Web Hosting Help – What’s
Bandwidth
by: Declan Tobin
Bandwidth can make all the difference when choosing where to host
your website
A common mistake made by so many people when looking to choose a
web host company is not asking about bandwidth. After spending so
long designing or with a developer designing your web site you do
not want to see a good web site ruined and only viewed by a handful
of people at a time. A web site is generally your shop window and
you want as many people as possible to look in and hopefully click
on your information or purchase online if you are offering products.
All web host companies will offer you a limited amount of bandwidth,
it’s then up to you to calculate whether or not you need to
pay a little extra for bandwidth you may require.
Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from the web host company,
it is there job to help you along the way and after all it’s
you who is paying for there service. You will need to advice them
as to how big each page is on your website and if possible a rough
calculation as to how many people you think may view your site on
a weekly or daily basis.
Is it possible to save bandwidth?
Yes it is and this comes into play at the time of designing your
website. If you are looking to save the bandwidth you should put
all photos in the JPEG format and all graphics in GIF format. By
doing so you are compressing the files using only the very least
bandwidth required.
Why do some companies offer only a very limited amount of bandwidth?
You have got to remember that web hosting is an extensive market
and very profitably for the web hosting company. The more people
they can attract to their services the more profit they make. They
in turn have to pay out to the telecoms companies for the bandwidth
provided to them and are only wanting to pay the bare amount to keep
profits high. Web host companies that are not offering you the additional
bandwidth are the ones to avoid. If they say it is not possible to
purchase additional bandwidth, then the chances are this is a small
company with poor technology behind them operating on a shoestring
budget.
What will happen if I do not have enough bandwidth?
It’s very simply really, if your website has not got enough
bandwidth to operate with, one of two things will happen. Your website
will download onto peoples monitors very slowly and the chances are
they will not wait around. The second problem is that your web site
may only be viewed by a very limited audience at one time. You may
have great link backs from other websites driving traffic your way
only for that traffic to be diverted elsewhere to a properly functioning
competitor.
How can I ensure that this will not happen to me?
Undoubtedly it is very frustrating to spend time and money developing
a good informative website only to have it’s viewing reduced
by lack of bandwidth. You need to be honest with your web host company
and tell them the number of pages and how large your overall files
are, by doing this the onus is on them to offer us the service your
require. You can ask for a guarantee from the web host company that
all will be fine with your site and there are many out there willing
to give such guarantees. If you decide to go it cheap and risk the
low bandwidth you are only fooling yourself. Look at the rates from
the different web host companies for extra bandwidth and you will
be pleasantly surprised that it will not cost an arm and a leg to
have a little extra. Knowingly going over bandwidth with only cost
you revenue in the long run and makes your website very unprofessional.
If you are hosting with a reliable web host company they will not
allow this happen anyway.
If you are unsure as to how large your website actually is act the
person or company who developed the site for you to advise or simply
ask the web host company, all will be happy to oblige you.
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