Web Hosting and Transfer or Bandwidth

So you’ve got your domain name and you’ve designed a website or built a website for yourself, now what? Well, of course you need accommodation. Many people want to start an online business, but don’t know some of the basics, like how people can view or visit your website.

What is web hosting? Right now, if you’ve already built your website, all those files are on your computer. People surfing the web don’t have access to your computer, therefore they can’t find your website. Advanced users know that they can turn their computer into a server where people actually come to their computer to view their website, however this is not recommended and certainly not recommended for someone who is not very advanced as a computer technician.

There are computers that are configured to be servers. These are also called host computers to keep things simple. You need to upload your website files to the hosting computer so they can make them available for others to view on the web. This is the service we call web hosting.

Will any web hosting provider do? No. This is a common misconception about web hosting. All web hosts are not created equal. There are many different levels of web hosting and many different plans and packages to consider. There are also many other things to consider when choosing a web hosting company. Let’s go over one of the most important topics when choosing a web hosting plan to help you better understand.

Much depends on your individual needs. Will your website have a lot of graphics and images? Will it have movies? Music downloads? Software or other downloads? Or is it a very simple and compact website that is mostly text? Do you expect a lot of traffic to your website?

The reason for all those questions is something called “bandwidth” or “transfer”. The amount of storage space that a web hosting plan offers you is usually much less important than the amount of transfer or bandwidth that web hosting offers you.

Every time someone visits your web page, all the files included in that web page are downloaded from your website to their computer. In other words, from the web server’s computer to the visitor’s computer. This includes every graphic or image on the page, every icon, even the html page itself is downloaded by a user simply visiting your web page. The size of each of those files that are transferred to the visitors computer is the amount of “transfer” or “bandwidth” you are using.

Let’s say you get 100 visitors per day to your website. Let’s also say that your html page is around 15k and you have 5 images on that webpage which in total are around 50k. That means each visitor to your website uses 65k of bandwidth every time they visit that page. Let’s also say your average visitor opens 3 pages within your website and those pages are the same size as your home page. That means every visitor uses a minimum of 195k and that’s if they don’t keep coming back to your front page.

Multiply that 195k by the 100 visitors per day you get and you’re using 19,500k for just over 19 megabytes of transfer per day. Multiply that by 30 days and you get 585,000k or 585 megabytes of “transfer” or “bandwidth” used per month.

Now, if your web hosting plan allows for more bandwidth than you think you’ll need, then you know you’re good to go there. However, make sure you know in advance what the cost of exceeding your allocated bandwidth is. Some web hosts charge a lot for each megabyte you use over the limit set for your chosen plan. It’s a good idea to choose a web hosting plan that’s a step above what you think you need to allow for growth. You could become very popular as a rock star overnight!