Choosing which web hosting services is a decision which should not be taken lightly, like any service there are good and bad, finding the right one for your needs can make it a breeze, choose the wrong one and the whole experience could leave a bad taste in your mouth.
After asking what people want from a hosting company it really came as no surprise to me to see that cost was number one on the list, but some of the other items were things I never really considered.
$$ The Price
Cheap website hosting what’s the catch? There is nothing wrong in looking around for a good price when choosing which web hosting services , but remember when it comes to cheap website hosting that its not a cheap service your getting, as it could be reflected in terms of quality of service, this can include speed, bandwidth ( as very cheap hosting might include bandwidth limits and additional costs if exceeded)
Be prepared to pay a fair price and get exactly what your looking for rather than saving money and compromising on what you need, it may seem like a saving and it will be initially, but in the long term you might end up having to spend more money when the package does not suit your needs.
Service & Support
Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned website builder or a complete novice having good service and support from your chosen hosting company is a must.
Just image your website is down for some unknown reason and you can’t contact anyone from your sites hosting company to find out what is going on, not only this but all the time your site is down your missing potential visitors or customers.
Downtime, reliability
We’d all love to have the next great thing in terms of websites, maybe the next eBay, Twitter or You tube, but without a reliable service it simply won’t happen, visitors will just go elsewhere. One thing I have learned about visitors from website statistics is, if they don’t find what they need, and quickly they will go elsewhere, so when choosing which web hosting services they must be reliable, as even an average site will beat even the best website if it’s using an unreliable service.
Website extras
Before choosing which web hosting services or signing up decide on exactly what you need, this could mean a backend database such as MySql, other website add-ins, large amounts of email space and multiple addresses, or even a complete package that allows you to have multiple domains if you intend to run multiple sites, all of which will save money.
Easy administration
Which web hosting services gives you the most easy to use administration tools? A lot of website administration can be very hard even for an experienced website designer; this is time which could be much better spent actually working on your site.
Shall I use Windows or Unix hosting?
Which web hosting services ? Windows or Unix web hosting, both of them have their advantages and disadvantages, the only thing I will add from personal experience is I initially started with Windows web hosting, but soon changed it when I wanted to create a dynamic website and blog, there just seemed to be so many Unix programs around that were free, that literally setup my sites and blogs for me, plus a whole range of add-ins and plug-ins to quickly and easily do all manner of things without me having to have any real programming experience, it just made my whole introduction to web building so much easier.
Automatically renewing domain and hosting
How sure are you that your new website will be a success? What happens if it fails? Do you know that many hosting companies will automatically renew your hosting and domain with them, meaning you could actually get charged before your even aware of it as it will be as stipulated in the hosting companies terms and conditions, of course we hope your website is a success, but to get charged when not using web space or a domain is just a waste,
As a safety net its not a bad idea to make your chosen hosting company will contact you prior to it expiring so you at least have the choice of renewing or not.
Expanding your web empire
Starting a website costs can be kept to a minimum, but what if your website begins to grow very quickly and the traffic increases at a rapid rate, your current hosting package just might not be enough, for example you might find as your probably on a shared server the extra traffic load might can cause slow downs for your visitors as the server struggles to cope, thinking about this now and ask how easy it would be to upgrade if necessary.
Email accounts
If your setting up a website make sure you use the email provided, it will be associated to the domain name and it makes your website look much more professional than using one of the free services.
What would you rather user..
Webmaster@computer-adviser.com or webmaster2221@hotmail.com, the first appears much more professional, rather than using an address, generally associated to home users.
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