The first step in building your online presence is finding a web host, the company that will store your website's files on its servers and deliver them to your readers' and customers' browsers. Web hosting services offer varying amounts of monthly data transfers, storage, email, and other features. Even how you pay (month-to-month payments vs. annual payments) can be radically different, too, so taking the time to plot exactly what your company needs for online success is essential. Many of these companies also offer reseller hosting services, which let you go into business for yourself, offering hosting to your own customers without requiring you to spin up your own servers.

You should also familiarize yourself with the many web hosting tiers that are available. In your research, you'll find shared, virtual private server (VPS), dedicated hosting, and WordPress hosting plans. Each tier offers different specs and features that you should take the time to analyze. I'll break them down.

Shared Web Hosting?

Shared hosting is web hosting in which the provider houses multiple sites on a single server. For example, Site A shares the same server with Site B, Site C, Site D, and Site E. The upside is that the multiple sites share the server cost, so shared web hosting is generally very inexpensive.

VPS Web Hosting?

VPS hosting is similar to shared hosting in that multiple sites share the same server, but the similarities end there. A dedicated web host houses less sites per server than shared hosting, and each site has its own individual resources.

Dedicated Web Hosting?

Unlike shared or VPS hosting, dedicated hosting makes your website the lone tenant on a server. The means that your website taps the server's full power. That said, many dedicated web hosting services task you with handling backend, technical issues.

WordPress Web Hosting?

WordPress hosting is for people who want to build their sites on the back of the popular WordPress content management system (CMS). Many WordPress hosts automatically handle backend stuff, so you don't have to worry about updating the apps and CMS, and enabling automatic backups.