Selecting the right web host is among the most important decisions that you will make about your website. You need to ensure that you have picked the right web host failure to which your hard work may be wasted or even lost. However,it is not easy to choose a hosting company given the many web hosts that are available today. The key to choosing the right host for your website is to look at your needs,do a thorough research and test top candidates. In this article,we look at the 5 most important things that you need to consider in order to pick the best web host for your website. Learn how to start a blog,-. Before that however,let’s see why it is important to find the best web hosting company.
Why it is crucial to pick the right host
For most business owners,websites and blogs are used to engage with current clients as well as reach out to potential clients. Although most website owners understand the need to create great web content,they do not take selecting the right web host as important. I have seen many small companies get it wrong from the start just because they did not properly check out their needs.
What will happen when you choose the wrong web host?
Being in a business,the most important thing for you is to maximize profits and at the same time,minimize costs. If you do not believe that selecting the wrong host could be injuries to your business,then you need to think again. The following are some of the bad things that will happen should you not pick the right host based on your needs.
⢠Revenue Loss
In case your site happens to go down,it will be difficult for your customers to read your blog posts or even learn about what products and services you offer. It is worse if you have an online store because you stand to lose out on sales and income. There was a time Amazon experienced an outage of just 40 minutes but this cost them $5 million in lost ravenous. While your loss may not be in the same magnitude,it is still a revenue loss.
⢠Your SEO Ranking will be affected negatively
The main aim of content marketing is to see your site rank high on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) which in turn ensures that your clients will be able to find you easily. Now if search engines attempt to visit your site but find that it is down most of the time,this will affect your website ranking adversely. Other than downtimes,it is the opinion of many SEO experts that websites that are slow could also do harm to your rankings.
⢠Malware Attacks and Security
The security of your data is very critical. While there is no single perfect way to keeping your website secure,reputable hosting companies back up your data and files on a remote sever so that it will be restored easily should your site be hacked. Also,such companies will help you with maintenance,technical support and security issues 24/7.
Choosing the best hosting provider for your websitechoosing the right web hosting provider is very critical to ensuring that your website is safe and at the same time up all times of the year. The following tips should help you find a top web host for your website.
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1. Price
While many business owners would like to cut costs,this is one area that they should not try to cut costs on. As important as the price factor is,you should not make your decision based entirely on the prices being charged. You also need to remember that with hosting,just like with everything else,you get what you pay for. Choosing the cheapest rates won’t do you good but can cause more harm especially if you depend on your website to make money. It is worth noting that quality hardware and non-outsourced support costs money.
herefore,if you come across a hosting provider who charges you a monthly fee of $1.99,it is very unlikely that it won’t be offering you these features. Before you compare the price that each hosting provider charges,take a look at the kind of features that each of them has to offer.
2. Tech Specs / Limitations
Look at your site honestly and determine the exact things that you need it to do. In case you want to host an e-commerce site,a blog,videos and rich content,then it would be a big mistake to choose the least expensive package available. This is because the cheapest hosting plan will lack important things like processing power,RAM as well as disk space to meet all these needs. Consequently,you will spend a lot of time grappling with load or downtime issues.
Before falling for the cheapest host,check out what it is that you are getting in the cheap host as well as the kind of features that are included. Does your hosting provider charge for additional support,backup or domains? Call them and ask all questions that you have. Tell that what the needs of your site will be. Make sure that they take your site needs seriously.
3. Specialties of your host
Not all hosts out there are right fit for all customers. There are hosts who offer exemplary shared plans but do not have solutions that can grow your business. Others may have superb enterprise solutions but which might not necessarily suit your kind of business. Therefore,before you buy,it is critical that you take a moment to look at the host’s area of expertise or specialty. Only choose a host understands your needs. Check out the reviews and recommendations that are found on the internet. These tend to highlight a provider’s weaknesses and strengths.
Also important is the issue of compatibility. Make sure that you have understood the technologies that will be used on your website. For instance,in case you are using WordPress,make sure that your hosting company is not only compatible but also familiar with WordPress. Ask if theirs is a Windows or Linux based server. Equally important is the need to determine if they have the latest PHP versions and databases like MySQL.
4. Tech Support
Tech support,according to many people,is a very important thing to consider when choosing a web host provider. In case your site goes down,will it be possible for you to get help to restore things back to normal? Can their tech support team diagnose the problem and fix things up?Before you choose a host,take your time and look at their reputation with customer service. Find out the various ways of contacting them should you be in need of any help. Do they have emails,chat,or toll-free phones? Do they have staffs that are on standby 24/7?
You will realize that,just like in technical specifications and price,all hosts are not quite the same. Stick with companies that pay serious attention to customer service.
5. Hardware
With hardware,it is imperative that you do some reading in order to get to the bottom of it. You will need to know the kinds of machines that your hosting company uses. Are they top-of-the-range,state-of-the-art machines or are they assembled from spare parts remnants?
In case a hosting provider does not reveal the type of server that they are using,it is important that you ask them about it. The reason is because the type of hardware will not just affect their servers’ performance but also your site.
Warnings
Be careful about hosts who include free domain names in their hosting packages unless where you are sure that they are going to put your data on WHOIS. Any person with information on WHOIS is the owner and not necessarily the one who pays for it.⢠If a website has a very attractive competitive annual rate,you need to treat them with suspicion. These companies may even force you to pay in advance for one year. What will happen if you have paid for the whole year yet find that their services are less than satisfactory? The best thing is to pay on a month-by-month basis.⢠Check out the company’s domain age. Desist from using companies that are untried and which do not have any reputation.
Conclusion
The type of host that you choose will affect your business performance. This is why it is very important to take your time and do research before settling for any particular company. Remember that if you pick a wrong company,you will suffer serious consequences including loss of revenue and data. Whether you succeed or fail is entirely dependent upon the company that you have chosen to host your website. This is why you must do research. The tips above,when followed to the latter,will help you choose the web hosting company.