Good Hosting for Jobs Sites

Good Hosting for Jobs Sites

People are always looking for new careers and opportunities in life and employers are always looking to hire the best and the brightest. Because of this, the market for online job hunting sites is booming. This market is highly profitable and there are many plug-and-play scripts that one can use to instantly build this type of site. However, like all sites, job sites require the right type of hosting in order to run correctly and finding the correct hosting company for a job site is not the easiest of tasks. In this article we will look at some of the requirements for job site hosting such as CPU/Bandwidth usage, server permissions, technical support, and space and bandwidth.

The first thing you have to decide when starting a job site is what kind of a job site you want to start. Do you want a site that just lists all the employers and employees for people to search through or do you want extra features like being able to feature certain companies or employees that are willing to pay for a better listing. If you want extra features that involve money transactions, you’ll want a host that has some kind of shopping cart or e-commerce transaction software in place for you to use. You’ll also want to find a host that offers 128-bit SSL encryption for secure e-commerce transactions. Many people will not make an online purchase without such security. You’ll also want a host that does not have safe mode restrictions on PHP, especially in regards to uploads as users will be wanting to upload word documents and excel sheets for job offers and resumes. Finding a host with the right features such as these is very important because if your host does not have these, it will be hard to convince them to add these features down the line without extra cost.

The next thing you will want to look at when picking a host for a job site is the amount of CPU/RAM usage allowed to each user account. In a shared hosting environment(this includes free hosts also), you are on a server with hundreds if not thousands of other users so the actual amount of CPU/RAM you are allowed to use before getting suspended is very small. Different hosts have different amounts you can use. The amount you are allowed to use can range from 1% of total server resources all the way to 10% of total server resources depending on the host. These details are usually stated in the host’s Terms of Service agreement, which not many bother to read. You should read these terms carefully and look for specific numbers in terms of usage. If it does not say in the TOS agreement, then you need to ask the sales staff or technical support staff for a solid number. Do not be satisfied with an answer of “what we judge as a fair amount of usage” because this answer basically means they can suspend you whenever they feel like it. Look for a solid numerical value when seeking an answer to this question. Another thing to look for and ask about is the number of mySQL connections you can have open at once. This will directly determine the amount of users that can be on your site at once. If you are over the amount, your account can be suspended or any additional visitors will not be able to access your site. Resource usage in these two areas is critical to job sites because all job sites run on some kind of PHP,ASP, or other type of script. This means that every action, whether its searching, uploading, or just browsing takes some number of code executions and SQL queries to do. This in turn means that each visitor will take up a certain amount of CPU and RAM power. You need to make sure that the host you are looking at can provide adequate amounts of these resources to power your site.

Besides features and resources, another important factor to look at is technical support. Since job sites run off of script software, there are bound to be SQL errors or outages sometime along the way. There might also to temporary data loss or bandwidth failures while your site is running. All of these will cause your site to go down. When this happens, you will need technical support that has a fast response time and good technical knowledge to get your site up and running again. Failure of having adequate technical support will cost you hours or even days of downtime. The best way to find out about a host’s technical support is to ask around on big web hosting forums such as webhostingtalk.com or freewebspace.net . Forums like these have thousands of members and will have people who have used services from the host you are thinking about or are currently using that host’s service. From them, you will get a fair review of how performance and technical support is on that particular host. There are also many veterans of the web hosting world on these forums who will tell you what key points to look for when looking for a web host. Another way to get an idea of a host’s technical support is by looking at hosting review sites. Be careful when looking at these sites because many of these sites are sponsored by large hosting companies and the owners will write favorable reviews of these companies regardless of how their service is in hopes of getting a larger commission. Since finding a host with good technical support is key to running a site, you’ll want to get many opinions before you choose.

The last thing you will want to look at and the thing that should be of least concern to you is the amount of space and bandwidth a host offers. These for the most part are a marketing gimmick used by the bigger hosts to draw customers in. In reality, you will hit CPU/RAM limits long before you run into a bottleneck with space and bandwidth on shared accounts. The amount of space you need depends on what you are offering. If you want to enable users to upload several different resumes, you will need more space than if you just allow users to upload one resume. If you are just starting out, 3 or 4 GB of space and 30 GB of bandwidth are more than enough to get most job sites started. You can always upgrade to a higher plan if you outgrow your current one.

Now that we have looked at the requirements of job site hosting, lets look at some of the hosting options you have for hosting such a site.

