A company cannot function as well if it has a part of it that is weak. This will most likely be a company’s web server or a third party company for hosting. The directories and fancy wording can confuse you at times, if you are not a web programmer. When it is not clear what to purchase, people generally just throw up their hands and choose something. As fun as this may sound, this article will put an end to that overwhelming confusion.
Avoid web hosts that have a great deal of down time. Any web host which has many outages, or makes up lame excuses for their downtime, is not going to be reliable. Constant outages show that they’re unprofessional, so don’t join one of these.
Are you stuck between choosing between a free hosting service and a paid provider? Make sure to back up everything that you want to keep, because free hosts don’t usually provide any sort of backup service. Remember, you get what you pay for. So if any of your data goes missing, you’re just out of luck.
Find a hosting service with enough space to allow your website to grow. A single HTML page doesn’t require a ton of space; however, if you add items like videos and photos, you’ll need more space quickly. Having access to about 100MB of space for storage can give you adequate room for your site to expand.
The amount of traffic you receive on your site can affect your hosting charges. Ask your host how your bill will be computed. The formula varies between providers with some charging a flat rate based on amount of traffic, and others charging a varying amount according to usage by month.
When looking into a potential web host, extend your research beyond the promotional materials and website run by the host. Search for customer reviews of the host offered by independent websites to get a better idea of how good the host actually is. This will give you a better picture of the actual quality of service and features, and who has had issues with any of them.
If you are new to designing websites, choose a web host with a great support team over one that has lots of fancy extras. You’ll likely have many questions about designing your site. Good technical support will offer you more value than free applications.
Look for a hosting that has won lots of awards. This will give you a good idea of how efficient their service is. Not all awards are reliable, but in most cases, Internet users vote for their favorite hosting service, meaning hosts with many awards are probably a safe bet. It’s always a good sign if a host has won a number of voter’s choice awards.
Reputation is crucial to good web hosts. Some companies have an excellent reputation and are well-regarded in the field. Companies that use minimal effort, or don’t live up to the “hype,” can also be recognized.
Know your hosting company’s history before signing up. Do they have a good track record and reputation? See to it that the host that you choose has been in business for no less than a year. This provides some peace of mind that they will not be closing shop any time in the near future.
Hopefully this article has cleared up some of the confusion, and educated you on the industry jargon of hosting. Even if you are already locked into a web page hosting agreement, you can inform your IT person and prepare to move your site to a better hosting service once your current contract expires.