Top 5 Web Hosting Questions – HostGator
Hey everyone! I'm Scott from HostGator, and
in this special roundtable edition of Hosted, we will bring in some of our
HostGator experts to answer five of the most frequently asked questions
about web hosting and building a website. Buckle up! Before we dive in, feel free to
ask your own questions in the comments. Yes, we do have an excellent 24/7 support staff
that you can call or chat with, but hey, you're here! Just ask your questions in the comments! Okay, who
has our first question? Anybody? Anybody? Ah, yes in the front.
What type of web hosting
is right for a beginner? Wow, yeah, great question. Well, I like to live by the, "Use the tool that's
right for the job" mantra, and the beauty of our web hosting plans is they are very easily upgradable.
So start with a basic shared hosting plan. If you are just starting out, your site will likely be
small, with minimal traffic, with no need for fancy things like dedicated servers. Basically, shared
hosting means that your site is stored on a server shared with other websites.
You still have your own
separate secure portion of that server. You just share top-level server resources. Like living in an
apartment complex. Y'all share the building, but you get to decorate your bachelor pad however you like.
With bean bag chairs, lava lamps, beaded curtains, and you get to choose who you give the spare
keys to, so super secure and super well decorated! The benefits here are with shared communal
resources, your costs are low. Server-side maintenance is handled by us, the building
superintendent, and your plan includes easy to use management tools, a free ssl certificate,
and the knowledge that your site is hosted with a web host you can trust. Uhhh, second question. Is
there another question? Maybe way in the back? How much will this cost? Wow another great
question! Uh, actually, my buddy Josh is super smart with money stuff.
That's why I keep
all my cash hidden under his mattress. Hey hey Josh! You still got my money? Uh, yeah. We
could talk about that for sure, but let me tell you about HostGator's pricing. So we've got a
plan to fit anyone's goal or budget. If you're just getting started and you want to build your
first site, shared plan is probably the best way to go. We have a 45-day money-back guarantee
on all shared hosting plans, so you can feel really confident about getting one of those longer
renewal cycles upfront, and saving the most money. Best example of this is the shared baby plan. If
you sign up for one of the longer terms, you can actually get that price dropped to less than four
dollars a month, and that's hosting as many domains and email accounts as you want. Even if you want to
stick to a monthly plan, you can get shared hosting down to about 10 bucks a month. As your site and
business grows, the cool thing is that HostGator can scale your hosting to grow alongside you, so we
can move you up to a faster cloud and even up to a dedicated server with 24/7 support, free content
migrations, and discounts all along the way.
We know not everyone has unlimited funds, so there's
definitely something here for everyone. Awesome thanks Josh! Thanks, Scott. Keep in mind that those
introductory prices do auto-renew at the regular price for the same term unless you cancel, but even
full price is less than josh's beard oil budget. Alright, do we have a third question?
Anybody? Any? Is there a third question? Over here! Oh yes, in the front. What if I can't
code? Man! Another great question. It's like these questions were written for you to ask! Feels
like our Customer Service Manager, and all-around website encyclopedia.
Tenea can take that one. Tenea
how you doing? Doing good! How are you? I'm great! So, I've got this super awesome idea for a
website, and I'm ready to start my career as an internet entrepreneur, but I can't code! What
do I do? If you can't code no worries! We have tons of tools that are really cool. From novice,
intermediate, or advanced users, or those that just don't want to do very much. It's okay with our
very own smart website builder, Gator Builder, or super popular WordPress, you can get a website live
and online. All come with free templates and more, and you can customize it too! There's Softaculous.
That's a cool application.
Install scripts for you, and you can add things like CMS, E-Commerce, and
so much more. Thanks Tenea! You're welcome. Okay question number four. Is there a question? Maybe
a fourth question? From anybody. Yes, yes in the front. So I already have a domain registered at
another company. What do I need to do before I build a site with Hostgator? Boy, we got a bunch
of website builders in the crowd tonight, don't we? Yay! Well I think Nick, our super-smart domain
expert guy, can tell us about getting started with your domain. Nick! How's it going, man? It's
going good. Living the dream. How are you? So good. So I already have a domain at another company. How
do I get started with HostGator hosting? That's a good question.
It's actually super easy. All
you need to do is point your name servers over to HostGator server, and don't worry we give you
all the name server information when you sign up. So all you have to do is change it over at your
current company, and within a couple hours you'll be ready to build your new site! Thanks Nick. All
right, do we have a fifth and final question? Maybe? Anyone? Anyone in the audience? Oh yes, I have one.
What about domain add-ons? What do I even need? Wow, maybe the greatest impromptu question ever.
It's like we wrote these and taped their responses ahead of time! Now let's go back live to Nick for
more expert advice.
Nick! What's the deal with the add-on sitch? Oh hey, you're back. Two add-ons that
I always recommend for new customers at HostGator are domain privacy, and CodeGuard, and I'll tell
you why. Domain privacy is the most important one. The ICANN organization, that's the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Uh, that's the people who make the rules for
how domains are handled, have stated that your registration info, like your name, your phone
number, your email address needs to be publicly searchable. What domain privacy does is it replaces
your information with HostGator's information so your private information stays private.
The second add-on service that I'd recommend is CodeGuard. It's a daily backup service that
takes a backup of your specific site, databases, or your entire cPanel if you choose. That way when,
I'm sorry we have professionals in the audience, if you mess up you can get all of the content
back within an hour or so, and as a cost-benefit, a year's worth of code guard is the same price as
a single restore request for hostgator's courtesy backup service.
At that point, why wouldn't you get
it? So true I couldn't agree more. Thanks Nick! Any time. And thanks to all of our guests for popping
in. In our next episode, a crib style tour of my bachelor pad. So many bean bag chairs.
If you have more questions, leave them in the comments, or hit up our super-smart 24/7 support team we're here to help. Okay, bye! Mike, do you have any questions for our
experts? Oh yeah, Josh, um do you still have Scott's mattress money? Oh yeah so he only
had like 14 bucks, so I bought a new whiteboard and some dry erase markers. Nice, thanks for the
valuable information. Yeah what the heck Josh! Super valuable information. That whiteboard
is practically half mine! I'm coming over whenever I want to use it. Josh your beard
powers and my mustache powers combined, and we have a whiteboard. Think of
the plans we could draw up on it!.
