Go Daddy Web Hosting^®

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is what makes your website viewable to people all over the world. Hosting makes it possible for others to view your website over the Internet – without it; you're the only one who would ever see your Web pages.

A website hosting provider stores your site on their server, giving it a unique address (DNS). It is through this address that people anywhere in the world can find, open, and interact with your site.

Simply put, when you buy website hosting, you're buying space on a server. This is not unlike the space on your computer's hard drive – except that now your files can be opened from anywhere.

Hosting couldn't be easier at Go Daddy. You get secure hosting plans with unlimited bandwidth.

For more information, visit our Web Hosting product support page.

Which Web hosting plan should I choose?

If you plan on using a Web application to blog, podcast, or create a shopping cart, check to see what language the developers used to create the application. Knowing the type of development language and sql database the application connects with can help you determine whether or not you need Windows hosting or Linux hosting.

Once you decide between Windows and Linux, you need to determine which Web hosting package best suits your needs. Depending on the size of your website and how much Web traffic you're expecting to generate, hosting couldn't be easier with Go Daddy. With our award-winning 24x7 tech support you'll get the website hosting service you want at the right price.

For more information, see Should I choose a Windows or Linux hosting account?

What can I use to build my website?

How you build your own website is entirely up to you. In fact, most basic websites can be hand-coded using HTML.

The more functionality and versatility you require from your website, the more you might need to rely on programs and applications to help build your site. Our Linux and Windows Web hosting plans include a number of free server-side applications that you can use when developing and customizing your websites.

We've made it easy to install popular Content Management System (CMS) applications like WordPress^® and Joomla!® through the Go Daddy Hosting Connection^® from your Hosting Control Center.

In addition to the Hosting Connection applications, you can use popular Web design software such as Adobe Dreamweaver^®, Microsoft Expression^®, and Apple iWeb to build your site.

For more information, see Installing Hosting Quick-Install Applications.

How do I transfer my Web pages to your server?

Let's say you've built your own Web page using an HTML editor like Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expression Studio. Before you can view your website on the Internet, you'll need to upload the pages you've created from your computer to our server via FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

You can use our built-in FTP File Manager located inside the Hosting Control Center.

Or, if you have large files to upload (20 MB+), try using FileZilla, a free tool that works with Windows^®, Mac^®, and Linux^® operating systems. You can also send your files using other third-party FTP software.

For more information, see Uploading Files to Your Website (FTP).

If I already have a website, can I transfer it to your web hosting?

In most cases, moving your website hosting to Go Daddy is a relatively easy process. If you have access to your existing website files, you can simply upload them using an FTP client or through the Hosting Control Center. If you don't have a backup of your website files, you should be able to get a copy of them from your current website hosting provider.

Don't worry! We're a very experienced hosting company and we'll be here to guide you during the entire transfer process. Our 24x7 teams will assist you in determining the best method for transferring your website to Go Daddy Web hosting.

For more information, see Transferring Your Hosting Account.

Can I see who's visiting my site?

Yes! Every website hosting account comes with a Web statistics feature that, once enabled, lets you gather Web traffic information about your website – for example, how many people visit it, what keywords they type in to find you, and which pages on your site they visit most often.

To view your traffic statistics, go to yourpersonaldomain/stats (replacing "yourpersonaldomain" with your actual domain name) and key in your FTP username and password.

For more information, see Setting up Standard Web Statistics for Your Web Site.

I just bought a hosting plan. Now what?

The first thing to do is activate your account. Go to GoDaddy.com and click on the My Account button. Type your Customer Number or Login Name and Password into the boxes and click the Enter key on your keyboard.

In the list of products that displays, select the gray box next to Web Hosting. Pick the account you'd like to activate (if there's more than one) and click the Launch button for that account.

The next few steps are pretty easy – just click on the Enter domain box and type in the domain name you want to use for your web site or choose it from the list.

Type in your own FTP username or use the one we suggest and create a password. Confirm your FTP password and click Finish. Done!

It might take anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours for your hosting account to be up and running. We'll email you all of the account details once it's ready to go.

For more information, see Getting Started with Your Hosting Account.

Can I host multiple domain names with my hosting account?

Did you know one hosting package can be used to host multiple websites (Deluxe and Unlimited hosting accounts only)? Or that you can set up various names (aliases) for your site, directing visitors to specific pages?

Go Daddy allows you to do that and so much more. You may also change the primary domain on your hosting account, remove domains or move domains from your hosting account to another from our Hosting Control Center.

For more information, see Managing Your Hosting Account Domains.