When you create a website, you want the best hosting provider to make sure that you site stays online as much as possible. Remember, when your site is down or not operating properly, you will see a decline in visitors and decline in the number of possible sales that you can make. With that in mind, what should you be looking out for when choosing a web host?
1. Where Is The Host Located?
If possible, you want to go with a host that is located as close to you as possible. This makes it easier to contact the host if there are issues, and knowing that they are in the same time zone means that you don’t have to wait until morning to call or stay up late to resolve an urgent issue.
2. Do You Have Unlimited Email Accounts?
You want as many email accounts as possible when you operate a website. This eliminates the possibility that you don’t have a branded email address for each entity that you control. Nothing is worse than having to use a gmail account when you are trying to present a professional corporate image to clients.
3. Do You Have Unlimited Bandwidth?
Just like a physical retailer wants as get as many people in and out of storefront each day, you want to have as many people visit your site each day as possible. When your bandwidth is limited, your opportunities to make money are limited. Therefore, make sure you have the bandwidth that you need and can upgrade if necessary.
4. How Much Space Do You Have?
Having the ability to get thousands of people to your site daily means nothing if you are limited in what you can show them. The more space that you have, the more you can sell on your site and the more room you have for support features and content to educate your customers and anyone else who sees your page.
5. How Does Your Host Provide Support?
If you have an issue, can you make a phone call to a real person or chat in real time online? If not, you may wait for minutes or hours for a response via email when you are losing customers each second that your site is not online. If possible, opt for phone or live support over delayed email responses.
6. Do You Have The Flexibility To Make A Site Your Own?
Make sure that you have the ability to make the site your own. This means the ability to create in multiple programming languages, as well as the ability to create subdomains to increase the number of ways that you can use your site.
7. Will You Be Surprised When The Bill Comes?
Ideally, you will know how much you owe your host each time a payment is due. Look for a standard payment plan or a plan that you can prepay well in advance to keep your costs to a consistent level. Otherwise, you may find that you are paying for services you don’t use or scrambling to cover a larger than expected bill.
8. Is The Site Easy To Manage?
Do you have to do a lot of work to create your site or transfer an existing one to your new host? Good hosts will either help you transfer files or have a one-click interface that works with major blogging services like WordPress.
9. Is Your Site Going To Be Fast?
You don’t want to use a host that can’t guarantee a minimum speed at all times. While the size and features on your site also influence load time, it is a good idea to ask around to find out what load times are during times of average site usage and traffic levels.
10. How Often Is Your Site Up?
The best web hosts are going to make sure that your uptime is 99.9 percent or higher. If you get such a guarantee and your site is down for any reason, ask if there is a refund policy to make up for your losses.
11. What Do Others Say About A Host?
Look to see what others say about a host before you decide to spend money on hosting services. There are many blogs related to hosting that you can read as well as customer testimonials that you can look at when visiting a host’s site. This should provide you with the information that you need to determine that you are working with a reputable provider. Generally, companies that have been around for a longer period of time are more likely to satisfy your online needs.
12. Is There a Mobile App You Can Use?
If you need to access your site from your phone or tablet, you need a host that allows access to your administrative panel when you are on the go. This also comes in handy if the power goes out where you are or other circumstances force you to abandon your computer and use your phone or tablet to access your site.
The best hosting companies are the ones that have the space, speed and bandwidth that you need to help your site live up to its potential. Good features combined with quality support almost always lead to positive experiences with a given host, which means that you can meet the needs of your site visitors whatever they may be.