One of the most vital decisions when planning to build an online presence is deciding where to host your web site. If you select the wrong host, you may have a visually impressive site, however users will have a difficult time when your site runs slowly or even fails to load at all. You may even end up committed to a host that offers no customer service, technical support or user security. Taking the time to research web hosting companies will save you headaches, time and effort in the future. All the time and hard work invested in your site could be wasted or even lost if you select the wrong company. It is frustrating and time consuming to then have to find a company that can support your requirements and transfer all you data to another host.
An online search for a
WEB HOSTING company will provide literally hundreds of different hosting companies soliciting your businesses. The choices seem overwhelming and it can be quite daunting to try to select the one that is best for your blog or website. With so many choices, how can you ensure you select one of the reputable ones? Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction.
Before you start your search, determine your requirements. Do you just want a personal website or blog to post photos and text for friends and family or do you want to promote a local business or create an online way of producing additional income? If you are just building a personal site with 10 pages or less, you can get by all right with a free
WEB HOST. The main drawback to free sites in addition to their limited space, security and service, is that your site will be bombarded with advertisements. The
WEB HOST puts these ads on you site to produce income for them in exchange for providing free hosting.
If you are promoting a business or attempting to make an online income, you will need more tools and services. Will you require a shopping cart with secure checkout, scripting, log analysis, a domain name with unlimited sub-domains, multiple e-mail accounts and user security assurance? Look for a
WEB HOSTING company that offers all the e-commerce tools you require in one package. Make sure to select a plan that provides adequate disk space and bandwidth to support all the images, videos, data and text you plan to incorporate into your blog or website.
Avoid hidden fees and costly add-ons.
If you are not an accomplished Webmaster, determine if the host offers user-friendly online website building tools and helpful training. However, remember that these tools are proprietary and only work with the hosting company’s server. If you become disenchanted with their services and wish to move to another host, your work will be lost and you will have to start again from scratch; another reason for choosing the best
WEB HOST possible in the beginning.
Select a web host that offers 27/7 toll-free customer service and technical support. Does a “live” person answer the phone or is your call diverted to an automated system? If you have a problem with you site after hours or on the weekend, you don’t want to have to wait hours or days to fix the glitch.
Ask what security measures are in place to make sure that your data remains safe and secure. There is an enormous amount of personal information exchanged online. You want to make sure your site is protected from hackers and fraudsters.
Make sure you understand the type of hosting you are purchasing. The majority of small to medium sites with less than 5,000 visitors a day are adequately served by inexpensive “shared hosting.” Larger websites with extensive traffic are best served with
“dedicated hosting” which means they are the only site on the server.