5 features to consider when choosing your web hosting company
Congratulations you!. I’m going to assume you’re here because you’ve decided to take that leap into the blogging world, or you want to get your business out onto the world wide web for the first time. I should also congratulate you for choosing to OWN your website ( a whole extra can of worms to talk about in another blog)
Choosing a web host for your website or blog can be a daunting task, there are so many great companies to choose from who all promise a wide variety of features that can make your life easier…..or not! Which is best for web hosting? And I say the “or not” part because I’ve had a miserable, teeth-clenching experience with a host who claimed to be the best overall, but I won’t be dropping names..lol.
I just have to keep it real with you so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and so you can make the best-informed decision for yourself. Although I’m not one to tell you who to choose as a host because everyone’s experience is based on their own perception; however, I will tell you 5 things to look for when choosing a web host for your new website.
Don’t forget to consider your budget too, there are a few hosts that will reel you in with great prices introductory prices but when it’s time to renew you may be in for a surprise if you’re not ready or didn’t read the fine print.
- 24/7 Customer Service for Web Hosting services – Are they there when you need them?
Most web hosts serve many different countries in all parts of the world and in different time zones. Just that fact alone justifies 24 hours customer service and support when I need it. If that company does not offer 24hr support, that’s a huge red flag to consider someone else. If you’re not already tech-savvy, you will need to contact customer service to help you with something you may not understand or how to change something so you want them to always be there for you. - Do they have an Up Time Guarantee? – How much downtime will your website experience? –If you have a website with a lot of traffic or an E-Commerce site, for example, you will want to make sure that you do some research and find out what the hosting companies’ uptime percentage is. On average, a site with 99.9% is acceptable because that equates to about 45 minutes annually. I’ve seen some guarantee as high as 99.999%.
- Is it a WordPress-friendly environment? Is the hosting company always keeping its systems up to date with PHP updates? PHP is the language that WordPress runs on in the background, so it’s important that when those updates are available, the company is making sure that you are aware of the necessary updates that need to be performed.
- Back-Ups – What happens if your website is corrupted? Shit happens because shit just happens, and sometimes it’s just out of your control…Lol…that just how technology is sometimes. So the best you can do to not have to rebuild your website all over again is to “Back, Back Back it up”…not on the dance floor, but on your computer. Most hosting plans offer a backup service that will take care of this task for you. There are some great plugins that are specifically for website backups too.
- Shared Hosting or Managed Hosting – Shared Hosting means that you will be sharing your piece of internet space with many others. So if someone’s website on the same server is going “viral”, then there is a good chance that your website speed may slow down. The price and usability of these plans make shared hosting the most popular among new small business websites, personal blogs, affiliate websites, and early-growth startups. As your website or business grows, you can always choose a managed hosting plan that offers more dedicated space to your website to avoid any issues.
In case you are wondering though!…I’ve been using Siteground for the past few years and I think it’s the best web hosting service I’ve used. You can find out why in this article I wrote.
