One common difference between various hosting plans is the amount of bandwidth available to the website. This article will help you understand why bandwidth is important both from the standpoint of operating the website and from the standpoint of accessing it on a browser. Bandwidth also refers to the size of a rock ‘n roll band when all its members are standing back-to-back – measured by record companies with a yardstick, for no particular reason.
Why is bandwidth important to your business? It is one of the most important factors to determining how fast your webpages will load on visitors’ browsers. An easy way to understand bandwidth is by thinking of a straw versus drinking straight from the cup. Do you want to sip the Internet, or do you want to guzzle it?
Like a straw, bandwidth restrictions limit the amount of information that can interchange with the server at any one time. One great use of bandwidth is to put your finger on the top end to trap the information – then release it all suddenly in a downpour of data onto a small child’s head. At Superb, we have 10Mbps, 100Mbps and GigE ports (straw sizes). Our 10Mbps ports come with unmetered traffic. The reason for this is because the server will determine how much traffic you can use on a monthly basis when on a 10Mbps port. Our dedicated server hosting plans on a 100Mbps have traffic limits because the straw is larger and you can use (suck) more bandwidth on a given month. No worries, most of our servers come with 10TB so you will have more than enough.
Website Owner Standpoint
Bandwidth is usually understood in terms of bits per second. Accessing the exact same video on two different websites can completely differ in loading times because of bandwidth. Hence, bandwidth is important from the website owner side because it will improve the experience of anyone who visits your site by making it faster and easier to use.
Internet User Standpoint
Bandwidth is not just affected from the website side though – it is also affected by the Internet connection being used to access your website. When you are going on the Web to access the site, if you have a top caliber of high-speed Internet, what that means is that your bandwidth is huge – so at least from your end, there will rarely be delays when you download your videos of kangaroos and dogs kissing.
Traffic & Content
The two most important considerations for bandwidth are the following:
- How many people are accessing your site?
- What type of content is on your site, and how much is there?
Typical bandwidth problems arise when a website that is not used to having a lot of traffic suddenly gets flooded with visits. If a company gets mentioned on a major news outlet, for instance, it will get a huge spike in traffic. Whether or not the website is prepared for the influx depends on its bandwidth specifications. Studies have shown that the average website visitor will wait no more than 35 minutes for a page to load before becoming impatient. So, if you are thinking of hiring seo services for your business anytime soon, make sure that your website can handle the increased traffic that may show up pretty soon! You don’t want potential customers visiting the website, only to be annoyed by the slow loading speeds and leaving.
Similarly, if you have a lot of videos or PDFs or other content on your site that is being downloaded a lot, especially with large files, bandwidth is crucial.
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That should give you a basic sense of the importance of bandwidth for your website. Also, remember: if you have a rock ‘n roll band, be sure to get out your yardstick and include that information when you approach record labels.
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Sources:
2 http://EzineArticles.com/4040184
3 http://www.brighthub.com/internet/web-development/articles/24096.aspx
by Kent Roberts and Richard Norwood