Choosing the right website hosting provider is an important decision for any online business. The reason for this is that your website will be hosted on their server and they are responsible for keeping it up to date with new versions, security patches, and so on.
There are many things you need to consider when choosing a website hosting company, including reliability, scalability, security features, customer service support hours, and more.
In this blog post, we’re going to outline seven steps you can take in order to make sure you choose the best one possible.
1. Always Check Online Reviews
The first thing you should do when considering a new website hosting company is to check online reviews. This will give you an idea of what other customers are saying, both good and bad, about the provider in question. A quick Google search for “website hosting reviews” can often turn up some helpful results as well.
If there are many negative comments or complaints, then it may be best to keep looking around until you find one that has better ratings from its customers.
It’s important to note that, even if all of these reviews are positive, this does not necessarily mean they’re the right choice for your business, so make sure to continue reading on before making any decisions.
2. Decide How Much Help You Need
Every business is different, and you should consider how much help you need. If your website requires hosting, e-commerce solutions, or any other type of customization, then this will affect the kind of provider that can best meet those needs.
Some providers focus on a specific service, while others offer more comprehensive packages that cover all three types of requirements mentioned above, along with many additional features.
Another thing to think about when choosing a web host is their customer service hours, as well as whether they provide live chat support via phone or online forums/chat messages.
3. Determine the Amount of Traffic You Plan to Generate
Traffic is another important factor because it will help determine the type of plan that you need. If your site doesn’t get much traffic, then a shared hosting plan may be sufficient for your needs.
However, if you have a lot of visitors or expect to generate lots of traffic in the near future (for example, during seasonal sales), then it’s best to look into getting dedicated hosting, which offers more power and space.
Shared plans often don’t offer enough resources, such as disk space and bandwidth, so this could lead to some problems down the road with your website going offline when there are too many people trying to access it at once.
Another available option is cloud-hosting, which can provide additional features such as server load balancing and higher uptime.
4. Understand the Types of Servers
The next step is to understand the three different types of servers that are common:
- Shared hosting
- Dedicated hosting
- Cloud hosting
Each one has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important that you know what kind will work best for your needs.
A major advantage with dedicated or cloud server plans is that they’re often more secure than shared ones because there may be less risk of attack when a site only hosts its own data.
On the other hand, if your content changes frequently (for example, from blogging), then getting a higher-end plan such as this could be too expensive, depending on how much traffic you get each day or month.
5. Beware of Unlimited Hosting Offers
Another thing to be aware of – and one that many people fall for without even realizing it – is the lure of unlimited hosting offers.
This sounds like a great deal at first, but you’ll quickly find out why they’re not always such a good idea when your site starts going offline or becomes unresponsive due to too much traffic.
The problem with these types of plans is that they often don’t give enough resources in terms of disk space and bandwidth, which can lead to some serious problems down the road including downtime from an overload on server capacity during peak hours (when there are lots more people trying to access it at once).
6. Select a Portable Content Management System (CMS)
If you’re comfortable with coding, then it’s probably best to have a system that isn’t too difficult for beginners as well.
A CMS like WordPress is very popular because it offers an easy-to-use interface and lots of plugins (extensions), which makes it flexible enough to meet the needs of many different types of websites, while also being straightforward enough for those who know how to code.
Selecting a CMS that allows for external hosting services is key here.
7. Own Your Domain Name
Lastly, it’s important to remember that you’ll need your own domain name for this type of hosting, or else the site will be hosted on someone else’s server and then they can use your content.
Plus, if you own your domain name, you can easily switch providers and build SEO equity over time.
Looking for a Quality Web Hosting Provider?
As you can see, finding the right web hosting provider isn’t too difficult, but does require some thought before making a decision. Best Website offers a variety of top-notch hosting options, and would love to partner with you for all of your hosting needs. Contact us today to speak to a member of our team.
