Web Hosting for E-Commerce Sites - Web Hosting Article

By:Halstatt Pires

If you’re going to pursue an e-commerce site, hosting is going to be an issue. Here’s a primer on web hosting for your site.

E-commerce web hosting is the technology of storing, servicing and maintaining files for one or more web sites selling products or services online. Web site owners who pay for a web host (generally on a monthly basis) upload their web pages to a shared or dedicated web server through an ISP (internet service provider). The web host should ensure a fast and consistent connection. Experienced web entrepreneurs desire flexibility, security and high performance from an e-commerce host. An e-commerce web server also stores information, images, videos and just about any other content that can be retrieved from a web site. Security is a priority for e-commerce web servers.

E-commerce web hosting can be divided into two major components, the site and the host (where the site is stored for access on the web). Web hosts are computers that offer storage space and Internet connectivity. Web hosts make your web site work with and connect to the Internet. E-commerce, or web commerce, allows people to buy goods and services online. On the Internet, one can buy almost anything, at any time.

E-commerce web hosting must support e-commerce software. Often a web host will provide the tools that handle online transactions and sales. In other cases, the web business owner is on their own to ascertain e-commerce software. Common tools that are provided with e-commerce web hosting are shopping carts, business account services, SSLs (secure socket layers), secure transactions, web promotion applications and advertisement packages.

While choosing a web hosting company for your E-commerce business, it is helpful to decide how much data storage is required and the data transfer rates you require for your site. A web host is the physical location of a web site, so you must be confident in the connection and security of the hosting company. Doing some research to make sure that data reaches the end-user quickly and efficiently can payoff in a big way. Backup systems should be in place so that data is routed even if there is a router failure. Web hosts should be able to accommodate a client’s web traffic (measured in volume of data transfer) in peak hours as well.

Security is a major issue for E-commerce transactions. Private information needs to be kept safe from unauthorized parties. SSL, from Netscape, helps a lot with secure transactions. SSL is an encryption technology that encodes a message that a receiver decrypts by using RSA security. For integrity and authentication of messages, digital signatures, or certificates, are required. Digital signatures ensure that sensitive information is not picked up by any other party, by posing as a legitimate e-business or in any other way. A digital certificate is a document, issued by a certificate authority, which recognizes a legitimate online business. To ensure security, many web companies store confidential information on offline disks or on a separate PC. E-commerce web hosts should also maintain multiple backups of vital information. SSL uses PKI (public key infrastructure) and digital certificates to ensue privacy and authentication. Bear in mind that security can be an expensive and complex business.

In short, when selecting an e-commerce web host it is often best to look for a pre-packaged solution that allows you to create a shopping cart, an online catalog and a secure credit card transaction and storage system. Selecting an e-commerce web host with a broad range of tools and a solid reputation is an important step for just about any e-business.

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article keywords: web hosting, e-commerce

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm - www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego Internet marketing and advertising company offering automated web site systems - www.businesscreatorpro.com - create web databases, e-commerce sites, business lead management systems and more.

