Hosting services let you make your site available on the web. There are numerous companies that provide these services; what should you know about selecting one? This article will give you some tips you should do when you are picking out a web host.
Dedicated or shared hosting, which one is right for you? Shared servers are not ideal for websites that enjoy high traffic levels, design-driven layouts and sensitive customer and payment information. You may be better off with dedicated hosting.
Your web host should play a key role in your site management, by offering you tools that allow you to track and analyze site statistics like traffic. Independently add a traffic counter somewhere on your website, then compare its results to those that are provided by your host. As an online business owner, you will benefit from using this information to tailor your approach to your audience.
If you are just starting out, choose a host with good customer service instead of one with more features than you need. As a beginner, there may be many aspects of your hosting package that contain features you will need help learning. You can benefit more from their technical support versus the fancy applications that many hosts offer.
Web Hosting
An easy way to find a great web hosting provider, is to look for companies that have received several awards. These awards tend to be good indicators of the strength of a host’s service and support. Although it’s possible to fake awards, most web hosting awards are legitimate. Most awards are chosen by fan votes, so the awards give the service credibility. Hosts with lots of these fan-voted awards are ones that you should definitely consider choosing.
Reputation is crucial to good web hosts. Look to reviews of different hosting services to help you determine which hosts have a good reputation. You will be able to easily pick out the companies that’s efforts are lax, and don’t live up to claims that they make.
Consider upgrading to a dedicated server for your web hosting needs. Dedicated servers are more secure. You can also get more disk space and bandwidth on a dedicated server. Your customers will get exactly the experience they hope to when they visit your site. Keep in mind that content customers will return.
You shouldn’t host your own website if your computer’s connection to the Internet is dial-up. Hosting a site puts a lot of stress on the connection and it must be powered with speed and reliability that cannot be achieved with dial-up. Any kind of lagging or connection problem will cause your site to be offline.
Look at the site of any web hosts you’re considering. A poorly designed website is a definite red flag for a web hosting company. They may be a new company with no experience or even a scam. Look for those companies that clearly pay attention to detail, as reflected through their site.
Bear in mind that some web hosts are based on Windows, while others feature Linux. This means you need to get accustomed to and access different features. Linux, generally less costly to run than Windows, may lower your site’s monthly bills.
Good communication is vital to picking a good host. You want a host that constantly interacts with its users and provides information when updates occur or when downtime and maintenance will be occurring. Of course, you will want to know that they are accessible when you have issues or problems.
Make sure you look at a web hosting company’s site very carefully before you sign up with their hosting plan. You should find forums, contact information, and resources like support documentation. Find out if you will have access to more resources and perhaps tutorials once you become a client.
Learn whether the web host that you’re using has a multitude of Internet connections available. With only a single connection, even the slightest glitch can prevent your site from staying online. Make sure there is more than one connection, and that all connections have sufficient bandwidth that your site will respond quickly to HTTP requests.
Some web hosting services offer you refunds for the amount of time your site has been down. In most cases, the amount of the refund will be negligible; however, the amount that you could have earned through lost sales can be significant. Downtime can be quite damaging to your business. Instead of banking on getting refunds every time the server is down, try to find a host that offers substantial uptime.
You might have to upgrade your services with your host, if you get more traffic. Make sure that there is no downtime in your upgrades to maximize your efficiency. Items added to your account like hard drive space and bandwidth should happen almost instantaneously. Another upgrade that shouldn’t take long is putting your site on a dedicated server if you were previously on a shared one.
Web Hosting
As mentioned, web hosting is a necessary part of having your website on the Internet. Keep some important factors in mind when shopping for a good web host, so that you can avoid issues later. Take the web hosting tips from this article and use them wisely.