to pay for hosting.
By doing this you simply ensure that all your links are monetized, so every click gives you the opportunity to make some money if an action is performed. A good site to get resources for almost anything is http://www.clickbank.com/. But enough on money! Let's get back to hosting packages and bandwidth.
No matter how excellent your website is in terms of design and programming, when it comes to hosting, your host has to have the necessary software to make all your programming work. Apart from that there are a plethora of factors such as security and space. But when it comes to traffic, only one factor is important, and that is bandwidth. Getting to your site may be similar to getting home during Lagos rush hour -- if you do not have enough bandwidth, it's very uncomfortable.
Bandwidth offered by a web host depends on the following factors.
• Number of customers.
• Amount of traffic those customers constitute.
• The web host's own Internet connections (who their service provider is).
Every web host meters space and meters bandwidth. You will require more bandwidth than your calculations of your minimum needed bandwidth indicate. One thing that will go a long way in ensuring that you do not have problems (major problems) is that you do not take shared web hosting.
Shared web hosting puts your web site on the same server as others. It is the lowest priced option for web hosting at an entry level, however control over your site is limited and you may not have an extensive range of scripts and options.
Shared web hosting is okay for a small site, which does not have high bandwidth and security demands. Remember, everything is shared, including bandwidth! The negative side of shared bandwidth is that if ten websites reside on a server, and share bandwidth, then bandwidth is served on a first come first served basis. Imagine being on the same shared server as You Tube! The word is "shutout." They get all the traffic, they get all the bandwidth.
The only way shared bandwidth can ever work in your favor is when you are the biggest drawer of traffic on your server, which you cannot guarantee forever. It is good if you are on a basic budget. But for serious traffic, you can be sure you will have problems.
Virtual hosting is almost as bad (almost, it has more benefits such as scripting and security options). You have metered bandwidth, and you still get to share servers.
Dedicated hosting gives you private root access, your own unshared bandwidth, secure access, and one server for you and no one else. This is the best kind of hosting if you are a fairly large site and you expect large amount traffic. And there are several features that you can also take advantage of so that no matter what happens, you never run out of bandwidth (hopefully you never run out of money for overages either).
One such feature that I have seen offered by some web hosts is like a phone billing system, where you actually just pay for space allocated, and then you pay a separate fee for the bandwidth you use (and only the bandwidth you use).
Another system allows the web host to bill you for excess bandwidth used, after it has being used; this is different from the normal procedure which is for your host to send you an email when you are running out of bandwidth and for you to buy extra bandwidth before you run out.
Different hosts do have different packages, so you will have to look around for a package that fits your budget and your needs. If you are willing to spend time searching (and negotiating) you will discover that web hosts can actually exceed their stated limits and offer you very small increments in price.
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