Best Hosting Guide

Getting Started with Shared Hosting

If you’re a small business or an individual new to web hosting and website creation, establishing a web presence can seem like an overwhelming task. However, it’s a lot simpler than you think! Once you’ve decided on and purchased your Shared Hosting plan, it’s time to jump in and create your digital space. This article will walk you through the tasks you should complete after you’ve purchased a Shared Hosting plan.

cPanel & AMP

Before you dive in, it’s important to learn about two important applications: cPanel and AMP. cPanel is a control panel interface that allows you to make changes and customize your Shared Hosting account. With cPanel, you’ll be able to create, view, and modify email accounts, change email passwords, configure domains, create subdomains, create/manage FTP accounts, and more. 

Your Account Management Panel, or AMP, is primarily used for managing the billing aspects of your account. With AMP, you’ll be able to register new domains, update your domain Whois details, and purchase SSL certificates if you choose. As a reminder, your Shared Hosting account comes with free SSLs for all sites hosted here!

Email

Once you’ve toured cPanel and AMP, it’s time to set up your email accounts. It’s a good idea to set up your email accounts before you begin creating your website as you will need an email address for website creation. You can easily create your email accounts in cPanel. When you’ve created your accounts, you can then set up your email client to access your email, configure a desktop application, and add your email to your mobile device.

Website

With your email created, you’re ready to start creating your website. For many small businesses, WordPress is the easiest platform to use to establish a web presence. With plugins and builders, you’ll be able to quickly create a beautiful website that meets your business needs. Make sure you also add Google Analytics to your website to monitor how users interact with your content. You can then use the data to make informed decisions about content updates to ensure users are viewing the best version of your site.

Security & Backups

The Shared Hosting plan has great security benefits. As mentioned above, all Shared Hosting accounts come with free SSLs that you can enable. You’ll also enjoy free server scans and if you suspect malicious activity on your server, you can submit an account scan ticket request.

Shared Hosting users can also take control of their own backups and restorations, which is recommended, with the Backup Manager. Through cPanel, you can use Backup Manager to perform restorations, monitor backup storage capacity, and control which data is backed up and how often.  


Now that you know where to start after purchasing a Shared Hosting plan, you can begin establishing your web presence. If you get stuck on a step or need advice, feel free to reach out to our 24/7 live support.