Before you choose a hosting plan, there are many things
to consider. Two of the most important are the Web
Server Space and the Data Transfer Allowance (also
called bandwidth) that you will need. Web hosts will
usually try to lure you with either a large amount
of Web Space or monthly Data Transfer Allowance. Though
the best case scenario would be to have plenty of
both, most hosts tend to offer more of one and less
of the other, so you will have to find the right balance.
To decide how much Web Space and Data Transfer you
need, you must first decide what kind of site you
will have. Small business sites generally fall into
one of three categories:
• One-product website (mini-site): Usually
a very small site with two or three pages; its focus
is to sell just one product, or to collect visitors'
email addresses to try to sell them at a later date.
This kind of site is usually just a long sales letter
plus an order page and a contact page.
• Company brochure site: Usually
around 10 or so pages describing what the company
does, its products or services, its location, the
markets it targets, an about us page, a contact page,
etc. It is basically an online brochure of the company.
• Theme-based site: Revolves
around a very specific topic or market niche (for
example: work-at-home moms), and is updated frequently
with new articles, tutorials and resources. These
sites can also sell products from affiliate companies,
or sell their own products.
Each of these sites has different web space and bandwidth
requirements.
• A one product website doesn't need a lot
of web space. However, if the site ranks well with
the search engines or has a large number of affiliates
promoting it, it will generate a lot of traffic and
the data transfer allowance will become very important.
• A company brochure site doesn't need a lot
of web space or bandwidth. For this kind of site,
a basic package offered by a reputable host is usually
more than enough.
• A theme-based site won't probably need a
lot of web space or bandwidth at the beginning. However,
if the site is updated frequently with new articles
and resources, its web space requirements will increase.
Also, as the site gets more traffic and offers more
content, the data transfer allowance will also become
important. You must plan for the future from day one,
and get more web space and data transfer than you
seem to need at the beginning.
Here are some expamples of how you can estimate and
calculate your web space and data transfer requirements
(we will assume that the average size of a web page,
including pictures, is 50 Kilobytes).
One-product Site
If your one product site has just three pages, it
will just need 150 Kilobytes of web space (a drop
in the bucket considering that basic packages nowadays
offer upwards of 50 Megabytes of space). However,
if it receives 150,000 page views per month it will
require approximately 7.5 Gibabytes / month of data
transfer.
Company Brochure Site
If your company brochure site has 10 pages, it will
only need 500 Kilobytes (aprox. 0.5 Megabytes) of
web space. If it has 5000 page views per month, it
will need 250 Megabytes (aprox. 0.25 Gigabytes) of
data transfer per month.
Theme Based Site
If your theme-based site starts off with 50 web pages
of content, it will need 2.5MB of web space. However,
if you add ten pages of new content per week, you
will need 26 Megabytes more in your first year. After
two years, you will need 52 Megabytes, and so forth.
As you see, your need for space may add up pretty
quickly. If we estimate that your site will have 30000
page views per month, its monthly bandwidth consumption
will be 1,500 Megabytes (aproximately 1.5 Gigabytes).
This figure will most likely grow as you add more
pages.
Your space and data transfer needs will also grow
dramatically if you offer large files for download.
For example, if you give away a 1 Megabyte PDF Ebook
and 1,000 people download it in a given month, you
will need 1 Gigabyte of data transfer just for that
one particular download (and you still haven't accounted
for the data transfer consumed when users access and
browse your site!).
Since web hosts will usually charge you fees if you
use more than your alloted web space and bandwidth,
you must carefully monitor your consumption of both.
However, you should pay extra attention to your bandwidth.
The reason is that it is easier to control your web
space use (after all, it is you who decide how many
files to load up to your host's server). Data transfer,
on the other hand, is not as easily controlled. For
example, your site may suddenly get a good search
engine ranking for a popular search term and receive
a traffic boost, which will consume more bandwidth
than you had originally planned. Or, unscrupulous
webmasters may "steal" bandwidth from you
by linking directly to images on your server, instead
of saving them in their own web server space.
Therefore, it is wise to plan for the unexpected,
by making sure that your host doesn't charge unreasonable
fees every time you exceed your web space and data
transfer allowance, and that it offers a free and
easy way to upgrade to a better hosting package whenever
the need arises.
