If you want to have a website, you will have to choose your web hosting service. While you may be puzzled by the prospect, you are responsible for doing your own research and understanding what you are purchasing. Keep reading for answers to your questions and to learn all you need to know about good web hosting.
When comparing your options for web hosting providers, pay close attention to the types of websites available. Some free hosting sites don’t allow you to add your own unique language scripts. If you require a page with dynamic scripting, it would be better to find a paid hosting service that you can afford.
Which do you need, shared or dedicated hosting? Shared hosting may create a problem for well-established websites with heavy traffic, as it may mean limited bandwidth or even downtime. In a case such as this, consider a dedicated host to best meet your needs.
Start researching alternative hosting companies at the first sign of trouble with your own; don’t wait until a change is absolutely necessary. By doing this, if potential problems become deal breakers, it’s easy for you to quickly change to a brand new host that has less interruption in the plans you have than if a host server were to completely crash.
Target Audience
When you’re looking for a place to host a website, pick out a company that is located where your target audience is. If your target audience is in the UK, your web host should have their headquaters in the UK, too.
Make a list of priorities prior to choosing a web host. Match your ‘must have’ list with services offered by the companies that you are considering. By doing this, you will be more likely to make a sound decision, rather than one based solely on the price of the host.
After choosing a web host, opt for monthly payments instead of yearly payments. It’s difficult to know if your web host will be a good one, and your business may change over the course of the next 6-12 months. You may lose money if your host’s service declines, it closes altogether or your website becomes larger than what the host is designed to handle.
Do you want to use free web hosting? Make sure to back up everything that you want to keep, because free hosts don’t usually provide any sort of backup service. Remember, you get what you pay for. If you don’t back up your own data, you’ll lose it forever if something happens to it while on the free server.
Research each company you’re considering as a web host carefully before making your decision. Hosting prices are highly variable, from $2-$60 per month. Interestingly, lower prices often means higher reliability. While some expensive hosts may provide more bandwidth, they may have just as much–or more–downtime than less expensive hosts.
Many hosts are actually based off of other hosts. These types of companies buy huge blocks of web server capacity at a bulk discount, then re-sell it in smaller chunks to individual web site owners. You should check out different web hosts under the same company, as you may find a better deal this way!
If you’re able to communicate with other customers via message boards and forums, you really should. When you can ask questions and talk about any concerns, you will be able to quickly figure out which companies will not be able to meet the needs that you have. Participating in such discussions can help you feel more confident about your ultimate decision. Current customers can be great sources of information about your proposed web hosting company.
Your web host should be the recipient of plenty of hosting awards. This method is great for judging a host’s support and service. It is possible to falsify these awards, but this is typically a reliable means of assessing performance. It’s always a good sign if a host has won a number of voter’s choice awards.
Before selecting a web host, you want to research the history of the company. Do they have a good track record and reputation? Avoid companies that have been in existence less than a year. This provides some peace of mind that they will not be closing shop any time in the near future.
Watch out for web hosts that do not cost very much. Budget web hosting services are serious temptations, but be mindful of why they might be so affordable. The host may have an unsustainable mode of business, or have unreliable service that will affect your bottom lime.
Be certain that there are a variety of ways to contact the web host if there should be an issue that occurs on your own site. If you are able to contact the support team 24/7 via email, chat and telephone, you can rest assured that their customer service is probably great. This will prevent problems before they appear.
Web Host
Figure out how many years your web host company has operated for. A web host that has been in business longer will usually, but not always, provide superior service, especially technical support. They’ve already seen problems come and go, and have experience in handling them. For the more common problems, they will most likely have standardized procedures for resolution in place. If you choose a newer host, you might have to deal with inexperienced technicians and a lot of downtime.
Just because you’re shopping for web hosting doesn’t mean that the common sense ideas you apply to other shopping trips can be ignored. It is important to understand what you need, have an idea of how much you can spend, and then locate a service that fits all of that. With the information provided, you can choose the service that best fits your needs.