When it comes to hosting your website, you want to make the right decision from the get-go, so you avoid changing companies a few years or months down.
For your website to be live, you need three things; a domain name, a template, and a hosting company.
If the purpose of your website is to make money, your host becomes an essential aspect of your business.
They are like your virtual landlord. If their server is down every other day, that means you lose business.
Eight Important Considerations Include the Following:
1. Be fully aware of the kind of hosting you need, as this will depend on your content because this will determine your compatibility with a host.
For instance, an online store with high traffic should avoid cutting costs by sharing a cheap web hosting plan, while on the contrary, a website or personal portfolio does not necessarily need a dedicated server.
2. Ensure the host you choose has a full database back up with high-level server security. The site you want should be accessible to surf in a hassle-free manner.
3. The load-time your website takes is crucial. Everyone wants to search with utmost ease and speed, and a faster load time also gives your site a higher conversation rate.
4. Another majorly prioritized aspect is the security of your site.
Any site that is hack proof will most definitely attract more users because everyone wants assurance on confidentiality and reliability.
5. A web host should have excellent customer service and good technical support for problems. Ensure you settle for a company with an in-house customer support system who can quickly grasp the customers’ issues and solve them.
6. Many web hosting sites have attractive initial subscription fees which usually lure many first-time users, only to realize later that the renewal chargers are way much higher than what they had budgeted for.
To avoid this kind of problem, make proper prior research concerning charges and discounts before settling for a company.
Settle for something within your budget to avoid inconveniences due to disconnection.
7. Hosting companies have set terms and conditions that must be met by the users, failure to which they will face penalties.
Most of the time people avoid reading and understanding these rules and regulations before signing up, and consequently their websites either get pulled down or permanently shut down.
8. Lastly, if you’re a little more advanced, you would want to pick a site with shell access meaning that you will be logging into your server from the command line.
This allows you to copy files, change file permissions and also perform other tasks securely.
Some reputable companies you can use
1. Bluehost is considered a market leader in hosting. It is an all-around host offering excellent and consistent uptime levels of 99.97 percent, a good customer support system and what I can call fastest and instant load times.
2. Hostinger is an appropriate web host for your personal website ranging from an online resume service, to a portfolio or a blog. It has an attractive price of $2.15 a month, and it will easily grow with you without having to worry about your site not being live.
3. SiteGround
If you are a new page owner you will be impressed by SiteGround. This is the grand web hosting solution for a personal website owner. It is very convenient for creative sites as well as small businesses, and it offers three different types of hosting alternatives namely StartUp, GrowBig and GoGeek.
4. Bloggaz is a blogging service by Samedi Amba and Walter Akolo. Here, they create blogs for you using premium themes and plugins at an affordable rate. All their packages include web hosting. This helps you get a world-class blog at a bargain. More about it here.
5. Hostgator comes packed with cutting edge technology and two hosting options of WordPress and Shared, allowing you to choose according to your needs. These options come with features that enable your website to stand out as it uses SSD servers meaning that the performance of your site will be faster. It also provides the user with an automatic bandwidth scale up.
6. 123 Reg is an ideal web hosting site for those who are entirely fresh to site creation and hosting. It offers all aspects of services ranging from a hosting plan to being able to create one. There are numerous step-by-step tutorials in the form of articles and videos that enables a new user to do everything with ease.
Having had a website since 2012, I’ve learned that excellent customer service is the thing that stands out for me when it comes to hosting.
I hope this article helps you make the right choice for your website.
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Thanks! This is good information and an article I will share with clients. Quality support is my number one consideration for those who cannot afford to have their site down for more than a few seconds!
For fast loading speeds, reliability, regular backups, and stellar support, SiteGround is great if the renewal cost is within your budget.
Awesome Suggestions. I agree with you, quality support is absolutely number one.
We ended up going with a managed hosting provider for our business website. Our website started getting good traction and wanted an upgrade and the security of a higher tier service. When it came down to it though, there were a lot of technical details that came with managing your own server so it just made sense going with a provider who would manage it for you. Works best for us!
Thanks for this useful information