If you have never hosted a website online before, you may be feeling at a bit of a loss. What should you be looking for? What can a hosting provider do for you? With so many different hosting companies to choose from, it is important to know how to narrow down your search effectively. Let’s take a look at the different factors you need to keep in mind…
Identifying your hosting needs
There is only one place to begin, and this is by identifying what you need from the web hosting company you are looking for. Don’t only consider your business requirements now, but in the future as well. Some of the key questions you need to ask yourself are the following: What type of website are you creating? Are you going to be using WordPress or a different platform? Is any sort of special software required for your website coding? Do you want to build more than one website? What sort of volume of traffic are you looking to attract? What are your goals? What do you aim to achieve over the next 12 months?
Does the web hosting provider guarantee server uptime?
The most important aspect you need to consider when looking for a web host provider is the level of uptime they provide. This relates to the amount of time your website will be online. You should look for a minimum of 99.5 percent when choosing a web host. After all, every minute your website is offline is a minute you are missing out on potential customers. The best hosting companies will promise a minimum of 99.9% uptime, giving you complete peace of mind. It’s not only uptime you need to consider when it comes to the reliability of the web host. Companies like SiteGround provide auto daily back-ups so you don’t have to worry about lost data. Bandwidth and RAID protected storage should also be considered, as well as effective 24/7 customer support.
What are the upgrade options available?
Now that you have established that the web host in question is reliable, the next factor you need to look at is the upgrade options that are available. In the beginning, a lot of business owners opt for a shared web host plan because this is a good way to save money. However, as your website gets more and more popular, it is unlikely that a shared web host is going to be sufficient enough and you will have to move up to a plan with more processing power, memory capacity, and disk storage. You need to make sure that the web host company you choose won’t hold you back and that there are plenty of different options available.
How much does it cost to sign-up and renew your plan?
Of course, the price is a pivotal factor when it comes to any sort of business decision. This is not to say that you should go for the cheapest hosting provider you can find, though. Quality and reliability are always the most important factors. Once you have found several web hosts that tick all of the boxes, you can then distinguish based on price. However, do not only consider the price in terms of signing up, but you should also take a look at the renewal fee as well. Go Daddy is known for their exceptionally low entry rates but they then often put their prices up considerably when you go to renew, so it is definitely worth looking beyond the first year.
What sort of customer service does the host provider offer?
Customer service is another critical element that needs to be considered before you sign up for a web host account. Firstly, you need to make sure that you can get in touch with a customer service representative whenever required. The best web host companies today provider 24/7 support, as they recognize how pivotal it is that any issues are dealt with imminently so that your business does not suffer. However, simply offering a 24-hour service is not good enough. You need to make sure you are not going to be waiting in extensive queues or talking to ‘advisors’ who actually don’t have a clue about web hosting. You can read reviews on the web hosts that you are considering to find out more about their customer service offering. Or, why not get in touch with the customer support team yourself before signing up?
How user-friendly is the account and are there any add-on services?
Finally, you will want to make sure that your web host account is easy to manage. The design itself doesn’t really matter, so long as everything you need is in one place and easy to use. The last thing you want is to sign up with a web host provider and then find that you need to invest in training merely to get to grips with account management. Everything should be easy and straightforward. You should also look at the additional services the web host providers, from security options to domain name registration. The extra services you are interested in will depend on the nature of your business, so make sure you carefully consider what you are going to need now and in the future, for example, some companies charge for site transfers whereas others do not.
As you can see, there are a number of different factors you need to consider when you are looking for a web hosting provider. You should always make sure you begin by identifying your hosting needs, as this will then give you the basis to conduct your search and narrow down all of your options. From performance and customer service to upgrade options and the price at sign-up and renewal, there is a lot to take into account. However, if you carefully assess all of the factors above in accordance with your business and your needs, you are sure to find the perfect hosting provider for you.
