Website Hosting
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Web site hosting is like renting a brick and mortar store or office space. It is a place where your clients come to learn about your business, products and services. Choosing your web site hosting should be based upon the needs of your business. E-commerce web sites should consider IP addresses, secure site certificates, reverse DNS, available space and number of accounts on the same server.
IP Addresses
All web sites have an IP address they respond to. An IP address can be shared with other sites on the same server or they can be dedicated to one site.
Shared IP addresses simply means that your web site is sharing an IP address with another web site. This should be an important consideration for your e-commerce business.
People often shop while they are at work, school or the library. Let's say Sam performs a search on Google for "edible massage oils" and finds your site listed first. Sam attempts to visit your site but is blocked by his network administrators ... Sam can't shop at your store.
Why would Sam's network administrators block your site? Sam's network administrators aren't blocking your site. They are blocking the IP address of your site. They are probably blocking your IP because someone using the same IP address has some materials disapproved by the company policies where Sam is attempting to access your site.
Of course, this could happen on any IP address, but it can happen more often on shared IP addresses.
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) requires all IP addresses to be accounted for. Web hosting IP allocation is divided into two groups: name-based virtual web hosting and IP-based virtual web hosting. Web sites on the name-based virtual web hosting model share IP addresses. ARIN will not accept IP-based web hosting as justification for an allocation, unless an exception is warranted.
Secure Site Certificates
E-commerce sites wanting to accept online payments should have a secure site certificate, often called SSL cert. Some web hosting companies and shopping cart providers force their clients to use shared IP addresses. Other companies offer dedicated IP addresses to their e-commerce clients.
Reviewing GeoTrust's help files we find, You need to have a separate IP address for each domain you want to secure. The reason for this is because a certificate is bound only to a domain name but, the SSL protocol is bound to static IP addresses; therefore, any certificate-enabled web site must have its own unique IP address. The IP can be real (routable) or internal (RFC 1918 non-routable address) but, it must be unique on a server.
Having your own IP address allows you to have your own secure site certificate, but it also allows you to ensure all your clients remain within your domain. You will not be branding your hosting company's name in your URL. You will not be losing internal links.
Internal links are important. Some shared hosting e-commerce solutions move your clients from your page into the hosting company's domain or subdomain. If this is done with https in the URL search you lose all the internal links you would have if you kept your pages within your domain. That hinders your PR values and hinders your performance in the search engines.
Reverse DNS
Spam or unsolicited email has become a major problem for everyone. As a result organizations like AOL, MSN and Earthlink block email sent from servers whose reverse DNS doesn't show up correctly. Reverse DNS identifies the server that sends the email. If the reverse DNS isn't set up correctly your customer's order confirmation emails and your newsletters will not get through. This could negatively affect your customer's impression of your business.
Protect your business by ensuring your web hosting company sets their servers up so the reverse DNS works correctly.
Available Space
Many web hosting companies offer hosting packages with large amounts of web space for small amounts of money. Web hosting companies have lowered their rates over the years while increasing the space they allocate to a client. Many claim that due to the increase in hard disk drive storage capacities they can offer more space. Regrettably this is not true.
For a hosting company hosting many accounts on the same server, they must make a minimum of $2,000 per month on that server. The $2,000 covers equipment, utilities, building, insurance, backup power supplies and employees.
Let's look at some examples.
Company A offers 800Meg of space for as little as $7.95 per month. For Company A to make their $2,000 they need 251 accounts on the same server. So, now we take that 251 and multiply it by the 800Meg of allocated space per account. That gives us 200,800Meg of required space. Essentially they need a 200Gig hard disk drive with no database or operating system space available. According to the information about their dedicated servers they use 40Gig hard disk drives.
Company B offers 2.5Gig of web space for $34.95. For them to make their $2,000 they need 57 accounts. So, now we take the 2.5Gig of space and multiply it by the 57 accounts. They require 142,500 of hard disk space for their accounts. According to their dedicated hosting page the largest hard disk they have in inventory is 120Gig.
You do the math. Is the hosting company you plan on using over selling its services? If they are, the likelihood that you will have problems increases.
Web Hosting Services
Choosing web hosting services is just as important as choosing a physical location for a brick and mortar business. You should always evaluate the services being offered. Ensure you choose a web hosting provider that can meet your needs - not just based upon price. Choosing based upon price is like putting your business on the wrong side of the railroad tracks.
Contact us today at 405-321-6372 or use our contact form to find out if Apple Pie is right for your business.
