Too many webmasters think they cannot make mistakes when choosing a web host. Similar to most things in life, there’s a chance to make errors when looking for a web host. The following tips will help you avoid many common mistakes and pitfalls in the process of picking a web host.
Secure Server
To ensure a safe website, it may be wise to pay a little extra to obtain the secure server certificate. A secure server is a sign of trust to a potential customer. You will want to use this option if you are asking your site visitors to provide you any sensitive information, like their address or financial details.
A free hosting provider will only be valuable to you if it can meet all of your needs. If you choose a free service, your website may be plastered with advertisements. This means you don’t have any control over the ads that are displayed. Ads will pop up randomly, completely outside of your control. Not only will this give your site an unprofessional appearance, your viewers will likely resent the intrusion.
Consider companies that use a cPanel. The cPanel program lets you put popular apps on your site without complicated coding. The applications you use will be very user friendly and intuitive to install. Not to mention, it will help remove a lot of the excess clutter that might go by unnoticed to the non-machine eye and help your website function with less memory and higher speeds.
The host you decide to choose should provide support for all programming languages you are currently utilizing, and plan on using in the future. It will be a hard task to start up your website, if you are trying to run it using a language that your hosting company doesn’t support. If you change a programming language to an unsupported one in the future, your web host won’t be able to support your site. Switching web hosting providers can require a lot of very difficult and boring work.
Before choosing a web host, go directly to its website and take a look around. Beware of any hosting company with an unprofessional, poorly designed website. This could indicate a shady company or simply one with little practical experience. A good website shows visitors that the company cares about its reputation and has good web designers on staff.
Hosting Company
Find out a website hosting company’s history before choosing to use them. Be certain that it is an established company and has a good track record. Any hosting service that’s been around for under a year is probably a company you should avoid. What would you do, after all, if your hosting company went out of business?
Some hosting services offer refunds if your site is down. In most cases, the amount of the refund will be negligible; however, the amount that you could have earned through lost sales can be significant. Downtime can be quite damaging to your business. Do not allow yourself to settle for frequent down times solely on the basis of refunds or rebates; instead, opt for a provider that avoids these down times altogether.
As your own business grows, as does the amount of viewers to your website, you may have to consider upgrading your hosting plan. Find out how the service handles upgrades. There should be a specific process for upgrading that minimizes problems and allows upgrades to occur quickly. An increase in bandwidth is something that generally needs to happen without too much delay. If you need to upgrade to a dedicated server, that process should also be simple.
If you plan to upload a lot of information, look into your potential host’s upload method. There is a chance that you will need to use an FTP server. If you don’t have a lot of experience with uploading, then you’ll also want to ensure that your hosting service offers support.
See if a prospective web host is a new startup or has been around for years. A company with a long history of customer satisfaction won’t sacrifice their reputation readily. If the servers encounter a problem, these companies are more likely to have the requisite resources for handling it. For the most common issues, experienced companies generally have standardized ways of handling them. This is helpful since inexperienced tech support can be frustrating and unproductive for your company and website.
What kind of server access does your web host provide? They may offer FTP access, SSH, or solely a control panel. If your site is large or complicated, the better controls will be essential. For a relatively small, simple site, web-based controls should provide adequate access that doesn’t require a wealth of technical knowledge.
Reading reviews is a great way to glean perspectives of various web hosts. Read what these current customers have to say to get a sense of their experiences.
For a majority of websites, many of the add-ons that web hosts offer will be of little value. Although unlimited storage sounds great, there is no need to pay more for it if you are only hosting a modest business website or blog. These extras are generally unnecessary for the typical customer and are pure profit for the host.
Make sure there are no hidden fees in your service plan, such as cancellation or low-traffic. You might determine that you do not like a web host shortly after starting with it. When you try to cancel your service, you find steep cancellation fees. A lot of low-priced services charge you a lot to cancel your account. Make sure you know what the consequences will be of ending a contract early.
There are many things you can do in order to assure you choose the best host for your website. If you realize what to watch for, you can avoid some common mistakes that individuals make when selecting a web host. Let the above tips lead you to the best host you can find.
