I’m not sure about you but web hosting is not a topic most people grow up knowing about. You’ve probably heard the term and seen the commercials but you aren’t sure what it’s all about and what you may need. This article can help you navigate through the web hosting murky waters so you know what kind of hosting service you need.
First of all you want to make sure that the web hosting you get has a good server. The last thing you want is for a potential customer to visit your site and to have it lag because of the increased traffic that you have attracted lately. So be sure to invest in a server that is reliable, fast and will not slow down your customer when they want to read more or click a different category on your site.
If your site develops an outage for more than one day you want to switch your hosting service. Even if the host explains why the server is down, the most likely reason is that the host did not invest enough into back up plans as far as outages are concerned. Any truly professional web hosts will have ensured that outages will be short and infrequent.
Avoid going with free web hosts if you are looking for a hosting company for a business.. A free web host will likely place ads on your site, which causes you to lose valuable traffic. A staple of any good online business is the amount of visitors you get to your site. The last thing you want is your free web host to steal away all your traffic.
In the event that you experience significant and ongoing problems with your hosting service, you will want to have an alternate already researched. If you are without service for more than a day, start immediately putting your backup plan into action. This will save you the potential for even longer delays if your provider has serious problems.
Look for a web host that lets you have add-on domains, especially if you wish to have more than one site. This means you will be able to store more than one site on their servers without having to open multiple accounts or paying any extra money for your different websites.
Web statistics are extremely important so choose a hosting service that lets you instantly and easily view your website statistics. You will want to know things such as how many people are visiting your website and what pages they are viewing. You can even find out how long they stayed on your site, and what search words they used to find you. These can be important in the long run, so use a server who has these tools.
Read the terms of service when dealing with a web host who offers “unlimited” services. Many times web hosts will offer unlimited bandwidth or sometimes hard disk space. Read the terms carefully, as they may reserve the right to ask you to upgrade your plan, if you are a higher profile customer, that has increased usage.
If you read or find out that a service as a low up-time, this could be a sign that they are filling their servers with too many websites and cause them to crash often. This means your site will be down regularly and loading your pages will take a lot of time.
Be sure to understand how much storage space that you will be getting through your web host. It is important to have enough space to build your current website, however, it is just as important to know that you have enough space to grow your website with you as your business grows.
Web hosting is a very volatile and risky business. Therefore, the web hosting companies can experience many ups and downs, and many companies do not make it. Therefore, it is important not only to do your research, but make sure you understand the conditions behind the environment. Choose your web hosting company wisely.
Make sure that you choose a host that has support 24/7. You don’t want to run across a problem or an issue and not be able to get a hold of somebody quickly. Once you’ve picked a host, try calling them at an odd hour to see if support service is available.
Check to see if your web hosting service gives you an easy method to submit your pages to search engines. You will also want to know how much control you have over search engine optimization and keywords, as well as how often you can send updates for no charge.
Give a web host a limited time to meet your expectations. Do not settle for a company and then stay there no matter what. Three months is adequate time to judge whether a web hosting company meets your needs. If you are not satisfied, start shopping for a new host well before the terms expire.
There are some companies who will offer hosting for free. They don’t usually have as many options or nearly as much space, but if you are just starting out and new at making a webpage then maybe this will be a good route for you. That way you can test the waters, try different things and decide what you really want out of a hosting company before laying down the cash.
If you do not have a clear idea of how much you will be paying every month and what kind of features you will have access to, look for another service.
Web hosting may be a new concept to you, but it is something you need to know when you have a website. Use the tips in this article to help you better understand this topic, and to find the kind of web hosting service that work best for you and your site.