Web hosting is one of the grey areas of web technology where most people are often sold solutions that are delivered in a screen of smoke and mirrors! After all purchasing web hosting services is a leap into the great unknown.

The worst part is that you very rarely ever get to see what you have purchased, as web servers are housed in large data centers so you never get to look inside the server case to see if you do have the RAM, processors or services that you have ordered!

Let's try and simplify web development down to the basics so you can get a firm understanding of just what you need for your specific purpose. Why buy a pet shop when all you require is a pussycat?

Web Server Basics

Your web server requirements are directly related to the size of your site, which is how many pages are hosted, what type of content and just how important your site actually is to your business.

Over time we have seen most of our clients grow ever more reliant on their web presence as more and more business moves online and the web becomes a larger part of their daily work lives. A good web presence is so much more cost effective than most other forms of advertising; so while your web site may not be overly important today, tomorrow may be very different. We have witnessed this with many clients over the past decade.

If your web site is only a few pages with some simple graphics and you only have a couple of email addresses attached to your domain, you truly do not require a great deal of resources. The moment that you add a catalogue, a shopping cart, some video and run an intranet or corporate web site, your requirements really do begin to grow accordingly.

Know Your Target Web Audience Technology

At Queensland Net we have learned to measure everything; that is one fantastic aspect of the internet as a marketing platform - everything is quantifiable!

All our client's web sites have a live statistics package that shows most everything that you ever need to know about site visitors; their screen resolution, web browser version and type, operating system, how long they stayed on your front page, where they were referred from, which search engine terms are working for the site and much more. This package is an absolute must to understand who your audience is and just what is working where!

The following articles should provide you with the information you'll require to make a sound judgment on what you need to have to host your web project!