Top Web Hosting Articles
1). Four Critical Factors to Business Web Hosting Success By : David Dunlap There are a number of business web hosting services over the internet. It is important when choosing a business web hosting service that you find one that caters to your specific business needs.
2). Factors by choosing the right web hosting company By : Bedrich Omacka There are many important factors by choosing web hosting company. Let's take a look at some of them. First time you must answer the question which type of web hosting are you looking for. If you want to run a single web site shared hosting will be the right for your needs. For those who own multiple domains it will be better to buy reseller account or look around the web hosting industry and find some hosting plan which allows more domains under single account.
3). Ecommerce Business Website Hosting By : Fame Ahmed The initiation of the Internet and the start of E-Commerce business website hosting and solutions, has changed the way people do business a great deal. Business website hosting has brought a greater sales field with no boundaries and worldwide access to many businesses.
4). Choosing A Web Hosting Company By : Rick Hendershot It used to be that choosing a web hosting company for your small business web site was a difficult and confusing exercise. Thankfully, those days are long gone. Today you can do an online search for web hosting companies and be presented with a fantastic selection of cheap hosting packages, all of them offering a wide range of features. Choosing among all the alternatives still takes a bit of research.
5). Choosing The Best Web Hosting Service By : Fame Ahmed Before choosing the best web hosting service, we should understand what web hosting means.
6). Finding The Best Host For Your Company’s Needs By : Andy MacDonald So your business has decided that it is time to make its presence felt on the internet. You have your all your information ready, and you may even have created your website which it is ready to go live on the internet. The next step is to find a web hosting provider, but how do you evaluate web hosting, and then make a choice on which provider to pay your hard earned money too? Choosing the correct host for your company’s needs is a very important step, if not the most important step when taking your business online.
7). 3 Differences between Shared and Dedicated Hosting By : John C. Purfield When it comes to making the all-important choice of what web hosting method to use the choices come down to shared hosting and dedicated hosting. There are so many arguments arguing for both shared hosting and dedicated hosting. Perhaps it is time to shed a little light on this web hosting dilemma. First of all, let's deal with the all-important question of server access.
8). Virtual vs. Dedicated vs. CoLo: Which Web Hosting Do I Need? By : John Hasson You know you need a web host, but you don’t know where to start. So you do a web search to research potential solutions and get a bit overwhelmed with all the jargon: UNIX, dedicated servers, POP3, CoLo... the list goes on. Step back a bit. You don’t need to learn everything about web sites to choose a host. You do however need to know what a web host is, and the basic types of web hosting.
9). Web Hosting - The Internet Marketing Tool By : Bjorn Hakans An important part of doing any kind marketing today is definitely an effective Internet marketing strategy, and for that the first thing you need is reliable web hosting. I know some people say that you can market this and that without having your own website, but I definitely disagree. Many affiliate programs and various business opportunities offer you "personalized web sites" that you can use without owning you own server space.
10). Discovering The Personal And Professional Benefits Of Myspace By : Madison Lockwood If you have been thinking of creating a website for your company, then you are already aware of the amazing benefits of having a corporate presence online. Tapping into the internet community is a proven way to increase your company's visibility, improve sales, attract new clients, and more. But have you ever wondered: if a website can do wonders for my profession, can it work magic in my personal life, too? Most importantly, is there a service that can benefit me both personally and professionally? Chances are you have heard of MySpace.

New Web Hosting Articles
1). Reasons to Go For India Reseller Web Hosting By : Trevor Mulholland What exactly makes India reseller web hosting more attractive?
2). Why Get UK Reseller Web Hosting By : Trevor Mulholland Here are just a few of the many good reasons why you should consider UK reseller web hosting, above hosting offered in other countries.
3). Multiple Domain Name Penalty By : Ben Kemp If you own a web site AND you have multiple domain names registered, you might want to read this with your full attention.
4). UK Reseller Web Hosting: Trust Matters By : Trevor Mulholland There is one thing that makes a UK reseller web hosting outfit ideal for UK-based customers, and that is trust.
5). UK Reseller Web Hosting: Friendly Services at Friendly Rates By : Trevor Mulholland If you wish to address a UK clientele, it would be beneficial to be a UK reseller web hosting outfit, yourself.
6). Unmetered Web Hosting By : Natalie Wilkins The World Wide Web is perhaps one of the most dynamic business environments today. In such an environment, you can never be 100% certain as to what your requirements are when it comes to your websites web-hosting needs.
7). How To Decide On A Domain Name For Your Website And Register With Your Web Host By : Gregg Hall One of the first and most important parts of developing a web site is to do a bit of research on the subject. By researching you will be better informed and prepared when you are ready to get a web host.
8). Web site monitoring. Can you afford downtime? By : Andy Allen Supposing that you’ve gone that long way through from choosing the right hosting provider to final files uploading to your brand new server you proceed with setting up million other things like permissions, nameservers, email and ftp accounts but some people forget about just one thing which is also one of the most important things after they launched their websites or online business.
9). BlueHost and Fantastico By : Sage Kalmus BlueHost and Fantastico go so well together that they lend themselves to all sorts of timeless comparisons: Burns and Allen, Astaire and Rogers, Peanut Butter and Jelly or, more relevantly, MySQL and PHP. BlueHost is the web host, Fantastico is the feature; together, they can help you make your website do all sorts of incredible things. Fantastico (full name: Fantastico DeLuxe) is the leading auto-installer for servers using the cPanel control panel.
10). Arizona Web Hosting Company By : Rory Wood There are so many companies out there that offer hosting that finding an Arizona web hosting company may be difficult to find. Some claim to be an Arizona web hosting company but may actually be located in Europe or Canada. It may be hard to find out which Arizona web hosting company out there really is from Arizona. While you can certainly choose to work with any web hosting company around the globe, some people choose to work with a company closer to home.