The web world may lead you into terms like domain names, web hosting and secure certificates. Confused yet? If you are new to this you probably are. What are the main ingredients a web site absolutely needs to be up and running. Two items exist that are essential for any web site to be up and running – a domain name and web site hosting. Your name would be something like facebook.com and your files would be hosted online for people to see.

Domain names are just an easy way for visitors to remember your site and type it into their browser. What about the web hosting aspect of it? Well let’s explain what you are doing when you buy website hosting. Web Hosting is like a container for your web files. Files for your web site could be code or multimedia files, such as HTML, CSS or Flash. Your web site needs a server for web hosting, which is essentially a computer configured to show your web pages. Basically a web hosting package is a service provided by a Company that will make your web site live so people all around the world can view it at any time.

Now that we have defined web hosting, when you look to purchase web hosting what do all these features mean? For brochure sites, you will be mainly looking at two main features – disk space and bandwidth. Disk space is the size of files you are allowed to keep on the actual web server. The latter means how much data your server is allowed to transfer when web site visitors visit your web page. When your web site grows and needs more advanced features like a Content Management System, your next steps are to check into features for language support and database support. The programming language the site was coded in will help you choose the language support required, while the storage container for your web data is placed in a database.

In conclusion, web hosting is a server that allows visitors of your site to view your web site files. The needs and requirements of your site will then determine what you need to look for in terms of disk space, bandwith, language support and database support.