Website Hosting

What You Should Know About Web Hosting Before Making A Decision

Perhaps you are ready to get started with setting up your very first web site or maybe you already have a number of websites hosted with different web hosting companies and you want to consolidate your web hosting with one company to save money. Maybe it’s because you are totally fed up with your current website hosting company or have other reasons. Whatever the reason, there are a number of things you should know about web hosting as well as a number of critical success factors you need to take into account before making your decision. Choosing a good web host is critical to your success if you intend to make money online, and paying a little more for a reliable web hosting account has proven to be a good move.

The old adage “you get what you pay for” can certainly be applied to web hosting. You may be forced to think about cheaper web hosting, depending on your budget constraints, and there are times when cheaper hosting makes sense, especially if your website presence is solely for personal and non-commercial use. However, if your web hosting is going to be used for an Internet work at home business, the cheaper service will be limited and may not prove adequate for your needs.

You need to select the best web hosting available if you are planning to have a long-term business presence on the internet. Although beginning marketers because of budget constraints are sometimes forced to start out with cheaper hosting and then switch over to better hosting as soon as they can, the switch over can sometimes create a problem, especially if they move to a different hosting company.

On that point, let’s move on to clarify the difference between virtual or shared web hosting and dedicated web hosting; Something you need to be familiar with. While there are advantages and disadvantages associated with both, dedicated web hosting has some significant advantages that you need to consider from a business perspective, for example:

* Shared web hosting means that your hosting account is being shared with 100s and even 1000s of other businesses and websites, all competing for the available resources. Unfortunately, this can mean, depending on traffic volume to these other businesses, that sometimes you and your customers, will have limited access. When this occurs, it could result in lost revenue from missed sales. When potential customers are unable to access your site, they will move on to another.

* when your website is competing against other businesses that are hosting with yours on the shared web hosting account, you, and more importantly your customers, may not always be able to access your website. When a potential customer arrives to your website and it’s temporarily unavailable because other businesses are hogging all the resources, it can result in lost revenue. While one potential customer not being able to access your site won’t result in that much lost revenue, the lost could be substantial if this occurs often as it sometimes can with shared web hosting as the company signs up more and more business.

* Dedicated web hosting gives you exclusive access to all the resources the web hosting provider has to offer up to the amount of bandwidth and storage and other resources included in the dedicated hosting plan you purchase. Although dedicated web hosting cost more, it’s worth it to your online business because you get more features and benefits. With dedicated hosting, you’re the only site on the server and have your own IP address, whereas with shared hosting – you also share the IP address with the other businesses on your shared hosting account. However, some companies, even with shared hosting, are offering unique IPs for an extra charge. Shared IPs are usually not a problem unless some of the other businesses sharing your hosting account have a reputation for spamming.

So how do you determine what are the best web hosting services available? This is not always an easy choice with so many hosting companies available on the internet, especially when you start looking at the numerous package deals offered by each. So which do you chose? So should you choose the cheapest offer with what appears to be the best deal or do you choose the web hosting company that has been in business for the longest time?

The answer to that is neither because that is not the best criteria to use when shopping for a hosting company. Do a Google search and see what others are saying about the hosing company you are concerning. Talk to people on some of the web hosting forums on the internet. And if you still aren’t comfortable with the making a decision on which to choose from the info you’ve received, call the web host directly with your remaining concerns and questions.

Here are some questions that will guide you in case you are relatively new to the internet and to web hosting:

* How long has the web hosting company been operating?
* Does the web hosting company have its own data center?
* Will you be provided with all the features that you need for your web site?
* Will the web hosting provider be able to handle your growth?
* What levels of redundancy are built in to the web host’s servers?
* How often does the web host perform backups of the customers’ web sites?
* What customer support is provided by telephone or e-mail?
* Are you able to talk to existing customers and get their feedback?

Ideally, what you are looking for is a quality reliable web hosting service with maximum up-time, rapid access times, and 24/7 responsive technical support service. Depending on your business needs and the type of website you intend to set-up, you may need to incorporate special software applications that some web hosting providers include in their packages. This would save you the expense of having to purchase it.

Here’s one final, quick tip to help you make your final selection as to which hosting provider to choose: When you’ve done your research and narrowed your selection down to a couple of web hosting providers, contact each one directly by telephone or by email and judge the quality of response you receive. Base your final decision on the most responsive one because this will indicate the quality of service and technical support you can expect if you become one of their customers.