Check the Small Print

A very important factor to consider when choosing a hosting package, and one that is often difficult to determine because it’s shrouded in legal languages … “What are your contractual obligations set out in the small print?”

You need to find out who owns your domain name, you or them? If they offered free website pages, can they prevent you from using them elsewhere? What’s the copyright situation? How long is the contract for? Monthly or per annum. And more importantly, what is the termination period?

A couple of years ago we were caught out by a two-year contract with a three-month notice period that automatically renewed without notice. We were apparently one week too late for handing in our notice and had to extend that hosting package for another two years, which at the time was 4x the price of new packages, grrr!

Most professional hosting providers nowadays have a fair policy when it comes to terminating a hosting contract, like 30-days notice without any quibble.

Another client of ours was also caught out by a hosting provider who registered their website in their own name, thus taking away our client’s authority to move their website to a different hosting provider. The hosting provider is in fact the legitimate owner of the website, not my client. 

Nor does this hosting provider offer a control panel where our client can manage their own database and other settings. And to make it worse, now there are all sorts of unexpected fees popping up. This is a nightmare scenario.

So once you have checked that it’s all okay to move your website to a different hosting provider, you can process the transfer.

How to Transfer a Website?

The new hosting provider will have an option like “Transfer your website to us”. Follow the instructions on the screen. You will also need to send a copy of this form to your old hosting provider which allows the domain name to be transferred. Most often you’ll need to notify them of the new hosting package and that you’re terminating the service with them.

Once it’s all completed, you should receive the login details for your new account. You’ll need to send us a copy of this so that we can amend/upgrade your website, but also to transfer the files of your current website, so it’s live again. This means that we’ll upload a copy of your existing website pages to their new location on the new hosting provider’s server.

Please note: there could be an overlap period of 1 -7 days that your website is unavailable, as the domain registrar makes note of the new changes. More often than not, it’s just a couple of hours.

If designing a website is like building a house, then registering your domain name would be the same as choosing your address or postcode. Choosing a hosting package would be like finding a safe piece of ground with suitable facilities to build your house on.

Your website needs space on a server, which has certain things that make it compatible for the Internet. You’re effectively renting space on one of the Internet Servers that the hosting provider keeps in their secure, web-ready computer room.

Minimum Requirements for a CMS Website

We build websites using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) and there are minimum requirements needed for it to run properly. Wordpress works best on a Linux platform, which is cool, because it’s normally cheaper than a Windows hosting package anyway. The minimum requirements are:

You can normally see these features listed under the details when choosing a hosting package. If you’re not sure which package to choose, we’ll gladly assist you.

Suggestions for a Hosting Provider

There are a couple of hosting providers that we (and some of our clients) work with and are happy with the service provided and value for money.

• Websites hosted in The Netherlands – Virtual Dynamix VDX
• Websites hosted in South Africa - Afrihost: Top 25 hosting questions to ask
• Websites hosted in America – Go Daddy (USA)
• Websites hosted in United Kingdom – Fast Hosts

What happens if my current hosting package doesn’t comply?

Your hosting package needs to comply with these minimum requirements! If it doesn’t, then we can’t upgrade your website.

To take advantage of our special offer and benefit from our web expertise, you would need to change the hosting package with your provider … or maybe even move your hosting package elsewhere.

It’s normally a simple matter of contacting the hosting provider and asking them to switch your website over to a different package (we can help you choose the right package). Also check out our article on “How to Change a Hosting Package“.

In our experience so far, clients who’ve needed to change their hosting packages have had their websites hosted on a Windows platform. This is usually resolved by having their websites transferred to a Linux-based server i.e. a Linux-based hosting package instead of on a Windows server.

If you’re not sure about your hosting package, and would like to sign up with us, please include the URL of the website page that mentions your current hosting package? Then we can check it out for you.

Further explanation of Hosting Providers

Hosting providers, also known as Internet Service Provider, are comparible to a local council or municipality in that they provide the services needed for your website to be able to operate. They have large computer rooms with oodles of security (well, the goods ones do) and their computer servers are setup specifically for the Internet and to host websites (equivalent to providing “road infrastructures” and “facilities”).

The “houses” (or websites) are built by webmasters consisting of different rooms (web pages) on their local office computers. There are two kinds of website pages, static pages that normally have an .htm or .html extension, or dynamic pages that don’t normally have an extention. Sometimes they have funny numbered pages like, http://marvic.biz/?id=2365, which can be very long.

Static pages are normally created on the webmasters computer and, once finished, uploaded to the hosting server, at which point the site is ‘live’. Dynamic pages on the other hand are entered by means of a GUI (graphical user interface) where the webmaster and/or client log in to the website via an online control panel. Because of the ease of use and lower set up costs, more and more websites are being created dynamically.

What else should I look at when choosing a hosting package?

When choosing between different hosting packages, you should compare the prices in relation to how much data traffic you’re allowed (this includes sent/received emails, web pages that have been uploaded by the webmaster and downloaded by your visitors) and the hard disc size that would be allocated to your website and e-mails (most packages now offer a couple of gigabytes).

In the future, it might be necessary or desirable for you to change hosting providers, so you also need to check the small print about the contract and termination period.

Does it matter where I host my website?

Yes it does, according to Google. For example, if your clients are based in South Africa and your website is being hosted on a server in the US, then your website may not get the best results. It would be better to have a website that is hosted in South Africa too. However, if you are targeting clients in the States, then leave it on an American server. Take a look at this video by Google.