Any online business is only as good as its weakest service provider, which is many times a third-party web hosting provider. The directories and fancy wording can confuse you at times, if you are not a web programmer. When things get too tangled, we often decide to just pick anything at random and make a purchase. This article will help you to identify your real web hosting necessities.
A lot of web hosting services will make you back up your own information. You should definitely back up your data, for the safety of your marketing materials and unique media if nothing else. If your site ever crashes, this ensures that you can readily rebuild it.
Search for a web hosting company whose down times are as low as possible. You want to maximize the time that your site is up and available to potential visitors. When your site is down, you are losing web traffic and revenue.
When considering different web hosting providers, look to each one’s website for clues. A poorly done site could mean a “red flag” for the hosting company. These things could indicate sloppiness, a lack of experience or a company who is not planning to stay around for very long. On the other hand, a user-friendly, professional website indicates experience, competence and more reliable service.
Many web hosting services actually rely on an even larger host. These companies are in the business of buying bulk server space from a large host, and making money by leasing it to end-users. Find out where your site is going to be hosted and make sure you are getting the lowest price between two services relying on the same servers.
Make sure that you calculate the amount of disk space and bandwidth your site will require. This can vary greatly depending on the type of website you run, as well as how much business and traffic it gets. Some companies will allow you to have unlimited file storage, as well as unlimited bandwidth. If you run low on either space or bandwidth, your site will not load as it should.
Make sure companies that you’re considering will meet all of your needs. You definitely want the basics in place like Microsoft FrontPage support, E-mail spam filtering protection, SSL certificates, and anything else that you know that you will take advantage of.
Make sure there are no hidden fees in your service plan, such as cancellation or low-traffic. After a few weeks of usage, you might find that the service is not acceptable. When you cancel, you may face cancellation fees that are expensive. This is pretty common, especially for the web hosting companies that are on the cheaper side. Make sure you are aware how to get out from under the web hosting company if you find their service is unacceptable.
Be cautious of scammers and hidden fees. Plenty of hosts use disingenuous advertising to lure in interested customers with supposedly low prices, only to jack up the monthly rate with inflated fees. It’s extremely important to fully understand everything that a hosting plan entails. It’s also important to know what features you need. In either case, read the fine print to make sure you do not pay more than the promised rate. Find a plan that will cover your needs at a price that is reasonable for you.
Read all the details prior to signing with the web hosting company of your choice. Be aware of the add-on charges which are not apparent when they try to sign you up. Look out for set up fees, penalties for terminating the contract early and other hidden charges. It can all add up quickly.
Check on the reliability of all hosting companies you’re considering using. Use reviews and the host’s website to find out if they tend to have problems or if they offer an uptime guarantee. Ensure that your website will function property when you need it to, which is 24/7, and that you do not have to do business with a sub-par company.
The company you choose should support all programming languages that your business uses, or plans to use. If you don’t have the correct language support, your website will not succeed. Additionally, if later you want to use a language that isn’t supported, your web host might not be of help to you. Switching web hosts can take a lot of work.
Make sure you look at a web hosting company’s site very carefully before you sign up with their hosting plan. You should find forums, contact information, and resources like support documentation. Research the resources and tutorials that are available to you once you are a client with that company.
If you are thinking about a particular web hosting provider, check and see how long they have been doing business. A company that has been operating for a longer period of time will generally be able to provide better support. And when a problem does occur, chances are the web hosting company will have dealt with it before, thus providing the experience you need. Most likely, the company will have set procedures in place to deal with the most common issues. A newer company may not be able to offer this kind of experienced customer support.
Your web host needs to have multiple connections when accessing the Internet. If a web host has only a single connection, your site will go down when their connection fails, so you need a host that has backups in place. Make sure they’re redundant connections and make sure each has enough bandwidth for your site.
When looking for a hosting company, do more research than what is in the company’s promotional materials. Look for customer reviews by independent sites to see how decent the host is. While a host can control what is said on their own website, they can’t stop people from posting legitimate complaints elsewhere.
Hopefully now you are better prepared to analyze the hosting services and options available to you. If you already have a hosting account and are locked into a contract, you can notify your IT department that you are preparing your site for an easy transition.
