You’ve paid for a year’s hosting with a web host – only to discover a month later that they don’t provide databases to set up the CMS or blog you want. It’s a costly mistake.
It’s not a matter of figuring out the best web host. it’s a matter of finding a web host that suits your needs, at the right price.
Arm yourself with as much knowledge about what you plan to do with your website (or websites) – and then hit the presales question area of your web host’s support forum. No support forum? A forum is not necessary, but can be a valuable feature for many newbies. Read on to find out why!
<h2>Web host services and features:</h2>
<strong>Reputation</strong>
Reputation is important. You want a solid company hosting your website – not one who might go out of business six months down the track. Check the review sites to see which companies are at the top of the lists.
A couple of web host review sites:
http://www.webhostingreport.com
http://webhostinggeeks.com
<strong>Cost</strong>
Hosting for a small business website is commonly under USD $10 per month. Don’t pay for more than what you need. Often, you can upgrade later on if your needs outgrow your current hosting. Many web hosts offer shared hosting to keep prices down – shared hosting refers to websites sharing the one IP address. Dedicated hosting is used for websites with greater requirements.
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<strong>Uptime</strong>
Uptime is the amount of time each day that your website is available to web visitors. Downtime means that visitors cannot access your website, which can lose you sales or potential customers/members. A website with a lot of downtime will also end up losing rankings in search engine results. A good uptime is 99.98% or higher.
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<strong>Bandwidth</strong>
Bandwidth refers to data transfer. Every time a visitor simply looks at a web page, they are downloading data. The amount of data that a web host makes available to your account is your bandwidth. Some web hosts offer as little as 50 megabytes. Others offer bandwidth in gigabyes, or even unlimited bandwidth. Something to remember is to check the TOS (Terms of Service) of a web host if you have specific requirements for your website, such as streaming video or web chat facilities. Even with unlimited bandwidth on offer, web hosts will generally have a clause termed ‘Fair Use’.
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<strong>Disk Space</strong>
Disk space is the space on your web host’s server where you store the files for your website. A personal or small business website will generally not require more than a few megabytes of storage. A ten-page website with pages of 100KB each will only use around one megabyte in total. Some web hosts are offer unlimited disk space. Others might only offer 100 megabytes or less. But if you wish your web pages to load in quickly for visitors, you won’t want to go crazy using up hundreds of megabytes of disk space.
If your plan is to start a start that will be graphics-heavy, or a site where people will be uploading photos or videos, carefully consider whether the amount of disk space offered is suitable for your needs.
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<strong>Location of web host</strong>
If you’re trying to target a certain country with your website, it’s best to have your web host’s servers located in that country. If you wish to target Australia for example, having Australian web hosts can help Google understand that your website targets Australians. It’s not essential, but is a factor in effective geotargeting.
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<strong>Support</strong>
Good support is crucial when your website has gone down for no apparent reason, and you have just started a big business promotion! You need action, and you need it fast.
Ask yourself:
What kind of response times does a web host offer? Do they offer support 24 hours around the clock? Do they offer phone support as well as via email? Do they offer support in your native language?
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<strong>Extra domains</strong>
You want to start a new website. Does that mean you need to purchase another web hosting account? With some web hosts you do, but with many these days, you can have a number of domains on the one web hosting package – even unlimited domains. If you plan on having more than one website, have a look at whether or not you can have your extra websites with the one hosting account.
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<strong>Website builder</strong>
If you plan on using a site builder to create your website, check to see if your host offers one. Be sure to fully test the builder before signing up with the host. A builder can often help you to put together a website quickly and easily. But remember that your needs are likely to grow and change – so if the builder is very basic you could soon outgrow it.
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<strong>Green energy</strong>
Are you a greenie? Some web hosts use green energy to operate their servers and offices. Green energy sources may include solar and wind energy.
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<strong>Support forum</strong>
Support forums can offer enormous value to a newbie webmaster. Members of a support forum are often able to provide answers to all kinds of questions that pop into your head as you’re creating your website. If you want to know if the colors you’ve used on your website clash, don’t try asking your web host – ask a forum member!
Not all web hosts provide support forums. And of the web hosts that do have forums, not all have managed to help create a thriving community. If a forum is important to you, what you want to look for is a large member base of many thousands, a friendly attitude towards newbies, and lots of activity. The networking and friendship you can find on such a board is worth its weight in gold, especially when you’re just starting out.
