If you have caught the entrepreneurial spirit and want to start your own business or just have been considering getting into the technological age by starting a website for your existing company, you probably have some questions. How do you go about starting a website? What does it mean to choose a “hosting option” and what exactly is a “server”? These are things that you should understand before jumping into creating your site. By making the right decisions regarding the basic start-up early, you are ensuring the quickest success and avoiding costly and time-wasting missteps.

After deciding you want to start up a website for your business— or even just for personal use– the next step is choosing between shared and dedicated hosting options. First, what is web hosting? Web hosting is basically your gateway into the World Wide Web. A web host acts as the connection between you and the internet, supporting the site you create and allowing it access to the actual internet so that viewers can find it. If you want to have a website, you must have a web host. There are two basic types of web hosting, dedicated and shared. Which you choose depends on your experience with website creation and maintenance and exactly what you want out of your website. For a beginner, the best choice is shared hosting. As opposed to dedicated hosting, with which you are the only webpage hosted on the particular server, shared hosting allows several pages to “share” one server. This means lower costs for each page and a sort of support structure for smaller sites. Dedicated hosting is a better choice when your site is established or you expect high traffic.

Once you have settled on your hosting option, it is time to choose an actual host. There are many out there but a list of 2011’s best web hosts lists HostGator as one of the Top 10 for its user-friendliness, service and price. HostGator shared hosting packages range from the tiny “Hatchling” package good for a very small business, event advertisement or personal use to much more complex packages such as the “Business” package designed for larger companies or extensive information. All of these packages include web building tools and templates that will help even the complete novice to design and post a professional-looking and effective webpage. Starting at less than $4 a month for the Hatchling plan, HostGator is an affordable option if you just want to “get your feet wet” in the world of having a website or if what you want to share with the world is simple enough to not need several pages. The tools included in the package ensure your site is polished and well-laid out, and the attentive service system will give you the security of knowing that all of your questions will be answered and any problems will be quickly and effectively resolved. With a money-back guarantee, even experimenting with having a website is a risk-free way to expand your business or advertise your event with HostGator.