How to choose a web host
There are so many web hosting companies, all claiming to be the best. So, what to look for when you need hosting? Collecting reviews from real customers is maybe the best way to select your web host. Apart from this, there are several factors that you may want to consider when choosing you web hosting company.
First, you should try to identify your needs.
Type of your site
If you are running an e-commerce site, you may be interested in payment processing and features like SSL certificate in order to keep customer information safe and secure. Many of the web hosting companies are so called e-commerce ready - they provide easy installation of shopping cart software (OsCommerce, Zen Cart, Cube Cart, etc) without additional cost. This software allows you to easily set-up, maintain and manage your online store.
How big is your site?
If your site includes watching videos, listening to music or requires a lot of graphics, you will need more bandwidth and disk space requirements. Disk Space is the amount of space the hosting company provides for all your web site's content. The bandwidth is the amount of traffic/data allowed to flow between your web site and the rest of the internet. If your site runs out of bandwidth, nobody will be able to see it or the hosting company may charge you for extra bandwidth. Most sites use less than 3 GB bandwidth per month. In practice, most hosting companies offer enough disk space and bandwidth for the average web hosting needs.
Customer Support and Uptime Guarantee
Everyone wants to have a site up and running all the time, but sometimes problems arise. You need fast and accurate customer support that you can contact anytime in order to resolve this kind of problem otherwise you risk losing a lot of customers or visitors. Some of the companies offer 24/7 support, live chat option, 99% uptime guarantee or more plus a toll free number to contact them. 99% uptime guarantee simply means that if your site is not up 99% of the time, the hosting company will compensate you somehow - for example, they will issue a full refund of your money for the month. You may want to test the web hosting company support just by sending them an e-mail asking for some advice about what they can recommend for your needs. If you don't receive a reply, maybe you won't choose this company.
Do you know something about creating websites?
If you don't, you may be interested in features like Website Builder which is offered as part of the hosting package by most companies. The Website Builder normally comes with a set of templates from which you can choose in order to create your site without any programming knowledge.
