There are a so many different web hosting companies out there, with prices and services ranging from a few pounds a month to hundreds of pounds a month – and for the non-tecchy, choosing the best fit can be very daunting.
Let’s look at some of the most important things to look for when choosing a web hosting company.
Check their technical support
Unless you are an experienced web developer, one of the most important things you’ll need to consider when looking for a web host is the technical support available. If your website stops working for one day, whether it’s a server problem or some kind of setting or another glitch, you’ll want the issue resolved quickly so that you don’t lose too many visitors and revenue.
Your web host’s technical support is probably going to be where you need to turn to for a solution (especially if you don’t have anyone else in your business or circle of friends who can help), so you want them to be reliable and fast to respond.
Before you sign up and buy a hosting package, a good idea to contact their tech support to see firsthand how quickly they respond and how easy it is to get an answer from them.
Just how many other websites will you be sharing your server with?
Another important factor is how loaded their web servers are. This is particularly important if you’re signing up for a shared hosting account, because there will be other websites hosted on the same server as yours.
Some hosting companies will put several hundred websites on a single server, which can cause a couple of problems for you:
1. It can seriously impact the performance of your website, slowing it down considerably.
2. Your website be blacklisted by Google and other services because of “guilt by association” if any of the other sites on your server contain unfavourable content. Check the web hosts policy on the type of website that can and can’t be hosted with them to see if they let anyone and everything through their doors!
More options means more flexibility for you in future
You’ll also need to decide on a type of hosting, such as shared, VPS or dedicated server. Some hosts only offer shared accounts, while others offer different tiers of hosting.
A host with multiple levels of account is often the better choice, because you can upgrade to a higher level account as your sites grow, without having to move everything to an entirely different hosting service.
Finally, you’ll want to check the specifications of the hosting account. This includes things like storage space, bandwidth limits, control panels and other technical details.
While you need to be sure you’re getting enough storage, bandwidth and so on to run your websites effectively, this is probably the least important factor when it comes right down to it. Most hosting companies offer similar plans at similar prices, so don’t worry about these things until you’ve checked off the rest of what we’ve discussed in this article.
