How do you go about choosing a web hosting? Which factors and features do you need to take into account when deciding? And, which is the best hosting provider to stick with? You will know the answers to all the above questions and more after reading this article.
Having an online presence is extremely essential these days if you plan on achieving any substantial success. A well designed website, with great content and a solid interface, not to mention a powerful e-commerce tool (if your business requires it), can keep users engaged and coming back for more potential business.
More over, if you use your website to generate and convert leads into customers, it becomes that much more crucial to choose a reliable hosting service. Since your hosting supplier is the solely responsible for keeping the online aspect of your business functional, it is imperative that the suppliers connection be strong and available at all times.
So, let’s take a closer look at the essentials that you can check off when choosing a web hosting:
Are you creating your first website? can you consider opting with a free web hosting?
Although free web hostings are great if you are just starting out with your first website or if you run a very small site, they lack a lot of the great features that come a paid web hosting. Especially if you are running any kind of business online and that business requires a good online presence then you should consider paying a decent amount for your web hosting to have access to all the tools to successfully run your online business.
Consider the geographical location in which you want to host our website
As a rule of thumb, you should always try use a web hosting who’s serves are located in the country in which you operate your business. Recently I read on HostingCycle.com and I am sharing my views about it with you. So, for example, if your business is located in New Zealand, you should choose a New Zealand web hosting service who’s are located in New Zealand. There are two reasons, I am recommending this, 1) for example, if you’re business is in New Zealand, but you choose an American web hosting, then your New Zealand users and clients might have to deal with some delay and lag while accessing and navigating your website, and 2) Lots of times, search make assumptions about the location of the business backing the website based on the location of the hosting service. This could create unwanted problems for your online business.
Website Download speed
To get a feel for the speed and operation of the websites hosted by the webs hosting service you are considering, you can request them for a list of their customers and surf their sites. bare in mind, however, the structure and substance of the sites you are browsing, since many a times this can affect their download speed.
As is the case with anything, the more expensive web hosting is, the lesser the chances that the server will be crowded and the greater the speed will be. So make sure you know what you’re paying for.
Backup in Emergency situations
This is very important requirement to check for. If for some reason the server malfunctions or goes down and can’t be recovered, are there any backup contingencies in place to recover your account? You should confront your chosen supplier with such questions and think of any situations in which backup and the ways in which your supplier plans on protecting your account.
Tech support and overall Price
You should be aware that more often than not, with web hostings, you get what you pay for. So if you’re paying a 2$-5$ per month on your hosting, you should not be complaining about poor tech support or poor speeds or for any other feature for that matter. This isn’t to say that the best web hostings are the most expensive ones, nut you get the general idea.
Most shared hostings cost anywhere between 2$ and 100$ for the month for example talking about bluehost webhosting, they are the cheapest and the best hosting providers present in the industry. You can use them for running your websites and right now they are running an offer. You can choose this HostingCycle.com’s Bluehost Coupon to get the maximum discount while purchasing. As I mentioned you can’t really be complaining about tech support if you’re paying less than 20$ a month. Most of the cheaper services are bound to short change on at least one feature if not more, and most of them will have you waiting in a que for a reply, since half the time they outsource their tech support to different, cheaper countries.
If you are planning on running an online business of any sort or even if you’re looking to make any kind of money online, it is best you choose a web hosting service that cost anywhere between $20-50% per month for reliable and tech friendly assistance.
If you follow the above guidelines, you will surely be on the right track towards purchasing the web hosting that is best for you particular business and/or personal needs. Good luck!