Any online business is only as good as its weakest service provider, which is many times a third-party website hosting provider. If you do not have prior programming experience, many of the options and add-ons will not make much sense and can make hosting seem much more confusing than it really is. Once the information and choices become convoluted, many people just shut down and randomize their choice. This article will help you to identify your real website hosting necessities.
See what kinds of sites you can get through your web host. Most free hosting services offer only pages that are static, you are not given the option to use your own programming language and scripts. If you find yourself in need of a dynamic scripting page, you may need to find an affordable pay host instead.
Frequent Outages
Ensure you pick a hosting provider that has a very minimal down time and no outages. If a company faces frequent outages and is constantly making excuses, it is a red flag that they are unreliable, or they would have made plans to remedy the situation. Web hosts that experience frequent outages cannot provide you with top-quality service, and you should not commit to any contracts with these types of companies.
Research backup host sites when you find certain aspects of the web hosting services unfavorable. Thus, you will be able to make an informed decision when the need to change hosts becomes imminent.
Use a separate company for domain registration rather than registering it via your website hosting company. This way, you will retain control of the domain name if you decide to switch web hosting companies for any reason. If you register your domain through your host, they have control of it.
Make a list of the priorities that are important to your site before you begin to shop for your site’s web host. Figure out what it is you need and want and from there shop around to see what web hosts matches these expectations. Using a priority list will prevent you from choosing a provider based on a single factor, like price, instead of shopping around for a host that meets more of your needs.
Web Host
Choose monthly payments instead of subscribing for a whole year. You don’t know how long the web host (or even your business) will stay open. If your web host’s service goes down the toilet or you end up having your account closed for a breach of terms of service, you’ll lose out on what you’ve already paid.
When looking at hosting packages with unlimited services, proceed with caution. Unlimited disk space, for example, might be weakened in the presence of severely limited acceptable file types. In addition, sometimes payment plans are tiered when unlimited options are involved, meaning you might end up spending more than you had hoped to. Always obtain all the information and restrictions with these plans, because unlimited is rarely truly unlimited.
One way to save money on website operating costs is to find a free web page hosting service. If you do so, you may have ads pop up on your web site, and you will not have as much space for your files. When it is important that your website is highly professional looking, this kind of hosting may not be an option.
When seeking a host provider, learn as much as you can aside from reading the material on the host’s website. Look for unbiased reviews written for independent sites, and you will have a clearer idea of the host’s strengths and weaknesses. Independent customer reviews will be a good indicator of quality.
If you have the ability to talk with other customers that use the web host you are looking at, make sure to do so, either on forums, message boards, or direct conversations. Asking customers questions about the your most pressing concerns can help you pare down your list of potential hosts. You’ll find you have greater confidence in the company after discussions like this. Customers currently using your chosen website hosting company are often the best source of feedback and information on the quality of service.
If getting more visitors to your website is important to you, chose a web host which incorporates SEO. If the service has an SEO feature, it will register your website with the popular search engines. However, it might be a better idea to register your site yourself since you will be able to add a detailed description which is helpful for the ranking of your site.
Carefully review your potential host’s website. If the design is poor, move on! Will yours likely be any better? Choose a company with a well-designed site, including forums, help documents, online chat support and full contact information including an address and phone number.
If you think you will upload lots of info, then check out which web hosts allow you to do so. You might need an FTP server. At least check that there is a helpful and adequate online manager, especially if you know that you are not that technology savvy.
Control Panel
Make sure you know what the control panel of your web host will look like. A quality service will have helpful guides, forums, and tutorials for setting up your site. If you find it difficult getting familiar with the control panel, search for something a little simpler.
With the information you’ve read here, you are equipped to tackle the search for a web host. If you already have a hosting plan contract, it is still possible to get ready to make the switch when the time comes.
