Have you just received and domain name, and now you want to find a website host? Are you wondering where to begin and how to proceed? Do you know what features are important in a good web hosting company? What makes one site reliable while another isn’t? This article is packed with practical and proven tips that should make it easier to explore all of your options for web hosting services.
Shared or dedicated hosting, which one fits your needs? If your website receives a great deal of traffic, shared hosting might cause problems. You’ll have to find a dedicated server to meet your needs.
Before selecting a web host, you want to research the history of the company. Choose a service that has been around for a long time and has a good reputation. Favor hosts that have been in business for a minimum of one year. This provides some peace of mind that they will not be closing shop any time in the near future.
If you need to, consider doing an upgrade to a specifically dedicated server. Not only does a dedicated server give you more bandwidth, it is also more secure. With all of this extra power, you can more efficiently tailor to the needs of your customers. You will get more return visitors if you make sure your clients are happy.
If you can cancel your hosting anytime you want, it’s likely that you’re utilizing an excellent hosting company. Whether you sign contracts or not, you want the ability to cancel service if it is not up to par, and to receive refunds, when appropriate. You shouldn’t have to pay money to leave a company you’re dissatisfied with.
You also want to ensure that your web hosting company is connected in multiple ways to the Internet. With only a single connection, even the slightest glitch can prevent your site from staying online. Make sure the company has redundant connections and that every one of those connections is capable of supporting your site.
Some hosting providers offer refunds whenever your site goes down. This usually does not amount to much even though the sales you lost could have a real impact on your business. Make sure that you find a host that has a good uptime instead of looking at the refund policy.
Try to get paid-for hosting if you can. Free services can be tempting, but remember that you need to run your website in a professional manner. Free web hosting services will place ads on your site or limit its space. These can annoy your visitors, causing them to leave and possibly never return.
Make sure to find out about frequency of downtime from your potential host. Time slots and days for maintenance should be considered. If their down times include high peak hours that last for several days each month, then this is a host company you want to avoid.
Bookmark a forum which posts about the various outages of web hosts. If a lot of different hosts are down simultaneously, you can be sure that’s probably a backbone issue and not your host’s fault, and the problem will be resolved shortly. Be sure to inform forum members if you experience an outage that lasts 24 hours or more. Other participants can help you figure out why the outage is occurring. If it is because your web host isn’t providing proper service, you are helping others by letting them know what host you use.
Be wary of web hosting packages claiming unlimited services. For example, unlimited space plans often include fine print on the kinds of files that that space will support. In addition, unlimited bandwidth can be interpreted as a tiered payment plan. By knowing what these plans are really giving you, you can determine if they’re worth the money or if you even need them at all.
When choosing a web host, be sure that you choose one that has features that you need for your website. You will certainly want to get simple things like FrontPage support, email spam guards, SSL certification and any other type of service you are likely to make use of.
When selecting a web host, figure out which one will give you in-depth information and data about how many visitors are accessing your site. Put a counter on your page that allows you to see how many people are visiting; contrast that with the information that your web host provides. Use this information to tweak the way that you reach out to the intended market for your business.
Do not base your choice on price alone. Make sure you look at all the different options and choices. There are many different things to consider, and choosing based solely on price might eventually mean that your business needs aren’t met. Your final choice should meet ALL of your needs, not just price.
Make sure that your hosting provider is good at communicating with its customers. You want hosts that interact with users to ensure they can resolve any issues that will cause downtime. You will want to have the option of speaking with them if you are having issues.
Before signing up with a website host, make sure that if you decide to leave in the future that your domain name is transferable. This is not a service offered by all hosts, and losing your domain name can make it harder for your visitors to find your new site.
You should take time to ask about the security measures of any web host you are considering. In today’s online environment, security risks are rampant and websites are often vulnerable to attacks. Ensure your web hosting service has security measures in place to deal with these attacks. Find out what could happen to your site if a virus or hacker targets the web hosting service.
In conclusion, even though you already have a domain name and the desire to create a website, it needs to be hosted still. Getting your website online is not that hard once you have an understanding on where to start and what information you should know about your hosting company. Utilize the advice from the above article in order to assist you in getting your site running as fast as you can.
