How to choose a good web host?

Building a website for your business can be complicated. You see adverts on the TV constantly offering you a website for ¢99, or similar ‘unbeatable offers,’ when the reality is perhaps not so straightforward. Once you sign up for that wonderfully cheap package, you soon realize that there is a whole range of features that you can’t access or that you only have a certain amount of space to use. Then you have to start paying more money, or you may even need to switch hosts and start another website from scratch, which is only ever going to waste your time.

There are a few key principles that you should always consider when you are looking for a web host, such as:

Customer service - If something goes wrong with your website, you want to know that you have support either on the phone or through online chat to help you to deal with the problem. Free web hosts do not offer any level of customer support, so keep that in mind when you are choosing your web host. Most good hosts will offer 24 hour customer support through a variety of channels.

Storage and bandwidth - Some hosts offer unlimited amounts of storage and bandwidth, but others do not. You don’t want to find out further down the line that you have run out of storage and need to pay a lot of extra money to get more storage.

Reviews - Read customer reviews and expert reviews from businesspersons on web hosts. Most technology websites will provide good reviews that are frequently updated with recent reviews. Make sure to read third party reviews to avoid any favoritisms.

Security - If you are using your website to make online transactions or to take personal information, you have a responsibility to make that data secure. If security is a big priority to you, then look at the security features that each web host offers. Contact secure backup specialists, or invest in secure backup software.

Performance - Performance can vary greatly from one host to another, so when regarding website speed and the percentage of uptime, you need to take the performance stats of a host into consideration. If you end up with a host that is continually offline for maintenance, your visitors will become frustrated and not come back to your site in future.

Costs - Costs are always important in any business decision, and you have to weigh up the benefits of going with a cheaper host with the risks of this option. Sometimes cheapest isn’t the best deal, in fact, with web hosts, you will generally find the opposite applies. Having said that, you do get packages that offer much more when regarding features that your business may never need, and will find pointless. Therefore, ensure you thoroughly research so you do not end up under or over spending.

Do not rush into your decision on a web host, and make sure you have properly thought over the pros and cons. If you fail to do so, you make live to regret your choice, and end up harming your business. You can get several good solutions at a fairly reasonable monthly fee - just check out the reviews for conformation.