If you count on your website to generate revenue for your business, you need to make sure that you've chosen a reliable web hosting company. If you're looking for a new web hosting company, here are some things to consider:
Ensure that your web host's servers are powerful enough. A website that loads slowly will not only annoy your users, but could affect your search engine rankings as well, because if it takes the spiders too long to crawl your site, they will simply move on to the next one. If they don't know about the pages in your site, they can't rank them. For most people, shared hosting will be sufficient, but be certain to check how long it takes your pages to load from time to time just to make sure that it's not taking too long. If you begin to realize a trend of slow load times, you might want to think about finding a new website host, or upgrading to a dedicated server.
Bandwidth and storage is another factor that you don't want to ignore Many web hosts provide unlimited bandwidth and storage these days, but if you're site is hosted with a host that doesn't, you could be surprised with unanticipated fees if you go over your limits. This may not seem like a significant risk, but a modest advertising campaign could quickly do exactly that.
Most web hosts offer guaranteed up-time, which is important, but make sure they deliver on their promise. Some of the smaller hosting companies will make the guarantee, but then leave you hanging in the wind. Some website hosting companies have had extended downtime, sometimes lasting for days or even weeks. Their customers suffered lost profits while the host tried to fix their problems. You don't want to end up in this position, so do your homework.
Features will vary widely from host to host, so you'll have to invest some time to determine if they can meet your needs. Most hosting companies offer options like on-click installs for web-based applications, back-up utilities, auto-responders, etc. You also need to make sure that they offer the operating system that you need; some applications will only run on a Microsoft Windows or a Cold Fusion server.
Tech support is another factor to consider. Many website hosting companies offer technical support via phone at no charge, however, some offer it only for additional fees. All website hosting companies offer technical support via email, but you'll need to think about any time differences. If your website hosting company is located in a different time zone, it could be quite a while before you receive a response to any support requests.
Finally, ensure that you carefully read their terms of service contract. Some website hosting companies have some outrageous terms buried in there in hopes that people won't bother to read them. As the old adage goes, buyer beware.
Choosing the best host is no simple job, but it is worthwhile to do it right the first time around. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches and lost profits down the road.
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