Every website needs a reliable web host, but many people are unfamiliar with the basic principles of hosting. It can be disconcerting to imagine your website residing on a server in a remote part of the world; however, in order to run a website, some knowledge of web hosting is required. This article will show you have to distinguish between a great host and a fly-by-night operator.
Make sure that your domain name is registered by you and not your hosting provider so that you can keep it should you change providers. You will have no control over your domain registration but your host will.
Web hosting facilities can be anywhere, but you should choose one that is located in the same country as your site’s audience. For example, if your targeted traffic consists of people who reside in Europe, you should try to obtain your web hosting service through a company that has servers located throughout Europe.
As an online business owner, you should find a hosting service that corresponds to your website. You can purchase web hosting from anywhere from $2-$60 monthly. Higher prices do not always translate into more reliable service, either. Look at the plans on offer and choose the one which offers you only as much as you need, or what you will need in the near future.
If a web hosting package says they offer unlimited services, consider their statements carefully. Unlimited disk space will include a variety of restrictions, which can mean that you can’t actually host any of the files you wish to. Unlimited bandwidth will usually mean that you can get all the bandwidth you need, but there will be additional fees for overages at the end of the month. Get all the information that pertains to these plans, and never assume unlimited really means unlimited.
Do not limit your research to a host’s website and advertisements. Find comparison websites and check out reviews to get a clear picture of the host’s quality of service. Reviews from outside sources of customers, who used the service, will give you the best evidence on the quality of the host.
Free Hosting
Remember that you often get what you pay for with free hosting sites. Free hosting usually includes displaying ads on your site. The ads will be wherever the host wants to put them, and you won’t be able to control their content. Advertising for a variety of products on your site, will make it appear untrustworthy and unprofessional.
If you are just starting out with your web design efforts, then get a web host which offers good customer support as opposed to anything else. As a beginner, you’ll find yourself asking a lot of questions on how certain features can be used when it comes to your package. You may find that web applications are helpful, but having full customer service with technical support makes a world of difference in ease of use.
Look at the hosting awards a service has received. This will give you a good idea of how efficient their service is. Be wary of fake awards, looking instead for awards you can identify as being backed by a valid voting process. If you question an award’s validity, check with the site that issues the awards to be sure. A hosting provider with numerous awards is a company that you likely want to research further!
Programming Languages
The company you choose should support all programming languages that your business uses, or plans to use. If there is no support for the language you’re using, you won’t be able to launch your site. Also, you are not going to have the support you need in the future if you choose to start using one of the programming languages that your host does not accommodate. Switching web hosts can be extremely tedious.
Do not host your own site if you do not have a good connection. To be sure your website is being updated consistently, it needs a good connection to be consistently backed up. Otherwise, any lagging or downtime will results in your site being offline.
See what your potential host’s website looks like. If their website lacks professionalism, it does not bode well. Will yours likely be any better? However, a website that is nicely designed shows a company that is professional, and has taken the time to protect their reputation.
It is important that your host has many connections to the web. If your host runs on a single internet connection, the risk of downtime is greatly increased because there is no redundancy. Make sure that the hosting service has redundant connections and that they are able to provide your site with the required bandwidth.
Some hosting services offer refunds if your site is down. These refunds don’t add up to much, usually just a few cents; yet, you might have lost hundreds of dollars in sales while your site was inaccessible. Don’t trade good uptimes for small refunds.
Ensure you are able to contact your host in the case of a problem. A company with good customer service will be able to be contacted 24 hours a day, either through phone, email or chat support. Doing so will prevent a great deal of stress in the event that something occurs.
Control Panel
Prior to selecting a host, you need to have a working understanding of the appearance of the control panel. A reputable hosting service will generally have information about how to use the control panel in the help and FAQs section of its website, or as a link from the control panel itself. If you can’t figure out the control panel, search for something a little easier.
If this is your first website, you probably didn’t know anything about web hosting before you picked up this article. As stated earlier, most beginning designers aren’t familiar with web hosting. This article has provided you with all the knowledge you need to be able to make sound decisions when it comes to choosing a web host. Take what you have learned here to heart as you go on the hunt for a new host.