If you need web hosting, then you are certainly going to be spoilt for choice. There are literally thousands upon thousands of companies all around the world offering all types of web hosting from shared hosting, to VPS (virtual private servers) and dedicated servers.
Every day, there are hundreds of new websites being created, and the growth of the digital industry is one that is set to continue for a long time to come. Virtually every type of business has some form of presence on the web, whether it’s their own website, social media pages or simply by advertising on Google or Facebook. If you have any type of business, then it is vital that you get a website developed as soon as you can.
However, having a website is only half the story. You are also going to need web hosting. Without it, you can’t put your site online. Many web design companies will offer web hosting as part of their work, so you wouldn’t need to worry about it, but if you are making your own website, or a friend or family member is helping you, then you are going to need somewhere to host it.
With so many web hosts out there, it shouldn’t be difficult to find a good host. However, it’s not as easy as that. You will need to do a bit of research into the potential hosts you might use. Everything is not always as it seems, and the same applies to web hosting. You will want to make sure that you are using the right type of hosting for your requirements, as well as using a host that has high performance servers and which offer great customer support.
There are a number of things that you will want to avoid when it comes to picking a web host. In this article, you’ll find details about some of the most important factors and what to avoid.
The Price
The first thing that is going to get the attention of everyone is the price. Regardless of whether you are looking to buy web hosting, or a new house. Everyone wants to pay the lowest price they can, but this isn’t always a good strategy.
When it comes to web hosting, there are lots of different levels of quality of host. If you are creating a website for your business, then you want to work with a host that offers a high level of quality and performance.
When searching online for a host, you will undoubtedly come across many web hosts who are offering either free hosting, or $1 a month hosting. You might think “this will do” – but you could be letting yourself in for a whole lot of trouble. Nothing in life is free, and if something sounds too good to be true it usually is.
Free or very cheap web hosting usually equates to one thing – poor quality. If you don’t mind your website taking 15 minutes to load, and it being offline more than its online, then go for it. You won’t be disappointed. But if you care about your website, you’ll want to use a host that offers fast loading times, and a guaranteed up time of at least 99%. In most cases, this will cost, and it certainly won’t be provided for free or for $1 unless there are a huge amount of limitations that come with your hosting agreement.
The Performance
You want your website to offer a positive first experience for potential clients. If you provide them with a website that takes forever to load, or one with a poor performance level, what does that say about your business? What first impression will a badly performing website give to people?
You will want potential clients to access and use your site as quickly as possible without waiting for the pages to load. You’ll want a website that is always going to be online and available, rather than one which could be offline due to server problems or the overuse of resources.
If you are located in North America, then why not check out these Canadian web hosting providers who may be of use to you. Having your web servers located in the same country as your target audience can offer your site visitors a better experience, as the pages will be loading slightly faster.
The page loading time is one of the most important things for your website. Many of the largest companies in the world have departments or professionals whose sole job is to work on the loading speed of their websites and keep everything optimized and ticking along nicely.
Most cheap or free hosts will not provide you with a high quality experience. In most cases, they are selling resources on their servers to thousands of individual clients and hosting thousands of different websites. If just one of those clients starts to overuse or abuse the resources on the server, then every other person who has a website there will suffer.
You should also be fully aware of all security issues and how protected you will be in the event of a major security breach, or if the server has any fatal problems. In most cases, these cheap hosts will not compensate you for any loss to your business or work, and a lot of the time, they may even fail to keep proper backups. If you do plan to use cheap hosting, make sure that you have full backups of everything, and in the event of a major incident, do not expect too much help or support.
Read the Fine Print and Details
Sometimes there are web hosts who like to stretch the meaning of terms of their hosting packages, such as when they say that the disc space and bandwidth is unlimited. With regards to web hosting, there really is no such as thing as unlimited resources.
Every server is going to have a fixed amount of processing power and storage, whether it be 10GB or 10,000GB. There is no way that they can provide unlimited storage space to every client on that server, because eventually, they will reach their physical limit.
Most hosts will provide hosting packages with a fixed amount of disc space and data transfer, and in the majority of cases, these limits will be more than suitable for everyone, regardless of whether you are operating a large site or just a simple blog. In the event that you do need more resources, you should easily be able to upgrade your hosting package to the next level.
Selecting a web host is similar to buying a car. You aren’t gonna purchase the first car you see for sale. You’ll want to do your research, check up on the finer details, and then once you have a potential list of 3-5 vehicles, then you will make your final selection. It’s exactly the same with web hosting. Spend a little time researching your potential hosts and then make your final decision on who to work with.