You can have the most well-designed website in the world, and the greatest business model, but still fail by picking the wrong web page hosting company. Unless you are a programmer, all the technical jargon and directories that website hosting providers use can be confusing. Avoid simply picking a company at random out of confusion. Make sure your ultimate selection is a company that truly will meet your needs.
Avoid a host with a lot of outages. Don’t choose a company that makes excuses for lengthy outages. Frequent outages signify an unprofessional business. Don’t make commitments to these type of companies.
Select several providers you are interested in, and keep their contact information. If the problem doesn’t lend itself to an easy fix, you’ll be ready to move to a new host. You’ll avoid downtime and lost traffic to your site regardless of what caused the initial problem.
Identify what services you must have before you begin your search. Determine what you want and need well in advance, and determine how well every possible web host can meet those needs and wants. Making a list should help you make a good decision based on different factors instead of focusing on the price, only.
Web Host
Choose monthly payments instead of one-time lump sums when negotiating with a web host. You cannot predict what will happen with your web host or your business in the coming months. If your business grows too big for the host or your business closes, you may lose the money you paid, unless the host states otherwise.
Don’t select a web page hosting service that has enough space for you right now; select one that gives you room to grow. One page of HTML doesn’t require much space, but as you make your site more complex by adding images and video, your space requirement will grow rapidly. 100MB of space should be good enough to start, for most sites.
Web hosts will typically charge you on a per-traffic basis. See how they’ll bill you, since many have various flat rates and categories.
Invest in an SSL certificate for both your and your customers’ peace of mind. You then add a button on your site and then visitors are informed that they’ve entered into a secure zone. This makes it more likely that they will trust you and your site for any transactions.
Web Host
When selecting a web host, look for a company that offers you detailed site statistics and traffic information to your website. Add an outside visitor counter, and check the numbers this gives you with the numbers put out by the web host. This helps you as an online businessperson to customize your information as you market to your niche.
Having a positive reputation is very important for any web host. Articles and reviews about choices in hosting can help you find the services that have trusted reputations. You will quickly spot unreliable companies which do not perform as advertised.
You should now have sufficient knowledge to at least understand the terminology, and be able to recognize both the good and bad features of a web hosting company. If you already have a hosting account and are locked into a contract, you can notify your IT department that you are preparing your site for an easy transition.