Getting the Most Out of cPanel Hosting

cPanel is a Linux-based tool that allows you to manage your website including loading up files, handling applications and managing your email. It’s probably the longest running web site control panel and has been around since the late 90s. It usually combines with a WebHost Management tool which gives you full control of the day to day running of your site and is designed to be easy to use. That means it is suitable for both beginners and experienced web designers.

cPanel is also compatible with many other software packages that hosting communities are likely to use and brings great usability to often complex sites with a number of useful add-ons such as Joomla and X-Cart. Having said that, cPanel is better for small to medium sites rather than large ones so if you are planning something on a grand scale then you may want to get some advice from your host first.

Make Sure Your Host Has cPanel

It might seem obvious but before you hire someone to host your domain and you want to use cPanel, then make sure they have it. Check this website for a comparison of each web hosting company. Most hosts offer it as part of their shared hosting plans and customers tend to like it because it is easy to use and looks that same on all hosts – so if you change provider your site administration shouldn’t look much different with cPanel.

Take Advantage of Online Tutorials

Your host should provide a number of tutorials for getting the best out cPanel. If they don’t there are plenty of resources online to help you manage your files, FTP transfers and mailboxes.

Boost Your Security with Better Passwords

The one thing you don’t want is hackers breaking into your site and our advice is to make sure that you create strong passwords and change them on a regular basis. Don’t opt for easy to remember passwords but include letters, numbers and characters in random order. Your password should be at least 8 characters long to be secure. cPanel also has a built-in generate password function that is easy to use and gives you a highly secure login.

Optimize Your Site

cPanel makes it easy for you to optimize the performance of your website without needing any coding experience. The Optimize Website function allows you to compress certain files which makes content delivery quicker and saves on bandwidth. You can choose to compress particular files or select to compress everything, the choice is yours.

Backup Your Data

If you’ve been running a website for a while then you will know how important it is to back up your data regularly. This needs to be done because you may be the subject of an attack or the website might crash for one reason or another. Making sure you have an up to date copy of your site available in the event of a catastrophe means you get back online quicker.

Get Rid of Broken Links

The longer you have a site the more likely it is that you will have errors such as broken links or missing files that need to be addressed if you want to optimize for search engines such as Google. The Account Error Log on cPanel will show you any areas of concern so that you can go into pages and update where necessary. If you have a problem with your site then this is also a good place to start to find out what is going on.

Assassinate the Spam

One of the problems that many websites encounter is spam, particularly for hosted email accounts. cPanel comes with SpamAssassin, usually free of charge, that is a powerful tool at preventing and blocking mail box spam.