Choosing the right web hosting provider for you

Choosing the right hosting provider at times appears a daunting task, but if you have an online business, or the reliability and well being of your site is important to you, then this would be one of the more important issues you can do as an online business. If you choose a reliable, well run hosting provider then you would mitigate any problems or unforeseen issues allowing you to focus on what’s most important to you; namely running your business! But if you unfortunately end up with a poor, badly run hosting company with problems with support and up time, then it could end up being the nightmare scenario par excellence!

Although it seems that choosing the right hosting provider is a daunting task, here are a few key points and features that can be used as a checklist to give you that minimum piece of mind.

Size, does it matter?

The first question you might one to decide on is do you go for larger organisations which may or may not be able to provide you with reliable and affective hosting with a good level of service, or do you go with a boutique outfit, that you could outgrow, or just not have the depth of service that you need?

Web space, how much is provided? How much web space do you need?

Any hosting provider worth its salt (and even those that are not!) will assign a certain amount of web space, either on their server (read shared hosting), or provide you with a dedicated server or virtual server with a pre-agreed size of hard disk/ disks. Your first decision ought to be – even before you start shopping – what is the size of space you believe you need, will it need to grow? How quickly would it grow? All these questions are important as you might want to expand your online business, use more graphics, utilise video clips, increase the range of products, etc. etc. so it is imperative that your hosting provider is able to provide lots of space should you need it.

Would you be able to change between plans, how easy is it to do so, and would your hosting provider be able to provide it. What is the correct hosting plan, ought to be the first decision you make.

FTP access, do you have it?

FTP access is crucial, and for me a hosting users birthright, since it provides you the abiliy to upload new pages, quickly and easily. Some web hosting companies allow you to build your site using allow Some web hosting service providers allow you to just design your web pages with their own personal web builder. This may be useful if you’re a beginner but you need to ensure that they provide you the facility to expand later when you enhance your online business capabilities.

Access, how reliable is it? How secure? How Fast?

As an online business, if your site is down, or it is slow or difficult to access, then you may lose online visitors. If a prospective visitor comes across your site which searching through a search engine, or is refereed from another site, and your site is down clicks the link and can’t get through, he or she may very well never come back, and just move onto the next link!

If the site is slow, because the connection speed is grinding to a halt with too many people simultaneously trying to get through, then the visitor may just give up and move on through sheer frustration.

So, the big question, how do you know if a hosting company has secure, reliable connections, or if it doesn’t cut the proverbial mustard? Customer feedback, word of mouth, or just by simply accessing your site during peak and non peak hours (making sure of course that your internet connections are sound whilst testing!)

Finally, if you’re an ecommerce company, which if your selling on line you are, your site needs to be secure. What kind of SSL connections can you get? Who is the certification from, how reliable are they? Is it shared, or can you get your own?

Data transfer, aka Bandwidth, how much do you need, and how good is it?

You also need to see if the hosting company provides you with sufficient bandwidth and at what quality for efficient data transfer. No band width, no site, that simple. So it is worth noting what provisions there are for failover, and how, many and what level of providers they utilise?

Support, how dependable is it?

Does the web hosting provider give 24x7 support? How quickly do they get back to you? Are they reliable and dependable? Can you depend on them?

If you need 24-hour technical support that larger companies need then expect to pay a premium, at the end of the day, people are far more expensive than machine!

Price, how much does it cost and why?

Price is always a factor when choosing the best hosting provider for you. The most expensive does not mean the best, but sometimes you do get what you pay for. If it appears cheap, what shortcuts have been taken, are those prices sustainable, will the company be around in a year? If it appears expensive, what extras, if any, are you paying for, what makes their service better? From your cost/ benefit analysis does that work?

So simply put, compare and contrast, and decide on what works for you.

We hope that this starts you off on the right track in finding the best hosting provider for you.