What should you look for in a web host? Which criteria should you use to pick out the right one? How can you tell whether the host you chose will prove useful, reliable, communicative, and professional?
These are a couple of the questions you need to ask yourself while trying to pick a web host. Make a wrong move, and you might end up with a lot of stress. A right host, on the other hand, will enable you save yourself valuable energy, time, and grief over the long haul.
How low can web host company go to provide you the best of service? As an understudy server management technician, here are things your boss expects you know about web host company. Failure to know these beforehand could cost you the job of your dream. These are what experts are saying about choosing the right web host company.
The Simplest Ways to Choose the Best of Web Host
What to Look For
Great web hosting boils down to security, speed, and support. Scalability, of course, is also crucial. To this end, you need to get a host that will help you scale your site rapidly especially if you are in a market where the audience keeps on growing. Further, the host should give your website the resilience it needs to handle sudden bursts of traffic.
That said, there are different types of hosting services – each with its prices. From a couple of dollars to thousands of dollars a month, there is no shortage of these crucial services.
Managed services, virtual private servers, and cloud hosting are better suited for small business. After all, these services cost anywhere between $10 and $100 a month. For more sophisticated hosting, you might consider going with a dedicated host who’ll handle all your web traffic needs.
The Perfect Commercial Host: A Myth?
In general, it is highly doubtful that you will ever get the perfect web hosting company. Although you might be financially prepared for the costs associated with this type of service, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the host you pick up will end up being the best.
This industry is fascinating in the sense that high prices don’t necessarily mean that you’ll get the high-quality support and service you will be expecting. The only thing you can (in all probability) be sure of is that rock-bottom prices don’t deliver top notch support either.
So, what should you do? As one who has been in this industry for so long, I would recommend that you settle for a fair trade-off between reliability, price, and the features that you are willing to handle.
Picking the Right Host for Your Website
To decide what a web host has to offer, some people check disk storage features and bandwidth. Others consider the hosting provided.
In brief, to make the right decision, you must do the following:
- Know and understand your hosting needs
- Research on uptime guarantees and the web host’s reliability
- Check whether they have host upgrading options
- Find out more about the hosting features being provided (such as how many add-on domains are allowed) and see if they match your needs
- Ask about the prices both at sign up and at renewal
- Check the hosting control panel
- Carefully scan the web host’s terms of service to understand their server use policy and account suspension specifications
- Check whether there are other supporting features with the service (such as environmental friendliness aka green web hosting, and site backup, among others)
After dealing with the above, it might also prove useful if you are careful about signing up because the host promised unlimited services. A couple of web hosts offer so-called unlimited bandwidth and storage for a couple of dollars every month. In most cases, you’ll discover that this unlimited hosting isn’t what you thought.
You can, therefore, be sure that if you only have to pay $5 a month, the terms of service will specify something in the lines of the host being allowed to shut you down or throttle your performance after you hit a given usage level.
Apart from the above, it always helps to ensure that your domain name is yours. If yours is a fledgling business, only sign up with web hosts who will allow you to own your domain.
Such ownership will give you the freedom to change the service provider when and as needed. Further, having the domain in your name means that you will continue enjoying any of the SEO benefits you earned when you were with your ex- web host.
Concluding Thoughts
Now that you have a rough idea about how to get your website online, you are set to start making a killing for yourself. Use the guide above to get started on the first step towards total internet access – choosing the right web host. Here is a last tip: Many web hosts offer discounts and coupon codes through their affiliate sites. It’s not unusual to get more than 60% off your first year. So, once you find the hosting company of your choice, go on Google and search for a discount code for this particular company. Chances are you will find plenty of bloggers who offer a coupon code.
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