Article in Hosting & Security

Choosing the right web hosting company can be one of the most vital steps to online success. It’s one of the things that many webmasters over look; those unaware could be hurting from it without even knowing.

Regardless of the type of website you have, a personal one or a business, there are several key things you should look for in a web host. Below I describe several of these things and tell you what to look for. These things are listed in my opinion of importance.

Firstly, downtime is important - or rather, the lack thereof. You want a host that has no downtime. A host that has 99.9% uptime. Every minute your site is down because of something going wrong on your hosts end is a minute you could be making money. It is potentially a visitor who got an error message and left who otherwise could have bought a product and scored you a nice, large commission.

If your host cannot consistently keep your site online, there’s a problem. Either they need to fix it right away, or you need a new web host. Problems happen, and that should be considered. But problems cannot be happening every day or every week.

Secondly, customer support must be considered. This is the number one thing that, in my opinion, shows you that the company cares. Prompt, friendly, and relevant customer support shows that the company is devoted to providing you with the best service they can.

A good response time is between twenty and forty minutes. Longer than that and you should reconsider your options. Also make sure they have some for of 24/7 support. What if something goes wrong at 2 A.M. Sunday morning? They better be there to help you out.

Next is reputation. From my experience I’ve found that the best hosts are simply those who have a good, solid reputation. All the web hosts I’ve been with for a long amount of time (six months or more) have all been hosts that someone recommended to me from their personal experience. If someone tells me how good a host is, that’s just yet another reason to show that they’re doing their job, and doing their job well.

Security is another important factor to consider, along with the features. Does the web host run the latest standard software (latest version of php, mySQL, apache, etc.)? Are there complaints about security issues?

Lastly, one should consider the price of the host. Are you getting your money’s worth? Is it priced reasonably and fairly? If not, avoid it. However, don’t be afraid to pay extra for quality service.

These main things, uptime, customer service, reputation, security and features, and price are the main things one should consider when scouting out a web host. Don’t be afraid to pay extra money per month to get some of these things. I’d rather pay ten dollars extra every month for customer service that addresses my issues in twenty minutes than save ten dollars and have to wait fourteen hours.