1. Free hosting – Most free hosts are just not suited to hosting a job site. Free hosts generally do not have the CPU/RAM resources to host a job site. On a free host, you are usually put on a server(or sometimes a reseller account) with thousands of other users and the CPU/RAM usage allowed is very small for each account. Server crashes and lockups happen on a regular basis and uptime is generally bad. On top of all that, there is usually no technical support available for you as a free host cannot afford to keep any kind of technical support staff around. The support staff will usually consist of the owners and maybe one or two of his friends. This does not provide grounds for on-demand technical support. Free hosts that allow PHP/MYSQL also usually will run PHP in safe mode which will cause trouble for users trying to upload documents such as resumes and job offers. If you have to go with a free host, I’d suggest looking at stonerocket.net or zoomcities.com . While these two may not give you the amount of space and bandwidth you need, they do give good technical support and will work with free clients. Once you have outgrown those kinds of free plans, you will probably be making enough profit from your site to move on to paid hosting.
2. Shared Hosting – A quality shared host is a good place to start a job site. When looking for a shared host, look for one that has good reviews in forums and not one that offers enormous amounts of space and bandwidth. Hosts that do offer such large amounts of space and bandwidth such as Ipowerweb, Powweb, IXWebhosting, and bluehost all have bad reviews on forums in regards to their service. On the other hand, more expensive hosts that provide less space and bandwidth but superior technical support such as downtownhost.com have very good reviews on forums. One host to look at if you must have lots of space and bandwidth is Hostgator. While I can’t say their technical support is top-notch, they do provide better support than most of the major oversellers and their service and performance is what I would call “passable”. Remember on a shared host that your CPU/RAM will be restricted so you will want to work closely with your host to solve any problems that will come up in that area.
3. Clustered shared hosting – This refers to services like Mosso.com which sets up a shared environment that is not powered by a single server but by a data-grid composed of hundreds of servers. The service from Mosso costs far more than the average shared hosting plan but also provides a lot more in regards to CPU/RAM usage and server stability. Mosso claims to be even better than a dedicated hosting solution, but I have my doubts on that one. Since such a solution is powered by many servers and not by one server, the CPU/RAM limits on each account are far larger but still exist. In reality, you may actually be able to use more resources than on a dedicated server during peak times but the host will probably want to talk to you if you are one of the ones using a large amount of resources. To bring down such a data-grid is a very hard thing to do so it is doubtful your site will ever get suspended for such activity. This service is fully managed and is a decent bang for your buck if you want hands off hosting. The only knock on this service is the problems it has with its SQL database containers which have been known to cause problems. If Mosso can ever get these problems fixed, they would get a thumbs-up recommendation from me.
4. Semi-dedicated hosting – A semi-dedicated account is really a large shared account on a server with a low client-to-server ratio. The larger the semi-dedicated account, the less people there are per server. Because there are far fewer people per server, the amount of CPU/RAM you are allowed to use is far greater than a shared account. You can still get suspended for over-usage but will have to use a far larger % of resources to get to that point. If you are still being suspended on a semi-dedicated account, its probably time to head for a dedicated server. Semi-dedicated clients also receive better technical support than shared clients as they are paying more for the service. Hosts are also more willing to work with semi-dedicated clients than shared clients to resolve problems. If you are one of those sites that regularly uses a fair share of resources but has peak hours every once in a while, a semi-dedicated account may be what you are looking fr.
5. VPS(Virtual Private hosting) – A VPS is the standard upgrade from a shared hosting account. In a VPS, each account is sectioned off by itself and is given a guaranteed amount of CPU/RAM to use and a “Burst RAM” rate for peak hours. In this environment you will not be suspended for CPU/RAM over-usages because each user will not effect the performance of other users. In a VPS system, you will also have root access to install whatever software you need which gives you much more flexibility in what you can do. It is recommended that you get a managed VPS with a control panel as managing a VPS is not a easy thing to do. For those looking to be un-effected by what others do, a VPS is a great way to go.
6. Dedicated Server – If you own a busy job site, then a dedicated server is probably what you will need. In this environment, you are the only user on the server and have true root access. All the CPU/RAM on the server is dedicated for your use. You will have a higher constant performance but will not have emergency “Burst RAM” as on a VPS system. If you are going with a dedicated, go with a managed dedicated server with a dual-core processor and at least 1GB of RAM. If you are buying a cheaper server, you might as well go with a VPS as it will give you similar performance for a fraction of the price. If you feel that your current dedicated is not enough for your high-traffic job site, you can always talk to the host about upgrading the hardware in the server. Managed dedicated customers should always have priority tech support or a support hotline they can call for emergencies. Some good companies for managed dedicated servers are softlayer.com,gate2vn.net,wiredtree.com, and rackspace.com .

We have now looked at the hosting requirements and options for a job site. Plan out your site before you buy a host. Having a good idea of how many visitors you plan to have in the first few months will be a good start at choosing what kind of hosting you need. Once you have that figured out, do the research on hosts in that category. If yo do your homework well, you’ll be on your way to running a successful job hunting site.