5 Important Tips to Choose a Good Web Hosting Provider

Here is your first bit of web host buying news, and it is not good: unless you happen to have some very sophisticated web tools at your disposal, you cannot be sure of your web host’s hosting services. However, just like buying any service, there are ways to avoid getting ripped off.Here are a few things you need to consider when buying web hosting:

A free web host comes at a cost
This is a burningly accurate statement which you ignore at your peril. Your first thought may be that if you use a free website service, then you have nothing to lose. But, what you in-fact have to lose is any and all the time and money you invest into building, developing and maintaining your website.

Most free services install adverts onto your website, which is going to cost you some credibility. Others will make it so that you cannot leave the host once you are on there, so you will have to leave your website where it sits and start a new one if you want to leave the host. Some free services have a very poorly maintained server, which is going to be hacked frequently, which means that anything you upload is not safe.

Be careful when reading reviews
If you are not at the stage where you are cynical about everything you read online, then please send five dollars to this site. If you are already cynical about everything you read, then be careful when it comes to hosting reviews.

Ideally, if you want to find a good hosting service, the you need to start looking at hosting reviews. But, do not look at the positive reviews because they are written by the hosting company. You need to look at the negative reviews. Think about it, when you pay for a service and they do their job, do you go online and write a good review about them? No, you do not. So, why would you believe all of the good reviews online?

You need to look at the bad reviews. You need to look for consistency within the negative reviews. For example, if you were buying a microwave and several negative reviews mentioned that its paint flakes off, then you may draw that conclusion that its paint probably flakes off. You need to do the same thing with the hosting service and look for consistencies throughout the negative reviews.

The distance selling laws apply
The people selling you hosting services should not be able to lie to you. If they say that they install the latest and most advanced virus checkers on their servers, then they have to by law, otherwise you can sue them. If they say that they give you a massive bandwidth amount, then they have to give you the amount they quoted.

This is because the distance selling laws allow you to sue the people who lie and mis-advertise to you. However, the laws do not apply across the world. If you are dealing with a company in the European Union, or with Canada, or in America itself, then the distance selling laws apply. If not, then people can lie to you about their hosting services and there is nothing you can do about it.

Concentrate on disk space and bandwidth
These are the things that are going to affect your website the most directly and in the most positive or negative manner. It is up to you to find the amount of disk space and bandwidth that you are going to need for your particular website. You really need to check to see if your host offers an upgrade service where you can buy more bandwidth or disk space.

If they do not then you need to look upon them with great suspicion, as it may mean that they are selling-on their own bandwidth and disk space, which is not going to be ideal for you. Plus, if you cannot upgrade then you risk having a popular website that you cannot expand, or that only a limited number of people can visit at one time.

Call their technical support staff
The bad hosts have great sales staff that answer right away, and terrible support or complaints staff that leave you on hold for a long time. Call the support or complaints staff to see how long it takes before you talk to a person. Also, do not go for a host that charges you more than the standard phone call rate for any sort of technical support.

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8 Important Factors To Consider Before Choosing A Web Host

 

Choosing a good web hosting provider is the first and perhaps the most important decision one needs to make to build a successful online presence. With a plethora of web hosts put there, choosing the best one can be confusing task for the beginners. So here are 8 most important factors you need to keep in kind while choosing a web host to derive maximum benefits:

1) Pricing: Pricing is the first and one of the most important factors that you need to consider while  choosing a web host. Avoid going for cheap plans as they  have limited features and hence aren’t best suited for the long run.  That said, an expensive doesn’t guarantee value for money either.  Choose the one that offers you with the diversity of selection within affordable expenses.

2) Technical Support: When choosing a host for your company it is very important to consider the quality of technical support and customer services provided. Look at the services they offer. How is the support for these services offered- live chat, mails, phone calls, or ticket system. Is it available 24×7 or just specific times in a day? Do they’ve  toll free numbers? All these are important criteria that need to be paid due attention to.

3) Software: Software is yet another important factor. Always check if their software is compatible with yours or not. Do they support your web design software? Are they willing to provide you with the online storage space and bandwidth? Does the hosting provider support Email, POP3, SMTP, IMAP, Auto responders, Email forwarders etc? This is very vital if you have a big website which is growing rapidly. It will not be wise to buy a plan that offers only limited space.

4) Data Transfer: Go with the company that offers you with the higher data transfer allowance. There are some companies that claim to offer a

n unlimited data allowance which is not entirely true. So be sure that you read the terms and the conditions of the companies carefully. For a small to medium sized business website, 5-10 gigabytes bandwidth is enough.

5) Reputation: The reputation of the company is important to consider while choosing a web host. Watch the online space, there are a lot of forums  where you can find active discussions and critique of most hosting companies. Are there too many negative feedbacks for the web host you’re considering to opt for? If yes, you can give it a skip.

6) Server Space: Again, like the server space and data allowance, there are companies that will offer you with loads of email accounts that you will hardly ever use. ‘Unlimited accounts’ is the only selling point of these companies.  If you have a large organization with  thousands of employees working under you, such offers might be beneficial for you. But if you’re an SMB, ten to fifteen email accounts should do the job.

7) Mailing Script: Regardless of the type of online business you have,

  you will require installation of CGI script. Whether it is a contract through processor, management mailing script or any other fancy credit card script, your hosting account needs to have them installed to run properly. These  scripts make sure that the performance of the server is never affected.

8) Features: Features are something that can break or make your website. Always have a look at the different add-ons a company is offering. Do they offer an option of adding cart to the site, integration of social media, website builder tools, SSL certificate, mobile website builder etc?

Wrapping things up:
After taking into consideration all the factors listed above, take your time searching for a web host. It is a one time thing as transferring a site from one host to another is a very cumbersome process. You’ll be with the company you choose for at least a year, so make sure that you make a wise decision.

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