If you found this page on my site, it’s because I sent you here. Right now there are only two reasons you are looking at this page: Either you 1) Need a much faster server response time for your site’s SEO and/or need a dedicated SSL certificate, or 2) you need more control and access to your site than my “free” hosting can allow, and thus need your own shared hosting account.
VPS Hosting by BlueHost (Please READ Before Clicking!)
A VPS, or Virtual Private Server, is generally recommended for clients in highly competitive markets because you get a much faster server response time than shared hosting. A fast server response time can make a significant difference in a website’s ranking. Additionally, with a VPS you have a lot more control over your site, which means instead of using a shared SSL certificate, you can get your own. “Shared”, in both the case of the SSL certificate and your hosting arrangement, means a lot of sites are using the same resources. The free hosting I generally offer with a website designed by Site Image Studios is shared. It’s “free” because there are thousands of sites resolving on the same IP address and using the same security certificate. That can make it harder to “break out”, and if there is bad behavior or trickery going on with another site we all share, it can have a negative effect on your site. Which sucks.
I recommend BlueHost over others right now because presently, they use a cloud based architecture, which means we have a lower probability of experiencing down time. They also have a very fast server response time, and guaranteed server resources. (Most hosts offering a VPS package throttle resources, which can hurt response time. BlueHost offers more memory and guaranteed resources than anybody else worth mentioning by a wide margin.)
Notes, Notices, and Disclaimers
- Sign up for one year ONLY! I’m always looking for the bigger better deal and checking server quality and speed. It may be that next year we find something else we want to use.
- This is an “affiliate link”, meaning Site Image Studios gets kicked back a few bucks for referring you. That said, we do not base our recommendation on the affiliate program. All hosts have similar referral bonuses for referrers. Site Image Studios recommends BlueHost VPS hosting only, because we have checked around, run the tests, and BlueHost just happens to offer the best bang for the buck right now. If their service falls off we’ll recommend something else.
- Odds are that if we made this recommendation to you, you already have a URL and a web site. You get a free URL registered when you sign up for this VPS service. You can get anything you would like. It doesn’t even have to be related to your business site.
- If I recommended BlueHost to you it was for their VPS SERVICE ONLY! (See Image Above!) Do NOT get a generic hosting package. Otherwise, you may as well host with me for free. You will NOT get any of the benefits of a VPS if you select another option. Their generic hosting is shared. Shared hosting is shared hosting, whether it’s on my account or you make a new one of your own. The result will be the same.
- Do not get a bunch of add-ons when you sign up. If you need an SSL certificate we would have already talked about that by now. An SSL will add expense to your annual hosting fees… most of those add-ons will. If we need something later we can get it. BlueHost offers pretty good support with the sites they host as well.
So that’s it. If a VPS is what you need, select the image or this link and sign up for a VPS account. Start with the cheapest VPS package… it’ll be super easy to upgrade later if we need to.
Quick Add-On Q&A
- SSL Certificates: Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a cryptographic protocol that provides communication security over the Internet. SSL encrypts the segments of network connections at the Application Layer for the Transport Layer, using asymmetric cryptography for key exchange, symmetric encryption for confidentiality, and message authentication codes for message integrity. Unless you require high-security communication on your site (for instance if taking sensitive patient / client information, or conducting credit card transactions) you probably don’t need a dedicated SSL certificate.
- Dedicated IP Address: When an IP address is shared, it means your website and that of another person are resolving at the same “place” on the web. If someone sharing your IP address does something flakey, it could end up hurting you in search engines too. For instance, your website could share the ip address with another site that has been marked as malware. Some network security programs will “null route” requests to those ip addresses, which would make your website unreachable. Some anti-virus software may mark any website with the same ip address as malware, this may raise false alarms against your website. Most modern browsers may display an alert which reads, “This site may harm your computer” next to every link for that website which appears in search results. While events like these are possible, however, they are very unusual. Most web hosts will monitor their IP addresses against poor behavior and will take action when it is detected. At the end of the day, most websites will not need to be concerned about shared hosting and not having a dedicated IP negatively affecting their SEO. There are exceptions to the rule, but in general, do not feel that you must have a dedicated IP address. Always be on the offense and protect your site frequently by checking Google Webmaster Tools and monitoring your co-hosted sites.
Your Own “Shared” Hosting Account
Right now I don’t know of any clients that need this. My “free” hosting is the same thing.
Dedicated & Managed 3rd Party Server
This is a top level enterprise choice for web hosting (starting at around $200+/mo). It has a pricetag to match. If you need these kind of resources, I will let you know. Right now nobody is close to needing this who doesn’t already have it.
