Web Hosting Help What Is Bandwidth

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.