Advice to Webmasters Who Want to Get the Best Hosting

Excellent technical support is the number one thing you should look at when you compare hosting companies. You’re a busy person and want to get your problems solved as quickly as possible. You want a web hosting company that respects your time and helps you solve your problems quickly. Support should be available 24-hours by phone, chat, an online “knowledge base”, and email or ticket system. Depending on your type of problem and time frame, you may need each of these different services.

Uptime is another factor to review in a web hosting company. When you have put hard work into planning and having your site created, you want to know others can view it. You should look for it to be functional for at least 99% of the time. Most hosting companies offer an uptime guarantee. Beware that a guarantee only means that if they don’t meet their uptime standard, you are given your monthly fee back on a prorated basis. They don’t usually compensate you for lost traffic or sales.

Three more factors to look at are bandwidth, disk space, and the number of sites you are allowed to host. Bandwidth is the amount of traffic between your site and the internet. Say that Oprah mentioned your site on her show. You would need a ton of bandwidth for all of those visitors. Many hosting companies now offer unlimited bandwidth. Disk space is the amount of space your files need on the web host’s servers. It’s all your files, photos, and videos that will make up your site. Again, most hosting companies are now offering unlimited disk space. Do be aware that with any web hosting company, if you suddenly have a large increase in your need for bandwidth or disk space, you should check in with your hosting provider, even if they offer unlimited amounts. They may have a clause in your contract that allows them to charge you for unexpected usage. Another factor you should evaluate with a web hosting plan is the number of sites you are allowed to host. Top hosting companies are allowing for unlimited domains.

Price is another factor to evaluate. You, like everyone, want the best price you can get. But we’ve all learned that you get what you pay for. My advice with regard to hosting cost is to try to get a good price, but know that really cheap hosting does not make up for a lack of good support and services. Be aware that there are free web hosting companies, often requiring you to put up with advertising. There are some free web hosting sites that do not have advertising, but know that free web hosting services disappear frequently. In my opinion, free hosting is not worth the hassle of moving your website to a new company every couple of months.

Carefully picking a hosting company is rewarded many times over. Your site may be up for years and grow and change over that time. Having hosting that can keep up with you is worth the time, money and effort that goes into researching and picking the right company.

Want to find out more about web hosting, then visit Bethany Payne’s Ask Geek Girl site forweb hosting reviews and her top 2 recommendations.